Kben - is a simple Bencode library for Kotlin. Library makes it easy to serialize data class instances to bencode and deserialize bencode back to objects.
Bencode is the encoding used by the peer-to-peer file sharing system BitTorrent for storing and transmitting loosely structured data.
- Provide simple
toBencode()
andfromBencode()
methods to convert Kotlin objects to Bencode and vice-versa. - Allow custom representations for objects (custom
TypeAdapter<T>
). - Support arbitrarily complex objects (with deep inheritance hierarchies and extensive use of generic types).
- Provide converter for Retrofit.
Library is distributed through JitPack.
Add repository in the root project build.gradle:
allprojects {
repositories {
maven { url("https://jitpack.io") }
}
}
Add required dependencies:
-
Core - the library. Bencode serializer/deserializer for Kotlin.
implementation("com.github.tonykolomeytsev.kben:kben-core:0.1.5")
-
Retrofit Converter.
implementation("com.github.tonykolomeytsev.kben:kben-retrofit-converter:0.1.5")
-
Ktor ContentConverter.
implementation("com.github.tonykolomeytsev.kben:kben-ktor-converter:0.1.5")
Note that the project is using Kotlin 1.6.10 and Kotlin Reflect API dependency.
val kben = Kben()
kben.toBencode(1) // i1e
kben.toBencode("kben") // 4:kben
kben.toBencode(
listOf(
"kben",
"are",
"awesome",
)
) // l4:kben3:are7:awesomee
data class Movie(val name: String, val year: Int)
// ...
kben.toBencode(
Movie(
name = "The Matrix Revolutions",
year = 2003,
)
) // d4:name22:The Matrix Revolutions4:yeari2003ee
val kben = Kben()
kben.fromBencode<Int>("i1e") // 1
kben.fromBencode<String>("4:kben") // "kben"
kben.fromBencode(
"l4:kben3:are7:awesomee",
TypeHolder.ofList(String::class)
) // listOf("kben", "are", "awesome")
data class Movie(val name: String, val year: Int)
// ...
kben.fromBencode<Movie>(
"d4:name22:The Matrix Revolutions4:yeari2003ee"
) // Movie(name = "The Matrix Revolutions", year = 2003)
As you can see, to deserialize objects of class with type parameters, you need to provide TypeHolder
to fromBencode()
function (just like in Gson library). TypeHolder
is a simplified type representation for the Kben deserializer. TypeHolder
is generated automatically for all classes that do not have type parameters (even if its properties still have type parameters).
Example: TypeHolder
could not be generated for List<String>
, but easily generated automatically for data class Wrapper(val items: List<String>)
.
If you don't want to deserialize bencode to a specific type, you can use the intermediate representation Kben datatypes (inherited from BencodeElement
), or just use type Any
:
BencodeByteString
is abyte string
from the bencode spec.BencodeInteger
is aninteger
.BencodeList
is alist
.BencodeDictionary
is adictionary
from the bencode spec.
val kben = Kben()
assertEquals(
BencodeList(elements = listOf("hello", "world")),
kben.fromBencode<BencodeElement>("l5:hello5:worlde")
)
assertEquals(
listOf("hello", "world"),
kben.fromBencode<Any>("l5:hello5:worlde")
)
ZonedDateTimeTypeAdapter.kt:
class ZonedDateTimeTypeAdapter : TypeAdapter<ZonedDateTime>() {
override fun fromBencode(
value: BencodeElement,
context: DeserializationContext,
typeHolder: TypeHolder,
): ZonedDateTime {
check(value is BencodeElement.BencodeByteString)
return ZonedDateTime
.parse(value.asString, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME)
}
override fun toBencode(
value: ZonedDateTime,
context: SerializationContext,
): BencodeElement {
return BencodeElement.BencodeByteString(
DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME.format(value)
)
}
}
Usage:
val kben = Kben(
typeAdapter = mapOf(
ZonedDateTime::class to ZonedDateTimeTypeAdapter(),
)
)
data class Message(val content: String, val timestamp: ZonedDateTime)
// ...
val message = Message(
content = "Hi!",
timestamp = ZonedDateTime.now()
)
val bencodedMessage = kben.toBencode(message)
// d7:content3:Hi!9:timestamp47:2021-12-19T03:33:02.243313+03:00[Europe/Moscow]e
val decodedMessage = kben.fromBencode<Message>(bencodedMessage)
assertEquals(message, decodedMessage)
Use @kotlin.jvm.Transient
annotation for properties that should not be involved in serialization and deserialization.
data class User(
val name: String,
@Transient
val isOnline: Boolean = false,
)
// ...
kben.toBencode(User("John", isOnline = true))
// d4:name4:Johne
You can add @DefaultValue
annotation to one of the enum values so that it is returned in case of an enum deserialization error.
enum class UserStatus { ONLINE, OFFLINE, @DefaultValue UNKNOWN }
// ...
kben.fromBencode<UserStatus>("4:IDLE") // returns UserStatus.UNKNOWN
Use the @Bencode(name: String)
annotation on class properties to change their name when serializing and deserializing.
data class Book(
@Bencode("issue date")
val issueDate: LocalDate,
)
//...
val encodedBook = kben.toBencode(Book(LocalDate.now()))
// d10:issue date10:2021-12-19e
When serializing and deserializing objects, the library is guided by the properties set from the primary constructor of the class. This is the reason why it is better to use a library for serializing and deserializing data class instances rather than any other kind of classes.
The object will not be serialized correctly:
class BrokenClass {
val brokenField: String = "test"
}
kben.toBencode(BrokenClass()) // returns empty bencode dictionary
Distributed under the MIT license. See LICENSE
for more information.