README.md

This directory contains an example of an addressbook data structure definition and several Erlang programs that rely on it to manipulate addressbook data.

This example is based on the Google Protocol Buffers examples: http://protobuf.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/examples/ (See their README.txt file for details).

Running

make

make test

Files

addressbook.proto -- the original Google Protocol Buffers definition copied from examples directory of the protobuf distribution

src/addressbook.proto.piqi -- definition of the addressbook data structure converted from the original addressbook.proto using piqi of-proto command

src/addressbook.erlang.piqi -- Erlang-specific extensions to the converted addressbook.proto.piqi specificaion

src/add_person.erl -- adds a person to the addressbook

src/list_people.erl -- lists the contents of the addressbook

src/io_json_xml_pb.erl -- example of how to read and write the addressbook represented in XML, JSON, Protocol Buffers and Piq formats

./test -- shell script containing tests for the add_person and list_people Erlang programs

The add_person and list_people Erlang programs implement exactly the same functionality as Python, Java and C++ programs from the Protobuf examples. The data structure and the binary encoding of the addressbook data structure is fully compatible as well. As a result, the Erlang programs can read an addressbook structure created by Python/C++/Java programs and vice versa.

This example also contains the addressbook.piq file which is a sample addressbook data structure represented as a Piq file. It can be converted to the binary Protocol Buffers format (using piqi convert) and then can be manipulated by the Erlang programs.