Flutter: Reading a file, parsing as JSON, then converting to an object in order to use dot notation - dart

Question

I am trying to make a way to read a file with data saved in a specific format, parse it to JSON then convert it to an object so that I can use dot notation.
The problem here is using dot notation as it just returns null
CoreData.dart
import 'dart:convert';
import 'dart:io';
import 'dart:async';
import 'package:path_provider/path_provider.dart';
#proxy
class CoreObject {
Map _data;
CoreObject([String source]) {
Map json = (source == null) ? new Map() : JSON.decode(source);
_data = new Map.from(json);
json.forEach((k, v) {
print(k);
_data[k] = v;
});
}
static encode(List<CoreObject> list) {
String result = "";
for (CoreObject item in list) {
result += "${item.toString()};";
}
return result;
}
#override toString() {
print(this._data);
return JSON.encode(this._data);
}
#override
noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) {
var name = invocation.memberName.toString().replaceFirst('Symbol(\"', "");
print("_data.keys ${_data.keys}");
print("_data.values ${_data.values}");
if (invocation.isGetter) {
print("name ${name.replaceAll("\")", "")}");
var ret = _data[name.replaceAll("\")", "")];
print("ret $ret");
print(ret.toString());
return ret;
}
if (invocation.isSetter) {
_data[name.replaceAll("=\")", "")] = invocation.positionalArguments.first;
} else {
super.noSuchMethod(invocation);
}
}
}
class Person extends CoreObject {
Person([source]): super(source);
#override noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) {
super.noSuchMethod(invocation);
}
}
class CoreContainer {
String _object;
var returnNew;
var path;
_map(String source) {
var result = [];
for (var line in source.split(";")) {
// print("line $line");
if (line != "") result.add(returnNew(line));
}
print("result $result");
return result;
}
encode(List<CoreObject> list) {
// print("list $list");
String result = "";
list.forEach((CoreObject item) {
// print("item ${item.toString()}");
result += "${item};";
});
// print("result $result");
return result;
}
CoreContainer(this._object, this.returnNew);
Future<File> _getFile() async {
String dir = path ?? (await getApplicationDocumentsDirectory()).path;
this.path = dir;
return new File('$dir/$_object.txt');
}
Future<List<CoreObject>> getAll() async {
return _getFile().then((File file) {
String contents = file.readAsStringSync();
print("contents $contents");
return this._map(contents);
})
.catchError((Error error) {
print('error: $error');
_getFile().then((File file) {
file.writeAsStringSync("");
});
return [];
});
}
save(List<CoreObject> data) async {
_getFile().then((file) {
try {
file.writeAsStringSync(this.encode(data));
}
catch (error) {
print("error: $error");
}
}).catchError((Error error) {
print("error: $error");
});
}
clear() async {
return _getFile().then((file) {
file.writeAsStringSync("");
}).catchError((Error error) {
print("error: $error");
});
}
Future<List<CoreObject>> get(query) async {
return this.getAll().then((List data) {
data.retainWhere(query);
return data;
}).catchError((error) {
print("error: $error");
});
}
Future<List<CoreObject>> remove(query) async {
return this.getAll().then((List data) {
// print(data);
data.removeWhere(query);
save(data);
return data;
}).catchError((error) {
print("error: $error");
});
}
Future<List<CoreObject>> add(obj) async {
return this.getAll().then((data) {
data.add(obj);
return save(data).then(() {
return data;
})
.catchError((Error error) {
throw error;
});
}).catchError((Error error) {
print("error: $error");
});
}
}
Using it:
CoreContainer corePerson = new CoreContainer("Person", (source) => new Person(source));
corePerson.getAll().then((List<CoreObject> array) {
var tempItems = [];
var i = 0;
print("array $array");
while (i < array.length) {
Person person = array[i];
print(person); //{"name":"<whatever 'i' is>"}
print(person.name); //null
tempItems.add(new ListTile(
title: new Text("$i"),
subtitle: new Text("${person.name}"),
));
i++;
}
print(tempItems.length);
count = tempItems.length;
setState(() {
items = tempItems;
});
}).catchError((Error error) {
print("error: $error, ${error.stackTrace}");
});

Answer 1

Code is hard to read because of a lot of print debugging.
But I suppose you need a way to convert JSON data into a Dart class.
You should use library like jaguar_serializer that do the job for you.
https://pub.dartlang.org/packages/jaguar_serializer

Answer 2

Dart doesn't use dot notation like dynamic languages (Python, JavaScript). In Python and JavaScript, for example, every single object is actually internally a HashMap, and . is actually a hash lookup of the property name:
a.bar // Loosely the same as a.lookup('bar')
The Python/JS VM though can "see" that a.bar is used like a property on a class-like object a, and optimize it to use a true property/field access - this is part of the "optimization" phase of a JIT (just-in-time compiler).
It is features like this that make it almost impossible to ahead-of-time compile either Python or JS - they require runtime profile information to generate fast code. Dart (and specifically Dart 2.0) is implementing a sound type system where a.bar, when a is known, is always a property accessor, not a hash lookup.
That means at runtime you can't take an arbitrary hash map and force it to act like an object, which is why your code seems awkward. I'd recommend using code generation if you need a typed object with . notation, or settling for a HashMap [] if you do not.

Answer 3

Check also mapping json into class objects answers for example of clean basic way of json -> dart class mapping.