[RFC] Config Overhaul

[InusualZ]

Seeming that we have reach a limit to the bare bone config system that the server have today (#111). I think it's a good time to introduce TOML to the software.

TOML

A config file format for humans.

TOML aims to be a minimal configuration file format that's easy to read due to obvious semantics. TOML is designed to map unambiguously to a hash table. TOML should be easy to parse into data structures in a wide variety of languages.

Why TOML

• Human readable
• Useful natives type
  • Key/Value Pairs
  • Arrays
  • Tables
  • Inline tables
  • Arrays of tables
  • Integers & Floats
  • Booleans
  • Dates & Times, with optional offsets
• Comments
• Multi Line String
• Numerical Notations
  • Integers (1,2)
  • Hex (0x)
  • Octal (0o)
  • Binary (0b)
  • Floats (1.1)
  • Exponent
  • Scientific Notation
  • Separators (2_100)
  • Infinity
  • NaN
• Date and Time

Example

[OpnServer]
CertificatePath = "server.cer"
CertificatePassphrase = "server.key"
Address = "127.0.0.1"
Port = 8200

[LmpServer]
Address = "127.0.0.1"
Port = 8210

[FmpServer]
Address = "127.0.0.1"
Port = 8220

[Database]
Host = "127.0.0.1"
Port = 9000
Username = ""
Password = ""

[Game]
MaxHunterSlots = 4
Timeout1 = 32767
Timeout2 = 32767
Timeout3 = 32767
Timeout4 = 32767
Timeout5 = 32767
Timeout6 = 32767
Timeout7 = 32767
Timeout8 = 32767

	[[Game.ServerType]]
	Name = "Open" # Max Length 23 
	Description = "Hunters of all Ranks\ncan gather here.NEW" # Max Length 167
	MinimumRank = 0
	MaximumRank = 65535

		[[Game.ServerType.Server]]
		Name = "Valor1"

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 1" # Max Length 63 

				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1" # Max Length 63
				MaxPopulation = 4

				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 2" # Max Length 63
				MaxPopulation = 4

				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 3" # Max Length 63
				MaxPopulation = 4

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 2"
			
				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1"
				MaxPopulation = 4

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 3"
			
				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1"
				MaxPopulation = 4

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 4"

				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1"
				MaxPopulation = 4

		
		[[Game.ServerType.Server]]
		Name = "Valor2"

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 1" # Max Length 63 

				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1" # Max Length 63
				MaxPopulation = 4

	[[Game.ServerType]]
	Name = "Rookie" # Max Length 23 
	Description = "Only hunters HR 30\nor lower may enter.NEW" # Max Length 167
	MinimumRank = 0
	MaximumRank = 30

		[[Game.ServerType.Server]]
		Name = "Rookies1"

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 1"

				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1"
				MaxPopulation = 4

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 2"
			
				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1"
				MaxPopulation = 4

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 3"
			
				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1"
				MaxPopulation = 4

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 4"

				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1"
				MaxPopulation = 4

		[[Game.ServerType.Server]]
		Name = "Rookies2"

			[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
			Name = "City Gate 1"

				[[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
				Name = "City 1"
				MaxPopulation = 4

	# Up to 4 Server Type

	[[Game.HRLimit]]
	Name = "None"
	Enabled = true
	Minimum = 0
	Maximum = 65535

	[[Game.HRLimit]]
	Name = "Low"
	Enabled = true
	Minimum = 0
	Maximum = 30

	# Up to 8 HRLimit

	[[Game.Seeking]]
	Name = "Everyone welcome!"
	Enabled = true
	Flag = 0xff

	[[Game.Seeking]]
	Name = "Casual play"
	Enabled = true
	Flag = 0xff

	# Up to 31 Seeking Types

	[[Game.Goal]]
	Name = "None" 
	Enabled = true
	RestrictionMode = 0 # None - 0, HR Limit - 1, Unknown - 2
	Minimum = 0
	Maximum = 0

	[[Game.Goal]]
	Name = "HR1~" 
	Enabled = true
	RestrictionMode = 1
	Minimum = 1
	Maximum = 8

	[[Game.Goal]]
	Name = "HR9~" 
	Enabled = true
	RestrictionMode = 1
	Minimum = 9
	Maximum = 17

	# Up to 63 Goals

	[[Game.Event]]
	File = "/path/to/quest/event.bin"

	[[Game.Event]]
	File = "/path/to/quest/event2.bin"

	# Up to 10 Event

From my example you can see that even the most complex relationship can be expressed with this config format. I'm a little bit bias since I have always loved this config format (But not without reason)

[sepalani]

I have nothing against TOML, I have been thinking of YAML and JSON too but without a strong preference. Ideally, if we can integrate this dependency in externals without doing anything fancy (to support Python2/3), that would be great.

Regardless of the chosen format, we can take advantage of python format string and named arguments to write:

[[Game.ServerType.Server]]
Name = "Valor {server_index}"
Name_FR = "Valeur {server_index}"

    [[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate]]
    Name = "City Gate {gate_index}"
    Name_FR = "Porte {gate_index}"

        [[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
        Name = "City {city_index}"
        Name_FR = "Ville {city_index}"

We can also try to implement i18n by appending a language suffix (_FR in the above example), if the language isn't available we can fallback to the regular value.

I also would like to have some kind of inheritance and/or default values. So we have a way to define, for instance, 40 cities without writing 40 entries but still allow to define specialization. Something like this or similar:

        [[Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City]]
        Name = "City {city_index}"
        Name_FR = "Ville {city_index}"
        Count = 40

        [Game.ServerType.Server.Gate.City40]
        Name = "Last city"
        Name_FR = "Dernière ville"

Having a way to "split" the config file into several parts could be interesting to organize things such as event/arena quests, network/ssl/db config, server name/ip/settings, etc.