I am working on a messaging system on C++. I have;
class MessageData
{
public:
typedef std::vector<std::shared_ptr<MessageData>> MessageList;
virtual int getValue(std::shared_ptr<int>) { throw "Not implemented!"; };
virtual float getValue(std::shared_ptr<float>) { throw "Not implemented!"; };
virtual std::string getValue(std::shared_ptr<std::string>) { throw "Not implemented!"; };
...
...
virtual ~MessageData() {};
};
template <typename T>
class Message : public MessageData
{
T val;
public:
static std::shared_ptr<Message<T>> Make(T val) { return std::make_shared<Message<T>>(val); };
static T Get(std::shared_ptr<MessageData> in) { return in->getValue(std::make_shared<T>()); };
Message(T i) { val = i; };
T getValue(std::shared_ptr<T> out) override { return *out = val; }
~Message() {};
};
Using these, I can send/receive generic messages of different length conveniently using e.g;
sendMessage(MessageData::MessageList{
Message<std::string>::Make("paint"),
Message<int>::Make(14),
Message<float>::Make(129.3f),
...
});
Then I get the values;
sendMessage(MessageData::MessageList data) {
auto a = Message<std::string>::Get(data[0]);
auto b = Message<int>::Get(data[1]);
auto c = Message<float>::Get(data[2]);
...
}
The downside is that I have to list all the types I need to use in MessageData class. This isn't a big deal as I can limit the types I want to support but I'm really curious about how to templatize the type list without using a 3rd party library. Or is there a completely different and better method that I can use with similar clean syntax and type safety to pass messages around?
I think I've developed a decent solution to my problem.
class MessageData {
public:
typedef std::vector<std::shared_ptr<MessageData>> MessageList;
virtual ~MessageData() {};
};
template<typename T>
class Message : public MessageData {
T val;
public:
template<typename U>
friend U GetMessage(std::shared_ptr<MessageData> in);
Message(T i) { val = i; };
};
template<typename T>
T GetMessage(std::shared_ptr<MessageData> in) {
std::shared_ptr<Message<T>> tmp = std::dynamic_pointer_cast<Message<T>>(in);
if (tmp) {
return tmp->val;
}
throw "Incorrect type!";
};
template<typename T>
std::shared_ptr<Message<T>> MakeMessage(T val)
{
return std::make_shared<Message<T>>(val);
};
Then send & receive values using;
sendMessage(MessageData::MessageList{
MakeMessage(std::string("paint")),
MakeMessage(14),
MakeMessage(129.3f),
...
});
sendMessage(MessageData::MessageList data) {
auto a = GetMessage<std::string>(data[0]);
auto b = GetMessage<int>(data[1]);
auto c = GetMessage<float>(data[2]);
...
}