ASPCompiler Configuration files (general)
ASP Compiler 1.1 documentation is under development. See also the examples.

Configuration files - general information

ASPC uses configuration files in the default format supported by the Jacked-Objects C++ library. Internally configuration was kept in a standard classes that are known for all Jacked components. The trees of these objects are used to transfer information between components, to save/restore components state automatically over the tree defined by the configuration (mechanism often called persistence). You don't need to know details on how the data is used in order to be able to manage the configuration files - the important syntax rules are listed below:

  • Comments - any line with first non-blank character ";" is ignored and can be used for comments. Currently any incorrect line is ignored but this behavior may change in the future thus use only lines beginning with ";" for comments.
  • Section. Section is a container of the other data units and may contain subsections. Section may have bundled class. If so the application is able to automatically create object of the class initialized with the content of the section. General section syntax is:
                { Section_Name: (Bundled_class_name)
                  ; Some content
                } Section_Name;

    Section name - There must be at least one blank character between "{" and the section name. Name can contain spaces and any other character except ":<cr><lf>". Name ends with the ":" character. after the ":" bundled class can be specified but it is optional.
    Bundled class - If present name must be closed in a "( )" brackets. The name of the class can contain spaces and strict format is not defined but recommended format is (GeneralPurpose.VendorName.Name[.Subname]). Class name usage depends on the application - its documentation should include information about the classes their applicability, functionality and so on.

  • Record - record is a collection of the record entries with the same name found in a particular section.
    • Record entry - is a line as:
      (int)Record1=5
      or
      (string)Record10=Some string value
      Every record entry defines a single value for the record. Thus the following lines define a record MyRecord with 3 values:
      (int)MyRecord=1
      (string)MyRecord=A string
      (float)MyRecord=3.14

      Value defined by the record entry can have a value name:
      (int)MyRecord[value_name]=3
      This syntax is rarely used and if the part in the "[ ]" brackets is omitted defined value is unnamed.
      Record values defined by the record entries have strict type specification defined in the "( )" brackets placed before the name. There is no default type thus every record entry must have a type specified.
      General record entry syntax can be generally described as:
      (type_name)Record_name[Value_name]=Value
      Where:
      • type_name can be one of the following type names:
        int - 32-bit signed integer value
        float - 32 bit floating point value
        double - 64 bit floating point value
        string - string - can not contain new line or line feed characters
        int64 - 64 bit signed integer value
        More types are available (binary blocks for example) but are not used in configuration files.
      • Record_name - Assigns the record entry to the record with the name given. May contain any characters except "=[]", new line and line feed.
      • Value_name - optional. If present must be closed in "[ ]" brackets. May contain the same characters as the Record_name. Defines a name for the value - meaningful only if the component using the record expects it.
      • Value - Value defined with the record entry. Syntax depends on the type of the entry.

There are several extended syntax forms not described here because they are not used in the configuration files. Below two samples are listed. They do not apply to any product but demonstrate the configurations syntax:

Sample 1:


        { First section:
            (int)User=1
            (string)User=Smith
            { Logon: (LogonScreen.ACME.SimpleLogon)
                (int)top=100
                (int)left=200
            } Logon;
        } First section;
        

Suppose this section defines settings for some authentication procedure. Logon subsection is used to define what component will display the "Logon" dialog and contains values used by the component to determine the position of the dialog. External section - First Section contains two record entries for the record "User". Suppose that the integer value is used to determine if the password will be kept in some cache and the string value defines the user name.

Sample 2:


        { Object101: (Shape.ACME.Rectangle)
            (int)width=100
            (int)height=200
            (string)Text=Shape 101
            { Brush: (Brushe.ACME.OneColor)
                (int)Red=255
                (int)Green=255
                (int)Blue=0
            } Brush;
            { Pen: (Pen.ACME.Solid)
                (int)thickness=6
                (int)Red=80
                (int)Green=128
                (int)Blue=64
            } Pen;
            { TextSettings: (TextWriter.ACME.Default)
                (int)Size=10
                (int)Bold=1
                (int)Italic=0
                (string)Face=Arial
                (string)Face=Times
            } TextSettings;
        } Object101;
        

Imagine this section represents a graphic object in a graphical application. Every subsection defines component responsible for a particular actions as frame drawing or filling and holds the settings required by the component. For example TextSettings section may represent the component that displays the text in the drawing object. It has two Face record entries. Thus there is a record named Face with list of the fonts that can be used in the preferred order.

The order of the entries can be important depending on the way the application uses them. Entries (Sections, records, values) appear in memory in the order they are found in the file.

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