StructuredDataView

StructuredDataView gives you buffer-backed objects. It takes a schema definition to make ArrayBuffers more convenient to use and utilizes DataView under the hood.

npm i -S structured-array-view

Why?

When using Web Workers, the performance of postMessage() (or the structured clone algorithm to be exact) is often a concern. While postMessage() is faster than most people give it credit for, it can be a bottle-neck, especially with bigger payloads. ArrayBuffer and their views are incredibly quick to clone, or can even be transferred. However, getting data in and out of ArrayBuffers can be quite cumbersome. StructuredDataView makes this easy by giving you a (seemingly) normal JavaScript object that reads and write values from the ArrayBuffer on demand.

Example

StructuredDataView interprets the given ArrayBuffer as an object with the given schema:

import {StructuredDataView} from "@surma/structured-data-view";

const {buffer} = new ArrayBuffer(100);
const view = new StructuredDataView({
  id: StructuredDataView.Uint16({endianess: 'little'}),
  position: StructuredDataView.NestedStructuredDataView({
    x: StructuredDataView.Float32(),
    y: StructuredDataView.Float32(),
    z: StructuredDataView.Float32()
  }),
  normal: StructuredDataView.NestedStructuredDataView({
    x: StructuredDataView.Float32(),
    y: StructuredDataView.Float32(),
    z: StructuredDataView.Float32()
  })
  textureId: ArrayOfStructsView.Uint8(),
});

view.id = 3;
console.log(JSON.stringify(view)); // {"id": 3, ...}

ArrayOfStructuredDataView interprets the given ArrayBuffer as an array of objects with the given schema:

import {ArrayOfStructuredDataViews, StructuredDataView} from "@surma/structured-data-view";

const {buffer} = new ArrayBuffer(100);
const view = new ArrayOfStructuredDataViews({
  id: StructuredDataView.Uint16({endianess: 'little'}),
  position: StructuredDataView.NestedStructuredDataView({
    x: StructuredDataView.Float32(),
    y: StructuredDataView.Float32(),
    z: StructuredDataView.Float32()
  }),
  normal: StructuredDataView.NestedStructuredDataView({
    x: StructuredDataView.Float32(),
    y: StructuredDataView.Float32(),
    z: StructuredDataView.Float32()
  })
  textureId: ArrayOfStructsView.Uint8(),
});

// The struct takes up a total of 27 bytes, so
// 3 structs fit into a 100 byte `ArrayBuffer`.
console.log(view.length) // 3
view.id = 3;
JSON.stringify(view); // [{"id": 0, ...}, {"id": 0, ...}, {"id": 3, ...}]

API

The module has the following exports:

new StructuredDataView(buffer, descriptors, {byteOffset = 0})

Returns an object that works on buffer at the given byteOffset. The properties in the descriptors object must be in the same order as they are laid out in the buffer. The returned object has getters and setters for each of these properties. The following descriptor types are provided:

• StructuredDataView.reserved(numBytes): Unused bytes. This field will now show up in the object.
• StructuredDataView.Int8(): An 8-bit signed integer
• StructuredDataView.Uint8(): An 8-bit unsigned integer
• StructuredDataView.Int16({endianess = 'big'}): An 16-bit signed integer
• StructuredDataView.Uint16({endianess = 'big'}): An 16-bit unsigned integer
• StructuredDataView.Int32({endianess = 'big'}): An 32-bit signed integer
• StructuredDataView.Uint32({endianess = 'big'}): An 32-bit unsigned integer
• StructuredDataView.BigInt64({endianess = 'big'}): An 64-bit signed BigInt
• StructuredDataView.BigUint64({endianess = 'big'}): An 64-bit unsigned BigInt
• StructuredDataView.Float32({endianess = 'big'}): An 32-bit IEEE754 float
• StructuredDataView.Float64({endianess = 'big'}): An 64-bit IEEE754 float (“double”)
• StructuredDataView.UTF8String(maxBytes): A UTF-8 encoded string with the given maximum number of bytes. Trailing NULL bytes will be trimmed after decoding.
• StructuredDataView.ArrayBuffer(size): An ArrayBuffer of the given size
• StructuredDataView.NestedStructuredDataView(descriptors): A nested StructuredDataView with the given descriptors
• StructuredDataView.NestedArrayOfStructuredDataViews(descriptors): A nested ArrayOfStructuredDataViews with the given descriptors

new ArrayOfStructuredDataViews(buffer, descriptors, {byteOffset = 0, length = 0})

Like StructuredDataView, but returns an array of StructuredDataViews. If length is 0, as much of the buffer is used as possible.

structSize(descriptors)

Returns the number of bytes used by the schema outlined by descriptors.

Defining your own descriptor types

All the descriptor functions return an object with the following structure:

{
  size: 4, // Size required by the type
  get(dataView, byteOffset) {
    // Decode the value at byteOffset using
    // `dataView` or `dataView.buffer` and
    // return it.
  },
  set(dataView, byteOffset, value) {
    // Store `value` at `byteOffset` using
    // `dataView` or `dataView.buffer`.
  }
}

License Apache-2.0