NoProto

High Performance Serialization Library

TODO:

Finish implementing Lists, Tuples & Maps
Collection Iterator
Compaction
Documentation
Tests

Features

Zero dependencies
#![no_std] support, WASM ready
Nearly instant deserilization & serialization
Schemas are dynamic/flexible at runtime
Mutate/Update/Delete values in existing buffers
Supports native data types
Supports collection types (list, map, table & tuple)
Supports deep nesting of collection types

NoProto allows you to store, read & mutate structured data with near zero overhead. It's like JSON but faster, type safe and allows native types. It's like Cap'N Proto/Flatbuffers except buffers and schemas are dynamic at runtime instead of requiring compilation.

NoProto moves the cost of deserialization to the access methods instead of deserializing the entire object ahead of time. This makes it a perfect use case for things like database storage or file storage of structured data.

Compared to FlatBuffers /Cap'N Proto

Schemas are dynamic at runtime, no compilation step
Supports more types and better nested type support
Mutate (add/delete/update) existing/imported buffers

Compared to JSON

Has schemas / type safe
Faster serialization & deserialization
Supports raw bytes & other native types

Compared to BSON

Faster serialization & deserialization
Has schemas / type safe
Supports much larger documents (4GB vs 16MB)
Better collection support & more supported types

Compared to Serde

Objects & schemas are dynamic at runtime
Faster serialization & deserialization

Limitations

Buffers cannot be larger than 2^32 bytes (~4GB).
Tables & List collections cannot have more than 2^16 direct descendant child items (~16k).
Enum/Option types are limited to 256 choices.
Buffers are not validated or checked before deserializing.

Quick Example

use no_proto::error::NP_Error;
use no_proto::NP_Factory;
use no_proto::collection::table::NP_Table;
use no_proto::pointer::NP_Ptr;

// JSON is used to describe schema for the factory
// Each factory represents a single schema
// One factory can be used to serialize/deserialize any number of buffers
let user_factory = NP_Factory::new(r#"{
    "type": "table",
    "columns": [
        ["name",   {"type": "string"}],
        ["pass",   {"type": "string"}],
        ["age",    {"type": "uint16"}]
    ]
}"#)?;

// creating a new buffer from the `user_factory` schema
// user_buffer contains a deserialized Vec<u8> containing our data
let user_buffer: Vec<u8> = user_factory.new_buffer(None, |mut buffer| {
   
    // open the buffer to read or update values
    let root: NP_Ptr<NP_Table> = buffer.root()?;  // <- type cast the root
        
   // the root of our schema is a collection type (NP_Table), 
   // so we have to collapse the root pointer into the collection type.
   let mut table: NP_Table = root.into()?.unwrap();

   // Select a column and type cast it. Selected columns can be mutated or read from.
   let mut user_name = table.select::<String>("name")?;

   // set value of name column
   user_name.set("some name".to_owned())?;

   // select age column and set it's value
   let mut age = table.select::<u16>("age")?;
   age.set(75)?;
   // done mutating/reading the buffer
   Ok(())
})?;
 
// open the new buffer, `user_buffer`, we just created
// user_buffer_2 contains the deserialized Vec<u8>
let user_buffer_2: Vec<u8> = user_factory.load_buffer(user_buffer, |mut buffer| {

   let root: NP_Ptr<NP_Table> = buffer.root()?;
        
   // get the table root again
   let mut table = root.into()?.unwrap();

   // read the name column
   let mut user_name = table.select::<String>("name")?;
   assert_eq!(user_name.get()?, Some(String::from("some name")));

   // password value will be None since we haven't set it.
   let mut password = table.select::<String>("pass")?;
   assert_eq!(password.get()?, None);

   // read age value    
   let mut age = table.select::<u16>("age")?;
   assert_eq!(age.get()?, Some(75));    

   // done with the buffer
   Ok(())
})?;

// we can now save user_buffer_2 to disk, 
// send it over the network, or whatever else is needed with the data

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.