Writing data to the .c4d file

ferdinand

@blastframe said in Writing data to the .c4d file:

I'm confused in this example how the SubBaseContainer is being added to the BaseContainer. It seems like they're both being added to the Document.

I might be mistaken, but this was how I envisioned the data structure:
Document ⮧
   BaseContainer Data (ID = PLUGIN_ID) ⮧
      SubBaseContainer Data (ID = MyUniqueId)

Hi,

no, it is

Document
--- Stuff
--- Other Stuff
--- Your ID stuff
--- Some clown is saving his cooking recipes here

Cheers
zipit

@zipit Thanks for the explanation of the data structure (and the code for clarity).

I tried my best to get it working, but it's still not printing the data. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I changed the line

print_container(doc.SetDocumentData(ID_MY_SECRET_COOKING_RECIPES))

as it was throwing an error for not passing a BaseContainer. Did you mean?

print_container(doc.GetDocumentData(ID_MY_SECRET_COOKING_RECIPES))

Regardless it's the same issue where it does see the BaseContainer in the print function, but cannot iterate through it.

import c4d

ID_MY_SECRET_COOKING_RECIPES = 2999999
ID_TITLE = 1008
ID_DATA = 1009
ID_INSTRUCTIONS = 1010

def print_container(bc):
    for cid, value in bc:
        print cid, value
        if isinstance(value, c4d.BaseContainer):
            print_container(value)

def main():
    doc = c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument()

    # Your settings container
    bc = c4d.BaseContainer()
    # One level of your container, we treat this like a list/folder
    folder = c4d.BaseContainer()
    # One item in your folder
    recipe_1 = c4d.BaseContainer()
    # Another item in your folder
    recipe_2 = c4d.BaseContainer()
    
    bc[ID_TITLE] = 'My Cooking recipes'
    bc[ID_DATA] = folder
    folder[1000] = recipe_1
    folder[1001] = recipe_2
    
    recipe_1[ID_TITLE] = 'Choclate delight'
    recipe_1[ID_INSTRUCTIONS] = 'Lorem Ipsum ...'
    recipe_2[ID_TITLE] = 'Cheesekake'
    recipe_2[ID_INSTRUCTIONS] = 'Lorem Ipsum ...'
      
    doc.SetDocumentData(ID_MY_SECRET_COOKING_RECIPES, bc)

    print_container(doc.GetDocumentData(ID_MY_SECRET_COOKING_RECIPES))

if __name__=='__main__':
   main()

Not sure if this matters, but my ultimate goal would be to save JSON data in the BaseContainer.

Manuel

Hello,

The function SetDocumentData can only be used to update the document settings.

It does accept an Int as a "type" but if you put something else than DOCUMENTSETTINGS_GENERAL DOCUMENTSETTINGS_MODELING DOCUMENTSETTINGS_DOCUMENT DOCUMENTSETTINGS_ANIMATIONSYSTEM the function will simply do nothing. (and the last one is marked as private)

BaseContainer is a tree system, you can see sub-BaseContainer just like a child object in the object manager.
So you can have (infinite ?) BaseContainer inside BaseContainer.

If you want to store json data, it's up to you. You can store all elements of your json data or simply store a string.

import c4d

PLUGIN_ID = 1234567
MyUniqueId = 456789

def main():
    #retrieves the document baseContainer
    docBC = doc.GetDataInstance()

    #create a sub-BaseContainer
    subBc = c4d.BaseContainer()
    subBc[1000] = "hello"
    subBc[2000] = "world!"

    # Add the container to the "main" Container
    docBC.SetContainer(MyUniqueId, subBc)

    # Updates the document container
    doc.SetData(docBC)

    # Print the values stored in our container.
    for cid, value in doc.GetDataInstance().GetContainer(MyUniqueId):
        print cid, value
    
    # Print Hello World
    print doc[MyUniqueId][1000], doc[MyUniqueId][2000]


if __name__=='__main__':
   main()

Cheers,
Manuel

@m_magalhaes Hi Manuel and thank you for this contribution. This code's data, however, is not persisting when I do the following:

run the script to set the data
close and reopen the document.
comment out the lines setting the data (lines 11-19)
run the script to print the data

Instead I get this error for doc[MyUniqueId]:

TypeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute '__getitem__'

Also, is MyUniqueId supposed to be the PLUGIN_ID? Why is that not being used?

Thanks!

Cairyn

@blastframe For me, it works fine this way. Did you really "close and reopen" the document? Not "save", "close", "load"? Because if you just close the document, the data from the container is gone, which leads to your error message.

The Q regarding MyUniqueId vs. PLUGIN_ID is not relevant (probably typed in a hurry), you can use either. But the ID value should come from Maxon in the end, so you avoid collisions with existing IDs.

@Cairyn I'm a little embarrassed, but you're right. I wasn't saving properly (I think just saving the Script) then going to the document in Recent Files. I'll mark this solved.

Thank you all - @Cairyn ,@zipit ,@m_magalhaes .

Manuel

hi,

you could use the same ID, you just have to be sure that you are the only one to use that ID to store datas.
That's why we use plugin's ID.

Cheers
Manuel.

@m_magalhaes Thanks, Manuel.

How would I delete the data of an individual sub-BaseContainer in the case of your script?

I've tried several methods below but the doc[MyUniqueId][1000] still shows data in the print call.

bc = doc.GetDataInstance().GetContainer(MyUniqueId)
print bc.RemoveData(1000)
# True 
print doc[MyUniqueId].RemoveData(1000)
# True
doc[MyUniqueId].FlushAll()
    
print doc[MyUniqueId][1000]
#hello

I was able to delete all of the data this way, but what if I want to keep the data in subBc[2000]?

docBC.RemoveData(MyUniqueId)

Thank you!

Manuel

hello,

there's a difference between GetContainer and GetContainerInstance
The first return a copy of the container the second the original link.
So either you retrieve a copy and set back the container to the parent with SetData and/or SetContainer
or you retrieve the original link and the changes are reflected immediately.

You can also use del that is pythonic

    bc = doc.GetDataInstance().GetContainerInstance(MyUniqueId)
    bc.RemoveData(2000)
    #del (bc[2000])

Cheers,
Manuel

@m_magalhaes said in Writing data to the .c4d file:

You can also use del that is pythonic

    bc = doc.GetDataInstance().GetContainerInstance(MyUniqueId)
    bc.RemoveData(2000)
    #del (bc[2000])

Wonderful, @m_magalhaes , thank you so much!