Example usage

Marshalling and demarshalling a stream of integers:

class SerialiseInt:

    def marshall(int):
        return str(int)
    marshall = staticmethod(marshall)

    def demarshall(string):
        return int(string)
    demarshall = staticmethod(demarshall)

Pipeline( producer(...),
          Marshaller(SerialiseInt),
          sender(...)
        ).activate()

Pipeline( receiver(...),
          DeMarshaller(SerialiseInt),
          consumer(...)
        ).activate()

How does it work?

When instantiating the Marshaller or DeMarshaller components, you provide an object (eg. class) containing these static methods:

• marshall(item) - returns the item serialised for transmission
• demarshall(item) - returns the original item, deserialised

Marshaller requires only the marshall(...) static method, and DeMarshaller requires only demarshall(...).

Why static methods? Because marshalling/demarshalling is a stateless activity. This distinguishes marshalling activity from other protocols and other processes that can be implemented with a similar style of framework.

For simplicity this component expects to be given an entire object to marshall or demarshall. This requires the user to deal with the framing and deframing of objects separately.

Any data sent to the Marshaller or DeMarshaller components' "inbox" inbox is passed to the marshall(...) or demarshall(...) method respectively of the class you supplied. The result is immediately sent on out of the components' "outbox" outbox.

If a producerFinished or shutdownMicroprocess message is received on the components' "control" inbox, it is sent on out of the "signal" outbox. The component will then immediately terminate.

Post script

The initial data format this is designed to work with is the MimeDict object.

It is expected that there will be a more complex marshaller that supports receiving that is capable of receiving objects segmented over multiple messages.

class DeMarshaller(Axon.Component.component)

DeMarshaller(klass) -> new DeMarshaller component.

A component for demarshalling data (deserialising it from a string).

Keyword arguments: - klass -- a class with static method: demarshall(data) that returns the data, demarshalled.

class Marshaller(Axon.Component.component)

Marshaller(klass) -> new Marshaller component.

A component for marshalling data (serialising it to a string).

Keyword arguments:

• klass -- a class with static method: marshall(data) that returns the data, marshalled.