Guide

TypeCoercer

Serialize Roblox types to string and reconstruct them. Useful when you need to send Roblox-specific values through routes or store them in DataStore.

When to use this. Route payloads and DataStore only support plain Lua types. TypeCoercer lets you pass a Vector3 or CFrame by encoding it as a string, then decode it back on the other side.

Basic round-trip

local TC = RoExpress("TypeCoercer")

local v = Vector3.new(10, 5, 3)
local s = TC.ToString(v)                    -- "10,5,3"
local ok, r = TC.FromString(s, "vector3")  -- true, Vector3.new(10, 5, 3)
print(ok, r == v)                            -- true  true

Sending a CFrame over a route

-- client: encode before sending
network:Post("char/position", {
    cframe = TC.ToString(char:GetPivot())   -- "x,y,z,rx,ry,rz"
})

-- server: decode in handler
app:Post("char/position", function(Player, Payload, req, res)
    local ok, cf = TC.FromString(req.data.cframe, "cframe")
    if ok then
        -- cf is a CFrame
    end
end)

Instances

To serialize an Instance reference, register a named root so TypeCoercer can search for it by ClassName and Name.

TC.RegisterInstanceRoot("Workspace", workspace)  -- server & client
TC.RegisterInstanceRoot("Players",   game:GetService("Players"))

local part = workspace:FindFirstChild("Baseplate")
local str  = TC.ToString(part)                          -- "Part:Baseplate"
local ok, back = TC.FromString(str, "Instance")       -- the Baseplate Part

Wire format. All types are encoded as comma-delimited values with no type prefix. ToString always produces a plain string; FromString requires the expected type name so it knows how to parse it.

Supported types

Roblox type	Wire format
Vector3	`x,y,z`
Vector2	`x,y`
CFrame	`x,y,z,rx,ry,rz` (position + Euler angles in degrees)
Color3	`r,g,b` (0–255 integers)
UDim2	`xs,xo,ys,yo`
UDim	`scale,offset`
Rect	`minX,minY,maxX,maxY`
Instance	`ClassName:Name` (searches registered roots)
EnumItem	`Enum.TypeName.ValueName`
number, string, boolean, int	Passed through as plain string

TypeCoercer

Basic round-trip

Sending a CFrame over a route

Instances

Supported types

See also