Type 'X' does not conform to protocol 'Encodable'

Question

I am hoping here to get an understanding of this error and perhaps a broader understanding of encodable and decodable. Part of my class looks as follows:

  public var eventId: String?
  public var eventName: String?
  public var eventDescription: String?
  public var location: CLLocation?

  /// These properties will be encoded/decoded from JSON
  private enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
    case eventId
    case eventName
    case eventDescription
    case location
  }

  public required convenience init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
    let container = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)

    let eventId = try container.decode(String?.self, forKey: .eventId)
    let eventName = try container.decode(String?.self, forKey: .eventName)
    let location = try container.decode(CLLocation?.self, forKey: .location)
    self.init(eventId: eventId, eventName: eventName, location:location)
  }

This class works perfectly, until I add location. When I do I get two errors: Type 'CAEvent' does not conform to protocol 'Encodable', and 'Reference to member 'location' cannot be resolved without a contextual type' inside the fromDecoder method. Could someone explain the issue?

Answer 1

I google and found an article, which provide implementations for un-codable CLLocation.

After reading that article, it's hard to implement Decodable for CLLocation. But the author use another struct Location for decoding CLLocation object. It's funny and tricky.

---

For Encodable

extension CLLocation: Encodable {
    enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case latitude
        case longitude
        case altitude
        case horizontalAccuracy
        case verticalAccuracy
        case speed
        case course
        case timestamp
    }
    public func encode(to encoder: Encoder) throws {
        var container = encoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
        try container.encode(coordinate.latitude, forKey: .latitude)
        try container.encode(coordinate.longitude, forKey: .longitude)
        try container.encode(altitude, forKey: .altitude)
        try container.encode(horizontalAccuracy, forKey: .horizontalAccuracy)
        try container.encode(verticalAccuracy, forKey: .verticalAccuracy)
        try container.encode(speed, forKey: .speed)
        try container.encode(course, forKey: .course)
        try container.encode(timestamp, forKey: .timestamp)
    }
}

---

For Decodable

struct Location: Codable {
    let latitude: CLLocationDegrees
    let longitude: CLLocationDegrees
    let altitude: CLLocationDistance
    let horizontalAccuracy: CLLocationAccuracy
    let verticalAccuracy: CLLocationAccuracy
    let speed: CLLocationSpeed
    let course: CLLocationDirection
    let timestamp: Date
}
extension CLLocation {
    convenience init(model: Location) {
      self.init(coordinate: CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(model.latitude, model.longitude), altitude: model.altitude, horizontalAccuracy: model.horizontalAccuracy, verticalAccuracy: model.verticalAccuracy, course: model.course, speed: model.speed, timestamp: model.timestamp)
     }
}


/// 
struct Person {
    let name: String
    let location: CLLocation
    enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case name
        case location
    }
}
extension Person: Decodable {
    init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
        let values = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)           
        let name = try values.decode(String.self, forKey: .name)

        // Decode to `Location` struct, and then convert back to `CLLocation`. 
        // It's very tricky
        let locationModel = try values.decode(Location.self, forKey: .location)
        location = CLLocation(model: locationModel)
    }
}