dumpable - Serialization without any serialization codes in C++
What is it?
With dumpable, you could..
- serialize your custom dumpable struct without any extra code for serialize/deserialize
- deserialize in constant time (just casting to T*)
dumpable struct is a struct that contains only members with following types:
- POD
- dstring, dvector, dmap
- another dumpable struct
Example
Extracted from simple_example (test.cpp)
- Define custom struct - Use dstring, dwstring, dvector, dmap instead of string, wstring, vector, map respectively.
```cpp
struct student
{
dwstring name;
int score;
student(){}
student(const wstring& name, int score) : name(name), score(score) {}
};
struct classroom
{
dstring class_name;
dvector<student> students;
};
```
- Fill data and dump to a file.
```cpp
// building sample data
classroom data;
data.class_name = "1001";
data.students.push_back(student(L"Alice",2));
data.students.push_back(student(L"Bob",5));
data.students.push_back(student(L"\ud55c\uae00",13));
// dump to file
ostringstream out;
dumpable::write(data, out);
FILE* fp = fopen("dumped.bin", "wb");
size_t buffer_size = out.str().size();
fwrite(&buffer_size, 1, sizeof(buffer_size), fp);
fwrite(out.str().data(), buffer_size, 1, fp);
fclose(fp);
// Wait, where's serialization code?
// You don't need it with dumpable!
```
Or you can do additional tasks like compression, encryption, adding meta informations and so on.
- Read from the file and reconstruct original data.
```cpp
FILE* fp = fopen("dumped.bin","rb");
fread(&buffer_size, 1, sizeof(buffer_size), fp);
char* buffer = new char[buffer_size];
fread(buffer, buffer_size, 1, fp);
const classroom* pClassRoom = dumpable::from_dumped_buffer<classroom>(buffer);
// pClassRoom is valid; Play with pClassRoom.
...
// if we clear chunk ...
delete[] buffer;
// now pClassRom is now invalid.
```
Note: **dumpable::from\_dumped\_buffer** takes constant time.
See simple_example from test.cpp for more detail.
When to use? (or Why do I develop this library?)
I'm working at a video game company, so I want to optimize the loading speed of the game. dumpable eliminates time for reconstructing game data from binary to C++ struct.
It can also be used for serializing network packets. While protobuf is a very good tool for it, dumpable supports nested C++ structs.
Thready Safety
Currently only one thread can call dumpable::write. (It uses global variable. It can be change to thread_local.)
dumpable::from_dumped_buffer is thread-safe.
Limitation
You cannot use dumpable with struct having virtual functions.
Modifying dumpable containers could be slow.
Versioning and error detection are not supported;
Calling dumpable::from_dumped_buffer<T> with a buffer created by an object of type U may crash the program.
Currently only few member functions are implemented.
Installation
Dumpable is header-only library. Include "dumpable.h" and that's all!
License
Dumpable is licensed under the MIT license. See the file LICENSE.
Special thanks to
Inspired by innover.