encoding-down

What is encoding-down?

The encoding-down npm package is a codec layer for levelup that provides encoding and decoding of keys and values. It allows you to use different encodings for keys and values, making it easier to work with various data types in a LevelDB store.

What are encoding-down's main functionalities?

Basic Usage

This code demonstrates how to set up a LevelDB store with JSON encoding for values using encoding-down. It shows how to put and get a JSON object.

const levelup = require('levelup');
const leveldown = require('leveldown');
const encode = require('encoding-down');

const db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./mydb'), { valueEncoding: 'json' }));

db.put('key', { some: 'value' }, function (err) {
  if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err);

  db.get('key', function (err, value) {
    if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err);
    console.log('Got value:', value);
  });
});

Custom Encoding

This code demonstrates how to use a custom encoding for values in a LevelDB store. The custom encoding converts values to and from Buffers.

const levelup = require('levelup');
const leveldown = require('leveldown');
const encode = require('encoding-down');

const customEncoding = {
  encode: (val) => Buffer.from(val.toString()),
  decode: (val) => val.toString(),
  buffer: true,
  type: 'custom'
};

const db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./mydb'), { valueEncoding: customEncoding }));

db.put('key', 'custom value', function (err) {
  if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err);

  db.get('key', function (err, value) {
    if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err);
    console.log('Got value:', value);
  });
});

Binary Encoding

This code demonstrates how to use binary encoding for values in a LevelDB store. It shows how to put and get a binary value.

const levelup = require('levelup');
const leveldown = require('leveldown');
const encode = require('encoding-down');

const db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./mydb'), { valueEncoding: 'binary' }));

db.put('key', Buffer.from('binary value'), function (err) {
  if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err);

  db.get('key', function (err, value) {
    if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err);
    console.log('Got value:', value.toString());
  });
});

Other packages similar to encoding-down

level-codec

The level-codec package provides encoding and decoding functionality for LevelDB. It allows you to define custom encodings for keys and values, similar to encoding-down. However, encoding-down is more integrated with the level ecosystem and provides a more streamlined API for setting up encodings.

level-transcoder

The level-transcoder package offers a way to transform data as it is read from or written to a LevelDB store. It supports various encoding and decoding schemes, similar to encoding-down. However, encoding-down is more focused on providing a codec layer specifically for levelup, making it easier to use in that context.

README

encoding-down

An abstract-leveldown implementation that wraps another store to encode keys and values.

Introduction

Stores like leveldown can only store strings and Buffers. Other types, though accepted, are serialized before storage, which is an irreversible type conversion. For a richer set of data types you can wrap such a store with encoding-down. It allows you to specify an encoding to use for keys and values independently. This not only widens the range of input types, but also limits the range of output types. The encoding is applied to all read and write operations: it encodes writes and decodes reads.

Many encodings are builtin courtesy of level-codec. The default encoding is utf8 which ensures you'll always get back a string. You can also provide a custom encoding like bytewise - or your own!

Usage

Without any options, encoding-down defaults to the utf8 encoding.

var levelup = require('levelup')
var leveldown = require('leveldown')
var encode = require('encoding-down')

var db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./db1')))

db.put('example', Buffer.from('encoding-down'), function (err) {
  db.get('example', function (err, value) {
    console.log(typeof value, value) // 'string encoding-down'
  })
})

Can we store objects? Yes!

var db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./db2'), { valueEncoding: 'json' }))

db.put('example', { awesome: true }, function (err) {
  db.get('example', function (err, value) {
    console.log(value) // { awesome: true }
    console.log(typeof value) // 'object'
  })
})

How about storing Buffers, but getting back a hex-encoded string?

var db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./db3'), { valueEncoding: 'hex' }))

db.put('example', Buffer.from([0, 255]), function (err) {
  db.get('example', function (err, value) {
    console.log(typeof value, value) // 'string 00ff'
  })
})

What if we previously stored binary data?

var db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./db4'), { valueEncoding: 'binary' }))

db.put('example', Buffer.from([0, 255]), function (err) {
  db.get('example', function (err, value) {
    console.log(typeof value, value) // 'object <Buffer 00 ff>'
  })

  // Override the encoding for this operation
  db.get('example', { valueEncoding: 'base64' }, function (err, value) {
    console.log(typeof value, value) // 'string AP8='
  })
})

And what about keys?

var db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./db5'), { keyEncoding: 'json' }))

db.put({ awesome: true }, 'example', function (err) {
  db.get({ awesome: true }, function (err, value) {
    console.log(value) // 'example'
  })
})

var db = levelup(encode(leveldown('./db6'), { keyEncoding: 'binary' }))

db.put(Buffer.from([0, 255]), 'example', function (err) {
  db.get('00ff', { keyEncoding: 'hex' }, function (err, value) {
    console.log(value) // 'example'
  })
})

Usage with level

The level module conveniently bundles encoding-down and passes its options to encoding-down. This means you can simply do:

var level = require('level')
var db = level('./db7', { valueEncoding: 'json' })

db.put('example', 42, function (err) {
  db.get('example', function (err, value) {
    console.log(value) // 42
    console.log(typeof value) // 'number'
  })
})

API

db = require('encoding-down')(db[, options])

• db must be an abstract-leveldown compliant store
• options are passed to level-codec:
  • keyEncoding: encoding to use for keys
  • valueEncoding: encoding to use for values

Both encodings default to 'utf8'. They can be a string (builtin level-codec encoding) or an object (custom encoding).

Custom encodings

Please refer to level-codec documentation for a precise description of the format. Here's a quick example with level and async/await just for fun:

var level = require('level')
var lexint = require('lexicographic-integer')

async function main () {
  var db = level('./db8', {
    keyEncoding: {
      type: 'lexicographic-integer',
      encode: (n) => lexint.pack(n, 'hex'),
      decode: lexint.unpack,
      buffer: false
    }
  })

  await db.put(2, 'example')
  await db.put(10, 'example')

  // Without our encoding, the keys would sort as 10, 2.
  db.createKeyStream().on('data', console.log) // 2, 10
}

main()

With an npm-installed encoding (modularity ftw!) we can reduce the above to:

var level = require('level')
var lexint = require('lexicographic-integer-encoding')('hex')

var db = level('./db8', {
  keyEncoding: lexint
})

License

MIT © 2017-present encoding-down Contributors.

Changelog

[6.0.0] - 2018-12-25

If you are upgrading: please see UPGRADING.md.

Changed

• Prefer const over var in README (@ralphtheninja)
• Upgrade abstract-leveldown dependency from ^5.0.0 to ^v6.0.0 (#68) (@ralphtheninja)
• Upgrade standard devDependency from ^11.0.0 to ^v12.0.0 (@ralphtheninja)
• Use full link references in README (#60) (@vweevers)

Added

• Explain serialization (#72) (@vweevers)
• Add nyc and coveralls (#64) (@ralphtheninja)

Removed

• Remove node 9 (@ralphtheninja)
• Remove now superfluous _setupIteratorOptions() (@ralphtheninja)