// Data structure itself template<typename ValueType,typename KeyType> struct Node;
template<typename ValueType,typename KeyType> struct ptree_gen { typedef std::pair<KeyType,Node<ValueType,KeyType> > mi_value; typedef multi_index<mi_value, indexed_by<...> > type; };
template<typename ValueType,typename KeyType> struct Node { ValueType v; ptree_gen<ValueType,KeyType>::type children; };
// serilization support template<class Archive,typename ValueType,typename KeyType> void serialize(Archive & ar, Node<ValueType,KeyType>& n, const unsigned int version) { ar & n.v; ar & n.children; }
// some access methods template<typename ValueType,typename KeyType> ValueType const& get( string const& keys, ptree_gen<ValueType,KeyType>::type const& src ) { std::pait<string,string> sk = split( keys, "." );
Node const& N = src.find( sk.first );
return sk.second.empty() ? N.v : get( sk.second, N.children ); }
What you just implemented is stripped down, bare bones version of property_tree that, among other things, does not allow you to produce human editable XML files. Now add more interface (aka get functions), add more archives to serialization lib, add customization, add transparent translation from strings to arbitrary types and vice versa. Spend some weeks trying to get all the corner cases right, and then some more weeks trying to smooth rough edges in the interface. Then write tests. Write docs. At the end, I believe you will not get much less code than there is in the library already. Maybe you get some savings by using multi_index instead of manual indexing. Best regards, Marcin