compiler library

This file allows you to generate Dart source code files for PackMe data protocol using JSON manifest files.

Usage: dart compiler.dart

JSON Manifest file represents a set of commands, each command consists of one (single message) or two (request and response) messages. In your server code you mostly listen for request messages from client and reply with response messages. However it totally depends on your architecture: server may as well send request messages and in some cases client may process those requests without reply. Though using single messages are preferred in such cases.

The reason why each command is strictly divided on two messages (instead of just using raw messages) is to make manifest structure as clear as possible. I.e. when you look at some command you already know how it is supposed to work, not just some random message which will be used by server or client in unobvious ways.

Another thing worth mentioning is that it is not possible to separately declare a message (like in FlatBuffers or ProtoBuffers) and then reuse it in different commands. Here's why: if you look carefully in .json examples you will see that the same entities (like user) in different commands have different set of parameters. You don't want to encode the whole user's profile when you need to send a list of friends. Or when you need to show short user info on the post etc. Reusing declared messages firstly leads to encoding and transferring unused data, and secondly makes it hard to refactor your data protocol when different parts of your application are being changed.

Nested object in command request or response will be represented with class SomeCommandResponseNested. For example compiling example-posts.json will result in creating class GetResponseCommentAuthor which will contain three fields: List

Prefix "?" in field declaration means it is optional (Null by default).

Enums

NodeType

Constants

RED → const String
reserved → const List<String>
Reserved names you can't use as field names.
RESET → const String

Properties

enums → Map<String, Enum>
final
messages → Map<int, Message>
final
reBinary → RegExp
final
types → Map<String, Message>
final

Functions

fatal(String message, {bool test = false}) → void
format(List<String> lines) → List<String>
Auto indents.
main(List<String> args) → void
parse(List<Node> nodes) → Map<String, List<String>>
sizeOf(dynamic type) → int?
validName(String input, {bool firstCapital = false}) → String
Converts lower case names with underscore to UpperCamelCase (for classes) or lowerCamelCase (for class fields).