WoWDBDefs

This repository will have an up to date location for column/field definitions for database files used in World of Warcraft.

Project goals:

• Updated database definitions for all versions of World of Warcraft
• Human readable
• Machine readable

Cool stuff we might end up doing if this gets enough traction:

• Repository will feed automated updates on WoWDev.wiki
• Pull requests are automatically checked for validity

Format

The format in which these files will be built up is still up for discussion. Current proposal is as follows:

Column definitions

List of column definitions at the start of the file. This is defined once per column at the start to help keep column names the same across the file.

Starts with COLUMNS, followed by the following:

Regular: type ColName

Foreign keys: type<ForeignDB::ForeignCol> ColName

Localized strings: locstring ColName (see this and this page on Wiki, same as"string" type as of 4.0+ but still localized in locale specific files)

Format currently also supports comments by adding // Comment goes here at the end of the column definition line, but this is still up for debate.

Valid types that parsers should support: (u)int{8/16/32/64}/string/float/locstring

Unverified columns (guessed, etc) have a ? at the end of ColName.

Version definitions

BUILD is required. LAYOUT is required for versions that have it. Can be both.

LAYOUT

Line starts with LAYOUT followed by a list of layouthashes separated by a comma and a space. Can appear only once.

BUILD

Line starts with BUILD followed by a range, multiple exact builds separated by a comma and a space or a single exact build. Can appear multiple times.

COMMENT

Line starts with COMMENT, only for humans. Can appear only once.

Ranges

BUILD 7.2.0.23436-7.2.0.23514.

Ranges should be specified per minor version to not conflict with other branches. Example:

BUILD 7.2.0.23436-7.2.0.23514
BUILD 7.1.5.23038-7.1.5.23420
BUILD 7.1.0.22578-7.1.0.22996
BUILD 7.0.3.21846-7.0.3.22747

Multiple exact builds

BUILD 0.7.0.3694, 0.7.1.3702, 0.7.6.3712

Single build

BUILD 0.9.1.3810

Columns

ColName refers to exactly the same name as specified in the column definitions.

No size (floats, (loc)strings, non-inline IDs): ColName

Size (integers): ColName<Size>

Array: ColName[Length]

Both: ColName<Size>[Length]

With comment (for humans): ColName // This is a comment, yo!

Column annotations

ColName can be prefixed with annotations to indicate that this is a special kind of column in this version.

Annotations start with a $ and end with a $ and are comma separated when there's more than one. Current annotations:

id this column is a primary key. Example: (inline) $id$ColName (non-inline) $noninline,id$

relation this column is a relationship. Has noninline when stored in relationship table. Examples: (inline) $relation$ColName (non-inline) $noninline,relation$

noninline this column is non-inline (currently only used for $id$ and $relation$). See non-inline examples above.

Column overrides

In some cases (one documented so far) there was an issue with a field's type changing from a uint to a float between versions. For rare cases like this we came up with the following solution:

#float#coolPercentageField

File handling

Files will be saved with DBName.dbd filenames. Every file has multiple definitions for each different structure that has been encountered for that file. Version structures are separated by an empty new line. All line endings should be in Unix format (\n).

Example definition file

You can view a sample definition here.

Discussions regarding the format proposal should be done in the relevant issue here.

All feedback is welcome!