schema_plugin_interface.h File Reference

Abstract contract for runtime Protobuf / FlatBuffers schema discovery plugins. More...

#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include "../base/plugin.h"
#include "../impl/types.h"

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Classes
class	vlink::SchemaPluginInterface
	Polymorphic contract for runtime schema lookup and dynamic message construction. More...
struct	vlink::SchemaPluginInterface::VersionInfo
	Build provenance reported by a concrete plugin implementation. More...

Namespaces
	vlink

Detailed Description

Abstract contract for runtime Protobuf / FlatBuffers schema discovery plugins.

SchemaPluginInterface is the plugin-side contract shared between VLink and any out-of-tree shared library that supplies serialisation metadata for runtime introspection. Plugins are loaded by SchemaPluginManager through the generic Plugin loader and surface a uniform lookup API regardless of whether the underlying metadata lives in a linked Protobuf descriptor pool, in flatc-generated BFBS blobs, or in some bespoke registry.

Capability	Method	Returns when missing
Version probe	get_version_info()	populated info
Generic schema lookup	search_schema()	name-only SchemaData
Bulk enumeration	get_all_schemas()	empty vector
Protobuf descriptor	search_protobuf_descriptor()	nullptr
Protobuf dynamic message	create_protobuf_message()	nullptr
FlatBuffers BFBS schema	search_flatbuffers_schema()	nullptr
FlatBuffers parser	create_flatbuffers_parser()	nullptr

Plugin lifecycle

load .so  -->  factory ctor  -->  search/get_all  -->  create_message/parser  -->  dtor
                    |                                                                ^
                    v                                                                |
               caches built lazily under an internal mutex of the implementation ----+

Concrete plugins normally derive from SchemaPluginBase, which already implements every method against a linked Protobuf descriptor pool plus the process-local FlatBuffers registry.