[Interest] CBOR Questions

[Thiago Macieira]

On Tuesday, 5 March 2019 08:15:40 PST Jason H wrote:
> I am looking at adapting some code to move from JSON/packed data to CBOR.
> However the first question I have is how do I know when a CBOR object is
> done?  If I have multiple or partial CBOR objects in a QByteArray how do I
> handle that? What if it's coming in through a QIODevice? With JSON I could
> just look for a } of the same stack level (0) and know the object was done.
>  How is this handled in Qt/CBOR?

The parser will tell you when it's done. Both QCborStreamReader and QCborValue 
will read exactly one top-level value from the byte array or QIODevice and 
return it to you. If you have more than one value, only the first one will be 
read. It's up to you to decide to read more, if your protocol or file format 
implied that.

If there's less than one full value, you'll get a parsing error. Both classes 
will return the partially-read value to you, but how complete that will be is 
really dependent on what they could make of the content. QCborStreamReader can 
resume parsing when you have more data (call addData() or reparse()), while 
QCborValue cannot yet. I have an idea how to implement that but haven't yet.

> Fundamentally I am sending 256-1024 byte objects around which correspond to
> a QVariantMap, so ideally I would like to do: QCborMap map =
> QCborValue::fromDevice(socket).toMap();
> if (map.size()==0) { /* partial or no object read, retry on next ReadyRead
> */ } or
> QCborMap map = QCborValue::fromByteArray(socket, &byteArray).toMap(); /*
> modifies bytearray on successful decode to start at next object */

Right now, because QCborValue cannot resume parsing, you need to perform your 
own buffering. If you told it to read from a sequential QIODevice (like a 
socket) and the contents are incomplete, you won't be able to parse again, as 
the bytes will have been read from the socket.

If you use the QByteArray overload of QCborValue::fromCbor, the number of 
bytes used to parse will be stored in the QCborParserError output parameter 
(offset member). In fact, you should use that parameter to determine whether 
the returned QCborValue is complete or not: if the error member is NoError or 
EndOfFile. It's entirely possible that the returned object *looks* complete 
but isn't.

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago.macieira (AT) intel.com
  Software Architect - Intel System Software Products