Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects
Select Git revision
  • ca59bf4374c940d22fb87e83d70fc7a972212161
  • main default protected
  • v0.1.0
3 results

serialization.md

Blame
    • serialization.md 8.18 KiB 
    title: Serialization
description: Developer documentation for on-wire representation of types used in Quassel protocol messages

    All serialization is done in network format big-endian.

    Serialization of basic types is trivial and will not be discussed here.

    Primitive types are serialized by serializing each of their fields sequentially.

    Type Aliases

    Certain types have a representation which is identical to a pre-existing type in this document. For this reason, we do not define them twice, but list the type whose network representation they borrow here:

    Type name Network representation
    BufferId Int
    IdentityId Int
    NetworkId Int
    MsgId Int
    PeerPtr Long
    IrcUser QVariantMap
    IrcChannel QVariantMap
    Identity QVariantMap
    NetworkInfo QVariantMap
    Network::Server QVariantMap

    MsgId’s serialization changes depending on which features are available on both client and server. Specifically, if LongMessageId is available, it is serialized as long, and its values can go above INT_MAX.

    String

    Strings are serialized as a signed int of the length in bytes plus their content in UTF-16BE. If the length is -1, the String is to be considered equivalent to NULL.

    StringList

    StringLists are serialized as an Int of the amount of elements, and a string for each element.

    Variant

    First, an Int for the type, then an UChar for an unknown value, then, if the type is a usertype, the typename as bytearray (C-string with null byte at the end), and then the value in its own format.

    List

    VariantLists are serialized as an Int of the length, and a Variant for each element.

    Map

    VariantMaps are serialized as an Int of the amount of keys, and then for each key a QString for the key and a Variant for each element.

    Type

    Enum Value Additional Info
    Void 0x00000000
    Bool 0x00000001
    Int 0x00000002 int32_t
    UInt 0x00000003 uint32_t
    QChar 0x00000007
    QVariantMap 0x00000008
    QVariantList 0x00000009
    QString 0x0000000a
    QStringList 0x0000000b
    QByteArray 0x0000000c
    QTime 0x0000000f
    QDateTime 0x00000010
    UserType 0x0000007f
    Long 0x00000081 int64_t
    Short 0x00000082 int16_t
    Char 0x00000083 int8_t
    ULong 0x00000084 uint64_t
    UShort 0x00000085 uint16_t
    UChar 0x00000086 uint8_t
    QVariant 0x00000090

    DateTime

    Type Field Description
    Int julianDay Day in Julian calendar, unknown if signed or unsigned
    Int millisOfDay Milliseconds since start of day
    UChar zone Timezone of DateTime, 0x00 is local, 0x01 is UTC

    Time

    Type Field Description
    Int millisOfDay Milliseconds since start of day

    BufferInfo

    Type Field Description
    Int id BufferId, a unique, sequential id for the buffer
    Int networkId NetworkId of the network the buffer belongs to
    Short type See below
    QByteArray name (UTF-8) BufferName as displayed to the user

    BufferType

    Enum Value
    Status 0x01
    Channel 0x02
    Query 0x04
    Group 0x08

    Message

    Type Field Description
    MsgId messageId The unique, sequential id for the message
    Int timestamp The timestamp of the message in UNIX time (32-bit, seconds)
    Long CONDITIONAL: Different Type (Long) if LongTime feature is enabled
    Int type See below
    UChar flags See below
    BufferInfo buffer The buffer the message belongs to, usually everything but BufferId is set to NULL
    QByteArray sender (UTF-8) The sender as nick!ident@host
    QByteArray senderPrefixes (UTF-8) The prefix modes of the sender
    CONDITIONAL: Only serialized if SenderPrefixes feature is enabled
    QByteArray realName (UTF-8) The realName of the sender
    CONDITIONAL: Only serialized if RichMessages feature is enabled
    QByteArray avatarUrl (UTF-8) The avatarUrl of the sender, if available
    CONDITIONAL: Only serialized if RichMessages feature is enabled
    QByteArray content (UTF-8) The message content, already stripped from CTCP formatting, but containing mIRC format codes

    This type's serialization format depends heavily on the available features — if both client and server support a certain feature, additional fields are added or changed.

    Field Feature Effect
    timestamp LongTime Type is Long instead of Int, content is milliseconds instead of seconds
    senderPrefixes SenderPrefixes Field is serialized only with feature present
    realName RichMessages Field is serialized only with feature present
    avatarUrl RichMessages Field is serialized only with feature present

    MessageType

    Enum Value
    Plain 0x00000001
    Notice 0x00000002
    Action 0x00000004
    Nick 0x00000008
    Mode 0x00000010
    Join 0x00000020
    Part 0x00000040
    Quit 0x00000080
    Kick 0x00000100
    Kill 0x00000200
    Server 0x00000400
    Info 0x00000800
    Error 0x00001000
    DayChange 0x00002000
    Topic 0x00004000
    NetsplitJoin 0x00008000
    NetsplitQuit 0x00010000
    Invite 0x00020000

    MessageFlags

    Type Value
    Self 0x00000001
    Highlight 0x00000002
    Redirected 0x00000004
    ServerMsg 0x00000008
    Backlog 0x00000080