PlainFields 🌱

PlainFields is a lightweight, human-friendly configuration language for Go applications. It provides a simple syntax for expressing structured data with fields, lists, and key-value pairs.

name=PlainFields, version=1.0.0, ^enabled, !deprecated, features=simple;human-readable;flexible, 
settings=theme:dark;indent:4;display:compact

✨ Features

• 🔤 Clean, minimal syntax
  No curly braces, no complex nesting. Friendly to read and write by humans
• 📏 Compact
  Minimal syntax overhead, no deep nesting to navigate
• 🔄 Boolean toggles
  Use ^feature to enable, !feature to disable
• 📋 Lists and maps
  Simple syntax for collections: tags=red;green;blue font=family:Arial;size:12
• ⚡ Event-based parser
  Efficient parsing and serialization with a streaming parser API
• 🔨 Fluent builder API
  Programmatically create plainfields strings
• 🧩 Zero dependencies
  Just pure Go standard library, no reflect used

📦 Installation

go get -u github.com/0x5a17ed/plainfields

🚀 Quick Start

🔍 Parsing PlainFields

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	
	"github.com/0x5a17ed/plainfields"
)

func main() {
	input := "^enabled, name=john, settings=theme:dark;fontSize:14"
	for event := range plainfields.Parse(input) {
		switch e := event.(type) {
		case plainfields.OrderedFieldStartEvent:
			fmt.Printf("  Field: %s\n", e.Index)
		case plainfields.LabeledFieldStartEvent:
			fmt.Printf("  Field: %s\n", e.Name)
		case plainfields.ValueEvent:
			fmt.Printf("  Value: %s\n", e.Value)
		case plainfields.MapStartEvent:
			fmt.Printf("    Map:\n")
		case plainfields.MapKeyEvent:
			fmt.Printf("    Key: %s\n", e.Value)
		}
	}
}
// Output:
// Field: enabled
// Value: true
// Field: name
// Value: john
// Field: settings
// Map:
// Key: theme
// Value: dark
// Key: fontSize
// Value: 14

✏️ Creating PlainFields

package main

import (
	"fmt"

	"github.com/0x5a17ed/plainfields"
)

func main() {
	builder := plainfields.NewBuilder()
	result := builder.
		Enable("feature").
		Labeled("name", "john").
		LabeledList("tags", "dev", "prod").
		LabeledDict("settings", "theme", "dark", "fontSize", 14).
		String()

	fmt.Println(result)
}

// Output: ^feature,name=john,tags=dev;prod,settings=theme:dark;fontSize:14

📝 Syntax

PlainFields uses a simple, flat structure:

• Fields are comma-separated: name=john, age=30
• Boolean toggles use prefixes: ^enabled, !disabled
• Lists use semicolons: tags=red;green;blue
• Maps (key-value pairs) use colon and semicolon: settings=theme:dark;fontSize:14
• Blank spaces are allowed around syntax elements

🧪 Data Types

• Strings: name=john or message="Hello, world!" (quotes for special chars)
• Numbers: age=30, pi=3.14, hex=0xFF, binary=0b1010
• Booleans: active=true or valid=false
• Lists: colors=red;green;blue
• Maps: settings=theme:dark;fontSize:14
• Null: value=nil

📚 Detailed Usage

🛠️ Builder with Options

package main

import (
	"fmt"

	"github.com/0x5a17ed/plainfields"
)

func main() {
	options := plainfields.BuilderOptions{
		SpaceAfterFieldSeparator:   true,
		SpaceAfterListSeparator:    true,
		SpaceAfterPairsSeparator:   true,
		SpaceAroundFieldAssignment: true,
	}

	builder := plainfields.NewBuilder(options)
	result := builder.
		Enable("feature").
		Labeled("name", "john").
		LabeledList("tags", "dev", "prod").
		LabeledDict("settings", "theme", "dark", "fontSize", 14).
		String()

	fmt.Println(result)
}

// Output: ^feature, name = john, tags = dev; prod, settings = theme: dark; fontSize: 14

📜 License

This project is licensed under the 0BSD Licence — see the LICENCE file for details.

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Made with ❤️ for structured data 🌟