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🛍️ Smart_Store

Technical Notes

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Project Summary

Smart_Store is a robust, extensible, and modular C++20 framework for managing collections of arbitrary objects with advanced serialization, schema migration, and undo/redo state management. It is ideal for inventory management, asset tracking, game editors, and any application needing flexible object storage with persistence and versioning.

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Core Objectives

• Safe, maintainable item storage using std::shared_ptr
• Tag-based lookup for fast item retrieval
• Undo/redo history for state management
• Import/export across JSON, XML, CSV, and Binary formats
• Clean schema migration for legacy upgrades
• Thread-safe operations
• Extensible custom type registration via templates
• Built with modern C++ idioms (RAII, STL, type safety)

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Key Features

Memory Management

• Uses std::shared_ptr for all items
• No raw pointers exposed
• Ownership fully managed internally
• Undo/redo operates on deep clones

Undo / Redo History

• Snapshots stored as deep clones
• undo() and redo() for safe state traversal
• Clear separation of history stacks

Thread Safety

• Mutex locks (std::lock_guard<std::mutex>) for safe concurrent access
• Read/write operations protected
• Thread-safe API prevents race conditions

Schema Migration

• Built-in MigrationRegistry system
• Versioned upgrades of legacy JSON data on import
• Gradual migration strategies (e.g., v1 → v2 → v3)
• Reduces data corruption and incompatibility

Multi-Format Import / Export

Format	Import	Export	Notes
JSON	✅	✅	Human-friendly
CSV	✅	✅	Interop with Excel
XML	✅	✅	Human-readable
Binary	✅	✅	Compact & fast

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Architecture Overview

Main Components:

Component	Role
ItemManager	Core storage & API interface
BaseItem	Abstract base for item types
ItemWrapper	Handles serialization metadata
Logger	Color logging for clarity
MigrationRegistry	Manages version upgrades
AtomicFileWriter	Safe file writing utility

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Supported Types

• Built-in: int, std::string, bool
• Custom: Any user-defined class registered via registerType

Data Model

• items: std::unordered_map<std::string, std::shared_ptr<BaseItem>> (tag → object)
• idMap: Optional map for reverse-lookup by ID

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Design Considerations

Thread Safety

• Anticipates concurrent access (UI threads, background saves)
• Protects items against simultaneous reads/writes

Schema Migration

• Ensures long-term data safety
• Supports evolving needs without breaking data

Undo/Redo

• Ideal for editors and asset tools
• Encourages experimentation with state safety

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Technical Stack

• C++20: Modern features, STL, optional, shared_ptr
• nlohmann::json: Intuitive JSON handling
• TinyXML2: Lightweight XML parsing
• ANSI Color Logger: Developer-friendly debugging
• RAII: Automatic resource management

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Limitations & Future Improvements

• Single-level undo/redo (future: multi-depth branching)
• Schema migration is JSON-focused (extend to XML/CSV)
• Thread safety is global-lock (potential for finer-grained locking)

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Ideal Use Cases

• Inventory management systems
• Asset tracking tools
• Game editors
• Data analysis tools with reversible state
• Apps needing cross-format data interoperability