Need help accessing a list of objects in YAML

Hello All,

I have to admit, my experience with YAML is minimal, but I have a properly formatted YAML file that holds the information I need and I seem to be having a problem using the bukkit FileConfiguration class to gain access to the data stored in my plugin's config.

The data contains a list of complex data items identified by IP Address. Considering the "dot nature" of the IP address and a potential conflict with the "dot nature" of the getConfig() method, I chose to store the list in the following way...

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Code:

servers:
    - server:
        ip: 192.168.1.101
        port: 25566
        name: test
        clients:
            - 192.168.1.105
    - server:
        ip: 192.168.1.101
        port: 25567
        name: qa
        clients:
            - 192.168.1.104
    - server:
        ip: 192.168.1.101
        port: 25568
        name: production
        clients:
            - 192.168.1.106
    - server:
        ip: 192.168.1.101
        port: 25569
        name: dev
        clients:
            - 192.168.1.105
    - server:
        ip: 192.168.1.101
        port: 25570
        name: dev2
        clients:
            - 192.168.1.105

...where the servers node contains a list of server objects. I have verified that this is valid YAML and I can get close to the data that I need using...

Code:java

Plugin.getConfig().getList("servers")

...but I'm having a bit of trouble getting past that initial list of servers.

Can someone help me figure out how to use the built-in bukkit FileConfiguration objects to get and set information that is part of this server list, and to add and remove server nodes from the list? This would be really simple using XML and xpath to query the data that I require, but I'm trying to stay true to the YAML nature of a bukkit plugin's configuration information. Assuming that this might be consumed by others who have more experience with YAML.

Thanks.
-Peas

Anyone?

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

Parsing it the way you have it right now is not really elegant, I think.
I would rather go with a format like this (also, this looks closer to how you'd have the same thing in json):

Code:

servers:
    - ip: 192.168.1.101
      port: 25566
      name: test
      clients:
          - 192.168.1.105
    - ip: 192.168.1.101
      port: 25567
      name: qa
      clients:
          - 192.168.1.104
    - ip: 192.168.1.101
      port: 25568
      name: production
      clients:
          - 192.168.1.106
    - ip: 192.168.1.101
      port: 25569
      name: dev
      clients:
          - 192.168.1.105
    - ip: 192.168.1.101
      port: 25570
      name: dev2
      clients:
          - 192.168.1.105

When you then call getList for 'servers' you would be provided with a list of hashmaps which have 'ip', 'post', 'name' and 'clients' as their keys and their respective values.
currently you'd have a list of hashmaps with only one key being 'server' and it's value being another hashmap with it's respective content.

 

@kumpelblase2: Good call on the format change. That does simplify things a bit.

I was able to retrieve a list of clients for a given server (ip+port), using the following...

Code:java

 
List list = Plugin.getConfig().getList("servers");
 
for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
    LinkedHashMap map = (LinkedHashMap) list.get(i);
    String ip = (String) map.get("ip");
    if (ip.equals(targetIP)) {
        Integer port = (Integer) map.get("port");
        if (port.equals(targetPort)) {
            ret = new StringList((ArrayList) map.get("clients"));
        }
    }
}
 
return ret;
 

However... It uses "unchecked or unsafe operations", which I'm not really cool with. I was really hoping that the FileConfiguration class within bukkit would have provided a way to directly interact with the list, by way of it's internal objects.

I am toying with the idea of creating a custom object/collection, containing the settings and using snakeyaml to serialize and deserialize the yaml directly from and back into the object. But this circumvents Bukkit's config file handling. Which I'm not completely okay with either.

Is there no good way of interacting directly with this list data from within the FileConfiguration class?

 

Bukkit uses snakeyml so it's completely fine to create a serializeable object and use it with the configuration. I have done this at some point and see people use it so I don't know why there should be issues with it.
You might want to take a look at this: http://wiki.bukkit.org/Configuration_API_Reference#Serializing_and_Deserializing_Objects

 

@kumpelblase2: Yes. Thanks for cluing me in on the built-in object serialization. I think I will try to make that work before I go to an external library. I'd rather play IN the sandbox, than go make my own.