How to create a JSON representation of a Line object using FabricJS?

FabricJS Javascript HTML5 Canvas

In this tutorial, we are going to learn about how to create a JSON representation of a Line object using FabricJS. A Line element is one of the basic elements provided in FabricJS. It is used for creating straight lines. Because line elements are geometrically one-dimensional and do not contain an interior, they are never filled. We can create a line object by creating an instance of fabric.Line, specifying the x and y coordinates of the line and adding it to the canvas. In order to create a JSON representation of a Line object, we use the toJSON method.

Syntax

 toJSON(propertiesToInclude: Array): Object

Parameters

propertiesToInclude − This parameter accepts an Array which contains any properties we might want to additionally include in the output. This parameter is optional.

Using the toJSON method

Example

Let’s see a code example to see the logged output when the toJSON method is used. In this case, a JSON representation of the line instance will be returned.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <!-- Adding the Fabric JS Library-->
   <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/fabric.js/510/fabric.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
   <h2>Using the toJSON method</h2>
   <p>
      You can open console from dev tools and see that the logged output contains the JSON representation of the line instance
   </p>
   <canvas id="canvas"></canvas>
   <script>
      
      // Initiate a canvas instance
      var canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas");
      canvas.setWidth(document.body.scrollWidth);
      canvas.setHeight(250);
      
      // Initiate a Line object
      var line = new fabric.Line([200, 100, 100, 40], {
         stroke: "blue",
         strokeWidth: 20,
      });
      
      // Add it to the canvas
      canvas.add(line);
      
      // Using the toJSON method
      console.log("JSON representation of the Line instance is: ", line.toJSON());
   </script>
</body>
</html>

Using toJSON method to add additional properties

Example

Let’s see a code example to see how we can include additional properties by using the toJSON method. In this case, we have added a custom property called “name”. We can pass the specific property to the fabric.Line instance as second argument in options object and pass same key to the toJSON method.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <!-- Adding the Fabric JS Library-->
   <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/fabric.js/510/fabric.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
   <h2>Using toJSON method to add additional properties</h2>
   <p>
      You can open console from dev tools and see that the logged output contains added property called name
   </p>
   <canvas id="canvas"></canvas>
   <script>
      
      // Initiate a canvas instance
      var canvas = new fabric.Canvas("canvas");
      canvas.setWidth(document.body.scrollWidth);
      canvas.setHeight(250);
      
      // Initiate a Line object with name key
      // passed in options object
      var line = new fabric.Line([200, 100, 100, 40], {
         stroke: "blue",
         strokeWidth: 20,
         name: "Line instance",
      });
      
      // Add it to the canvas
      canvas.add(line);
      
      // Using the toJSON method
      console.log(
         "JSON representation of the Line instance is: ",
         line.toJSON(["name"])
      );
   </script>
</body>
</html>

Rahul Gurung

Updated on: 20-Jan-2023

323 Views

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