JavaScript INI Parser

This library allows you to parse any valid INI file. However, its main goal is to be able to parse any game reference of the game Clonk (R) (see http://www.clonk.de), including the main masterserver's output. Since the used format hasn't really changed since Clonk Planet was released, it should be compatible with any network-capable version of Clonk, including OpenClonk and Clonk Rage.

It is implemented in pure JavaScript and bundled as a CommonJS-module, but it can also be used in non-moduled environments like modern ES5-browsers.

Example Usage

Parse an INI file in node.js and output the generated JSON to the console:

var refparse = require('clonkrefiniparser'),
	fs = require('fs'),
	fh = fs.createReadStream("input.ini", "r");

refparse.parseReferenceStream(fh, function(err, root){
	// Root element contains the top-level sections
	if(err){
		console.warn("Error: " + err);
	} else {
		console.log("Data read: " + JSON.stringify(root));
	}
});
	

Request an INI file in node.js over HTTP, parse it and output the generated JSON to the console:

var refparse = require('clonkrefiniparser'),
	http = require('http');

// Request game information from the OpenClonk masterserver
http.get("http://boom.openclonk.org/server/", function(fh){
	refparse.parseReferenceStream(fh, function(err, root){
		// Root element contains the top-level sections
		if(err){
			console.warn("Error: " + err);
		} else {
			console.log("Data read: " + JSON.stringify(root));
		}
	});
});

Parse an INI file in the browser (assuming ref.js was previously loaded in a script-tag) and output it using an alert-window:

var root = parseReferenceString("[OpenClonk]\nMOTD=<c 0fff0f>OpenClonk released!</c>");
alert(JSON.stringify(root));

Usage information

parseReferenceStream is the preferred method in a node.js-environment and can be used asynchronously. It uses the data read from a provided ReadableStream, which is read line by line. This allows it to process rather big files. The given callback is executed when the underlying stream casts the 'end'-event.

In case your parsed file is built up like a tree (used by Clonk), by default 2 spaces mean one level. Note that the parser accepts multiple sections with the same names on one level. Because of this, the following reference produces this output:

[Reference]
GameId=382
Title="Foo"
	
  [Info]
  Comment="Hello world"

[Reference]
GameId=394
Title="Bar"

Turns into:

{"Reference": 
	[
		{	"GameId":	382,
			"Title":	"foo"
			"Info":		{	"Comment":	"Hello world"	}
		},
		{	"GameId":	394,
			"Title":	"Bar"
		}
	]
}

Consult the node.js-documentation on its Stream-API for further information on the usage of parseReferenceStream.