/home/ale/projects/ConfigML/inipat.h File Reference

#include <strings.h>
#include "iostream"
#include "fstream"
#include <vector>
#include <stack>

Go to the source code of this file.

Classes

class TagInfo

class ConfigObj

class TypeTagIs

class NameIs

Typedefs

typedef vector< TagInfo * > TagVector

typedef vector< TagInfo * >
::iterator TagIterator

typedef vector< ConfigObj * > ConfigVector

typedef vector< ConfigObj * >
::iterator ConfigIterator

typedef vector< ConfigObj * >
::reverse_iterator ConfigRevIterator

Functions

char ValidateINI (char *filename)

bool strToBool (const char *text, bool NoMatch=false)

Detailed Description

This library intended to read text of markup configurations files in uniform way. Text information from the file is loaded by your program in structural tree way. So it facilitates to use text information to supply configuration data to object-oriented software

Advantage - we can use markups to mark groups of the parameters and do not obligued to keep markups for the every Name=Value pairs like XML does. Such text is less dark, less messy, and much more human readable. As opposed to pure XML, and opposed to well known expat library.

The dictionary of markups and their "schemas" are not considered here. Let to deal with names and schemas the classes which will use the data. Markups are caseINSENSITIVE, so big/small letters of the markups does not matter but case sensitivity of Tags -- is also up to your decision. Whitespaces are all removed except those which quoted. Comments marked by #, trailing comments are possible also.

Example of markup configuration text:

# comments are skipped
# comment with # in the first column are recognised and skipped faster then others
# empty lines just skipped

<markup1> # trailing comment, recognised and trimmed slower
   parameter = value # trailing comment
   Name      = value # syntax of parameters is up to you
   #    we suggest you just the text, cleaned from whitespaces
   #    and structured like a tree
   #    and it is up to your quirk, how to convert it
   #    into member values of your classes and subclass members

   Tag       = "value with whitespaces"     # whitespaces are preserved in quotes
   argument  = 'value with whitespaces can be in single quotes also'

   <incapsulated>
      parameter = "value with 'single' quote inside " # use "" quote to preserve '' quotes
      parameter = 'text with "double quote" inside '  # and vice versa 
      IsNotComment = "keeps this # char"  # but out of quotes will be trimmed as any trailing comment 
      LikesMilk        # boolean, or enum parameters, for example, I think, no need write = true 
      CanEatGrass=false    # but nobody can prohibit you to adhere the traditional syntax 
                           # just consider the user convinience
   </incapsulated>
   
   Argument = Value
   SomeParameter = value
   AuxsillaryConfigFile=/etc/config/read.this.conf  # we can include also filenames of other config files
                           # but how to handle this file, is the decision of the your program
                           # you can open them later and handle in the same way as this one

</markup1>  # end of configuration parameters for this object

# the same do for any other object

<SomeObject>
   <SubObject>
      Leaf=value
   </SubObject>
   
   <SubObject>
      Leaf=value
   </SubObject>
   <SubObject>
      Leaf = Value
      Leaf2 = sign
      Leaf3 = 34
   </SubObject>
</SomeObject>

<IndustrialDevice>
   Hook= Value
   Type = "Name of industrial device type"
   Sensor=UMCTL,3,0x15
   <Sensor>  # or, such sensor may look better: 
      Board = UMCTL
      Slot = 3
      Address = 0x15
      Direction = Input;
      Name = VacuumOn
   </Sensor>
   <AllSensors>
      /etc/config/sensorfile1  # other config files for sensors
      /etc/config/sensorfile2
      /etc/config/sensorfile683
   </AllSensors>
</IndustrialDevice>

Well,how to read and use the configuration?
Assume we have configuration file data.conf where all configuration of our application objects is defined.
First we are need just to create the instance of ConfigObj:

 ConfigObj Parameters("Root");

or

 ConfigObj* Parametrs = new ConfigObj("singularity");

then we can check consistency of markups in our configuration file

 res = ValidateINI("data.conf");

load the configuration file if consistency is Ok

 if(res==0)
      Parameters.Load("data.conf");

well now we have all configuration slurped into the memory
then we can iterate Configuration objects and pass them to member functions of class instances to be configured, just after they were created in memory

   ConfigIterator Browser;
   for(Browser = Parameters.ConfigBegin(); Browser < Parameters.ConfigEnd(); Browser++) 
   {
      if( (*Browser)->IsMyName("IndustrialDevice") )
      {
         TagInfo* TypeTag;
         if( (TypeTag = (*Browser)->GetParam("Type")) )
         {
            char* Val;
            Val = strchr(TypeTag->data(),'=')+1; // next after =
            if(strcasecmp(Val,"fraise")) // we pass the configuration object
               Fraise->config(*Browser); // to the object instance of our program
            else if(strcasecmp(Val,"table"))
               AxisTable->config(*Browser)
            else if(strcasecmp(Val,"spindle"))
               Spindle->config(*Browser)
            else if(strcasecmp(Val,"indexer"))
               TapeIndexer->config(*Browser)
            else if(etc...etc...)
         }
      }
      else if( (*Browser)->IsMyName("markup1") )
      {
         MarkupInstance.config(*Browser);
      }
      else if(etc...etc...etc...)
   }

but how to write the member procedure config(ConfigObj* cfg) is the your task, folks

Typedef Documentation

typedef vector<ConfigObj*>::iterator ConfigIterator

Iterator by collection of the other config objects

typedef vector<ConfigObj*>::reverse_iterator ConfigRevIterator

Deprecated:: reverse iterator is almost useless

typedef vector<ConfigObj*> ConfigVector

class of vector of pointers to the similar config collections

typedef vector<TagInfo*>::iterator TagIterator

iterator, is often used to browse Tags

typedef vector<TagInfo*> TagVector

the class of vector of pointers to TagInfo

Function Documentation

bool strToBool	(	const char *	text,
		bool	NoMatch = `false`
	)

converts some often used strings into booleans

Parameters:

text

the character string to be converted

Returns:: true / false depending on text, or NoMatch value, given from caller if the text does not match anything

char ValidateINI ( char * filename )

checks if file with the given filename can be opened and if all open/close markups are consistent

Parameters:

filename

name of the configuration markup file to be checked

Returns:: 0 if everything is Ok negative value if something there is wrong errors are printed to stdout


Classes
class	TagInfo
class	ConfigObj
class	TypeTagIs
class	NameIs
Typedefs
typedef vector< TagInfo * >	TagVector
typedef vector< TagInfo * > ::iterator	TagIterator
typedef vector< ConfigObj * >	ConfigVector
typedef vector< ConfigObj * > ::iterator	ConfigIterator
typedef vector< ConfigObj * > ::reverse_iterator	ConfigRevIterator
Functions
char	ValidateINI (char *filename)
bool	strToBool (const char *text, bool NoMatch=false)