TemplateTable

TemplateTable provides simple dictionary with fast-loading and dynamic-updating.

Where can I get it?

PM> Install-Package TemplateTable
PM> Install-Package TemplateTable.Json
PM> Install-Package TemplateTable.Protobuf

Example

Let's see an example. In this example, we will define card, load card data from file and consume it.

To show more realistic case, we'll use card data of famous game Hearthstone. But it doesn't mean this library was used by the game. Data was collected from https://hearthstonejson.com.

Define template class

With POCO, we define class CardDescription.

public class CardDescription
{
    public string Id;
    public string Name;
    public CardType Type;
    public Rarity Rarity;
    public Faction Fraction;
    public string Text;
    public Mechanic[] Mechanics;
    public string Flavor;
    public string Artist;
    public int Attack;
    public int Health;
    public bool Collectible;
    public bool Elite;
}

And card data is written as json array like this.

[
  {
    "Id": "AT_001",
    "Name": "Flame Lance",
    "...": "...",
  },
  {
    "Id": "AT_002",
    "Name": "Effigy",
    "...": "...",
  },
]

Construct a table from json

From json data, we can construct a template table holding all card data as following.

var json = File.ReadAllText(@"CardTable.json");
_cardTable = new TemplateTable<string, CardDescription>();
_cardTable.Load(new TemplateTableJsonLoader<string, CardDescription>(json, false));

You can choose bson-pack and protobuf-pack for data format instead of json.

Lookup

var card = _cardTable["GVG_112"];
Console.WriteLine("Name: " + card.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Text: " + card.Text);

// Ouput:
// Name: Mogor the Ogre
// Text: All minions have a 50% chance to attack the wrong enemy.

Ghost Value

TemplateTable implements indexer [key] like Dictionary. Like Dictionary, it returns value matched for key but when nothing matched it throws KeyNotFoundException exception.

var card = _cardTable["GVG_200"]; // _cardTable doesn't contain "GVG_200"

// Output:
// System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException: KeyNotFound: GVG_200

But it's convenient to get ghost value when nothing matched instead of catching a brutal exception. You can set GhostValueFactory which will be used for creating ghost value like this.

_cardTable.GhostValueFactory = id => new CardDescription { Id = id, Name = "Ghost" };

With this factory, we always get value when using indexer of TemplateTable.

var card = _cardTable["GVG_200"];
Console.WriteLine("Name: " + card.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Text: " + card.Text);

// Output:
// Name: Ghost
// Text:

Ghost value created will be reused in case that look-up same key. But this doesn't mean ghost value is inserted in the table on the fly.

Update table

Basically TemplateTable is used as readonly table. It can be used in editing table or in runtime-patching. For these cases, you can use Update method of TemplateTable

var jsonLoader = new TemplateTableJsonLoader<int, TestObject>(json, false);
_cardTable.Update(jsonLoader);

Update method create, replace and remove as loader provides.

Thread Safety

TemplateTable uses ConcurrentDictionary for implementing table. You can expect same thread-safety for TemplateTable like ConcurrentDictionary.

Delayed Loading

To make initial loading fast, TemplateTable provides delayed loading. It is usually used in bson-pack and protobuf-pack because packing can separate key table and value data.

If you have tons of data, it will spend lots of time for loading huge data before running app. It's not good for fast development with many iterations. Delayed loading can be used to handle this problem. But keep in mind that if you load all data at the beginning, delayed loading might give more burden to GC.

Format

Current TemplateTable can load data from json, bson-pack and protobuf-pack. Each format has pros / cons.

• Json is very human readable but not that fast in loading and doesn't speed efficient delayed loading.
• Bson-pack provides speed efficient delayed loading. But not human readable and not faster than simple json in regular loading.
• Protobuf-pack provides most fastest loading speed. But not human reable and it need more strict and limited POCO.

Json

With TemplateTableJsonLoader, TemplateTable can load data from json file.

cardTable.Load(new TemplateTableJsonLoader<string, CardDescription>(
                   File.ReadAllText("Table.json"), false));

To save, we can use class TemplateTableJsonSaver.

using (var file = File.Create("Table.json"))
{
    new TemplateTableJsonSaver<string, CardDescription>().SaveTo(cardTable, file);
}

Bson-pack

With TemplateTableBsonPackLoader, TemplateTable can load data from json bson-pack.

cardTable.Load(new TemplateTableBsonPackLoader<string, CardDescription>(
                   File.Open("Table.bin", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read), false));

To save, we can use class TemplateTableBsonPackSaver.

using (var file = File.Create("Table.bin"))
{
    new TemplateTableBsonPackSaver<string, CardDescription>().SaveTo(cardTable, file);
}

Protobuf-pack

For using protobuf-pack, related data classes should have a proper ProtoContractAttribute.

[ProtoContract(ImplicitFields = ImplicitFields.AllPublic)]
public class CardDescription
{
    public string Id;
    // ...
}

With TemplateTableProtobufPackLoader, TemplateTable can load data from protobuf-pack.

cardTable.Load(new TemplateTableProtobufPackLoader<string, CardDescription>(
                   File.Open("Table.bin", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read), false));

To save, we can use class TemplateTableProtobufPackSaver.

using (var file = File.Create("Table.bin"))
{
    new TemplateTableProtobufPackSaver<string, CardDescription>().SaveTo(cardTable, file);
}