Trait Codec

Source

pub trait Codec: Send + Sync {
    // Required methods
    fn encode<T: Serialize>(&self, value: &T) -> CodecResult<Vec<u8>>;
    fn decode<T: DeserializeOwned>(&self, bytes: &[u8]) -> CodecResult<T>;
    fn content_type(&self) -> &'static str;
    fn name(&self) -> &'static str;

    // Provided method
    fn supports_streaming(&self) -> bool { ... }
}

Expand description

Wire format codec trait

This trait abstracts over different serialization formats, allowing pluggable encoding/decoding while maintaining type safety.

§Send + Sync Bounds

The Send + Sync bounds are required because codecs are typically shared across multiple threads/tasks in multi-threaded runtimes (tokio, async-std). This enables:

Concurrent encoding/decoding: Multiple tasks can use the codec simultaneously
Zero-copy sharing: Codec instances can be wrapped in Arc and shared cheaply
Thread-safe initialization: Codec configuration is immutable after creation

§WASM Implications

On WASM targets (single-threaded), these bounds are automatically satisfied since all types are Send + Sync by default in single-threaded environments. The trait bounds don’t add overhead on WASM - they’re purely compile-time constraints that prevent accidental use of non-thread-safe types on native platforms.