How do i serialize a Vec<glam::Vec3> as Base64 encoded bytes ?

[coderedart]

I have a field with type Vec<glam::Vec3> to store a series of 3D positions. It would be kinda inefficient to store it as is in json. So, was wondering if i could store it as a base64 string just like we can use Base64 for a Vec<u8>.

I know i can do this with a manual trait impl. But was wondering if i could do this simply with a macro instead.

Another question: I also have to base64 encode a Uuid. Uuid supports converting into [u8; 16], so can i use a macro for this too?

[jonasbb]

You can store the Vec3 as base64, if you know how to convert it to Vec<u8>. I am not familiar with glam. You will have to create your own type for which you implement SerializeAs and DeserializeAs. You can use the Base64 from serde_with to save some work. Something like this:

struct Vec3Base64;

impl SerializeAs for Vec3Base64 {
    fn serialize_as<S>(source: &Vec<glam::Vec3>, serializer: S) -> Result<S::Ok, S::Error>
    where
        S: Serializer,
    {
        // Fill the todo! with a way to convert the `Vec<glam::Vec3>` to `Vec<u8>`
        let bytes: Vec<u8> = todo!();
        Base64::serialize_as(bytes, serializer)
    }
}

The same applies to Uuid too. Since you can convert it into a [u8; 16] you can write a type with trait implementation like above that serializes a Uuid as Base64.

More information about implementing the traits is available in the documentation:
https://docs.rs/serde_with/latest/serde_with/trait.SerializeAs.html