From DevDracoBlue

DracoBlue's DJson is a dynamic file based reader/writer for the pawn language. Why Djson as name? Because the saved files are encoded with the JSON-Standard (JavaScriptObjectNotation), which is a very light weight encoding for data structures and originally used to describe javascript objects.

Why use DJson?

• Fast

DJson uses a database for caching purpose. So you can easily access the whole filesystem, read/write data, because they are already in the memory! Take a look at djAutocommit if you want to use the full power!

• Secure

You can use anything but "/" parts of the keys, so save whatever you want - no incompatibilites here!

Files are saved, as soon as the whole data is in the cache, so you won't lose any data, even if you turn of the computer while adding data! (Att: This does not count for the final commit, but it's pretty fast, though :-) )

• Unlimited (512 chars) structured items for paths and content

In djson you can use pathes, like this/is/a/very/long/......./path/up/to/512/characters.

In djson you can use so much content as you want, just properly update the DJSON_MAX_STRING, if 512 is still not enough! And of course this limit counts for every single item, so player/vehicle can have unlimited amount of subitems, with again 512 characters!

• Files

A reason why to use djson is of course, that the data is saved to files! Since djson uses the JSON-standard, you may use JavaScript, PHP, Flash, Java, ... and so on, to read the data!

Example in Javascript:

player = eval('{"player":{"name":"DracoBlue"}}');
alert(player.name); // "DracoBlue"!

• Arrays/Objects

In DJson you can use objects (hashtables) and arrays (lists) with values, which can be nested as deep as you want.

The arrays have some sweet extra functionality, like for example the djCount and the djAppend, which allows you to work with that items, like a general list in any other programming language - and it's all saved!

Example in Pawn:

djAppend("draco.json","player/vehicles",12);
djAppend("draco.json","player/vehicles",13);
djAppend("draco.json","player/vehicles",14);
print(djCount("draco.json","player/vehicles")) // tell's me that I have 3 vehicles!
print(dj("draco.json","player/vehicles/0")) // tell's me that the first (0) is a 12!

• Compatible

Since JSON is a standard, you may use (edit/read) the produced files with PHP/Flash/JavaScript/Java/C# and create for example an online map, with nearly no effort!

Download

Latest Version of DJson is 1.6.2 and can be found at the Download-Area of DracoBlue.net (djson_1_6_2.zip).

Saving is different to DINI

If you are fimilar with ini-files and used for example dini in the past, you remember the file-content, like:

var1=value
var2=value2
spawn.x=val4

... and so on.

Actually creating lists of elements (arrays) is difficult and ini files are not made for that.

In djson files you can write the following:

{
	"name":"DracoBlue",
	"vehicles":["PCJ","Cheetah","Banshee"],
	"position":{"x":1.2,"y":1.3,"z":10}
}

As you can see, we have an object, with the name DracoBlue, a position with x,y and z coordinates and a list of favourite vehicles.

Example

Before we can start, be sure that you have

#include djson 

at the top of your script. And added:

djson_OnGameModeInit();
djson_OnGameModeExit();

right in your gamemodeinit or exit function.

General

Use to write anything you want, into the file:

djSet("test.json","player/name","DracoBlue");

And use this to get the data back

print(dj("test.json","player/name")); // "DracoBlue"

Or use this to check if it exists:

if (djIsset("test.json","player") {
  // we have a player object in there!
}

Arrays

Create a file:

words.json

and put the content:

{"words":["hi","hello","hoho"]}

in it.

So let's begin:

new tmp[255];
djSet("words.json","words/1","my Word!");
for (i=0;i<djCount("words.json","words");i++) {
  format(tmp,255,"words/%d",i);
  print(dj("words.json",tmp));
}
// wil print:
hi
my Word!
hoho

Functions

Djson

Callback

Private