I found a way to make it work with objects that have cyclic references.
Let's make an object with cyclic references.
obj = {
L: {
L: { v: 'lorem' },
R: { v: 'ipsum' }
},
R: {
L: { v: 'dolor' },
R: {
L: { v: 'sit' },
R: { v: 'amet' }
}
}
}
obj.R.L.uncle = obj.L;
obj.R.R.uncle = obj.L;
obj.R.R.L.uncle = obj.R.L;
obj.R.R.R.uncle = obj.R.L;
obj.L.L.uncle = obj.R;
obj.L.R.uncle = obj.R;
We can't do JSON.stringify here, because of the circular references.

LOCALSTORAGE.CYCLICJSON has .stringify and .parse just like normal JSON, but works with objects with circular references. ("Works" meaning parse(stringify(obj)) and obj are deep equal AND have identical sets of 'inner equalities')
But we can just use the shortcuts:
LOCALSTORAGE.setObject('latinUncles', obj)
recovered = LOCALSTORAGE.getObject('latinUncles')
Then, recovered will be "the same" to obj, in the following sense:
[
obj.L.L.v === recovered.L.L.v,
obj.L.R.v === recovered.L.R.v,
obj.R.L.v === recovered.R.L.v,
obj.R.R.L.v === recovered.R.R.L.v,
obj.R.R.R.v === recovered.R.R.R.v,
obj.R.L.uncle === obj.L,
obj.R.R.uncle === obj.L,
obj.R.R.L.uncle === obj.R.L,
obj.R.R.R.uncle === obj.R.L,
obj.L.L.uncle === obj.R,
obj.L.R.uncle === obj.R,
recovered.R.L.uncle === recovered.L,
recovered.R.R.uncle === recovered.L,
recovered.R.R.L.uncle === recovered.R.L,
recovered.R.R.R.uncle === recovered.R.L,
recovered.L.L.uncle === recovered.R,
recovered.L.R.uncle === recovered.R
]
Here is the implementation of LOCALSTORAGE
LOCALSTORAGE = (function(){
"use strict";
var ignore = [Boolean, Date, Number, RegExp, String];
function primitive(item){
if (typeof item === 'object'){
if (item === null) { return true; }
for (var i=0; i<ignore.length; i++){
if (item instanceof ignore[i]) { return true; }
}
return false;
} else {
return true;
}
}
function infant(value){
return Array.isArray(value) ? [] : {};
}
function decycleIntoForest(object, replacer) {
if (typeof replacer !== 'function'){
replacer = function(x){ return x; }
}
object = replacer(object);
if (primitive(object)) return object;
var objects = [object];
var forest = [infant(object)];
var bucket = new WeakMap(); // bucket = inverse of objects
bucket.set(object, 0);
function addToBucket(obj){
var result = objects.length;
objects.push(obj);
bucket.set(obj, result);
return result;
}
function isInBucket(obj){ return bucket.has(obj); }
function processNode(source, target){
Object.keys(source).forEach(function(key){
var value = replacer(source[key]);
if (primitive(value)){
target[key] = {value: value};
} else {
var ptr;
if (isInBucket(value)){
ptr = bucket.get(value);
} else {
ptr = addToBucket(value);
var newTree = infant(value);
forest.push(newTree);
processNode(value, newTree);
}
target[key] = {pointer: ptr};
}
});
}
processNode(object, forest[0]);
return forest;
};
function deForestIntoCycle(forest) {
var objects = [];
var objectRequested = [];
var todo = [];
function processTree(idx) {
if (idx in objects) return objects[idx];
if (objectRequested[idx]) return null;
objectRequested[idx] = true;
var tree = forest[idx];
var node = Array.isArray(tree) ? [] : {};
for (var key in tree) {
var o = tree[key];
if ('pointer' in o) {
var ptr = o.pointer;
var value = processTree(ptr);
if (value === null) {
todo.push({
node: node,
key: key,
idx: ptr
});
} else {
node[key] = value;
}
} else {
if ('value' in o) {
node[key] = o.value;
} else {
throw new Error('unexpected')
}
}
}
objects[idx] = node;
return node;
}
var result = processTree(0);
for (var i = 0; i < todo.length; i++) {
var item = todo[i];
item.node[item.key] = objects[item.idx];
}
return result;
};
var console = {
log: function(x){
var the = document.getElementById('the');
the.textContent = the.textContent + '\n' + x;
},
delimiter: function(){
var the = document.getElementById('the');
the.textContent = the.textContent +
'\n*******************************************';
}
}
function logCyclicObjectToConsole(root) {
var cycleFree = decycleIntoForest(root);
var shown = cycleFree.map(function(tree, idx) {
return false;
});
var indentIncrement = 4;
function showItem(nodeSlot, indent, label) {
var leadingSpaces = ' '.repeat(indent);
var leadingSpacesPlus = ' '.repeat(indent + indentIncrement);
if (shown[nodeSlot]) {
console.log(leadingSpaces + label + ' ... see above (object #' + nodeSlot + ')');
} else {
console.log(leadingSpaces + label + ' object#' + nodeSlot);
var tree = cycleFree[nodeSlot];
shown[nodeSlot] = true;
Object.keys(tree).forEach(function(key) {
var entry = tree[key];
if ('value' in entry) {
console.log(leadingSpacesPlus + key + ": " + entry.value);
} else {
if ('pointer' in entry) {
showItem(entry.pointer, indent + indentIncrement, key);
}
}
});
}
}
console.delimiter();
showItem(0, 0, 'root');
};
function stringify(obj){
return JSON.stringify(decycleIntoForest(obj));
}
function parse(str){
return deForestIntoCycle(JSON.parse(str));
}
var CYCLICJSON = {
decycleIntoForest: decycleIntoForest,
deForestIntoCycle : deForestIntoCycle,
logCyclicObjectToConsole: logCyclicObjectToConsole,
stringify : stringify,
parse : parse
}
function setObject(name, object){
var str = stringify(object);
localStorage.setItem(name, str);
}
function getObject(name){
var str = localStorage.getItem(name);
if (str===null) return null;
return parse(str);
}
return {
CYCLICJSON : CYCLICJSON,
setObject : setObject,
getObject : getObject
}
})();
obj = {
L: {
L: { v: 'lorem' },
R: { v: 'ipsum' }
},
R: {
L: { v: 'dolor' },
R: {
L: { v: 'sit' },
R: { v: 'amet' }
}
}
}
obj.R.L.uncle = obj.L;
obj.R.R.uncle = obj.L;
obj.R.R.L.uncle = obj.R.L;
obj.R.R.R.uncle = obj.R.L;
obj.L.L.uncle = obj.R;
obj.L.R.uncle = obj.R;
// LOCALSTORAGE.setObject('latinUncles', obj)
// recovered = LOCALSTORAGE.getObject('latinUncles')
// localStorage not available inside fiddle ):
LOCALSTORAGE.CYCLICJSON.logCyclicObjectToConsole(obj)
putIntoLS = LOCALSTORAGE.CYCLICJSON.stringify(obj);
recovered = LOCALSTORAGE.CYCLICJSON.parse(putIntoLS);
LOCALSTORAGE.CYCLICJSON.logCyclicObjectToConsole(recovered);
var the = document.getElementById('the');
the.textContent = the.textContent + '\n\n' +
JSON.stringify(
[
obj.L.L.v === recovered.L.L.v,
obj.L.R.v === recovered.L.R.v,
obj.R.L.v === recovered.R.L.v,
obj.R.R.L.v === recovered.R.R.L.v,
obj.R.R.R.v === recovered.R.R.R.v,
obj.R.L.uncle === obj.L,
obj.R.R.uncle === obj.L,
obj.R.R.L.uncle === obj.R.L,
obj.R.R.R.uncle === obj.R.L,
obj.L.L.uncle === obj.R,
obj.L.R.uncle === obj.R,
recovered.R.L.uncle === recovered.L,
recovered.R.R.uncle === recovered.L,
recovered.R.R.L.uncle === recovered.R.L,
recovered.R.R.R.uncle === recovered.R.L,
recovered.L.L.uncle === recovered.R,
recovered.L.R.uncle === recovered.R
]
)
<pre id='the'></pre>