Dear list members, I try to use Text.JSON (http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/json) to serialize and deserialize record types. As I understand it, the data types need to be instances of class JSON. However I have difficulties to come up with a nice implementation of showJSON and readJSON. For example: module Test where import Text.JSON data Record = One { field1 :: String, field2 :: String } | Two { field :: String } deriving (Eq, Ord, Show, Read) showJSON (One x y) = toJSObject [("field1", x), ("field2", y)] showJSON (Two x) = toJSObject [("field", x)] readJSON x = -- ??? This lacks the instance declaration itself but my problem is more fundamental. How can I write the readJSON method? In general how would one approach the problem of serialization/deserialization? I am puzzled that the type classes Show and Read can be derived automatically. I can not think of any way to do this. Thanks for your help!