Resource Management
Resource management interfaces in ClanLib:
- Resource manager
- Resource object
Resource Manager
The resource manager in ClanLib allows you to use a central source for all your resources in your application. The system defines a simple XML format describing resources used by ClanLib, and since it is XML it also allows you to use it for your own custom resources.
A resource XML file may look like this:
<resources> <section name="section1"> <texture name="texture1" file="image.png" /> </section> <section name="section2"> <section name="section3"> <my-type name="my-resource1"> <text>Hello World!</text> </my-type> </section> </section> <sample name="my-sample" file="test.wav" /> </resources>
The class CL_ResourceManager is used to load, manage and save resource files. The syntax for loading resources is fairly straightforward:
CL_ResourceManager resources("resources.xml"); CL_Texture texture(gc, "section1/texture1", resources); CL_Sample sample("my-sample", resources);
Resource Objects
Although the above syntax is the common way to load resources, in reality all objects defined in a resource XML are all represented as CL_Resource objects. To illustrate how this object is used, the above CL_Texture constructor used to load a texture may have been implemented like this:
CL_ResourceManager resources("resources.xml"); CL_Resource resource = resources.get_resource("section1/texture1"); CL_String filename = resource.get_element().get_attribute("file"); CL_PixelBuffer image = CL_ImageProviderFactory::load(filename, resources.get_directory()); CL_Texture texture(gc, image);
In the same way we might create our own custom resource loader:
CL_String load_my_type(const CL_String &res_id, CL_ResourceManager &resources) { CL_Resource resource = resources.get_resource(res_id); if (resource.get_type() != "my-type") throw CL_Exception("Resource not of expected type!"); CL_DomElement text_element = resource.get_element().named_item("text").to_element(); return text_element.get_text(); } CL_ResourceManager resources("resources.xml"); CL_Console::write_line(load_my_type("section2/section3/my-resource1", resources);