YACT - Yet Another Configuration Tutorial

Introduction
First I want to say that never ever use BBCode with Google Chrome, at least on a Finnish keyboard layout. It enters an awesome arabian text mode that I don't want to use. Now to the tutorial, this is pretty much a copy-pasta tutorial, but I'll have some text in here too.

Your config-class

Code:java

// Package Declaration
package my.plugin.here.config;
 
// Java Imports
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.EnumMap;
import java.util.Map;
 
// Bukkit Imports
import org.bukkit.Bukkit;
import org.bukkit.configuration.InvalidConfigurationException;
import org.bukkit.configuration.file.YamlConfiguration;
 
/**
 * A class that handles all configuration files.
 *
 * @author iffa
 * @author Pandarr
 * @author Sammy
 * @author kitskub
 */
public class MyConfig {
    // Variables
    private static Map<ConfigFile, YamlConfiguration> config = new EnumMap<ConfigFile, YamlConfiguration>(ConfigFile.class);
    private static Map<ConfigFile, File> configFile = new EnumMap<ConfigFile, File>(ConfigFile.class);
    private static Map<ConfigFile, Boolean> loaded = new EnumMap<ConfigFile, Boolean>(ConfigFile.class);
 
    /**
     * Gets the configuration file.
     *
     * @param configfile ConfigFile to get
     *
     * @return YamlConfiguration object
     */
    public static YamlConfiguration getConfig(ConfigFile configfile) {
        if (loaded.get(configfile) == null || !loaded.get(configfile)) {
            loadConfig(configfile);
        }
        return config.get(configfile);
    }
 
    /**
     * Gets the configuration file.
     *
     * @param configfile ConfigFile to get
     *
     * @return Configuration file
     */
    public static File getConfigFile(ConfigFile configfile) {
        return configFile.get(configfile);
    }
 
    /**
     * Checks if the configuration file is loaded.
     *
     * @param configfile ConfigFile to get
     *
     * @return True if configuraton file is loaded
     */
    public static boolean getLoaded(ConfigFile configfile) {
        return loaded.get(configfile);
    }
 
    /**
     * Loads all configuration files. (can be used to save a total of 2 lines!)
     */
    public static void loadConfigs() {
        for (ConfigFile configfile : ConfigFile.values()) {
            loadConfig(configfile);
        }
    }
 
    /**
     * Loads the configuration file from the .jar.
     *
     * @param configfile ConfigFile to load
     */
    public static void loadConfig(ConfigFile configfile) {
        configFile.put(configfile, new File(Bukkit.getServer().getPluginManager().getPlugin("MyPlugin").getDataFolder(), configfile.getFile()));
        if (configFile.get(configfile).exists()) {
            config.put(configfile, new YamlConfiguration());
            try {
                config.get(configfile).load(configFile.get(configfile));
            } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
                //SpaceMessageHandler.print(Level.WARNING, ex.getMessage());
                loaded.put(configfile, false);
                return;
            } catch (IOException ex) {
                //SpaceMessageHandler.print(Level.WARNING, ex.getMessage());
                loaded.put(configfile, false);
                return;
            } catch (InvalidConfigurationException ex) {
                //SpaceMessageHandler.print(Level.WARNING, ex.getMessage());
                loaded.put(configfile, false);
                return;
            }
            loaded.put(configfile, true);
        } else {
            try {
                Bukkit.getServer().getPluginManager().getPlugin("MyPlugin").getDataFolder().mkdir();
                InputStream jarURL = MyConfig.class.getResourceAsStream("/" + configfile.getFile());
                copyFile(jarURL, configFile.get(configfile));
                config.put(configfile, new YamlConfiguration());
                config.get(configfile).load(configFile.get(configfile));
                loaded.put(configfile, true);
                //SpaceMessageHandler.print(Level.INFO, "Generated " + configfile.getFile() + " file");
            } catch (Exception e) {
                //SpaceMessageHandler.print(Level.SEVERE, e.toString());
            }
        }
    }
 
    /**
     * Copies a file to a new location.
     *
     * @param in InputStream
     * @param out File
     *
     * @throws Exception
     */
    static private void copyFile(InputStream in, File out) throws Exception {
        InputStream fis = in;
        FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(out);
        try {
            byte[] buf = new byte[1024];
            int i = 0;
            while ((i = fis.read(buf)) != -1) {
                fos.write(buf, 0, i);
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw e;
        } finally {
            if (fis != null) {
                fis.close();
            }
            if (fos != null) {
                fos.close();
            }
        }
    }
 
    /**
     * Constructor of MyConfig.
     */
    private MyConfig() {
    }
 
    /**
     * All config files.
     */
    public enum ConfigFile {
        // Enums
        CONFIG("config.yml"),
        SOMETHING("another.yml"),
        YADDAYADDA("rofl.yml"),
        CUPCAKES("cake.yml");
        // Variables
        private String file;
 
        /**
         * Constructor of ConfigFile.
         *
         * @param file File name
         */
        ConfigFile(String file) {
            this.file = file;
        }
 
        /**
         * Gets the file associated with the enum.
         *
         * @return File associated wiht the enum
         */
        public String getFile() {
            return this.file;
        }
    }
}

As you can see, the ConfigFile-enum contains all configuration files of your plugin. This allows easy adding:

• Add the configuration file to your .jar (like you would normally do)
• Add the configuration file to the enum and include the name of the file

See, it's that easy. Now if you want to handle them, it's going to take a little extra effort. If you make changes to your configuration files, you can just do

Code:java

try {
            MyConfig.getConfig(ConfigFile.CUPCAKES).save(MyConfig.getConfigFile(ConfigFile.CUPCAKES));
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            Logger.getLogger(MyConfigHandler.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        }

And to load all configs on startup, you can just call MyConfig.loadConfigs()!
Your config handler-class
Alright, so we have the class that handles creating and loading configuration files, but we need to make a class to handle these configuration files (methods to get values easily etc):

Code:java

// Package Declaration
package my.plugin.here.config;
 
// MyPlugin Imports
import my.plugin.here.config.MyConfig.ConfigFile;
 
/**
 * Yadda yadda useful methods here.
 *
 * @author iffa
 */
public class MyConfigHandler {
    /**
     * Gets 'some value' from cupcakes.yml.
     *
     * @return True if cupcakes are delicious
     */
    public static boolean getSomeValue() {
        return MyConfig.getConfig(ConfigFile.CUPCAKES).getBoolean("are.cupcakes.delicious");
    }
 
    // More methods here VV
 
    /**
     * Constructor of MyConfigHandler.
     */
    private MyConfigHandler() {
    }
}

If you has problems, I'll try to helps. You're grammar errores are annoy though!

[Mod edit (TnT)] Cleaned up language.

 

Excuse me if I am the most retarded person in the world, (I may just be tired) but where would I put

Code:Java

 
try {
    MyConfig.getConfig(ConfigFile.CUPCAKES).save(MyConfig.getConfigFile(ConfigFile.CUPCAKES));
} catch (IOException ex) {
    Logger.getLogger(MyConfigHandler.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}

 

Errm, right. If you set config file values you can use that to save the config file.