An object oriented persistance framework from iStumbler Labs modeled on the Apple Newton API.
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Unlike traditional operating systems such as the MacOS and Windows NT there is
no file system and therefore no files in the Newton Operating Sytystem. Data is
instead stored in opaque collections like a database in entities known as soups.
Each entry in a soup can be likened to a record in a database and each data member
in an entry (known as a slot) can be likened to a field in a database. Unlike database
records entries in a soup do not all have to have the same slots.
To retrieve data entries from the soups you don't access them directly but rather
send queries to the soups which return cursor objects. You then use the cursor
object to get copies of individual entries in the soup. You can then do whatever
you want with the copies. The original entries in the soups are not modified unless
you overwrite them with your changed copy.
The actual soups themselves are held on the Newton in stores. Every Newton device
has at least one store (the internal store) but they can also have other external
stores on PCMCIA cards. On a Newton MessagePad 130 there can be one external store
as there is one PCMCIA slot. Other devices such as the MessagePad 2000 which has
two PCMCIA slots can have more external stores.
So that you don't have to worry about which store your soup is on you can use a
type of soup known as a union soup in your application. This is a system maintained
virtual soup that is made up of all entries from a particular named soup no matter
where the entries are physically stored.
For Example - if you have two soups named "Match Results" (one on the internal store
and one on an external store) to hold results of football matches you can treat them
as one big soup containing all the entries by using a union soup. Union soups take
into account any choices you make for default storage location and add new entries to
a union soup in the member soup which resides on your default store.
Soup was designed for dealing with storage on a mobile device where storage is transient. This model is useful for modern mobile devcies, particlary when they move between offline and connected states due to network availability. While most database focus on large data set performance or suitabiilty for high demand online production loads, few are optimized for the mobile use case, and fewer take the realaties of mobile networking into account.
Soup brings back the simplicity and clarity of the Newton Soup API, adds modern conveniances and provides an interface tuned for developing user-facing data sets with flexable indexing and storage.
Soups clear, simple design makes it easy to understand and to quickly intergrate into apps. The whole framework is less than 1MB!
Soup has features which make it a pleasure to work with when building User interfaces.
Soup entires and cursors are immutable, but you can easily create copies with mutations and automaticallly maintain a hitory of edits, making undo operations easy to implement and preventing errors resulting from mutating objects as they are displayed.
The ability to build union soups and for entries to be adoped from one soup to another allows for the flexability to have local, online, and peer soups which are merged into a single data source for an applicaiton to present to the user.
The Soup framework consists of the following protocols:
- ILSoup — ILSoup is the peer of the newtSoup proto
- ILSoupDelegate — recieves messages when the soup performs operations or encouters errors
- ILSoupEntry — basic data storage unit in a soup
- ILMutableSoupEntry — allows for mutation of elements
- ILSoupIndex — fast access to soup entries by property index
- ILSoupCursor — index operations return cursors, which contain a list of entries
- ILSoupIdentityIndex
- ILSoupTextIndex — index which can be queried for text
- ILSoupDateIndex — index which can be queried for dates and ranges
- ILSoupNumberIndex — index which can be queried for numbers and ranges
- ILSoupSequence — fast access to time sequence data for numeric properties of entries
- ILSoupSequceSource — Impedence match with SparkKit
Stock in-memory implementations of the Soup Protocols
- ILSoupStock .m
- ILStockEntry .m
- ILMutableStockEntry
- ILStockIndex .m
- ILStockCursor
- ILStockIdentityIndex
- ILStockTextIndex
- ILStockDateIndex
- ILStockNumberIndex
- ILStockSequence .m
- ILStockSequenceSource
The Soup framework includes a few pre-made flavors which you may find useful in your applications.
- ILFileSoup — file-system based soup, entries are written to files
- ILMemorySoup — in-memory soup made with Stock ingredients
- ILQueuedSoup — performs all queue and delegate operations on serial background queues
- ILSynchedSoup — synchronized access to a soup, so that it can safely be mutated across multiple threads
- ILUnionSoup — Combines several soups into a single virutal store
- ILUnionSoupDelegate — Delegate messages relating to the soup
// define some keys for our address book
static NSString* const ILName = @"name";
static NSString* const ILEmail = @"email";
static NSString* const ILNotes = @"notes";
// create a stock memory soup
ILMemorySoup* memory = [ILMemorySoup makeSoup:@"Address Book"];
// prep the soup with some default indexes
memory.soupDescription = @"Address Book Example Soup";
[memory createIndex:ILSoupEntryAncestorEntryHash];
[memory createDateIndex:ILSoupEntryCreationDate];
[memory createDateIndex:ILSoupEntryMutationDate];
[memory createTextIndex:ILName];
[memory createTextIndex:ILEmail];
[memory createTextIndex:ILNotes];
// add some entries to the union
[memory addEntry:[[memory createBlankEntry] mutatedEntry:@{
ILName: @"John Doe",
ILEmail: @"[email protected]"
}]];
[memory addEntry:[[memory createBlankEntry] mutatedEntry:@{
ILName: @"Jane Gru",
ILEmail: @"[email protected]"
}]];
// print out all entries
NSLog(@"%@", memory);
id<ILSoupEntry> entry = nil;
while ((entry = [memory.cursor nextEntry])) {
NSLog(@"entry: %@", entry);
}
// search for does
id<ILSoupCursor> does = [[memory queryTextIndex:ILName] entriesMatching:@".* Doe"];
while ((entry = [does nextEntry])) {
NSLog(@"doe %lu: %@", does.index, entry);
}
Much like other data handlig frameworks, support is provided for custom model classes using dynamic properties. For e.g. in Swift we can define a class with dynamic properties easily:
// AddressBookEntry.swift
//
final class AddressBookEntry: ILStockEntry {
dynamic var entryName: String? = nil
dynamic var entryEmail: String? = nil
dynamic var entryPhone: String? = nil
dynamic var entryURL: URL? = nil
dynamic var entryNotes: String? = nil
dynamic var entryBirthday: Date? = nil
dynamic var entryParents: Array<String>? = nil
dynamic var entrySpouse: String? = nil
}
Doing so in Objective-C is slightly more verbose:
// AddressBookEntry.h
//
@interface AddressBookEntry : ILStockEntry
@property(nonatomic,retain) NSString* entryName;
@property(nonatomic,retain) NSString* entryEmail;
@property(nonatomic,retain) NSString* entryPhone;
@property(nonatomic,retain) NSURL* entryURL;
@property(nonatomic,retain) NSString* entryNotes;
@property(nonatomic,retain) NSDate* entryBirthday;
@property(nonatomic,retain) NSArray<NSString*>* entryParents;
@property(nonatimic,retain) NSString* entrySpouse;
@end
// AddressBookEntry.m
//
@implementation AddressBookEntry
@dynamic entryName;
@dynamic entryEmail;
@dynamic entryPhone;
@dynamic entryURL;
@dynamic entryNotes;
@dynamic entryBirthday;
@dynamic entryParents;
@dynamic entrySpouse;
@end
Currently only object properties are supported, boxing and unboxing of primative types is a goal, along with alias storage
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright © 2019-2023 Alf Watt
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
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