piqi
Piqi is a multi-format data serialization system for OCaml. It provides a
uniform interface for serializing OCaml data structures to JSON, XML and
Protocol Buffers formats.
A typical Piqi usage scenario involves the following steps:
1. Install piqi-ocaml -- see installation instructions below.
2. Describe data structures using the Piqi data definition language or
Protocol Buffers .proto files
The Piqi data definition language can describe many
OCaml types, both primitive and user-defined. This includes integers, floats,
booleans, strings, binaries, lists, records and polymorphic variants.
.piqi modules can be converted to and from Protocol Buffers .proto files:
piqi to-proto X.piqi
piqi of-proto X.proto
3. Call the Piqi compiler (piqic-ocaml) to generate OCaml type definitions and
serialization code
piqic-ocaml X.piqi
4. Use generated serializes/deserializers in a user's program -- the desired
serialization format can be specified at runtime. For
examples:
% deserialize a data structure from Protocol Buffers
let buf = Piqirun.init_from_string bytes in
let addressbook = Addressbook_piqi.parse_address_book buf in ...
% serialize it as JSON
let json = Addressbook_piqi_ext.gen_address_book addressbook `json in ...
% serialize it as pretty-printed JSON
let json_pretty = Addressbook_piqi_ext.gen_address_book addressbook `json_pretty in ...
% serialize it as XML
let xml = Addressbook_piqi_ext.gen_address_book addressbook `xml in ...
Examples
See examples/addressbook and other projects in the
examples directory.
Installation
Installing using OPAM
In order to install Piqi using OPAM, run the
following command:
opam install piqi
This command will install the latest stable version of Piqi that includes piqi
and piqic-ocaml executables and runtime libraries for OCaml.
To install the latest development version of Piqi, use opam pinning.
opam pin add -n --dev-repo piqilib
opam pin add -n --dev-repo piqi
opam install piqi
Installing from source code
Download and install piqi and piqilib
Follow general build and installation instructions from the INSTALL file.
After that, build and install the piqilib OCaml library by running
make ocaml
make ocaml-install
Build and install
piqi-ocaml
make
make install
To uninstall:
make uninstall
Documentation
Piqi OCaml documentation is available at http://piqi.org/doc/ocaml/
The master copy is located in this repository:
doc/piqi-ocaml.md
Bugs
Please report found problems using GitHub
issues.
Mailing list
http://groups.google.com/group/piqi
Contributing
Your contributions are always welcome. Just open a pull request. Check TODO
list for ideas.
Some useful commands:
make test