libnop: C++ Native Object Protocols

libnop is a header-only library for serializing and deserializing C++ data types without external code generators or runtime support libraries. The only mandatory requirement is a compiler that supports the C++14 standard.

Note: This is not an officially supported Google product at this time.

Goals

libnop has the following goals:

• Make simple serialization tasks easy and complex tasks tractable.
• Remove the need to use code generators and schema files to describe data types, formats, and protocols: perform these tasks naturally within the C++ language.
• Avoid additional runtime support requirements for serialization.
• Provide contemporary features such as bidirectional binary compatibility, data validation, type safety, and type fungibility.
• Handle intrinsic types, common STL types and containers, and user-defined types with a minimum of effort.
• Produce optimized code that is easy to analyze and profile.
• Avoid internal dynamic memory allocation when possible.

Getting Started

Take a look at Getting Started for an introduction to the library.

Quick Examples

Here is a quick series of examples to demonstrate how libnop is used. You can find more examples in the repository under examples/.

Writing STL Containers to a Stream

#include <iostream>
#include <map>
#include <sstream>
#include <utility>
#include <vector>

#include <nop/serializer.h>
#include <nop/utility/stream_writer.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  using Writer = nop::StreamWriter<std::stringstream>;
  nop::Serializer<Writer> serializer;

  serializer.Write(std::vector<int>{1, 2, 3, 4});
  serializer.Write(std::vector<std::string>{"foo", "bar", "baz"});

  using MapType =
      std::map<std::uint32_t, std::pair<std::uint64_t, std::string>>;
  serializer.Write(
      MapType{{0, {10, "foo"}}, {1, {20, "bar"}}, {2, {30, "baz"}}});

  const std::string data = serializer.writer().stream().str();
  std::cout << "Wrote " << data.size() << " bytes." << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

Simple User-Defined Types

#include <cstdint>
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

#include <nop/serializer.h>
#include <nop/structure.h>
#include <nop/utility/stream_writer.h>

namespace example {

struct Person {
  std::string name;
  std::uint32_t age_years;
  std::uint8_t height_inches;
  std::uint16_t weight_pounds;
  NOP_STRUCTURE(Person, name, age_years, height_inches, weight_pounds);
};

}  // namespace example

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  using Writer = nop::StreamWriter<std::stringstream>;
  nop::Serializer<Writer> serializer;

  serializer.Write(example::Person{"John Doe", 37, 72, 180});
  serializer.Write(std::vector<example::Person>{
      {"John Doe", 37, 72, 180}, {"Jane Doe", 36, 69, 130}});

  const std::string data = serializer.writer().stream().str();
  std::cout << "Wrote " << data.size() << " bytes." << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

More Complex User-Defined Types

#include <array>
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>

#include <nop/serializer.h>
#include <nop/structure.h>
#include <nop/utility/stream_writer.h>

namespace example {

// Contrived template type with private members.
template <typename T>
struct UserDefined {
 public:
  UserDefined() = default;
  UserDefined(std::string label, std::vector<T> vector)
      : label_{std::move(label)}, vector_{std::move(vector)} {}

  const std::string label() const { return label_; }
  const std::vector<T>& vector() const { return vector_; }

 private:
  std::string label_;
  std::vector<T> vector_;

  NOP_STRUCTURE(UserDefined, label_, vector_);
};

}  // namespace example

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  using Writer = nop::StreamWriter<std::stringstream>;
  nop::Serializer<Writer> serializer;

  serializer.Write(example::UserDefined<int>{"ABC", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}});

  using ArrayType = std::array<example::UserDefined<float>, 2>;
  serializer.Write(
      ArrayType{{{"ABC", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}}, {"XYZ", {3.14, 2.72, 23.14}}}});

  const std::string data = serializer.writer().stream().str();
  std::cout << "Wrote " << data.size() << " bytes." << std::endl;
  return 0;
}