hxFormat is the repository for different file-formats support for the Haxelanguage.

Formats

Currently supported formats are :

• ABC (Flash AS3 bytecode format)
• AMF (Flash serialized object)
• BMP
• FLV (Flash Video)
• GZ
• JPG (writer only)
• MP3
• PBJ (PixelBender Binary file)
• PDF (only generic file structure and partial decryption)
• PNG
• SWF (Flash file format)
• TAR
• ZIP

Planned future formats include :

• AMF3 (supported in FlashPlayer 9+)
• PE (Windows EXE)
• ISO (Disk Image)
• ... anything you want to contribute (please ask on the Haxe google group)

Installation

hxFormat is available on haxelib, so simply run the following command : haxelib install format. To use the library, simply add -lib format to your commandline parameters.

Package Structure

Each format lies in its own package, for example format.pdf contains classes for PDF.

The format.tools package contain some tools that might be shared by several formats but don't belong to a specific one.

Each format must provide the following files :

• one Data.hx file that contain only data structures / enums used by the format. If there is really a lot, they can be separated into several files, but it's often my easy for the end user to only have to do one single import format.xxx.Data to access to all the defined types.
• one Reader.hx class which enable to read the file format from an haxe.io.Input
• one Writer.hx class which enable to write the file format to an haxe.io.Output
• some other classes that might be necessary for manipulating the data structures

It's important in particular that the data structures storing the decoded information are separated from the actual classes manipulating it. This enable full access to all the file format infos and the ability to easily write libraries that manipulate the format, even if later the Reader implementation is changed for example.