diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3b4d8aa..be23f65 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -16,6 +16,18 @@ System.out.println("Hello "+obj.getString("title")+"!");
 // Expected output: "Hello World!"
 ````
 
+The library includes a JSON compression feature that uses template based encoding an http2 header cache inspired caching of repeated string values.
+
+```java
+String source="{\"title\":\"World\"}";
+Compressor cmp=new Compressor("./compression_cache",100,1);
+byte[] data=cmp.compress(source);
+cmp.commit(); // Write out templates and dictionary data
+String output=cmp.decompress(data);
+````
+
+## Performance
+
 The following table shows a speed comparison for parsing around 551kb of JSON data.
 
 JSON Library | Min | Max | Avg | Median
diff --git a/src/main/java/me/doubledutch/lazyjson/LazyElement.java b/src/main/java/me/doubledutch/lazyjson/LazyElement.java
index 537eef1..e55f1e2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/me/doubledutch/lazyjson/LazyElement.java
+++ b/src/main/java/me/doubledutch/lazyjson/LazyElement.java
@@ -82,6 +82,15 @@ public String toString(){
 		return new String(cbuf,root.startIndex,root.endIndex-root.startIndex);
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Returns the character count of the source string.
+	 * 
+	 * @return the length of the source string for this element
+	 */
+	public int getSourceLength(){
+		return root.endIndex-root.startIndex;
+	}
+
 	public byte[] toByteArray(){
 		int size=root.getBufferSize();
 		ByteBuffer buf=ByteBuffer.allocate(size);
diff --git a/src/main/java/me/doubledutch/lazyjson/compressor/Compressor.java b/src/main/java/me/doubledutch/lazyjson/compressor/Compressor.java
index 2ac3ecd..e80a255 100644
--- a/src/main/java/me/doubledutch/lazyjson/compressor/Compressor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/me/doubledutch/lazyjson/compressor/Compressor.java
@@ -64,14 +64,19 @@ private boolean shouldCompress(Template t){
 	}
 
 	public byte[] compress(String str){
+		return compress(LazyElement.parse(str));
+	}
+
+
+	public byte[] compress(LazyElement elm){
 		// 1. Parse data
-		LazyElement elm=LazyElement.parse(str);
+		// LazyElement elm=LazyElement.parse(str);
 		// 2. Generate template
 		Template t=elm.extractTemplate();
 		// 3. If template satisfies criterea - compress
 		if(shouldCompress(t)){
 			try{
-				ByteBuffer buf=ByteBuffer.allocate(str.length()-2);
+				ByteBuffer buf=ByteBuffer.allocate(elm.getSourceLength()-2);
 				buf.putShort((short)templateSet.get(t));
 				elm.writeTemplateValues(buf,dictionary);
 				int pos=buf.position();
@@ -85,13 +90,25 @@ public byte[] compress(String str){
 		}
 		// 4. return encoded data
 		// TODO: this is incredibly inefficient... fix!
-		byte[] encoded=str.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+		byte[] encoded=elm.toString().getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
 		ByteBuffer buf=ByteBuffer.allocate(2+encoded.length);
 		buf.putShort((short)-1);
 		buf.put(encoded);
 		return buf.array();
 	}
 
+	public LazyElement decompressElement(byte[] data){
+		return LazyElement.parse(decompress(data));
+	}
+
+	public LazyObject decompressObject(byte[] data){
+		return new LazyObject(decompress(data));
+	}
+
+	public LazyArray decompressArray(byte[] data){
+		return new LazyArray(decompress(data));
+	}
+
 	public String decompress(byte[] data){
 		ByteBuffer buf=ByteBuffer.wrap(data);
 		// 1. If it's a raw value, simply decode
diff --git a/src/main/resources/version.properties b/src/main/resources/version.properties
index a593273..646f8d0 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/version.properties
+++ b/src/main/resources/version.properties
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#Tue Aug 16 18:32:29 EDT 2016
+#Tue Aug 16 18:54:28 EDT 2016
 BUILD_VERSION=1.1.0
-BUILD_DATE=2016-08-16T22\:32\:29Z
-BUILD_NUMBER=556
+BUILD_DATE=2016-08-16T22\:54\:28Z
+BUILD_NUMBER=566