How to Store Objects in HTML5 local Storage?

Question

I'd like to store a JavaScript object in HTML5 localStorage, but my object is apparently being converted to a string.

I can store and retrieve primitive JavaScript types and arrays using localStorage, but objects don't seem to work. Should they?

Here's my code:

var testObject = { 'one': 1, 'two': 2, 'three': 3 };
console.log('typeof testObject: ' + typeof testObject);
console.log('testObject properties:');
for (var prop in testObject) {
    console.log('  ' + prop + ': ' + testObject[prop]);
}

// Put the object into storage
localStorage.setItem('testObject', testObject);

// Retrieve the object from storage
var retrievedObject = localStorage.getItem('testObject');

console.log('typeof retrievedObject: ' + typeof retrievedObject);
console.log('Value of retrievedObject: ' + retrievedObject);

The console output is

typeof testObject: object
testObject properties:
  one: 1
  two: 2
  three: 3
typeof retrievedObject: string
Value of retrievedObject: [object Object]

It looks to me like the setItem method is converting the input to a string before storing it.

Answer 1

A minor improvement on a variant:

Storage.prototype.setObject = function(key, value) {
    this.setItem(key, JSON.stringify(value));
}

Storage.prototype.getObject = function(key) {
    var value = this.getItem(key);
    return value && JSON.parse(value);
}

Because of short-circuit evaluation, getObject() will immediately return null if key is not in Storage. It also will not throw a SyntaxError exception if value is "" (the empty string; JSON.parse() cannot handle that).

Answer 2

Looking at the Apple, Mozilla and Mozilla again documentation, the functionality seems to be limited to handle only string key/value pairs.

A workaround can be to stringify your object before storing it, and later parse it when you retrieve it:

var testObject = { 'one': 1, 'two': 2, 'three': 3 };

// Put the object into storage
localStorage.setItem('testObject', JSON.stringify(testObject));

// Retrieve the object from storage
var retrievedObject = localStorage.getItem('testObject');

console.log('retrievedObject: ', JSON.parse(retrievedObject));

Answer 3

You might find it useful to extend the Storage object with these handy methods:

Storage.prototype.setObject = function(key, value) {
    this.setItem(key, JSON.stringify(value));
}

Storage.prototype.getObject = function(key) {
    return JSON.parse(this.getItem(key));
}

This way you get the functionality that you really wanted even though underneath the API only supports strings.

Answer 4

Extending the Storage object is an awesome solution. For my API, I have created a facade for localStorage and then check if it is an object or not while setting and getting.

var data = {
  set: function(key, value) {
    if (!key || !value) {return;}

    if (typeof value === "object") {
      value = JSON.stringify(value);
    }
    localStorage.setItem(key, value);
  },
  get: function(key) {
    var value = localStorage.getItem(key);

    if (!value) {return;}

    // assume it is an object that has been stringified
    if (value[0] === "{") {
      value = JSON.parse(value);
    }

    return value;
  }
}