XMLFoundation Wiki
The fastest XML Parser that exists. Portable HTTP Services.
Brought to you by:
xmlfoundation
Menu
▾
▴
XMLFoundation
XMLFoundation 2012
Home
The Fastest XML Parser that exists. Cross platform development tools for C++. Examples for iPhone/Android/WindowsPhone also 32/64 bit big data examples for Linux/Windows. Contains many example programs. It also contains examples for CORBA, COM, Java and more see full documentation here:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/XML/XMLFoundation.aspx
XMLFoundation
XMLFoundation 2012
Project Admins:
Welcome to the XMLFoundation 2014 Release 211
XMLFoundation is a cross platform application foundation. GString and xmlLex are 1 and yet they can be separated. The G classes are "designed" for each other - not simply "used" together. The GString now supports Compress and Cipher as member methods. Since both GZip and TwoFish are very portable and since the GString is designed for binary data equally as much as for character string data - the combination is a natural fit that deserves to be in the base class of GString. This comes after synchronizing GZip.cpp in the XMLFoundation with the latest source code from http://zlib.net/, an update that includes a fix for a rare compression bug. Zlib implements compression for most applications built after 1996. The authors recommend that all users of Zlib should upgrade and obtain the fix.
The fact that the first 3 letters being ALL CAPS of xmlFOUNDATION understates the C++ Foundational application development tools ( which contain an XML Parser (like the C++ framework QT) ). Building on GString is like building on a "better" ostream. Opinion has no place amid "better" performance data. Every application that was ever built on ostream could benefit from the XMLFoundation. All the utilities are carefully designed to be a portable platform everywhere that a C++ compiler exists (like the popular C++ library Boost (which XMLFoundation compliments nicely) ). XMLFoundation's GThread is still the only pthread port for Windows Phone that I know of. Windows Phone is now the third-largest OS across Europe with 10 percent of the smart phone market -- more than double its share compared with last year. I support it. Behind the Capitol XML is a solid application Foundation.
In the past 30 days, there have been several minor "fixes" in the XMLFoundation as well - so all of this deserved being put together into build 211 that is already serving several production applications. Additionally, new documentation now includes example use of the virtual ToXML() method of XMLObject in the new example program titled BigData. Since XMLFoundation is the fastest XML Parser on earth, it stands as the most viable solution for integration of massive XML data sets - most will be to/from an SQL database - but where BigData meets XML - the XMLFoundation is a solution present. Despite the focus on XMLFoundation support for the equally important mobile platforms (iOS/Android/Windows Phone), XMLFoundation originated from the high performance needs of large data warehousing and is positioned to be the de facto standard for BigData XML just as zlib became (according to wikipedia) the de facto compression.
Custom Memory Management
This is what was new on Jan 11, 2014
This is a point in the XMLFoundation project that I will switch my focus to the porting and development of several applications that were designed and built using older versions of the XMLFoundation library. Recently my focus had been enhancing the XMLFoundation. I have more than one application that still has yet to be ported to 64 bit. In the future, updates to this main article will indicate a major update versus the daily or frequent updates of the most recent source at the external link. The current XMLFoundation and the examples are very much a result of user feedback. Even the changelog.txt was started in response the suggestion that someone gave me. Good idea. The new ChangeLogTail.txt was my idea. If you come up with a new example program, idea (great or small), or feedback that might help others - don't keep it to yourself - share it with. Share it with myself and the public on the forum at the bottom of this page, or share/discuss it with me directly ( Roaring Checkmate At Live dot com). I ask for this feedback despite the fact that recently there has been more "downvoting" than ever before. The old "5 Star" XMLFoundation has new "1 Star" haters.
The very old section in this document titled “Faster than Fast”, written in 2009, was put together to give some explanation and emphasis to the fact that XMLFoundation is fast. The XMLFoundation is FASTER in 2014. (as much as 3 TIMES FASTER at some operations than any 2013 release). Thank God for numbers, because words can say anything, but numbers divides fact from words. This 2014 speed-leap comes from customized memory management. This is as simple as reducing calls to the generalized global memory manager in the operating system via calls to new() and delete(). The concept is simple, and there are various approaches. The goal is to obtain heap memory for a set of operations that you might define as 1 transaction or complete task.
I have the advantage of having done custom memory management before so I applied an experienced approach toward accomplishing this. In this release, I abundantly commented the source code changes and additions to document exactly how this custom memory management is accomplished. The proof is in the numbers exactly how important of an issue memory management is – regardless of your target being on an Android phone or a 64 bit Windows server – the same concept applies to memory management.
Additionally – as we kick off 2014 with a massive reduction in the reliance of the operating systems memory manager – we raised the roof for 32 bit processing limits that are reached when new() returns NULL. So, if faster is not what you need – perhaps you will enjoy the higher processing limits that you can now achieve in the same memory limitations that you have always had. FASTER execution and HIGHER limits are both achieved by the same upgrade in this release. I expect that this raised the roof for 64 bit limits as well – but I have never seen that roof.
The bulk of the memory management documentation is in the code, I will conclude the introduction to the 2014 version with the basic steps that make it all happen.
In XMLObject.h, the new method :
Collapse | Copy Code
virtual int GetMemberMapCount()
returns the number of MemberMaps() that all objects of any specific type will have mapped to them. Knowing this, XMLObject will preallocate a chunk of memory large enough to hold the details of ALL MemberDescriptor()'s that contain that information at runtime for the object instance - in the primitave days of 2013 each MemberDescriptor was allocated a global heapspace of it's own using new()
The code in XMLObject.cpp now looks like this - to manage the memory blocks
Collapse | Copy Code
int nArraySize = GetMemberMapCount(0);
m_pMemberDescriptorArray = malloc(sizeof(MemberDescriptor) * nArraySize);
GList made did a similiar change. Here is a bit from GListNodeCache that aplies the same concept a bit differently.
Collapse | Copy Code
void *pBlock = malloc(sizeof(GList::Node) * NODES_PER_ALLOC);
// Now we access individual nodes like this: The temp variable pVoid is for readability....
Collapse | Copy Code
void pVoid = ((char )pBlock) + ( sizeof(GList::Node)nBlockIndex);
GList::Node pNodeInBlock = (GList::Node *)pVoid;
// this is the same code as above with no temp variable. It is a type cast with pointer arithmetic
Collapse | Copy Code
GList::Node pNodeInBlock =
(GList::Node )((void )(((char )pBlock)+(sizeof(GList::Node)*nBlockIndex)));
Analysis of Algorithms
This is what was new December 21st 2013
MurmurHash was the latest big advancement in Hashing. It was published in Austin Appleby’s personal blog. Google hired him and has taken over Murmurhash, and published a variant of it called CityHash. Strangely, many Google publications failed to recognize SpookyHash - published October 31, Ground Hog Day, and other celebrated days, citing only MurmurHash.
Here are two links to help you quickly catch up on hashing algorithms to get your prerequisites up to date. To cut through all the trending Hash Hype, I recommend this brief overview of hashing.:
http://www.homolog.us/blogs/blog/2013/05/06/why-computer-science-professors-dislike-hash-functions/
I wanted to see if CityHash could help me speed up my indexing scheme so I decided to test SpookyHash/CityHash within GHash which is part of XMLFoundation. The test counts CPU cycles and/or microseconds on both Windows and Linux while indexing large datasets for both 32 and 64 bit applications. The source code for this test is included in the example program ExIndexObjects.
The results are very interesting. GHash is so fast that CityHash slows it down. The GHash is a unique algorithm designed to index XMLObjects – but it can index anything. In summary, GHash is an Array of B-Trees. It handles hash collisions so efficiently that it eliminates need for "low collision" hashing algorithms such as CityHash which use far more CPU than a simple Rotating Hash, and further research will determine just how low it can go in the simplification of that step.
CRC-n. is faster than CityHash. For Checksumming, or creating a hash function with a perfect distribution (aka avalanche effect) CRC is a better choice. CityHash and SpookyHash are curious works in math that have only 1 possible application – they can destroy data quickly(like the Google Code). If you have a HUGE amount of sensitive data and want to delete it (which will mark the disk sectors ‘free’ for the OS to use) and DESTROY it so that it could never be recovered by any disk utility tools. There are many free utilities that accomplish this already, but with these new algorithms the software can accomplish more block corruption in less time. Why does Google Inc invest in and market algorithms with no purpose in any of their active projects? If I was a share-holder I would vote for new management.
GHash ought not be confused with a block cruncher. The name GHashTableTreeStack was too long so it’s called GHash. The long name would be more proper, like Mr. Hash. GHash is one single "Data Structure Algorithm" that combines multiple algorithms and data structures (see highlighted) as parts of the whole. GHash uses a Rotating Hash to index a Static Array of Binary Trees. A GBTree is a variant of an automatically balancing AVL Tree that contains an alternate index so that beyond traverse Ascending and Descending (like any B-Tree via Left/Right) it also has a secondary index via Next/Previous which allows the GBTree to also be traversed in the order that items were inserted. The secondary index can optimize certain bulk commits (aka disk writes) of individual updates that were applied while it was stored in RAM by GBTree. The GHash cannot do that, but it uses a GBTree that can. The XML data updates and application layer updates primarily use only the primary index. Upon a special kind of commit the fragmented memory structure can be flattened back to it’s initial state into the same order that they came from the disk. Another important algorithmic component of GHash is the unique (aka one of a kind) GHashIterator which allows SIMPLE and non-blocking THREAD-SAFE iteration of this complex data structure via an internal integer index into the Static Array used in combination with a GBTreeIterator which is maintains two GStacks that act as LIFO queues of state information used to quickly iterate the Tree portion of this structure, such a task is typically accomplished by a recursive method of the Tree structure. A mere typical approach will force a multithreaded application to block reads of the structure. GHash is non typical and very fast.
Each algorithm has various properties. Building from a Window64 starting point, I re-structured the “Google Sparse Hash” project source code. I made major structure changes to the code. This may be the answer to a commented question in the source code about an empty bucket. I added struct support for Windows, fully redesigned the build, and provide a 64 bit target for Windows which the “Sparse Hash Project” does not. The work is in the file GSparseHash.h. It will be the file of interest in this release , and admittedly it is still a work in progress. It is a starting point. That one file stands as an exception in the XMLFoundation because it does not yet build under every compiler. It's MUCH simpler to incorporate into any build as the inlined implementation in GSparshHash.h (where the compiler supports) - and I expect only minor changes for GCC to support GSparseHash.h
Although GHash is not a Distributed Data Structure, it is a far more valuable algorithmic component within a “Distributed Data Structure” than CityHash. Just as GHash is made of many algorithmic components so must a structure like BigTable designed and used by Google, which is likely where CityHash is used. BigTable is best defined as a sparse, distributed multi-dimensional sorted map. It is accurately summarized here: http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~pxk/417/notes/content/bigtable.html.
Boom. Bust. Readjust. Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust. In God we Trust. Watch the Bubble sort Bust.
Collapse | Copy Code
64 bit build results from ExIndexObjects to test XMLObject indexing speeds
This sample works with HUGE test files.
It is VERY VERY slow under a debugger.
If you dont have enough RAM, or want to speed it up.......
Delete TheWholeTruth.txt as many folks must do in their reality.....
It will use Truth.txt which will obtain evidence you can see.
Note: 777 milliseconds = 777,000 microseconds
Note: The 32 bit build counts cpu clock cycles
[Creating Object Instances]=301 milliseconds
[Create 81 MB XML Document]=1314 milliseconds
[Create 81 MB XML Document Faster]=635 milliseconds
[Save To Disk]=1257 milliseconds
[Releasing memory]=797 milliseconds
-------- GList --------
[InsertObjects]=5049 milliseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objects in 4,711 microseconds
[Search Find ]=19,421 microseconds
[Update Object]=2,858 microseconds
[Update Faster]=2,798 microseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objs in 4,651 microseconds
[Search NoFind]=36,279 microseconds
[Create XML ]=646 milliseconds
[XML To Disk ]=696 milliseconds
[Free Memory ]=2706 milliseconds
---------------------- Compressed 83,109,379 bytes of XML to 5,131,905
-------- GQSortArray --------
[InsertObjects]=5092 milliseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objects in 4,109 microseconds
[Search Find ]=1,349 microseconds
[Update Object]=1,158 microseconds
[Update Faster]=1,014 microseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objs in 4,101 microseconds
[Search NoFind]=1,896 microseconds
[Create XML ]=701 milliseconds
[XML To Disk ]=731 milliseconds
[Free Memory ]=2609 milliseconds
---------------------- Compressed 83,109,379 bytes of XML to 5,131,905
-------- GBTree --------
[InsertObjects]=6495 milliseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objects in 19,185 microseconds
[Search Find ]=6 microseconds
[Update Object]=38 microseconds
[Update Faster]=27 microseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objs in 16,959 microseconds
[Search NoFind]=6 microseconds
[Create XML ]=707 milliseconds
[XML To Disk ]=1133 milliseconds
[Free Memory ]=3688 milliseconds
---------------------- Compressed 83,109,379 bytes of XML to 5,131,905
-------- GHash --------
[InsertObjects]=6565 milliseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objects in 79,954 microseconds
[Search Find ]=2 microseconds
[Update Object]=40 microseconds
[Update Faster]=23 microseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objs in 79,626 microseconds
[Search NoFind]=2 microseconds
[Create XML ]=1526 milliseconds
[XML To Disk ]=724 milliseconds
[Free Memory ]=3753 milliseconds
---------------------- Compressed 83,109,379 bytes of XML to 6,930,691
-------- GSparseHash --------
[InsertObjects]=6210 milliseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objects in 8,152 microseconds
[Search Find ]=1 microseconds
[Update Object]=35 microseconds
[Update Faster]=17 microseconds
[Iterate All ]=821160 objs in 8,009 microseconds
[Search NoFind]=1 microseconds
[Create XML ]=1489 milliseconds
[XML To Disk ]=820 milliseconds
[Free Memory ]=3641 milliseconds
---------------------- Compressed 83,109,379 bytes of XML to 6,990,074
C:\XMLFoundation\Examples\C++\ExIndexObjects\Release>
Documentation
The ongoing commentating and documenting of the source code is always improving the usability of this powerful set of tools. The tools are getting even more powerful. Many comments were added into the source code in response to questions that people have asked. As I answer questions, I put those answers in strategic places in the source code in the form of a comment that will prevent others from having the same issue in question.
You can always search through the XMLFoundation library source code on almost any method in any G class and within the XMLFoundation you will find a usage example to compliment the documentation in comments above each method.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, an example is worth ten thousand. "Open Source" projects are frequently unsupported and undocumented, however you will find that the ongoing commentating of source code is continuously being maintained and developed to make the toolkit more useful and productive in the hands of people who are new to using it. The detailed documentation is all in the source code, right where you need it. For example a comment was just recently added into ListAbstraction.h just above the StringCollectionAbstraction class that explains how that base class is used to store ANY data type into ANY data structure. That comment links to a new class called CDoubleArrayAbstraction in AbstractionsMFC.h that stores the data type "double" into MFC's array implementation called CArray. While the implementation was the point of interest of one person, the comments added will be the point of interest to even more people that need some other data type in some other kind of data structure.
Threading
The new GThread, first of all, is a Windows thing. Inspired by that "designed for each other" concept. Windows Mobile, Windows 32, Windows 64, and Windows Phone all need a pthread interface (POSIX Threads) for ServerCore, and for the thread synchronization within XMLFoundation caching. iOS, Linux, Android, AIX, Solaris, and HPUX all have an official pthread implementation. Microsoft decided not to be bound to the POSIX standard. I guess you cant be a leader if you always follow. Windows Run Time (aka managed .NET code or WinRT) has a completely different threading model besides the Win32 threading model . I needed a pthread interface for WinRT and I was forced to build my own - but the vast majority of the work was already complete thanks to a combination of Win32 PThreads, the implementation from John E. Bossom and the publication of "namespace ThreadEmulation" Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. GThread.cpp works on all Windows platforms. It is NOT intended to implement the whole of POSIX threads - only the small subset necessary within the XMLFoundation code. This is a clearly defined abstract interface (defined with #defines) in GThread.h. This better positions XMLFoundation to further customize GThread.cpp which unlike the previously used PThread.cpp (which was "designed" to implement POSIX), GThread is "designed" for the needs of XMLFoundation. As was the case between the ObjectFactory and the XML Parser - being designed for each other makes all the difference in the world. If you can do it better than the standard, I guess its time to quit following that standard. I suspect GThread will someday further optimize the integration to BOTH Windows threading models to make the most of a fully native solution. For example, consider this code snipped from xmlDefines.h that uses a native threading optimization for Windows.
Collapse | Copy Code
// On Windows, a Critical Section is faster than a Mutex but
// Critical Sections dont exist in Unix or PThreads so this
// mapping macro was inspired to achieve the best performance
ifdef _WIN32
#ifdef __WINPHONE
#define XML_MUTEX gthread_mutex_t
#define XML_INIT_MUTEX(m) gthread_mutex_init(m,0);
#define XML_DESTROY_MUTEX(m) gthread_mutex_destroy(m);
#define XML_LOCK_MUTEX(m) gthread_mutex_lock(m);
#define XML_UNLOCK_MUTEX(m) gthread_mutex_unlock(m);
#else
#define XML_MUTEX CRITICAL_SECTION
#define XML_INIT_MUTEX(m) InitializeCriticalSection(m);
#define XML_DESTROY_MUTEX(m) DeleteCriticalSection(m);
#define XML_LOCK_MUTEX(m) EnterCriticalSection(m);
#define XML_UNLOCK_MUTEX(m) LeaveCriticalSection(m);
#endif
else
#define XML_MUTEX pthread_mutex_t
#define XML_INIT_MUTEX(m) pthread_mutex_init(m,0);
#define XML_DESTROY_MUTEX(m) pthread_mutex_destroy(m);
#define XML_LOCK_MUTEX(m) pthread_mutex_lock(m);
#define XML_UNLOCK_MUTEX(m) pthread_mutex_unlock(m);
endif
PThread.cpp is still included incase you need it, but it is now unused by the XMLFoundation and several applications I have built upon it.
Windows Phone
Building the Windows Phone Example is very simple once you have the development environment setup. The WP8 Emulator is Hyper-V, so you need to have a Core i5 or i7 CPU that has Intel VT-x/EPT to see anything work. You will also need Win 8 Pro or Enterprise. Install the Windows Phone SDK after installing VS2012 ( or select the Windows Phone Development option during the install of VS2013 ). Under the Examples folder, open the solution for Windows Phone, build and run it on the emulator. The example application does the same thing as the example for iPhone - It shows how to deal with XML, and it starts an HTTP server on the phone using ServerCore.cpp.
iPhone / iOS
The port to iOS is complete. The XMLFoundation concepts work beautifully in Objective C++. I added a new example program called ObjectiveObjects that shows how to use all the C++ examples in Objective C++. The example added for iOS is more complete than the example for Android, in that it documents converting XML to Objects. Like the Android example, the iOS example also shows how to use ServerCore.cpp to create an HTTP server on the phone. All of the code of interest in the new example is found in the file ViewController.m. Here is a bit of that file:
Collapse | Copy Code
@implementation ViewController
@synthesize button1 = _button1;
@synthesize button2 = _button2;
@synthesize button3 = _button3;
@synthesize textView = _textView;
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Define a simple object
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
class MyCustomObject : public XMLObject
{
public: // make public here for example simplicity - this is not required
GString m_strString; // A String Member
GString m_strColor; // An attribute , not an element
int m_nInteger; // An Integer Member
char m_szNative[10]; // a fixed 10 byte buffer
GStringList m_strList; // A String List
virtual void MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
// Member variable XML Element
MapMember( &m_strList, "StringList", "Wrapper");
MapMember( &m_nInteger, "Number");
MapMember( &m_strString, "String");
MapMember( m_szNative, "FixedBuffer", sizeof(m_szNative) );
MapAttribute(&m_strColor, "Color");
}
// 'this' type, followed by the XML Element name, normally DECLARE_FACTORY() is in an .h file
DECLARE_FACTORY(MyCustomObject, Thing)
MyCustomObject(){} // keep one constructor with no arguments
~MyCustomObject(){};
};
// IMPLEMENT_FACTORY() must exist in a .CPP file - not an .h file - one for every DECLARE_FACTORY()
IMPLEMENT_FACTORY(MyCustomObject, Thing)
//
// This is the XML we'll process.
//
char pzXML[] =
"<thing color="Red">"
"<string>Owners Word</string>"
"<number>777</number>"
"<fixedbuffer>native</fixedbuffer>"
"<wrapper>"
"<stringlist>one</stringlist>"
"<stringlist>two</stringlist>"
"</wrapper>"
"</thing>";
int StartHere0()
{
MyCustomObject O;
O.FromXMLX(pzXML);
// look at the Object "O".
GString strDebug;
strDebug << "Yo! Check out O:" << O.m_strString <<
"[" << O.m_nInteger << "]:" << O.m_szNative << "\n\n\n";
XlogInfo(strDebug);
// set some data
O.m_strString = "Root was here";
// add any encoding tags or doctype you need - if you need them other wise skip the next two lines
GString strXMLStreamDestinationBuffer = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" standAlone='yes'?>\n";
strXMLStreamDestinationBuffer << "<!DOCTYPE totallyCustom SYSTEM \"http://www.IBM.com/example.dtd\">";
O.ToXML( &strXMLStreamDestinationBuffer);
XlogInfo(strXMLStreamDestinationBuffer);
return 0;
}
- (IBAction)test2:(id)sender {
StartHere0();
}
This design pattern for processing XML is described in more detail further down in this document. All the concepts presented here apply to iOS as well as all the other platforms it already supported.
And the code to start the HTTP server from ObjectiveC++ is even simpler:
Collapse | Copy Code
// you will need to fix this path to point to wherever you unzipped XMLFoundation to
include "/Users/user/Desktop/XMLFoundation/Servers/Core/ServerCore.cpp"
const char *pzBoundStartupConfig =
"[System]\r\n"
"Pool=5\r\n"
"ProxyPool=0\r\n"
"\r\n"
"[HTTP]\r\n" // [HTTP] section
"Enable=yes\r\n"
"Index=index.html\r\n"
"Home=%s\r\n" //<-----Notice the %s
"Port=%s\r\n";
int g_isRunning = 0;
void StartHTTPServer(NSString strHome, NSString strPort)
{
if (!g_isRunning)
{
g_isRunning = 1;
SetServerCoreInfoLog( iOSInfoLog );
const char *pzHome = [strHome UTF8String];
const char *pzPort = [strPort UTF8String];
GString strCfgData;
strCfgData.Format(pzBoundStartupConfig,pzHome,pzPort);
GProfile *pGP = new GProfile((const char *)strCfgData, (int)strCfgData.Length());
SetProfile(pGP);
server_start("-- iOS Server --");
}
else
{
GString G("Server is already running");
iOSInfoLog(777, G);
}
- (IBAction)test1:(id)sender {
// create a file for the HTTP server to publish
NSArray paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *filePath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"index.html"];
NSString *str = @"<title>Hello</title>" +
@"
Hello World
";[str writeToFile:filePath atomically:TRUE encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:NULL];
// start HTTP Server on port 8080 (80 is in use by default)
// To view the web pagefrom your browser type :
// http://127.0.0.1:8080 (on the phone)
// http://192.168.1.128:8080 (on the machine host - the server will determine your actual ip and log it to the phone's display )
StartHTTPServer(documentsDirectory,@"8080");
}
For more detailed build information see the document "XMLFoundation for iOS" in the source distribution.
Android
An Android sample program was added that displays a simple GUI from Java that uses ServerCore.cpp to build an HTTP server application. You will find this documentation in the source download. https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?resid=D7EC275E76D295CF!560
Although the Android example focused on the use of ServerCore.cpp and did not make use of the XML-to-Object code - all that code is fully ported to Android. Android is where the JavaXMLFoundation should be used to process XML in a native binary that uses JNI for the object bindings so that the developer has a pure Java experience, and faster XML processing. And finally about Android, naturally if your object model is built with the Android NDK then you can fully make use of the C++ XMLFoundation and all the Object-to-XML features on Android.
If you will be working with the Android source, you will likely want to see XMLFoundation in action. I wrote to MajorGeeks.com , Slashdot.org , TechCrunch.com, Tucows.com about my work on Android during this port of the XMLFoundation: https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?resid=D7EC275E76D295CF!941
64 Bit Design 32 Bit Support
The December 21, 2012 build extended and widened the library interfaces with emphasis on the future in software design, and even style. XMLFoundation maps the data in raw XML to lists, arrays, strings, ints, and even int64's in the application layer. All of these data types have been supported for over a decade already. New interfaces in the 2012 version support mapping char(1 byte), short(2 bytes), and char buf[n bytes] to fully complete the mapping to every native C++ data type. The foundational GString is now indexed by 64 bit addressing which pushes all xml document size limitations into almost infinity. This long addressing scheme has been added in such a way that 32 bit applications will still use 64 bit addressing granting them the bounds of infinity as well. Benchmark tests confirm that XMLFoundation is the fastest approach for moving XML into the application layer. The overhead of pushing an extra 4 bytes on the call stack during tokenization is measurable but insignificant in light of all the stack operations eliminated by using a custom non SAX interface to the XML parser (Read details in the 'Faster than Fast' section). On 64 bit systems there is no performance penalty to pay at all since the registers are 64 bits wide already.
The GString is such a sexy article of engineering that it gets used to hold all types of streamed data in an application, not just XML. By design, the GString replaced ostream which the tokenizer (aka -the lexical analyzer or the XML Parser) was initially built with. By overloading the << operator it was a very simple task to port this work to a better stream class. In the times of 2012 we now deal with file sizes and offsets that require 64bit indexing on the average or above average home computer. Granted it will be many years before the average home computer allocates contiguous regions of memory that large - but high end servers do it already and they have registers that are 64 bits wide. To keep GString positioned to serve mankind in ALL situations it now uses a 64 bit index. Target the future.
A 32 bit test parsed xml containing element and attribute tags mapped to various lists, string and integers. This was executed while counting cpu cycles using the assembly code in GPerformanceProfile.cpp for these results running in a native 32 bit operating system that is not under WOW or virtualization:
Tokenizing with a 64 bit index in the new XMLFoundation 32 bit build on a 32 bit OS: (176,121) CPU cycles
Tokenizing with a 32 bit index in the old XMLFoundation 32 bit build on a 32 bit OS: (170,144) CPU cycles
By merely widening the integer index at the lowest level of the XML parser it caused the machine code produced by the C++ compiler to PUSH and POP more data onto the stack, hence it now takes more CPU cycles to process the same amount of XML. If you understand what caused the difference, then you can understand why the XMLFoundation is preferable to SAX if you want the fastest solution. Truly this is the fastest solution on earth for processing XML in 32 bit, even though it is now optimized for 64 bit. The fastest solution will be the one selected to process the largest XML data sets in the world because the decision will be made by an engineer not a politician. Those data sets will need this very large indexing scheme. Smaller data sets no longer need to worry that some freak occurrence (an exception) might (however unlikely) surpass 32 bit indexing thresholds. English words fail to express what raw numbers so emphatically and eloquently assert is the fastest way to process XML. Aside from all this raw horsepower produced through efficient algorithmic design, the application source code that uses XML is organized and simple.
XML in the Foundation
As the name suggests it provides a foundation for XML support in an application, however this is much more than just another XML parser. It applies a unique approach to handling XML that allows your application code to focus on the application rather than traversing DOM or subscribing to SAX events. The most unique feature of the XMLFoundation is the object oriented encapsulation that provides XML support in the application layer. XMLFoundation allows you to easily integrate XML with your GUI, or with your server objects, and it natively supports COM, DCOM, and CORBA objects.
XMLFoundation contains a small, fast, and portable XML tokenizer that has been refined and optimized in many large software projects. My involvement with XML pre-dates the finalization of the XML 1.0 recommendation by W3C. For years, the only XML Parser that could match XMLFoundation tokenization performance was "Xpat" by James Clark - but as you will see the unique ability to bypass DOM and SAX altogether makes XMLFoundation the fastest solution available for moving XML to and from application layer objects - and it requires far less lines of code to do it.
The performance of the stack based XML parser is at the top of its class for non-validating parsers. Parsing and tokenization is only half the task, the other half is getting the results into the member variables, lists, and objects that they need to be in to be useful in the application layer - it is in that task that XMLFoundation is in a class of its own. The performance is unparalleled because the memory buffer that contains the source XML parses directly into your custom class objects without ever being copied or temporarily stored in a DOM tree. It parses directly into your lists, objects, arrays, indexed data structures, and all native C++ data types. It even has support for common containers of element data such as MFC CStrings. It's been used in Java too. That said, speed of execution is less impressive than the speed of development and overall reduction in lines of code required to effectively use XML in your application.
XML is in the Foundation, but the foundation does much more than just XML. It is also a web services framework implemented in ServerCore.cpp. It can be extended several ways for HTTP as well as for other protocols. This allows you to to build your application on a multi-threaded server blueprint that has been used on many platforms and it has been used to build servers that are not even XML based, but needless to say it works great for building an XML based server. The services framework supports a unique design approach for both static and dynamic server extensions and examples of both - but XMLFoundation does even more than XML and Web Services.
The Solid Foundation
If you are building an application that does not use XML and never will..... XMLFoundation is still a very valuable tool available to solve many very common development tasks. The data structure classes alone ( List, Hash, Stack, Tree, Array, QSort ) are very useful. They all have "Iterator" objects so that data structures can be read-referenced by multiple threads at the same time without blocking. The interface is standard to all data structures. If you find MFC or Rogue Wave Standard C++ library data structures useful, you will likely find XMLFoundation data structures even more so.
XMLFoundation also has standard algorithm implementations ( Encryption, Compression, Data hash, Encoding ). These are based on the works of other authors. They have been included into the XMLFoundation in a simplified build format. They all compile under C++, so if you are using them on AS/400, AIX, Solaris, Linux, or other like platforms - you do not even need to reference a C compiler from the makefile, only your C++ compiler. They are also organized into single .CPP files for each implementation - often a consolidation of many individual C source files in the original authors publications.
XMLFoundation also has a plethora of application utilities including ( Sorts, Performance Timers, Disk Directory, Exceptions, INI Profiles, Caching, String, Stream ). XMLFoundation has many utilities that MFC does not. They are complete, comment documented with examples, and thoroughly tested on many software projects.
XMLFoundation is very portable. It builds on all versions of Windows (Win95 through Windows8 and Windows Mobile). Portions were initially developed on a RISC machine, and it was used in Solaris and Linux as early as 2001. Some of the compilers that have been used to build XMLFoundation include: CC5.0, Xlc, IntelC++, KAIc++, ForteC++, Visual C++, Borland C++, and eMc++. However I believe it works with any C++ compiler found here, because it does not use namespaces, iostreams, or STL - all areas that are prone to porting problems from my experience. It does have template classes but their inclusion is optional as part of the implementation rather than part of the foundation. XMLFoundation and all the sample applications have recently been built and verified on Ubuntu and Fedora. The source is distributed with VC6 makefiles so that the source can be imported into projects using every version of the Microsoft compilers from 1998 through Visual Studio 2010. Now the source includes a Visual Studio 2012 project file with 32 and 64 bit targets defined.
The build dependencies are meticulously correct. Smart linkers leave out everything you don't use, so don't expect to see code bloat as a punishment for using XMLFoundation. Other development libraries were not designed as well from a build perspective. Your application will not load any DLL's as a result of using the XMLFoundation. Xfer is another project I manage that is built on the XMLFoundation for the platform independence - the code is tight and the product(s) built on XMLFoundation reflect that.
I suppose an entire article could be written about each of the foundational classes, and I'm certain that they will be written. They are all well commented and coded with a highly experienced approach. The String class uses stack space when possible to avoid heap allocations. It's the best string implementation I've ever seen. The INI Profile class uses triggers that allows your application to pick up real-time configuration changes much like RegNotifyChangeKeyValue() in the Windows SDK. Exceptions can be configured to unwind the call stack to a memory buffer like Java's printStackTrace(). The Tree has an iterator. The Directory can delete recursively - on all platforms. The Stack is entirely inline, with standard and macro methods - It could not be any faster if it was coded directly in assembly. The StringList puts MFC's CStringList to shame, just look at the interfaces. The GHash puts Microsoft's CMapStringToPtr to shame. It is unspeakably faster. Look at the "MFCTypesFromXML" example and see for yourself.
History and Future
You cannot build a house on foundation of wet cement that has not cured yet. With cement, minimizing stress prior to curing minimizes cracking in your foundation. The same is true of software. The XMLFoundation is solid and completely cured. It would be too bold to say that the XMLFoundation has no bugs in, but it has none that I am aware of and the code has been heavily used. It is a complete foundation. Building an application on any foundation like Java 1.0 or .NET 1.0 or anything 1.0 means that if you don't get slowed down by the bugs, you will be slowed down when you find all the missing functionality. This code was first released to the public July 4, 2002 - the XMLFoundation was already very mature for it's age - it came from a good family - it's mother had already been used on the largest software project in the world. Since then I have built several complex applications on it and many others have as well. It was completely stress tested with SMP hardware during a recent Fortune 50 proof of concept implementation. XMLFoundation interfaces are well established constants, no longer a curing foundation that is still forming.
The mother of the XMLFoundation was "The XML Object Framework", born in 1998 and 1999 (it was a long labor) for a client of mine. The XMLFoundation was born the following year. The XMLFoundation sported a completely new implementation of the xml parser based on the custom GString stream class that was also born in 2000. XML Journal Magazine reviewed a product built on the early XMLFoundation object factorization and called it "5 Star / World Class" in XMLJournal Magazine Volume 2 Issue 7 (note: they did not review XMLFoundation they reviewed TransactXML). XMLFoundation was heavily developed the following two years before it became public in 2002. This project is mature and stable.
XMLFoundation absolutely IS the future in certain technology subsets. It is a gift to the world of engineering, and it comes with all the source code. Universities that want to teach algorithms, applications, or OO Design will find the XMLFoundation to be a great source code to base a curriculum on. Independent authors who want to write about cutting edge technology will find XMLFoundation a worthy subject. The future was written in the past.
The Need for Objects from XML
XML is data. “Objects from data” is not a new concept. Programmers have been doing that for years, even before they were called objects. We still need to get data into objects today. The data can be XML or a result set, and the object might be a CDialog, a CORBA Object, a COM object, or your own invention. You still need to get the same thing done. Programmers have been doing this as long as there have been programmers.
If you apply enough force you can make the cube fit into the round hole. If you apply enough force you can do anything - even police California. The brute force approach is to parse the XML into a DOM tree, and traverse the tree to gather the data required by application/object variables. This approach causes volumes of “simple” source code to move data from XML into Structured Objects, a poor approach with respect to implementation time and long term maintenance.
Alternatively, the OO approach generalizes this process into reusable functionality that enables objects to serialize to and from XML directly. OO is pronounced ohhh-ohhh - and it is short for Object Oriented (incase you didn't know) - it's poetic tech lingo - a code of it's own.
Software developers of every language have a similar need. They must either:
A.Write their own Object-XML tools,
B.Find some production quality framework ready to use or,
C.Use brute force and budget for maintenance programmers.
Best of Breed
We can mostly rule out option A because it takes a lot of time and the purpose of the project is to build product not tools. Option C is also unwise if you have any long term plans for your product or want to be able to quickly add new features. Option B leaves several paths and it wouldn't be right for me to toot my own horn and tell you that XMLFoundation is the best option available in the entire software industry to accomplish this fundamental task - so I encourage you to research this yourself and I expect that you will agree XMLFoundation is not just the best free solution, it's the best solution.
It's difficult to directly compare XMLFoundation to other solutions because the utilities in XMLFoundation, and many of the features in XMLFoundation are not found in other solutions. That said, here is a starting point for your own research:
Microsoft developed the "Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer", for C# but it only supports shallow serialization(no nested or complex objects) and it lacks many other features found in the XMLFoundation. I would wager that even the limited support it does provide is slower than XMLFoundation but I have not put the two technologies to a speed comparison.
IBM Developer Works has posted 2 or more XML Serialization libraries but they are based on an external XML Parser - so by nature of their design they must be slower.
The list goes on, and on, and on, and on of likeminded solutions.
Don't Be Square
From a procedural perspective we put data in square sets just to make programming simple. Consider this example data that is a "Customer" with a list of "Orders" where each order has a list of "LineItems". That is not a square dataset - but for the sake of the application layer we have forced it to be square for the last 4 decades.
CUSTOMER CUST_ID ORDER_ID ORDER_DATE LINEITEM_ID LINEITEM_DESC PRICE
Brian 777 1 July 4, 1777 7 Firecrackers $111
Brian 777 1 July 4, 1777 14 Ariel Shells $222
Brian 777 1 July 4, 1777 21 Party Favors $444
Brian 777 2 July 4, 2009 28 Attorney Fees $222
Brian 777 2 July 4, 2009 35 State Fines $555
The repetition in red filled the hole in to make non-square data be square. The data in red is normally a pointer reference to the last sort break at the DBMS kernel level, but various toolsets often expand it long form so that 1 instance of a "Row" object does not rely on the data in another instance. It's a terrible situation that has plagued applications for as long as I can remember. The problem is that in reality there is no such thing as a "Row" object - it was more of a temporary/tool-object to get the data into real objects like Customers, Orders and LineItems. Countless data access products in the form of VBX, OCX, ActiveX and various frameworks and libraries serve up square data sets to applications that MANUALLY code the transfer of data into their application objects with volumes of code that looked something like this:
XMLFoundation/PseudoCode.jpg
Notice all the use of Tool that represents some sort of data set tool, class or library. Building software to accomplish this task of copying data into objects without such a tool would dramatically increase the lines of code required to move the square dataset into your application objects. Knowing what tools to use can be the difference between the success or failure of an entire project. One bad tool, or one missing tool can make all the difference in the world to a software developer.
Learn to Think Outside the Box
This is the same example data from the square result set represented in XML:
You can see the objects, Customers, Orders, and LineItems.
Collapse | Copy Code
<customer id="777">
<name>Brian</name>
<order id="1">
<date>July 4, 1777</date>
<lineitem id="7">
<desc>Firecrackers</desc>
<price>111</price>
</lineitem>
<lineitem id="14">
<desc>Ariel Shells</desc>
<price>222</price>
</lineitem>
<lineitem id="21">
<desc>Party Favors</desc>
<price>444</price>
</lineitem>
</order>
<order id="2">
<date>July 4, 2009</date>
<lineitem id="72">
<desc>Attorney Fees</desc>
<price>222</price>
</lineitem>
<lineitem id="42">
<desc>State Fines</desc>
<price>555</price>
</lineitem>
</order>
</customer>
There is nothing square about XML. XML is an N-airy tree. That's why we naturally use DOM (Document Object Model) to traverse the data. For 1000's of years we thought that the world was flat. Engineers made it be square because that was easier for them to cope with and now we live in the days where it begins to take it's true shape. Unfortunately as of 2010, the opportunity of the paradigm data shape shift has not been harnessed by most programmers that grew up in the square world and are only familiar with square tools. They take the most obvious development path. If you presented the problem of sorting to someone who has no tools, they will likely build a "bubble sort" - because that is the most obvious and immediate solution.
Typically the XML is parsed into a tree structure. This means that the linear and contiguous memory buffer of source XML is copied into many fragmented pieces of memory across the heap - each element and in many cases each token gets it's own heap space. This makes the XML elements and attributes programmatically accessible with loops and recursion, just like Tool did for square datasets. The XML parser puts the Elements and Attributes into this temporary fragmented memory tree structure so that the application programmer can get at the information to copy it once more into a final structure that can be displayed on the GUI or used by the application. It is likely going to take as much or more code to get from the temporary DOM tree into the objects as it did to get from the square result set into the objects. In many cases it will require recursion that is difficult to debug - much more difficult than the old fashioned iterative code required to copy from square result sets. Below is a code sample of some common tasks:
Collapse | Copy Code
//Due to the large amount of code to change a DOM node name this article only
// includes the basic steps involved. This is what it takes to change an element
// tag name using DOM, it's much more involved using SAX.
// 1. create a new node with the desired tag name
// 2. preserve old value to copy later
// 3. move all children of current node to new node
// 4. get parent of current node and replaceChild the current node with the new node
// 5. copy old value or new value to new node
// NOTE: Attributes are handled differently!
// This is how to add a new attribute using DOM
MSXML::IXMLDOMNamedNodeMapPtr pAttrList = m_pCurNode->Getattributes();
_bstr_t bstrAttrName = (_bstr_t)(LPCTSTR)m_strName;
MSXML::IXMLDOMAttributePtr pNewAttr = m_pDOMDoc->createAttribute(bstrAttrName);
_bstr_t bstrAttrValue = (LPCTSTR)m_strValue;
pNewAttr->PutnodeValue((_variant_t)bstrAttrValue);
pAttrList->setNamedItem(pNewAttr);
// TODO: The user must first search to be sure the attribute name is unique, or your XML will be invalid!
// One of the well-formedness constraints that the XML 1.0 specification lists is that no attribute name
// may appear more than once in the same start tag or empty element tag. DOM never deals with this issue.
// XML is case sensitive, so attribute "Name" is different from attribute "name", some tools built into DOM
// sure would have been useful - good thing we have the XMLFoundation.
AddNodeToTree(pNewAttr, m_hCurItem);
New World Order
The square world is becoming part of history like the flat world. I remember back in the early 90's we tried to rid ourselves of the square world with something called "The Object Database". It was a great concept and the only reason square prevailed against it is because nobody could implement an Object Database that was fast enough. Who cares how clean the code is if the application is dysfunctional because it is too slow? This is why XMLFoundation is so performance oriented - that's what it takes to change the world. The clean code alone is not enough.
Now I'll explain how to accomplish the task of loading up your object with the information in the XML using a fully object oriented approach to data handling. Customer, Order, and LineItem are derived from XMLObject. They must implement 1 virtual method called MapMembers() that would look like this:
Collapse | Copy Code
void Customer::MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapMember(&m_OrderList, Order::GetStaticTag());
MapAttribute(&m_nCustomerID, "id");
MapMember(&m_strName, "Name");
}
void Order::MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapAttribute(&m_nOrderID, "id");
MapMember(&m_LineItemList, LineItem::GetStaticTag());
MapMember(&m_strDate, "Date"); // can also be mapped to a date/time object
}
void LineItem::MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapAttribute(&m_nLineItemID, "id");
MapMember(&m_strDesc, "Desc");
MapMember(&m_strPrice, "Price");
}
Now all the object assignment and creation code is summed up into this one line.
Collapse | Copy Code
// This assigns ALL member variables and creates sub-objects.
Customers.FromXML( pzXML )
If you had a trace statement in the constructor of the Order, you would see that it was called for every appearance of an Order in the XML.
Now suppose you wanted to manipulate some member variables then regenerate the XML: just assign your member variables normally then regenerate your XML - that's just as easy.
Collapse | Copy Code
char *pzXML = Order.ToXML()
MapXMLTagsToMembers() defines everything needed for your objects to read or write XML as a base method. Without the XMLFoundation you would have to code all that looping and mapping 2 times if you wanted both reading and writing XML. Without the XMLFoundation you will have a larger maintenance issue if any XML document structure changes because you'll have to hunt through your looping and recursion routines to find the Element name to change. XMLFoundation provides countless other niceties such as mapping any number of XML tags to the same member, and conditional inclusion of members in the output XML based on tag name or the member state such as DIRTY indicating that the member was updated and you only want ToXML() to generate a delta of the data rather than the entire set. You can specify element order or have them output alphabetically. Common needs that can all be accomplished in 1 line of code rather than pages of code.
Collapse | Copy Code
//The following code is so involved using DOM only the basic steps are described.
//This is what it takes to change an element tag name using XMLFoundation.
// This is how backward compatibility is achieved when Element tag
// names change. For example, if m_nVersion is mapped to an Element
// named "VersionNumber" but you want all future protocols to refer to this
// Element as to "ProtocolVersion". This is achieved by the following code:
// This allows either "VersionNumber" or "ProtocolVersion" to set the value of
// m_nVersion, but always refers to it as "ProtocolVersion" while serializing XML.
MapMember(&m_nVersion,"VersionNumber");
MapMember(&m_nVersion,"ProtocolVersion");
SetMemberSerialize("VersionNumber", false );
// This is how to add a new attribute using XMLFoundation
// if nUpdate=1 the attribute list will be searched and updated if there is an existing
// attribute called [pzName]if not found or if nUpdate=0 the new attribute will be added.
void AddAttribute( const char * pzName, const char * pzValue, int nUpdate=0 );
It's fun to compare the differences between DOM and XMFoundation, but much of the functionality in the XMLFoundation cannot be compared to anything in DOM. For example, the XMLFoundation maintains a bit flag field for each member that it manages. These are the values that can be managed:
Collapse | Copy Code
// The value does not sync with the original value set by the Object Factory
define DATA_DIRTY 0x01
// The member has been set by either the Object or the Object Factory.
define DATA_NOT_NULL 0x02
// The member has been assigned a value from the Object Factory
define DATA_CACHED 0x04
// The member has never been assigned a value, it is uninitialized
define DATA_NULL 0x08
// The member should be included in the xml serialization stream
define DATA_SERIALIZE 0x10
The following interface uses some of the member state flags:
Collapse | Copy Code
// When objects are populated from the XML stream, they have a state of
// Not dirty and Not null. When the members are assigned by the derived
// class through SetMember() or SetMemberByTag() the state becomes dirty.
// When using the SetMember() or SetMemberByTag() there is no need to
// setMemberDirty(), but if the derived class does direct assignments
// to members that should be serialized, setMemberDirty() should be called.
// if you ever want to serialize or track the state change only.
// Setting bDirty to 0 will clear the dirty flag for a member variable.
bool setMemberDirty(void pAddressOfMemberToSet, int bDirty = 1);
bool setMemberDirty(char pzTagNameOfMemberToSet, int bDirty = 1);
// true if the memory state does not sync with the
// original value set by the Object Factory
bool isMemberDirty(void pAddressOfMemberToCheck);
bool isMemberDirty(char pzTagNameOfMemberToCheck);
// true if the member has never been assigned a value, it is uninitialized
bool isMemberNull(void pAddressOfMemberToCheck);
bool isMemberNull(char pzTagNameOfMemberToCheck);
// true if the member has been assigned a value from the Object Factory
bool isMemberCached(void pAddressOfMemberToCheck);
bool isMemberCached(char pzTagNameOfMemberToCheck);
XMLFoundation also has many options available during the creation of the XML. DOM has nothing that compares.
Collapse | Copy Code
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// serialization flags for ToXML()
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Otherwise XML tags appear in the order they were mapped
define ORDER_MEMBERS_ALPHABETICALLY 0x01
// deeply recurse without including dirty members
define RECURSE_OBJECTS_DEEP 0x02
// includes any member with a state of DATA_CACHED
define INCLUDE_ALL_CACHED_MEMBERS 0x04
// normally empty strings serialize as <string> rather than <string><string></string></string></string>
define EXCLUDE_SHORT_TERMINATION 0x08
// Do not serialize any data from MapAttribute() members
define EXCLUDE_MAPPED_ATTRIBUTES 0x10
// Do not serialize attributes that came in via XML but were unmapped with MapAttribute()
define EXCLUDE_UNMAPPED_ATTRIBUTES 0x20
// Adds the DOCTYPE to the beginning of the XML
define INCLUDE_DOCTYPE_DECLARATION 0x40
// includes any member regardless of it's state
define FULL_SERIALIZE 0x80
// include OID's only
define USE_OBJECT_MARKERS 0x100
// more compact, faster, less human readable, The XML will have no Tabs, Carriage returns or Linefeeds
define NO_WHITESPACE 0x200
// do not include empty strings in XML - mapped to GString or CString
define NO_EMPTY_STRINGS 0x400
It also has a SAX like (but faster and far simpler) way to subscribe to notifications.
Collapse | Copy Code
// When a tag is encounterted that does not have a MapMember() entry
// associated with it, this handler is called for the developer
// to supply an "on-the-fly" MemberDescriptor during the Factory process.
// This is useful for dynamic objects.
virtual MemberDescriptor HandleUnmappedMember( const char pzTag );
// Generic Event Handler for custom object behavior. Abstract to reduce virtual method table
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// nCase = "XMLAssign", (member tag, XML value, value len, null)
// when the FromXML() contains a value for a member set dirty by setMemberDirty()
// see MemberDescriptor::Set() in MemberDescriptor.cpp for details.
// nCase = "NonNumeric" (member tag, XML value, value len, null)
// when non-numeric XML data is mapped to an numeric only type.
// nCase = "EmptyString"(member tag, XML value, value len, null)
// when an empty("") value is assigned to a string, empty often differs from 'unknown' or 'unassigned'
// nCase = "ObjectUpdate" when OBJECT_UPDATE_NOTIFY is a set behavior flag. (oid, null, flags, pObjSrc)
// nCase = "MemberUpdate" when MEMBER_UPDATE_NOTIFY is a set behavior flag. (tag, value, valuelen, null)
virtual void ObjectMessage( int nCase, char pzArg1, char pzArg2, unsigned int nArg3, void pArg4)
Faster than Fast
The approach used by XMLFoundation is faster than SAX. Since the object factory and the XML tokenizer were built for each other they did some unusual tricks for each other. The tokenizer uses a unique approach to begin with. It's purely pointer based. Tokens are structures that point into the source XML, except for entities that get expanded into a special memory region. Tokens do not hold copies of any data. During object factorization it becomes necessary to have the token data in a null terminated string format. The big performance boosting hack is that to obtain null terminated strings, the tokenizer actually plunks a null down over the first byte past the end of the token data. It keeps track of the data it clobbers and restores it before parsing out the next token. There are no event calls that needlessly push data on the stack just to immediately pop it back off. Performance profilers showed that call stack pushes and pops were the single largest consumer of CPU cycles in the tokenization process. XMLFoundation eliminates them by "pulling" the data through a call to [void getToken(token *tok)], rather than the SAX approach that gets the data "pushed" into the application events with between 2 and 7 arguments depending on the token type. SAX would be the fastest approach if the XMLFoundation did not exist. The XMLFoundation is the only XML parser that uses this approach. It is non-standard, and not in compliance with W3C interfaces to an XML Parser - For our uses, It's better than any W3C standard.
I realize that the vast majority of people who use XMLFoundation would never care about these grungy technical details. To say that it is very fast is enough for most people, but I am also writing to the people at the Apache Foundation, and Microsoft, and IBM, W3C, and the many other people who have built their own XML Parser implementations. Fast is an understatement. Performance is a prevailing design pattern found throughout the XMLFoundation. For example the XMLObject class is carefully designed to add minimal CPU cycles during construction because it is to the XMLFoundation what CObject is to MFC. It has been carefully designed to add minimal entries to the virtual method table. In many cases virtual calls were consolidated for that purpose.
Object Factorization
The Object Factory is the part of the XMLFoundation that instantiates objects for you based on certain element tags in the source XML. It is based on the same principle as DECLARE_DYNCREATE() that allows MFC to instantiate CView derived classes for you. In the XMLFoundation it is called DECLARE_FACTORY(). The XMLFoundation uses this macro to instantiate COM and CORBA objects as well.
Every object that derives from XMLObject must have 1 macro in the class definition, the DECLARE macro, normally in your .h source file. It must also have one macro at global space, often in the .cpp file matching the .h file - or you may choose to consolidate all of your IMPLEMENT macros in a single .cpp file. These macro's supply the XML tag and 'this' object's name, aka the class name. Terminology Note: Within the XMLFoundation the term 'tag' is 'Element Name' and sometimes 'Attribute Name'.
These macros write a method that return new instances of 'this' object type. The address of this global static function is stored in a structure keyed by tag name. As the tags are encountered - during the xml parsing - objects are created to contain the data that they expect to follow.
If a tag is mapped to an object in a list or tree structure, then every time that tag is encountered at the level it is mapped it will create a new instance for you and put it in the data structure (list, tree, etc.) you specified with all its member variables already assigned from the source XML as you have them mapped.
Member Mapping
XMLFoundation has support for mapping to all native C++ data types. It also has support for mapping into data container objects. It has specific support for RWCString, CString, and GString, and it's very easy to add support for others by deriving from the class "StringAbstraction" and supplying the pure virtual methods that will enable any kind of data container class to interoperate with the Object Factory for automatic member assignments. These are the MemberMap methods in XMLObject:
Collapse | Copy Code
// Map a bool, char, short, int ,long int, or very long int
// nBoolReadability = 0=Yes/No 1=True/False 2=On/Off 3=1/0
void MapMember(bool pValue,const char pTag, int nBoolReadability = 1);
void MapMember(char pValue,const char pTag);
void MapMember(short pValue,const char pTag, const char pzTranslationMapIn = 0, ...
void MapMember(int pValue,const char pTag, const char pzTranslationMapIn = 0, ...
void MapMember(long pValue,const char pTag, const char pzTranslationMapIn = 0, ...
void MapMember(__int64 pValue, const char pTag, const char pzTranslationMapIn = 0 ...
void MapMember(double pValue, const char pTag);
// map to a char[n] array - a char string but not in a string class like GString or CString
void MapMember(char pValue,const char pTag,int nMaxLen, const char pzTranslationMapIn = 0, ...
// Map a string, see StringAbstraction.h for interface and samples
void MapMember(GString pValue,const char pTag, const char pzTranslationMapIn = 0, ...
void MapMember(void pValue,const char pTag,StringAbstraction pHandler, ... );
// Map an object into a hash table, binary tree, or QSort array
// Note: You must Map an OID to use these.
void MapMember(GHash pDataStructure,const char pzObjectName,const char pNestedInTag = 0);
void MapMember(GBTree pDataStructure,const char pzObjectName,const char pNestedInTag = 0);
void MapMember(GQSortArray pDataStructure,const char pzObjectName,const char pNestedInTag = 0);
void MapMember(void pDataStructure,KeyedDataStructureAbstraction pHandler, char pzObjectName, ...
// Map a collection of Strings
void MapMember(GStringList pStringCollection,const char pzElementName,const char pNestedInTag=0, ...
void MapMember(void pStringCollection, char pzElementName,StringCollectionAbstraction pHandler,...
// Map a dynamically growing Integer array
void MapMember(GArray pIntegerArray, const char pzElementName,const char pNestedInTag = 0, ...
void MapMember (void pIntegerArray, const char pzElementName,IntegerArrayAbstraction *pHandler, ...
// Map a collection of Objects in a List
void MapMember(void pList, char pObjectTag,ListAbstraction pHandler,const char pNestedInTag=0, ...
void MapMember(GList pList,char pObjectTag,const char pNestedInTag = 0,ObjectFactory pFactory=0);
// Map a sub-object using a tag other than defined in the DECLARE_Factory
void MapMember(XMLObject pObj, const char pDefaultTagOverride = 0,const char pzWrapper = 0 );
// Map a sub-object pointer to an object residing in the ObjectCache
void MapMember(XMLObject pObj,const char pzTag,const char pNestedInTag= 0,ObjectFactory pFactory=0);
Inheritance of Mapping
The following code can be found in the example programs. Inheritance of XML maps works intuitively and enables you to organize and manage your code efficiently.
Collapse | Copy Code
class CMatter : public XMLObject
{
public:
GString m_strWeight;
virtual void MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapMember(&m_strWeight, "Weight");
}
DECLARE_FACTORY(CMatter, Matter)
CMatter(){}
~CMatter(){};
};
IMPLEMENT_FACTORY(CMatter, Matter)
Collapse | Copy Code
class CLife : public CMatter
{
public:
GString m_strDNA;
virtual void MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapMember( &m_strDNA, "DNA");
CMatter::MapXMLTagsToMembers();
}
DECLARE_FACTORY(CLife, Life)
CLife(){ }
~CLife(){};
};
IMPLEMENT_FACTORY(CLife, Life)
Collapse | Copy Code
class CHuman : public CLife
{
public:
GString m_strFingerPrint;
GString m_strGender;
virtual void MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapMember(&m_strFingerPrint,"FingerPrint");
MapMember(&m_strGender,"Gender");
CLife::MapXMLTagsToMembers();
}
DECLARE_FACTORY(CHuman, Human)
CHuman(){}
~CHuman(){};
};
IMPLEMENT_FACTORY(CHuman, Human)
Collapse | Copy Code
char pzXML3[] =
"<human>"
"<gender>Male</gender>"
"<dna>1101010001010101101011000010101010</dna>"
"<fingerprint>Unique</fingerprint>"
"<weight>777</weight>"
"</human>";
void Main()
{
CHuman O;
O.FromXMLX(pzXML3);
GString strDebug;
strDebug << "\n\n\nGender:" << O.m_strGender << " FingerPrint:"
<< O.m_strFingerPrint << "\n" << "DNA:" << O.m_strDNA
<< " Weight:" << O.m_strWeight << "\n\n";
printf(strDebug);
//////////////////////
// Gender:Male FingerPrint:Unique
// DNA:1101010001010101101011000010101010 Weight:777
//////////////////////
printf(O.ToXML());
//////////////////////
//<human>
// <fingerprint>Unique</fingerprint>
// <gender>Male</gender>
// <dna>1101010001010101101011000010101010</dna>
// <weight>777</weight>
//</human>
//////////////////////
CLife life;
//Notice that CLife is being created with pzXML3,
//that is the same xml that the CHuman was created with.
life.FromXML(pzXML3);// Gender and FingerPrint are now unmapped data
strDebug.Empty();
strDebug << "\n\nDNA:" << life.m_strDNA << " "
<< "Weight:" << life.m_strWeight << "\n\n";
printf(strDebug);
//////////////////////
// DNA:1101010001010101101011000010101010 Weight:777
//////////////////////
printf(life.ToXML());
//////////////////////
//<life>
// <dna>1101010001010101101011000010101010</dna>
// <weight>777</weight>
//</life>
//////////////////////
So- for example, you may create an object CPlant that like the CHuman is derived from CLife. A CPlant would contain the elements of CLife (DNA) and of CMatter (Weight) by inheritance.
If each XML message represents a transaction it is wise to map the commonalities of all transactions, or groups of transactions into a base class that allows derivatives to inherit the base elements of the transaction that will only be maintained in one place.
Object Model Navigation
By using the XMLFoundation you inherit some powerful navigation features that can be used to help you debug your application with the Dump() member. Because the factory manages all the object relationships, a new kind of object navigation arises: objects know their creators so an "Order" can know at runtime if it resides inside a list in a "Customer", or some other kind of object, or if it is not contained by another object at all. This is what a full Dump() output looks like:
Collapse | Copy Code
Object Dump My comments
Object Instance name: MyOrder Dump of Order Object
{
string OID =
string UpdateTime =
References = 1
--------------------------------
Type :string
Tag :OrderDate
Value :1776-07-04 The Order Date is July 4 1776
State :(Clean | Valid | Cached)
Kind :Element
--------------------------------
Type :string
Tag :ShippedDate
Value :2010-07-04 The Ship Date is July 4 2010
State :(Clean | Valid | Cached)
Kind :Element
--------------------------------
Type :List<xmlobject *="">
Tag :LineItem contains a list of 3 LineItem objects</xmlobject>
Contains:3 items
Object Instance name: MyOrderLineItem
{
string OID = 1121.0000 The 1st begins here
string UpdateTime =
References = 26
--------------------------------
Type :string
Tag :Description
Value : Description is empty
State :(Clean | Null | Uncached) here we can see that it was never
assigned, it was not set to ""
Kind :Element
--------------------------------
Type :int
Tag :ProductID
Value :11 ProductID is 11
State :(Clean | Valid | Cached)
Kind :Element
--------------------------------
Type :string
Tag :UnitPrice
Value :21.0000 Unit Price is 21.0000
State :(Clean | Valid | Cached)
Kind :Element
}
Object Instance name: MyOrderLineItem <--- here begins the 2nd of 3 line items
{
string OID = 332.5000
string UpdateTime =
References = 21
--------------------------------
Type :string
Tag :Description
Value :
State :(Clean | Null | Uncached)
Kind :Element
--------------------------------
Type :int
Tag :ProductID
Value :33
State :(Clean | Valid | Cached)
Kind :Element
--------------------------------
Type :string
Tag :UnitPrice
Value :2.5000
State :(Clean | Valid | Cached)
Kind :Element
}
Object Instance name: MyOrderLineItem
{
string OID = 7234.8000
string UpdateTime =
References = 23
--------------------------------
Type :string
Tag :Description
Value :
State :(Clean | Null | Uncached)
Kind :Element
--------------------------------
Type :int
Tag :ProductID
Value :72
State :(Clean | Valid | Cached)
Kind :Element
--------------------------------
Type :string
Tag :UnitPrice
Value :34.8000
State :(Clean | Valid | Cached)
Kind :Element
}
}
GUI Objects
This is an example of what is involved to get XML to the GUI. The XML is somewhat complex to show how simple the code will be. The XML is a "Customer" with a list of "Orders" where each order has a list of "LineItems". This is the XML:
Collapse | Copy Code
<customer>
<contactname>New Dude</contactname>
<city>Antioch</city>
<country>All of them</country>
<order>
<shippeddate>1997-09-02</shippeddate>
<orderdate>1997-08-25</orderdate>
<lineitem>
<unitprice>45.6000</unitprice>
<productid>28</productid>
<description>
</description></lineitem>
<lineitem>
<unitprice>18.0000</unitprice>
<productid>39</productid>
<description>
</description></lineitem>
</order>
<order>
<shippeddate>Futuristic</shippeddate>
<orderdate>Tomorrow</orderdate>
<lineitem>
<unitprice>1234567.77</unitprice>
<productid>1234567</productid>
<description>
</description></lineitem>
</order>
</customer>
Notice that the XML foundation will parse directly in to the CStrings that are already DDX bound to MFC's UpdateData(). This is accomplished through Multiple Inheritance. Our Dialog class derives from both MFC's CDialog, and XMLFoundation's XMLObject.
The sample application reads XML and displays it in the GUI where it can be changed by the user, then saved back out to XML that reflects the users changes.
The complete code for this example is in "XMLDialog", but for the purpose of understanding what it takes to integrate XMLFoundation with an MFC Dialog this shows you ALL the code of interest.
Collapse | Copy Code
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Begin XMLDialog.h
include "xmlObject.h"
include "GList.h"
class CXMLDialogDlg : public CDialog, public XMLObject
{
//This is XMLFoundation releated code
GList m_lstOrders;
virtual void MapXMLTagsToMembers();
virtual void ObjectMessage( int nCase, char pzArg1, char pzArg2,
unsigned int nArg3 = 0, void pArg4 = 0 );
DECLARE_FACTORY(CXMLDialogDlg, Customer);
//This is code created by App Wizard
//{{AFX_DATA(CXMLDialogDlg)
CString m_strCity;
CString m_strCountry;
CString m_strName;
CString m_strRichEditXML;
//}}AFX_DATA
}
// End XMLDialog.h
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Begin XMLDialog.cpp
IMPLEMENT_FACTORY(CXMLDialogDlg, Customer)
void CXMLDialogDlg::MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapMember(&m_strName, "ContactName", &gC);
MapMember(&m_strCity, "City", &gC);
MapMember(&m_strCountry, "Country", &gC);
MapMember(&m_lstOrders, MyOrder::GetStaticTag(), &gGListHandler, 0 );
}
void CXMLDialogDlg::OnBtnMakeXML()
{
UpdateData(TRUE); // pickup the changes from the GUI into the member variables
m_strRichEditXML = ToXML(); // create the new XML
UpdateData(FALSE); // display the new XML in the edit box
}
void CXMLDialogDlg::OnBtnLoadGUI()
{
FromXML(m_strRichEditXML); // parse the XML into 'this'
UpdateData(FALSE);// update everything on the GUI that AppWizard has a DDX map for
// note:UpdateData() does not push the list of 'Orders'[m_lstOrders] into the
// ListCtrl. The simplest way is to iterate [m_lstOrders] that contains the
// 'Orders' after the call to FromXML() is complete.
// This shows you the complex, SAXish like, way that will add 'Order' objects
// to the GUI as they are added to [m_lstOrders] by the Object Factory during
// the call to FromXML(). This requires adding some code to this's constructor:
// ModifyObjectBehavior(SUBOBJECT_UPDATE_NOTIFY);
// This causes the XMLFoundation to call ObjectMessage(), as each "Order" gets
// it's data from the XML. This Actually adds data to the GUI DURING THE
// PARSING PROCESS, as opposed to the 'simplest' way that will add the data
// into the CListCtrl AFTER the parsing process.
}
// The Order object is yellow, the complexity is CListCtrl, not the XMLFoundation.
void CXMLDialogDlg::ObjectMessage( int nCase, char pzArg1, char pzArg2, int nArg3, void pArg4 )
{
if(nCase == MSG_SUBOBJECT_UPDATE)
{
MyOrder pO = (MyOrder )pArg4;
int nItemIndex = m_List.InsertItem(LVIF_TEXT|LVIF_PARAM, 0, pO->m_strOrderDate,
0, 0, 0, (long)pO);
m_List.SetItemText(nItemIndex, 1, pO->m_strShippedDate);
// uncomment this to see that we can generate XML subsets very easily
//AfxMessageBox( pO->ToXML() ); // call base class method
}
return 0;
}
CORBA Objects
The XMLFoundation was designed and built for CORBA before it ever added any support for MFC. If you have a pre-existing CORBA system that needs some XML tools you have come to the right place. If you are building a new CORBA system - this is best tool available for XML support.
If you have read this document all the way to this point then you will likely understand how the XMLFoundation works for CORBA by showing you this tiny piece of code:
Collapse | Copy Code
class CustomerImpl : public virtual CustomerBOAImpl, public virtual XMLObject
along with the IMPLEMENT_ORB_FACTORY() macro defined in XMLObject.h, this is how CORBA can natively support the FromXML() and ToXML() by using the XMLFoundation. The Object Factory can instantiate your interface objects for you based on the XML.
CORBA implementations can be done in Java or C++. The XMLFoundation supports both. CORBA breaks down the language barrier allowing Java applications to easily, and natively deal with C++ objects. This example details the creation of C++ CORBA objects - The Java implementation is nearly identical further blurring the lines between Java/C++ within the same project.
The C++ CORBA implementation will bridge into J2EE Application servers everywhere, it will work for any ORB but a few of the most popular ones have been tested, and the makefiles are included with the CORBA sample that ships with the XMLFoundation. The three makefiles included are for:
•Borland/Enterprise Studio - Visibroker
•IONA/iPortal Enterprise - Orbix
•BEA/Weblogic Enterprise - ObjectBroker (works great with Tuxedo implementations)
This example extends the ORB to provide native XML accessors. The sample CORBA application is based around 1 very simple object type. It has a unique integer we call a CustomerID and a string we call a CustomerName. Each customer may contain 0 to n references to another object of the same type as itself, a MyCORBAObject. This would model something like a list of Customers that were referred by 'this' customer.
The IDL Looks Like This
Collapse | Copy Code
module ExCORBA
{
interface MyCORBAObject
{
void getXMLState(out string s);
void setXMLState(in string s);
void setState(in string s, in long l);
void addSubObject(in string s, in long l);
void delSubObjects();
MyCORBAObject getSubObjectIOR(in long l);
void dumpState(out string s);
};
};
Follow this 12 Step Program
This is a very simple application. The client application makes 12 calls to the server. Every even numbered call is exactly the same - it is a call to getXMLState() to see what's going on in the server. The client obtains an initial IOR from a server serialized IOR upon server startup.
1.Assign some state in a native CORBA call. This is a typical CORBA data assignment operation. Two values are set in the object. The client assigns two members on the server. The code looks like this on the client:
Collapse | Copy Code
CustObject1->setState("Root",777);
2.View the state of the object in XML. This uses the XML accessor to return the state of the object. The code looks like this on the client:
Collapse | Copy Code
CORBA::String_var s;
CustObject1->getXMLState(s);
and looks like this on the server:
Collapse | Copy Code
void ExCORBAImpl::getXMLState( CORBA::String_out s)
{
const char *p = ToXML();
s = CORBA::string_dup(p);
}
and the result XML is this:
Collapse | Copy Code
<mycorbaimpl>
<customerid>777</customerid>
<customername>Root</customername>
</mycorbaimpl>
The tag names are configured by the ExCORBAImpl object like this:
Collapse | Copy Code
void ExCORBAImpl::MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapMember(&_nCustID, "CustomerID");
MapMember(&_strCustName, "CustomerName",&gGenericStrHandler);
MapMember(&m_lstCMyImplObjs, "MyCORBAImpl",&gGListHandler,0);
}
3.Update the state of the object through XML. Step 1 used a typical object accessor to assign the state. Step 3 accomplishes the same through XML. The code on the client looks like this:
Collapse | Copy Code
CustObject1->setXMLState("<mycorbaimpl><customername>SuperUser</customername>
</mycorbaimpl>");
On the server the code looks like this:
Collapse | Copy Code
void ExCORBAImpl::setXMLState( const char* pzXML )
{
FromXML( pzXML );
}
4.View the modified object state in XML. This is the exact same code (client and server) as Step 2. We're calling getXMLState() again, and the result is:
Collapse | Copy Code
<mycorbaimpl>
<customerid>777</customerid>
<customername>SuperUser</customername>
</mycorbaimpl>
5.Add CORBA Sub-Objects through XML. Step 5 is a lot like step 3 where we updated the name "root" to "SuperUser" through an XML assignment. This time we'll add an object reference. The client code looks like this:
Collapse | Copy Code
CustObject1->setXMLState(
"<mycorbaimpl>"
"<mycorbaimpl>"
"<customerid>123</customerid>"
"<customername>Al Gore</customername>"
"</mycorbaimpl>"
"<mycorbaimpl>"
"<customerid>456</customerid>"
"<customername>George Bush Jr.</customername>"
"</mycorbaimpl>"
"</mycorbaimpl>");
and this is the code on the server:
Collapse | Copy Code
void ExCORBAImpl::setXMLState( const char* pzXML )
{
FromXML( pzXML );
}
6.(Exactly like steps 2 and 4) - View the object's XML state.
Collapse | Copy Code
<mycorbaimpl>
<customerid>777</customerid>
<customername>SuperUser</customername>
<mycorbaimpl></mycorbaimpl></mycorbaimpl>
<customerid>123</customerid>
<customername>Al Gore</customername>
<mycorbaimpl></mycorbaimpl>
<customerid>456</customerid>
<customername>George Bush Jr.</customername>
7.Get a CORBA object reference for object instance 456. On the client the code looks like this:
Collapse | Copy Code
ExCORBA::MyCORBAObject_var CustObject2;
CustObject2 = CustObject1->getSubObjectIOR(456);
and on the server we walk the list of objects and return the first one that matches the supplied CustomerID like this:
Collapse | Copy Code
ExCORBA::MyCORBAObject_ptr ExCORBAImpl::getSubObjectIOR(CORBA::Long CustomerID)
{
// create an iterator[it] for the [m_lstCMyImplObjs] list
GListIterator it(&m_lstCMyImplObjs);
while(it()) // while there is more in the list
{
XMLObject pO = (XMLObject )it++; // get the next Customer Interface
ExCORBAImplpIO = (ExCORBAImpl)pO->GetInterfaceObject(); // widen the pointer
// test for a match - Use a keyed datastructure in the real world
if (pIO->GetCustomerID() == CustomerID)
{
// Return the CORBA Interface to the desired object
return pIO->_this();
break;
}
}
return 0;
}
8.Exactly like steps (2, 4, and 6) EXCEPT we are using the Object ref returned by step 7.
Collapse | Copy Code
<mycorbaimpl>
<customerid>456</customerid>
<customername>GeorgeBush Jr.</customername>
</mycorbaimpl>
9.Add a Sub-Object without using XML. In the same way we used a traditional member assignment in step 1, we can create a new object reference to demonstrate the two models seamlessly working together. On the client:
Collapse | Copy Code
CustObject1->addSubObject("Michelangelo",1475);
and on the server the code looks like this:
Collapse | Copy Code
void ExCORBAImpl::addSubObject( const char s, CORBA::Long l )
{
ExCORBAImpl p = new ExCORBAImpl;
p->_nCustID = l;
p->_strCustName = s;
m_lstCMyImplObjs.AddLast((XMLObject *)p);
}
10. Get an object reference to the object created in step 9 and display it's state in XML. This is the client code:
Collapse | Copy Code
CustObject2 = CustObject1->getSubObjectIOR(1475); // exactly like step 7
CustObject2->getXMLState(s); // like steps (2, 4, 6, and 8) using the new reference.
and the result is:
Collapse | Copy Code
<mycorbaimpl>
<customerid>1475</customerid>
<customername>Michelangelo</customername>
</mycorbaimpl>
11.Deleting Sub objects. All objects, no matter how they were created, are destroyed the same. The list contains both Factory created objects and Objects created the traditional way. Once again this shows how seamlessly the ORB fits together with the XMLFoundations's Object Factory. This the CORBA Implementation/Interface and XMLObject are all one in the same. This cleans up the whole mess.
Collapse | Copy Code
CustObject1->delSubObjects();
on the server:
Collapse | Copy Code
void ExCORBAImpl::delSubObjects() IT_THROW_DECL((CORBA::SystemException))
{
GListIterator it(&m_lstCMyImplObjs);
while(it())
{
XMLObject pO = (XMLObject )it++;
pO->DecRef();
}
m_lstCMyImplObjs.RemoveAll();
}
12.To see that step 11 worked, view the XML state like we did in 2,4,6,8, & 10. Now all the contained objects are gone, and "SuperUser" is alone.
Collapse | Copy Code
<mycorbaimpl>
<customerid>777</customerid>
<customername>SuperUser</customername>
</mycorbaimpl>
COM Objects
Create a basic ATL COM project with Visual Studio.
Visual Studio will write your IDL, and implementation header files. The following code sample is the standard implementation header file with the addition of deriving from public XMLObject, the DECLARE_FACTORY macro, and MapXMLTagsToMembers.
// IAddress Interface
Collapse | Copy Code
class ATL_NO_VTABLE CAddress :
public CComObjectRootEx<comsinglethreadmodel>,
public CComCoClass<caddress, &clsid_address="">,
public IDispatchImpl<iaddress>, &IID_IAddress, &LIBID_ATLExample2012Lib, /wMajor =/ 1, 0>,
public XMLObject
{
void MapXMLTagsToMembers(){};
public:
DECLARE_FACTORY(CAddress, Address)</iaddress></caddress,></comsinglethreadmodel>
Collapse | Copy Code
In your implementation file you'll need to add the macro at a global scope and implement
MapXMLTagsToMembers() to define the Object to XML mappings. This example maps an integer,
a string, and a list of COM objects.
void CMyATLObj::MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapObjectID("CustomerID",1);
MapMember(&m_nInteger, "CustomerID");
MapMember(&m_strString, "CustomerName", &gGenericStrHandler);
MapMember(&m_lstCMyATLObj, CMyATLObj::GetStaticTag(),&gGListHandler,0);
}
The ExATLCOM sample application builds under VC6 and the ATLExample2012 builds under newer versions of Visual Studio. They both implement COM in a way that makes it NATIVE. You will see the additional methods that have been added to the COM Object. Most notably put_XMLState() that has the ability to assign members variables and create COM objects when supplied well-formed XML as input.
Collapse | Copy Code
STDMETHODIMP CMyATLObj::put_XMLState(BSTR newVal)
{
_bstr_t b(newVal);
FromXML((const char *)b);
return S_OK;
}
Object Caching and Instance Management
XMLFoundation has been serving up the XML related needs of the application layer for nearly a decade. It has been used to build a wide variety of application types. A common recurring need in the application layer has to do with "data updates". Any application that receives XML updates might consider the performance advantages and reduction in development labor by using the XMLFoundation to solve the problem for them. For example, suppose you had some large dump of XML data. In your application layer you need to quickly access individual pieces of that information. In just a few lines of code, the XML can be mapped to a keyed data structure for fast indexed reads by your application. If the initial XML dataset was 100+million records - you will want to provide updates to your indexed information rather than rebuilding the entire index. You could write the code to search for the data to update, or allow the XMLFoundation to manage it for you. Another common example in distributed systems: Data is often cached at a middle tier or in the application itself. Efficiently designed systems only update an "Address" rather than a whole "Customer" and all his "Orders" when an "Address" changes. XMLFoundation can greatly simplify this task. At the core of caching is something XMLFoundation calls the OID, or Object ID. It is a unique key to the object, and any object that participates in XMLFoundation caching must have one. The definition of the OID can come from 2 places. It can be defined in the XML data, or it can be defined by the object that mapped the data. This is how a "'MyOrderLineItem" object might define the OID. It uses a combination of the "ProductID" and "UnitPrice" so in this example a price change constitutes a different object. Normally an OID has a direct correlation to DBMS indexes in properly normalized data. ObjectID's can be made to work well over poor data models too. This example code uses two XML Elements ("ProductID" and "UnitPrice") to build the unique object ID. MapObjectID() also allows you to use Attributes to define the OID.
Collapse | Copy Code
void MyOrderLineItem::MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapObjectID("ProductID",1,"UnitPrice",1);
}
Alternatively the OID can be directly defined by the data itself with a special attribute named "OID" - so that NO CODE needs to be written.
Collapse | Copy Code
<myorderlineitem oid="777">
<productid>123</productid>
<unitprice>7.77</unitprice>
</myorderlineitem>
The sample application "ObjectCache" provides over 30 test cases that detail the usage of object caching.
Parsed and Unparsed Object Data
For the most part - objects contain members. Members are mapped to attributes and elements in the XML. For the most part - that is how most XML documents are arranged but as you will see here there are yet still two other forms of markup for getting untagged data into the object. As a prerequisite to reading the following paragraph you must know a little bit about what the XML specification refers to as CDATA, so go plug that into your favorite search engine if you are not familiar with unparsed data then when you pop your stack of things to do you will find yourself ready to continue reading this:
Collapse | Copy Code
<thing color="Red White and Blue">
x]]>-Object Data-=
<string>Capitol Capital G</string>
<number>777</number>
<wrapper>
<stringlist>one</stringlist>
<stringlist>two</stringlist>
</wrapper>=-More Object Data-
</thing>
The class declaration below has Maps for all of the elements and attributes in the XML above. It makes no provisions for Object Data - Parsed or Unparsed.
Collapse | Copy Code
class MyCustomObject : public XMLObject
{
public:
GString m_strString; // A String Member
GString m_strColor; // An attribute , not an element
int m_nInteger; // An Integer Member
GStringList m_strList; // A String List
virtual void MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapMember( &m_strList, "StringList", "Wrapper");
MapMember( &m_nInteger, "Number");
MapMember( &m_strString, "String");
MapAttribute(&m_strColor, "Color");
}
DECLARE_FACTORY(MyCustomObject, Thing)
MyCustomObject(){}
~MyCustomObject(){};
};
IMPLEMENT_FACTORY(MyCustomObject, Thing)
This is how your code will obtain this "unmapped" object data.
Collapse | Copy Code
void ObjectDataAndCDataExample()
{
MyCustomObject O;
O.FromXMLX(pzXML);
GString *pG = O.GetCDataStorage();
printf(*pG); // prints out "<data>x</data>"
printf("\n\n");
// Notice that the memory address of the (unparsed)CDATA start is 43 bytes past &pzXML[0]
// This CDATA buffer will always be in the original memory, not a copy of that buffer.
// This unparsed data from the XML is handed directly to the application layer.
int nOffsetFromStartofXML = pG->Buf() - pzXML; // nOffsetFromStartofXML is 43
pG = O.GetObjectDataStorage();
// you can see by this offset that we are in a different memory region now
// (because the fragmented Object data is now contigous)
nOffsetFromStartofXML = pG->Buf() - pzXML; // nOffsetFromStartofXML is way out there.
printf(*pG); // prints out "-Object Data-==-More Object Data-"
printf("\n\n");
// notice that the 'normal' data mapped to String, StringList, and Int
// are in the members and data structures where they have been mapped to.
// Notice how the Object Data is rearranged in the output to a lexically equal notation.
// Also notice that no whitespace (carriage returns or tabs) can be used to beautify ugly Object Data
// or it would alter the data, unlike the whitespace added between XML element tags to beautify them.
// If Object Data has a Carriage Return in it, that is part of the data.
printf(O.ToXML());
printf("\n\n");
/*
<thing color="Red White and Blue">
x]]>-Object Data-==-More Object Data-
<wrapper>
<stringlist>one</stringlist>
<stringlist>two</stringlist>
</wrapper>
<number>777</number>
<string>Words</string>
</thing>
*/
// ------------------------------
// now inversely, from a fresh object O2, make the xml
MyCustomObject O2;
O2.m_nInteger = 777;
O2.m_strString = "G.G.G.Guru";
O2.m_strColor = "Gold, Green and White";
*(O2.GetCDataStorage()) << "x<data>x";
// notice how this CData is not parsed
O2.SetObjectDataValue("-- object <data> is parsed --");
// and how the object data is parsed
// when they are turned into XML
printf(O2.ToXML());
/* // it looks like this:
<thing color="Gold, Green and White">
x]]>-- object <data> is parsed --
<number>777</number>
<string>G.G.G.Guru</string>
</thing>
*/
}
FiveLoaves (a.k.a. ServerCore)
5Loaves is included with the XMLFoundation, but not in the foundation. It is a tool that uses XMLFoundation. It needs the XMLFoundation but the XMLFoundation does not need 5Loaves. 5Loaves is implemented in a single file called ServerCore.cpp. It is a unique piece of code and it is very simple to use. There is no header file for ServerCore.cpp and it causes no DLL's to be loaded by your application. It is a portable, properly threaded, and well written server core that can be applied to countless custom server implementations. It is a Proxy. It is an HTTP Server. It is a 'connection joiner'. ServerCore.cpp is currently used to accept TCP connections for an advanced networking product called Xfer. (note: Xfer is not open source). The ServerCore has a good portable threading model with some unique features that allow you to limit such things as, number of connections per IP/Subnet and Connections per second. The 5Loaves HTTP Server works faster than IIS or Apache in some cases. It has been designed to be fast and includes unique features such as 'content caching' to serve up prebuilt HTTP headers and data from memory rather than from disk. The Core of 5Loaves is a ground up POSIX threaded TCP server. This server template can be applied to build many types of applications that service TCP connections. The sample programs are server applications that use the 5Loaves ServerCore. One example is the 5Loaves shell console. It is a command line interpreter like the DOS prompt or a Unix shell written from scratch. It is a useful application starting point if you ever need a simple shell that has been tested in Linux, Solaris, AIX, HPUX, and Windows. There is also a Windows Service application. It contains the proper implementation for integrating 5Loaves with the Windows Service Control Manager. There is also an example program with all the source to an ActiveX implementation of 5Loaves so you can see that this server core can be embed just about anywhere in any development language. The following code sample shows you how to start the HTTP service from inside your own process. You can't do that with IIS or Apache. The HTTP server does support binary plugins like ISAPI, and there is an example program that creates plugins. It's an advanced HTTP server.
Collapse | Copy Code
// This is a complete source example to embed a solid and high performance
// HTTP Server in your application that starts on a variable port with a
// variable home directory.
#include "../Core/ServerCore.cpp"
char *pzBoundStartupConfig =
"[System]\r\n" // <-- notice the [System] section
"Pool=20\r\n"
"ProxyPool=0\r\n"
"\r\n"
"[HTTP]\r\n" // <-- notice the [HTTP] section
"Enable=yes\r\n"
"Index=Index.html\r\n"
"Home=%s\r\n"
"Port=%s\r\n";
void CMyClass::StartHTTPServer(const char *pzHomeDirectory,const char *pzPort)
{
// Fill the two variables into the startup config string
GString strCfgData;
strCfgData.Format(pzBoundStartupConfig,pzHomeDirectory,pzPort);
// Set the global profile object
SetProfile(new GProfile( strCfgData, strCfgData.Length()) );
// Start the HTTP service
server_start();
Building a Custom HTTP Web Service
Approach #1 - "Low Level Static Code" Adding on to the rather trivial amount of code shown above for integrating ServerCore, you may want to develop a custom "dynamic content" server based on this HTTP server implementation that can be easily integrated into YOUR process (unlike IIS or Apache). There are several ways to go about accomplishing this task and depending on your situation one way may be more appropriate than another. One way of implementing a custom ServerCore extension can be accomplished via "Low Level Static Code". The advantage to this form of integration is that no DLL's are loaded. Another possible advantage is that no form of integration could possibly be faster. Using this approach ServerCore will manage nothing except for multi-threading the connections for you and the initial TCP network read. This can be done by adding this one line of code:
Collapse | Copy Code
#define SERVERCORE_CUSTOM_HTTP
prior to adding this line of code:
Collapse | Copy Code
#include "../Core/ServerCore.cpp"
You will also have to create a file called ServerCoreCustomHTTP.cpp, a sample implementation has been provided in the Server/Core folder. To see it work in the "5Loaves" example project add the #define SERVERCORE_CUSTOM_HTTP into the file Servers/5loaves/Console.cpp then create a text file called 5Loaves.txt that you can place in the same folder as the binary or at "C:\\" with this contents.
Collapse | Copy Code
[System]
Pool=20
ProxyPool=0
[HTTP]
Enable=yes
This sets the thread pool to 20 setting the limit of your server to 20 concurrent client connections and supports no proxy connections, you may set the thread pool at any value that you have enough hardware resources to support. Making this example work in the Windows Service is equally as simple by adding #define SERVERCORE_CUSTOM_HTTP into Servers/WebServerService/WebServerService.cpp (directly above the inclusion of ServerCore.cpp) This will extend the service application to run a custom 'low level - static code' extension that is implemented in ServerCoreCustomHTTP.cpp exactly like the console application. I have two products that both use this "Low Level Static Code" approach to extending ServerCore.cpp. It is my preferred approach when building an "application" based on ServerCore.cpp because the integration is "tight" beyond the definition of "tight". You should search ServerCore.cpp for SERVERCORE_CUSTOM_HTTP to see for yourself that this is not function call - but a true inline implementation into the very first call stack frame of the servicing thread. Since the code is being added directly into the lowest level possible there is no function call dispatch, it executes the extension without even adding a new frame on the call stack (you can't do that with IIS or Apache - much less in YOUR process space) - this makes the extension code look strange because there will be no open scope { or close of scope } - and you will exit with a GOTO rather than a return. For example consider this complete example found in Servers/Core/ServerCoreCustomHTTP.cpp:
Collapse | Copy Code
//
// Server Core Extension Example for when SERVERCORE_CUSTOM_HTTP is defined in ServerCore.cpp
//
// There are many variables available to the current scope. A few of exceptional interest are:
// [td->sockfd] the socket handle
// [sockBuffer] the raw network data directly in the TCP kernel buffer
// [nContentLen] the Content-Length from the HTTP header
// [nBytes] bytes in [sockBuffer] (note there may be more in transit if Content-Length > nBytes )
if (memcmp(sockBuffer,"GET",3) == 0)
{
GString strRequest;
// extract the file name starting at the 4th byte up to the first space
// Proper HTTP will look like this:GET /Index.html HTTP/1.1
strRequest.SetFromUpTo(&sockBuffer[4]," ");
// now you have the request in the variable [strRequest]
// you need to generate a response for yourself based on the request.
// This is a good place to dispatch your call to your own functions
// You might return HTML, or XML
GString strResponse("Server Response: Hello World");
// since we did not build any custom HTTP headers we'll send the response back through HTTPSend()
// This will build the HTTP headers for us setting the Content-Length - required for valid HTTP.
HTTPSend(td->sockfd, strResponse, strResponse.Length());
// alternatively we could setup the HTTP header ourselves and call nonblocksend()
// int nonblocksend(int fd,const char *pData,int nDataLen)
// lastly - manage this connection and thread.
// this will read the next HTTP command from this connection - on this thread
goto KEEP_ALIVE;
// alternatively we could close this connection and return this thread to the pool
// nCloseCode = 7000;
// goto SOCKET_ERR_ABORT;
}
else if (memcmp(sockBuffer,"POST /",6) == 0)
{
// likewise the same ideals apply for a POST handler
}
Now - to see this example work... Run 5Loaves.exe with the 5Loaves.txt in the same directory Put this URL into your browser: http://127.0.0.1/ Your browser will display "Server Response: Hello World" Approach #2 - "Binary Plugin" This next approach to extending an HTTP service is more typical. Both IIS and Apache support both CGI and ISAPI to support user developed web server extensions via "Binary Plugin's". This approach allows you to rebuild the extension without rebuilding the HTTP server. You will create a DLL (under Windows) or an SO (under Unix) that works a lot like ISAPI. The HTTP service will load and execute your extension giving you access to everything necessary to build any kind of custom extension. The ServerCore adds one additional layer of abstraction by invoking the "Plugin" through the "Language Driver" described in the next section.
Plugins and Language Drivers
The XMLFoundation supports "Language Drivers". 5Loaves is among the applications that implements them. Language drivers allow user developed extensions to be invoked programmatically. Just about every programming language can have a language driver developed for it. Several complete Language Driver implementations come with the XMLFoundation source code. The programmer's code is "the plugin" that is executed by the "Language Driver". The majority of people who use this technology will probably be developing "plugins", but you also may develop an application that allows users to develop their own plugins. All of the source code for everything I speak of is included in the XMLFoundation, see [IntegrationBase.h/cpp][IntegrationLanguages.h/cpp], using DynamicLibrary.h to load the DLL/SO's on many platforms. I have used the Language Driver functionality in several applications. For example, I have an XSLT that allows user extensions in addition to the built-in XSL keywords. This allows my application to pass a string value into a user defined method in a plugin that might need to do a database lookup to translate a code - a task that is too complex for any XSL keyword. Loading the "Language Driver" and executing a plugin does not require much code. This is the code to pack 4 arguments and invoke a plugin called "Test1" inside "PluginExample.dll" through the CStdCall Language Driver:
Collapse | Copy Code
// pack 4 arguments -- same code to call (C++/Java/COM/Perl/Python) plugins
// 1. a 4 bytes string ("aaa" + null)
// 2. a 4 byte string ("bbb" + null)
// 3. a 4 byte unsigned long (the .... starts at the 8th byte and will be overwritten)
// 4. a 5 byte string ("fast" + null)
char pzArgBuff[256];
sprintf(pzArgBuff,"aaa%cbbb%c....fast%c",0,0,0); // the .... is a 4 byte placeholder
unsigned long *pL = (unsigned long *)&pzArgBuff[8]; // get an int pointer to the 8th byte
*pL = 777; // overwrite the (....) with the packed binary value for 777
char pzArgSizes[16];
strcpy(pzArgSizes,"4|4|4|5");
// Invoke the plugin....
InterfaceInstance *pII = GetInterfaceInstance("CStdCall");
// InvokeEx may modify the pzArgBuff, but generally results should be in pzResults
int nOutResultSize;
const char *pzResults = pII->InvokeEx( "PluginExample.dll", "PluginExample", "Test1",
pzArgBuff,pzArgSizes,&nOutResultSize, "anonymous",
"password" );
The code shown above would be in the hosting application, or the application that supports custom extensions. It will then execute the plugin that is even easier to develop (code shown below):
Collapse | Copy Code
ExposedMethods() should define the arguments like this:
Test1&&One&&char *&&Two&&char *&&Three&&Packed Unsigned Long&&Four&&char *
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void Test1(void *pHandle, DriverExec Exec,
const char *One, // string "aaa"
const char *Two, // string "bbb"
const char *Three, // unsigned long
const char *Four) // string "fast"
{
PlugInController PIC(pHandle, Exec);
// dereference Three and increment it by one, this changes
// the argument value in the callers memory space in the application -
// (pzArgBuf above setting *pL to 778)
// The direct memory reference is passed into the language driver -
// then passed into this DLL/SO
(*(unsigned long *)Three)++;
// If you want to modify the argument Three locally use this code:
unsigned long uThree = *(unsigned long *)Three);
uThree++;
PIC.AppendResults("Argument 3 is Native Packed Binary in a Plugin");
}
One sample application titled "PluginExample" is devoted to C++ plugins. It shows how to write several types of POST handler plugins for the HTTP server. You will find the utility class CMultiPartForm handy if you need to write a handler for a Multipart HTTP POST, other plugin utilities like PlugInController found in PluginBuilder.h make the job of building a plugin as easy as possible. ServerCore.cpp has the implementation using (InterfaceInstance *)pII->InvokeEx() described above already complete so that you may extend the HTTP service via your own DLL(or COM object or Perl/Python script). This is how to build a custom dynamic web page from an HTTP server plugin: 1.Compile the CStdCall Language Driver
2.Compile the PluginExample
3. Setup the 5Loaves.txt Configuration File like this (but set the [TXML]Drivers= and [CStdCall]Path= to where steps 1 and 2 compiled to):
Collapse | Copy Code
[System]
Pool=20
ProxyPool=0
[HTTP]
Enable=yes
EnableServerExtensions=yes
ServerPlugin1=/Test2WWWPage|CStdCall|PluginExample.dll|PluginExample|Test2
ServerPlugin2=/Test3WWWPage|CStdCall|PluginExample.dll|PluginExample|Test3
ServerPlugin3=/Test4WWWPage|CStdCall|PluginExample.dll|PluginExample|Test4
ServerPlugin4=/Test5WWWPage|CStdCall|PluginExample.dll|PluginExample|Test5
ServerPlugin5=/Test7WWWPage|CStdCall|PluginExample.dll|PluginExample|Test7
ServerPlugin6=/Page1|CStdCall|PluginExample.dll|PluginExample|Page1
ServerPlugin7=/Page2|CStdCall|PluginExample.dll|PluginExample|Page2
ServerPlugin8=/Page3|CStdCall|PluginExample.dll|PluginExample|Page3
[TXML]
Drivers=C:\XMLFoundation\Drivers\Debug
[CStdCall]
Path=C:\XMLFoundation\Examples\C++\HTTP.Xfer.Messaging-PluginExample
The HTTP service will loop through the ServerPluginN entries and dispatch the plugin calls for you. You must configure the ServerPluginN entries in numerical order and the HTTP service will load each entry upto the first numerical break. You may also manage the dispatch partially yourself by using a wildcard * in the first argument - for example.
Collapse | Copy Code
ServerPlugin1=/PluginPage*|CStdCall|MyDLL.dll|MyDLL|DoIt
This would map the following URL's to DoIt() in:
Collapse | Copy Code
MyDLL.dll
http://127.0.0.1/PluginPageFoo.html
http://127.0.0.1/PluginPageBar%20Argument1%20Argument2
http://127.0.0.1/PluginPageHello
4.Put the 5Loaves.txt file into the project directory if you run 5Loaves.exe under a debugger or put 5Loaves.txt in the same directory as 5Loaves.exe if you run 5Loaves.exe outside the debugger - either way when it starts 5Loaves will display this message:
Collapse | Copy Code
5Loaves>Windows Console using [5Loaves.txt]
Listening on port[80]
All bound ports are now being serviced
started
5Loaves>
5.Now execute the most basic plugin that takes 0 arguments and is simply a static bound html page - put this URL into your browser: http://127.0.0.1/Page1
The browser will show a simple web page with 3 edit fields and a "Submit" button. If you see that page - the plugin executed properly through an HTTP GET which loaded an HTML page that will POST back the 3 arguments into another handler that exists in that same plugin. The information POST'ed by the HTML form calls a method with with 3 arguments. So you supply the values 1, 2, and 3 to the three edit fields and press submit your browser will display this:
Collapse | Copy Code
5Loaves HTTP Server Invoked me with [1] and [2] and [3]!
6.Now try this URL: http://127.0.0.1/test2WWWPage&root&777&superuser and this will be the result:
Collapse | Copy Code
5Loaves HTTP Server Invoked me with [root] and [777] and [superuser]!
7.Look at the Plugin example to see the details of implementing a plugin. You will see that this is the plugin handler that was called in step 5 and 6:
Collapse | Copy Code
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void Test2(void *pHandle, DriverExec Exec,
const char *One, // string
const char *Two, // string
const char *Three) // string
{
PlugInController PIC(pHandle, Exec);
// build the string "5Loaves Invoked me with [root] and [777] and [superuser]!"
PIC.AppendResults("5Loaves HTTP Server Invoked me with [");
PIC.AppendResults(One);
PIC.AppendResults("] and [");
PIC.AppendResults(Two);
PIC.AppendResults("] and [");
PIC.AppendResults(Three);
PIC.AppendResults("]!");
}
FiveLoaves Tunneling and Messaging
5Loaves provides tunneling with encryption and compression as a base service. It can be used to secure internet connections much like SSH. It works by running some form of server with the 5Loaves engine on two machines. The data passed between those machines can be compressed or encrypted or simply logged. Starting the server is done exactly the same no matter if you are running the HTTP service or the Tunneling service - only the configuration startup string changes. The following configuration example will open a listener on port 1972, anything it receives will be encrypted and compressed and sent to [www.ExampleServer.com] on port 2009. The server will decrypt and decompress the data from port 2009 and forward it to port 1972, so the data on port 1972 at the server will be as if the client had directly sent it. To open a tunnel entry point on the client side use this:
Collapse | Copy Code
[Tunnel1]
Enable=yes
LocalPort=1972
RemotePort=2009
RemoteMachine=www.ExampleServer.com
Timeout=30
CompressEnabled=yes
CipherPass=Tiger
RawPacketProxy=no
To exit the tunnel on the server:
Collapse | Copy Code
[Proxy1]
Enable=yes
LocalPort=2009
RemotePort=1972
RemoteMachine=127.0.0.1 (we could also use an internal resource like
192.168.*)
Timeout=60
RawPacketProxy=no
CompressEnabled=yes
CipherPass=Tiger
Note: you can start any number of tunnels, simply increment the section [Tunnel2] and [Proxy2]. ServerCore will stop loading tunnels at the first break of numeric order of the [sectionN]. This type of usage may be of interest especially to web developers or people who are just curious. Sometimes it's interesting to see the data between the HTTP server and the browser. Redirects and HTML frames and Javascript can make that difficult. This section sets up a clear text proxy just for the purpose of seeing the transmission log between the browser and the web-server. Once this is running, connect with a web browser to 127.0.0.1 and you in fact be connecting to the endpoint configured under the RemoteMachine= entry.
Collapse | Copy Code
[Tunnel2]
Enable=yes
LocalPort=80
RemotePort=80
RemoteMachine=www.SampleWebSite.com
Timeout=65000
RawPacketProxy=yes
LogPath=c:\HTMLSpy
LogBinary=no
LogEnabled=yes
In the folder HTMLSpy you will see a log file of the communication between the browser and the web server. I used Firefox as a browser, and the 5Loaves HTTP server for this example. I loaded the page twice in the browser so that you can see the caching mechanism working between the browser and the web server in this log file: The header is defined like this: "tx->s" means "transmit to server" so that is information that came from the browser, it is followed by the time, then the total bytes transmitted, 470 in this case. The reply is "tx->c" or "transmit to client", you can see that the HTTP server responded with 181 bytes that instructed the browser to use the version it has cached. You can also see that the "Server:" name was set to "MyWebServer", that is a variable in the 5Loaves HTTP server unlike the static names IIS and Apache use.
Collapse | Copy Code
tx->s00:51:42-000470>
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.11)
Gecko/2009060215 Firefox/3.0.11
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/.;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 300
Connection: keep-alive
If-Modified-Since: Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT
If-None-Match: 7430174881
Cache-Control: max-age=0
tx->c00:51:42-000181>
HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified
Server: MyWebServer
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:01:12 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
Keep-Alive: timeout=20, max=149
ETag: 7430174881
Content-Length: 0
By changing the log binary to yes, now we can see what a small gif file looks like over the wire from the web server.
Collapse | Copy Code
[Tunnel2]
LogBinary=yes
tx->c01:05:29-000317>
48 54 54 50 2F 31 2E 31 20 32 30 30 20 4F 4B 0D 0A 44 61 74 65 3A 20 57 65 HTTP/1.1 200 OK..Date: We
64 2C 20 30 31 20 4A 75 6C 20 32 30 30 39 20 30 31 3A 30 35 3A 32 39 20 47 d, 01 Jul 2009 01:05:29 G
4D 54 0D 0A 53 65 72 76 65 72 3A 20 4D 79 57 65 62 53 65 72 76 65 72 0D 0A MT..Server: MyWebServer..
43 6F 6E 6E 65 63 74 69 6F 6E 3A 20 6B 65 65 70 2D 61 6C 69 76 65 0D 0A 4B Connection: keep-alive..K
65 65 70 2D 41 6C 69 76 65 3A 20 74 69 6D 65 6F 75 74 3D 32 30 2C 20 6D 61 eep-Alive: timeout=20, ma
78 3D 31 34 39 0D 0A 4C 61 73 74 2D 6D 6F 64 69 66 69 65 64 3A 20 53 75 6E x=149..Last-modified: Sun
2C 20 31 33 20 4D 61 72 20 32 30 30 35 20 32 32 3A 33 32 3A 33 36 20 47 4D , 13 Mar 2005 22:32:36 GM
54 0D 0A 45 54 61 67 3A 20 31 31 31 30 37 34 39 35 35 36 0D 0A 43 6F 6E 74 T..ETag: 1110749556..Cont
65 6E 74 2D 74 79 70 65 3A 20 69 6D 61 67 65 2F 67 69 66 0D 0A 43 6F 6E 74 ent-type: image/gif..Cont
65 6E 74 2D 6C 65 6E 67 74 68 3A 20 37 34 0D 0A 0D 0A 47 49 46 38 39 61 10 ent-length: 74....GIF89a.
00 10 00 91 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 21 F9 04 01 00 00 02 ..................!......
00 2C 00 00 00 00 10 00 10 00 00 02 1B 94 8F A9 CB 07 AD C0 83 4E 52 23 2D .,...................NR#-
CD BA F1 BE 7C 5B 76 91 E5 54 5E EA CA 1A 05 00 3B ....|[v..T^.....;
Messaging
5loaves has a unique network connectivity utility built in. It allows machines behind a firewall that cannot "listen" for connections outside the network to accept connections from anywhere without any firewall configuration changes. There is a complete example called "FilePoster" that puts a file on a machine behind a firewall. This is a bare bones 'proof of concept' implementation that gives you a working model to customize for your own purposes. It requires three machines to see it work as designed. Machine 1 - (the switchboard) should be located on the internet. You must run the HTTP service along with the "Switchboard Service", you can see that this example runs it on port 81 just incase you have IIS or Apache already on port 80.
Collapse | Copy Code
[SwitchBoardServer]
Enable=yes
Name=/PublicPath/
[HTTP]
Enable=yes
Port=81
ContentCache=0
UseKeepAlives=1
HTTPHeaderServerName=5Loaves
KeepAliveTimeOut=20
ShowIPAddressPageName=ShowIP
Home=d:\home
[Trace]
HTTPHeaderTrace=0
ThreadTrace=0
ConnectTrace=1
Machine 2 - (the server) this is the machine behind the firewall that you want to open up a connection path to. It will poll the switchboard server looking for connections. It should run 5oaves with the configuration below. This will accept remote data, and write it to disk in a file at "c:\5LMessages\UBTsAccountForYou". You could change the application logic that writes the file - you can do anything with the data that may contain commands, database queries, or custom logic.
Collapse | Copy Code
[Messaging]
Enable=yes
AcceptFrom=UBTsAccountForYou
DefaultSwitchBoardServer=10.20.30.40
DefaultSwitchBoardPort=81
UseBrowserProxy=no
[MsgFrom-UBTsAccountForYou]
Enable=yes
CheckAtSwitchBoard=yes
Name=/PublicPath/UBTsAccountForYou
DiskLocation=c:\5LMessages\UBTsAccountForYou
LetSenderPlaceFile=No
PollIntervalSeconds=20
Machine 3- (the client) runs the FilePoster sample application. Machine 3 can reach "the switchboard (machine 1)" but not "the server (machine 2)". We will send the data to Machine 2 and get a response back from that machine. In this case we are simply writing the data we send to a file, but the data could just as easily have been an SQL statement and the return data could be the result set rather than just a confirmation that the file was written. How it works: The "server" polls into the "switchboard" with an HTTP GET. The "client" pushes a multipart HTTP POST to the "switchboard". The switchboard joins the connections and proxies the data. An HTTP GET needs an HTTP "200 OK" so the "switchboard" server rips off the POST headers from the data sent up by the "client" and replaces them with an HTTP 200 followed by the POST data that gets proxy-ed straight through. Once this initial message proxy is complete, the client connection that POSTed it waits in the switchboard, for the server to POST back a response. Then the Switchboard goes through the same process of ripping off the POST HTTP header and replacing it with a 200 OK before sending the response back to the client. Lastly, the switchboard server replies with an empty HTTP 200 to the servers response POST to complete the normal HTTP request/response design for both the client and the server. This allows it to pass through HTTP proxy servers and direct support for them is included. Technically this is a loophole through most networks that only allow HTTP, because as you see we invented a new protocol that looks like HTTP, but in fact it is not.
Mapping XML to Bits of a Byte
There is little need for an English description for how to map bits of a member variable using this method found in xmlObject.h
Collapse | Copy Code
// Map bits within a 8,16,32, or 64 bit space.
// nBit1toN is a 1 based index value of the bit within pValue
// pzCommaSeparated0Values might be "No,OFF,0,false" if you want those case insensitive values (False==FALSE==false) to set the bit to 0
// since "No" is first in the list, that will be used to indicate the bit is 0 when creating the xml.
// pzCommaSeparated1Values might be "Yes,On,1,True" if you want those case insensitive (YES==Yes==yes) values to set the bit to 1
// since "Yes" is first in the list, that will be used to indicate the bit is 1 when creating the xml.
// The lists are parsed, and cached, during the first call to MapXMLTagsToMembers()
void MapMemberBit(unsigned char *pValue, const char *pTag, int nBit1to8,
const char *pzCommaSeparated0Values, const char *pzCommaSeparated1Values);
void MapMemberBit(unsigned short *pValue, const char *pTag, int nBit1to16,
const char *pzCommaSeparated0Values, const char *pzCommaSeparated1Values);
void MapMemberBit(unsigned int *pValue, const char *pTag, int nBit1to32,
const char *pzCommaSeparated0Values, const char *pzCommaSeparated1Values);
void MapMemberBit(unsigned __int64 *pValue,const char *pTag, int nBit1to64,
const char *pzCommaSeparated0Values, const char *pzCommaSeparated1Values);
The StartHere0.cpp example program contains this code:
Collapse | Copy Code
class MyCustomObject : public XMLObject
{
public: // make public here for example simplicity - this is not required
unsigned char m_bits; // 8 bits
// unsigned __int64 m_bits;
// 64 bits = You can comment out the 8 bit line above and replace
// it with this one. No other code change is necessary.
virtual void MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
MapMemberBit( &m_bits, "Seven77thBit", 7,
"False,No,Off,0", "True,Yes,On,1");
MapMemberBit( &m_bits, "OnItsSide8", 8,
"Black", "White");
}
DECLARE_FACTORY(MyCustomObject, Thing)
MyCustomObject(){m_bits=0;}
~MyCustomObject(){};
};
IMPLEMENT_FACTORY(MyCustomObject, Thing)
// This is the XML we'll process.
char pzXML[] =
"<thing>"
"<seven77thbit>on</seven77thbit>"
"<onitsside8>white</onitsside8>"
</thing>";
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
MyCustomObject O;
O.FromXMLX(pzXML);
// print out the value of each individual bit in m_bits
// Change "<onitsside8>" from "white" to "black" in pzXML and watch how the bits change
for(int i=0;i<8;i++)
printf("bit%d=%d\n",i+1,((O.m_bits&(LONG_ONE<<i))!=0)); :)="" this="" is="" the="" output="" bit1="0" bit2="0" bit3="0" bit4="0" bit5="0" bit6="0" bit7="1" bit8="1" turn="" 8th="" bit="" off="" -="" changes="" value="" to="" "black"="" in="" xml="" remove="" following="" line="" and="" it="" stays="" "white"="" o.m_bits="" &="~(1<<7);" printf(o.toxml();="" <thing="">
<seven77thbit>True</seven77thbit>
<onitsside8>Black</onitsside8>
Translating XML
Translating values before the assignment of member variables from XML is a common need in the application layer. Also, the reverse that, translating the value stored in the member variable to the value that will appear in the XML. Without writing ANY code, we can Map() the translation logic with fine tuned control. This is done using the last 3 arguments of MapMember(). Here is the comment taken from XMLObject.h explaining those last three arguments:
Collapse | Copy Code
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Using Translation Maps (new in November 2013)
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////-///////////////
// pzTranslationMapIn translates values - for example this is how you might use it on a String:
// if pzTranslationMapIn = "red*=Red,Mary Jane=Green,Grass=Green,XML_EMPTY_VALUE=Blue,XML_DEFAULT=Unknown
// ---------------------------------------------------------
// if <ptag> in the source xml starts with red - like "redness" or "reddish" it assigns member pValue = "Red"
// if <ptag> in the source xml is "Mary Jane" or "Grass" - it assigns member pValue = "Green"
// if <ptag></ptag> is empty in source xml - it assigns member pValue = "Blue"
// <tag></tag> will assign a mapped m_member = "",
// unless XML_EMPTY_VALUE in pzTranslationMapIn overrides default behavior
// which will set m_strString2 == "Blue" due to XML_EMPTY_VALUE=Blue in pzTranslationMapIn.
//
// pzTranslationMapOut translates values in the XML
// to differ from what the member variable stores - for example:
// if pzTranslationMapOut = "1=One,2=Two,777=Root,any*=anyTHING"
// if pValue = "1" it will be seen as "One" in the XML.
// if pValue = "2" it will be seen as "Two" in the XML.
// if pValue = "777" it will be seen as "Root" in the XML.
// if pValue starts with "any" (like "anyone" or "Anytime"
// (all wildward searches are case insensitive)) it comes out as "anyTHING" in the XML.
//
// if XML_DEFAULT is specified and there is no known translation for the value, this value will be used.
// if XML_DEFAULT is not specified and there is no known
// translation for the value, the untranslated value will be used
// if XML_DEFAULT= is followed by a comma or null like
// this: "A=1,B=2,XML_DEFAULT=,C=3" or like this "A=1,B=2,C=3,XML_DEFAULT="
// then the value with no known translation will NOT be used, and the value will be "" aka empty.
//
//
// .....and this is how you might use it on an Integer:
// pzTranslationMapIn = "1=10,2=20,3=777,one=10,two=20,three=777,XML_EMPTY_VALUE=-777,XML_DEFAULT=0"
// pzTranslationMapOut = "10=ten,20=twenty,777=infinity,XML_DEFAULT=0"
//
//
// and the last argument, nTranslationFlags can be any combinations of these values:
// XLATE_CASE_INSENSITIVE_IN // When assigning variables from XML
// XLATE_CASE_INSENSITIVE_OUT // When writing XML translations
// XLATE_NO_IN_WILDCARDS // you never NEED to set this, as it is calculated and cached.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
That may sound complex - but it's very easy to use. See the example program TranslatingXML.cpp where this (simple) code was taken from. The yellow string affects how member variables are assigned a value. The green string affects how the XML is created. Each member variable has it's own translation rules. Notice where the other colors are referenced in the places where they are used.
Collapse | Copy Code
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
MyCustomObject O;
O.FromXMLX(pzXML);
// see that our Object's member values have been translated
// as commented above after this line of code.
// now we will assign some members.
O.m_strString2 = "1"; // this will translate to "One" the XML
O.m_strString3 = "2"; // this will translate to "Two" the XML
O.m_strString4 = "777"; // this will translate to "Root" the XML
O.m_strString5 = "anybody"; // this will translate to "anyVALUE" the XML
O.m_strString6 = "anything"; // this will translate to "anyVALUE" the XML
O.m_strString7 = "XMLFoundation";// this will translate to "best" the XML
O.m_strString8 = "xmlFoundation";// this will translate to "xmlFoundation" the XML
O.m_strString9 = ""; // default - this will translate to "xxxxxx" the XML
O.m_strString10 = ""; // empty - outputs an empty string in the XML: <string10>
printf(O.ToXMLX()); // see that everything was translated as we expected
}
XMLFoundation for Java
XMLFoundation supports Java too, it supports all Java data types like (string, byte, bool, double, long, short) as well as Java data structures such as (Vector Stack ArrayList LinkedList TreeSet HashSet). The XMLFoundation for Java is binary. If you want to build it yourself, you can because the source code to the entire JavaXMLFoundation is public and included in this release. There is no need to build it, but it's nice to be able to. I can hear some uneducated Java programmer already saying "I only want a 'Pure' Java solution". This is Pure. It's as pure as the JVM, because if you look close you'll see that it is actually an enhancement to the JVM. The JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is written in C and C++. Your Java code runs anywhere the JVM can compile, and the XMLFoundation works the same way. The good news is that Java programmers don't have to deal with C++ just because their JVM is written in C++. The same is true of the XMLFoundation for Java. The XMLFoundation uses JNI (Java Native Interface). It parses the XML in the native binary (that was created by a C++ compiler just like the JVM) and instantiates 'pure' Java Objects through JNI, then it assigns all the member variables just like the C++ XMLFoundation does. Can you think of a faster way to get the job done? This is some sample code that uses the JavaXMLFoundation. A much more detailed example is included in the source code:
Collapse | Copy Code
// Java source code that shows how to use the XMLFoundation using
// inheritance or containment. It is nearly identical to C++
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Vector;
// MyLineItem has an "ObjectId", that is a value created from
// members and/or attributes of this object that uniquely identify
// it among all instances of it's own type. "ObjectId"'s are
// optional but allow you to perform complex "object updates"
// easily through XML. In main() below, this functionality is
// used when getXML2() is applied. ObjectId's are like a database
// primary key in that they are generally not modified.
class MyLineItem extends XMLObject
{
private String item;
private String quantity;
private int ItemID;
MyLineItem()
{
// call the base class constructor with the XML-tag for 'this'
super("LineItem");
}; }
MyLineItem(int nID, String itm, String qty)
{
super("LineItem");
item = itm;
quantity = qty;
ItemID = nID;
}
void MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
// member member xml-tag (optional)wrapper
//-----------------------------------------------------------------
MapMember(quantity, "quantity", "Quantity");
MapMember(item, "item", "Description");
MapMember(ItemID, "ItemID", "SKU");
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// MapObjectId() is optional.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
MapObjectId(this, "ItemID"); // takes 1 to 5 mapped 'Key parts'
}
}
// Not "derived from" but "contains" XML support.
class Customer2
{
public String name;
private int CustID;
private XMLObject ContainedXMLObj;
public MyOrder objOrder;
private Vector vecStrings;
long l;
short s;
double d;
byte b;
boolean z;
public void XMLDump()
{
MyExchange("out");
System.err.println( ContainedXMLObj.toXML() );
}
// indirect inheritance manages calls to FromXML() and ToXML()
// manually, exposing them is optional. Member<-->XML exchange is
// also done manually, generally following calls to FromXML() or ToXML()
// this affords the developer full control for atypical implementations.
void MyExchange(String inOut)
{
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, b, "b","byte","", 1);
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, z, "z","bool","", 1);
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, l, "l","long","", 1);
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, d, "d","double","", 1);
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, s, "s","short","", 1);
sp; "s","short","", 1);
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, name, "name","FirstName","", 1);
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, CustID, "CustID","CustomerID","", 1);
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, objOrder, "objOrder", "Order","MyOrder","");
ContainedXMLObj.Member(this, inOut, vecStrings,"vecStrings",
"StringItem","String", "StringList Level2Wrapper");
}
public Customer2( String strXML )
{
// create a new 'empty' object that maps to "Customer".
ContainedXMLObj = new XMLObject("Customer", false );
ContainedXMLObj.fromXML(strXML);
MyExchange("in");
}
// FromXML is not inheriterd, so we can expose the functionality through a
// controlled accessor.
public void ApplyXML( String strXML )
{
ContainedXMLObj.fromXML(strXML);
MyExchange("in");
}
}
// End of sample Java source code
This is some of the code I developed inside the JavaXMLFoundation that interacts with the JVM. (Don't worry you'll never have to work with this code.)
Collapse | Copy Code
jobject MakeObjectInstance(JNIEnv *env,const char *pzObjectType,
DynamicXMLObject *pDO,DynamicXMLObject *pDXOOOwner)
{
if (env->ExceptionOccurred())
{
env->ExceptionClear();
}
jclass clazzA = env->FindClass(pzObjectType);
jobject objReturnValue = 0;
GString strType("Ljava/lang/String;");
// if this class type exposes a 'ctor that takes a single XMLObject
// we are using containment.
jmethodID midctor = env->GetMethodID(clazzA, "", "(LXMLObject;)V");
if (env->ExceptionOccurred())
{
env->ExceptionClear();
}
if (midctor)
{
// create a new java XMLObject instance
jclass clazzX = env->FindClass("XMLObject");
jmethodID midX =
env->GetMethodID(clazzX, "", "(Ljava/lang/String;)V");
jstring tagX = env->NewStringUTF(pDO->GetObjectTag());
jobject objX = env->NewObject(clazzA, midX, tagX );
// assign the object handle into the instance just created. bject handle into the instance just created.
jclass clazz = env->GetObjectClass(objX);
jfieldID fid = env->GetFieldID(clazz, "oH", "I");
env->SetIntField(objX, fid, CastDXMLO(pDO));
// create a new instance of some user defined java class that is
// not extending XMLObject. Pass the XMLObject to the 'ctor.
objReturnValue = env->NewObject(clazzA, midctor, objX );
}
else
{
// create an instance of a java object derived from the java XMLObject
objReturnValue = env->AllocObject(clazzA);
// assign the base class object handle directly.
jclass clazz = env->GetObjectClass(objReturnValue);
// any object that extends XMLObject will have the oH (Object Handle)
// If the Object created is a String the fid will be 0.
jfieldID fid = env->GetFieldID(clazz, "oH", "I");
if (env->ExceptionOccurred())
{
env->ExceptionClear();
}
if (fid)
{
env->SetIntField(objReturnValue, fid, CastDXMLO(pDO));
// create the jobject to DXO index
union CAST_THIS_TYPE_SAFE_COMPILERS
{
jobject mbrObj;
void * mbrVoid;
}Member;
Member.mbrObj = env->NewGlobalRef(objReturnValue);
pDXOOOwner->addSubUserLanguageObject(Member.mbrVoid);
// printf("===NewGlobRef[%d]\n",Member.mbrObj);
pDO->setUserLanguageObject(Member.mbrVoid);
cacheManager.addAlternate( pDO );
}
else if (strType.CompareNoCase(pzObjectType) != 0)
{
GString Err;
Err.Format("Object type [%s] must either be derived from XMLObject\n"
"or supply a constructor %s(XMLObject o)",pzObjectType,pzObjectType);
}
}
pDO->SetObjectType(pzObjectType);
return objReturnValue;
}
Java programmers will derive from this class - then the use is nearly identical to the C++ XMLFoundation:
Collapse | Copy Code
import java.util.Vector;
import java.util.Stack;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.TreeSet;
import java.util.HashSet;
public class XMLObject {
static { System.loadLibrary("JavaXMLFoundation"); }
private static int InstanceId = 0;
private native void JavaMap(int oH, int DataType,String strName,String xmlTag,
String strWrapper, String ObjType, String strContainerType, int nSource);
private native void JavaExchange(Object o, int oH, String inout,int nType,
String b,String c,String d,String strObjectType, String strContainerType,
int nSource);
private native int JavaConstruct(int n, String strXMLTag, int bAutoDataSync);
private native void JavaDestruct(int oH);
private native void JavaMapCacheDisable(int oH);
private native void JavaMapOID(int oH, Object o, String Key1, String Key2,
String Key3, String Key4, String Key5);
private native XMLObject JavaGetSubObj(int oH);
private native void JavaFromXML(int oH, String strXML);
private native String JavaToXML(int oH);
private native void JavaRemoveAll(int oH);
private int oH; // XML-Object Handle
public void MemberRemoveAll()
{
JavaRemoveAll(oH);
}
protected void finalize()
{
JavaDestruct(oH);
}
protected void freedom()
{
JavaDestruct(oH);
}
public XMLObject(String strXMLTag)
{
oH = ++InstanceId;
oH = JavaConstruct(oH, strXMLTag, 1);
}
public XMLObject(String strXMLTag, boolean bAutoDataSync)
{
oH = ++InstanceId;
if (bAutoDataSync)
oH = JavaConstruct(oH, strXMLTag, 1);
else
oH = JavaConstruct(oH, strXMLTag, 0);
}
// Override this 'virtual' method to map member to XML tags
// through calls to MapMember();
private void MapXMLTagsToMembers()
{
}
void DontCacheMemberMaps()
{
JavaMapCacheDisable(oH);
}
void fromXML(String strXML)
{
JavaFromXML(oH, strXML);
}
String toXML()
{
return JavaToXML(oH);
}
private String MakeObjectName(String strIn)
{
if (strIn.compareToIgnoreCase("String") == 0)
{
strIn = "Ljava/lang/String;";
}; }
else
{
String sTemp = "L" + strIn + ";";
strIn = sTemp;
}
return strIn;
}
//
// MapAttrib for each native data type (1st without the optional 'nested' argument)
//
public void MapAttrib(long z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,0,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(double z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,1,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(short z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,2,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(byte z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,3,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(String z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,4,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(int z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,5,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(boolean z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,6,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 2);
}
//
// MapAttrib for each native data type (now with the optional 'nested' argument)
//
public void MapAttrib(long z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,0,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(double z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,1,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(short z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,2,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(byte z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,3,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(String z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,4,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(int z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,5,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 2);
}
public void MapAttrib(boolean z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,6,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 2);
}
//
// MapMember for each native data type (1st without optional nested-in-tag)
//
public void MapMember(long z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,0,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(double z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,1,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(short z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,2,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(byte z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,3,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(String z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,4,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(int z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,5,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(boolean z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,6,pzName,pzXMLTag,"","", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(Object ob, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType )
{
JavaMap(oH,7,pzName,pzXMLTag,"",MakeObjectName(strObjectType), "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(Vector a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,"",MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/Vector;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(Stack a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,"",MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/Stack;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(ArrayList a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,"",MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/ArrayList;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(LinkedList a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,"",MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/LinkedList;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(TreeSet a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,"",MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/TreeSet;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(HashSet a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,"",MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/HashSet;", 1);
}
//
// MapMember for each native data type (now with optional nested-in-tag)
//
public void MapMember(long z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,0,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(double z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,1,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(short z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,2,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(byte z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag)
{
JavaMap(oH,3,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(String z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,4,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(int z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,5,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(boolean z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,6,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"", "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(Object ob, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,7,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,MakeObjectName(strObjectType), "", 1);
}
public void MapMember(Vector a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,MakeObjectName(strObjectType),
"Ljava/util/Vector;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(Stack a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,MakeObjectName(strObjectType),
"Ljava/util/Stack;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(ArrayList a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,MakeObjectName(strObjectType),
"Ljava/util/ArrayList;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(LinkedList a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,MakeObjectName(strObjectType),
"Ljava/util/LinkedList;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(TreeSet a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,MakeObjectName(strObjectType),
"Ljava/util/TreeSet;", 1);
}
public void MapMember(HashSet a, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaMap(oH,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,MakeObjectName(strObjectType),
"Ljava/util/HashSet;", 1);
}
//
// Map ObjectID's - the JavaXMLFoundation works just the same with respect
// to object caching
//
public void MapObjectId(Object o, String Key1)
{
JavaMapOID(oH, o, Key1, "", "", "", "");
}
public void MapObjectId(Object o, String Key1, String Key2)
{
JavaMapOID(oH, o, Key1, Key2, "", "", "");
}
public void MapObjectId(Object o, String Key1, String Key2, String Key3)
{
JavaMapOID(oH, o, Key1, Key2, Key3, "", "");
}
public void MapObjectId(Object o, String Key1, String Key2, String Key3, String Key4)
{
JavaMapOID(oH, o, Key1, Key2, Key3, Key4, "");
}
public void MapObjectId(Object o, String Key1, String Key2, String Key3,
String Key4, String Key5)
{
JavaMapOID(oH, o, Key1, Key2, Key3, Key4, Key5);
}
//
// Get/Set Member for each native data type
//
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, long z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String pzNestedInTag, int nSource )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,0,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"","", nSource);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, double z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String pzNestedInTag, int nSource )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,1,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"","",nSource);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, short z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String pzNestedInTag, int nSource)
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,2,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"","",nSource);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, byte z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String pzNestedInTag, int nSource )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,3,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"","",nSource);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, String z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String pzNestedInTag , int nSource)
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,4,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"","",nSource);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, int z, String pzName, String pzXMLTag,
String pzNestedInTag, int nSource )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,5,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"","",nSource);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, boolean z, String pzName,
String pzXMLTag, String pzNestedInTag, int nSource )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,6,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,"","",nSource);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, Object o2, String pzName,
String pzXMLTag, String pzObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,7,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,
MakeObjectName(pzObjectType),"",1);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, Vector a, String pzName,
String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,
MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/Vector;",1);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, Stack a, String pzName,
String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag)
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,
MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/Stack;",1);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, ArrayList a, String pzName,
String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,
MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/ArrayList;",1);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, LinkedList a,
String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType,
String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,
MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/LinkedList;",1);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, TreeSet a, String pzName,
String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,
MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/TreeSet;",1);
}
public void Member(Object o, String xfer, HashSet a,
String pzName, String pzXMLTag, String strObjectType, String pzNestedInTag )
{
JavaExchange(o,oH,xfer,8,pzName,pzXMLTag,pzNestedInTag,
MakeObjectName(strObjectType),"Ljava/util/HashSet;",1);
}
}
About the author(s) of XMLFoundation
The XMLFoundation was designed and developed mostly by myself, with lots of help from me and I (http://about.me/brian.aberle) however I had help from co-designers on the NCIS (National Clinical Information System) Project, and mostly only 1 other co-developer. Special thanks to the SAIC management who believed in me and gave me the opportunity to develop the mother product. Thanks to everyone who stood beside me during the long and expensive labor of putting this work together. "I told you so" to everyone else. In the end technology prevails over politics and ignorance. The XMLFoundation contains several independent algorithms that were developed by other authors - and their supporting communities - their source code contains more information about them. Historically it has been the solo engineers that set the direction for the masses. Bjarne Stroustrup incremented the work of Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. There are countless contributors from the purest perspective of technology advancement and they could not possibly all be named here.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this started a long time ago and it's not going away anytime soon. It's a masterpiece conspiracy to end times of high crimes.
About the Author
Brian Aberle
United Business Technologies
United States United States
http://about.me/brian.aberle
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=d7ec275e76d295cf
</string10></ptag></ptag></i))!=0));></onitsside8></data></data>