Language Overview
This chapter provides a quick overview of the Erbsland Configuration Language for those who want to get up to speed quickly. For more detailed information without delving too deeply into technical specifics, refer to the Introduction chapter.
The Core Language
# ▶︎ Meta Values must be at the top before any sections
@version: "1.0" # Optionally set the version
@features: "regex" # Also optionally, require certain features.
# ▶︎ Section Definitions
[Main Settings] # Interpreted as: main_settings
App Name: "ELCL Demo" # Name-Value Pair with Text Value
Version: 1 # Name-Value Pair with Integer Value
--[ Numbers ]--------- # '-' and spacing can be adding to sections
Decimal Value: 42 # Integer Values with different formats
Hex Value: 0x2A
Binary Value: 0b101010
Large Number: 1'000'000 # Digit separators for readability
[Features] # ▶︎ Boolean Values using different synonyms
Feature Enabled: true
Debug Mode: On
Logging = Enabled # '=' is an alternative to ':'
Maintenance Mode : no # spacing around ':' and '=' is allowed
[Messages] # ▶︎ Text Values with escape sequences
Welcome Message: "Welcome to \"ELCL Demo\"!"
Multi Line Support: "First Line\nSecond Line"
Unicode Example: "Unicode test: \u{1F600}" # 😀 Emoji
[Server] # ▶︎ Subsections and Relative Sections
Host: "localhost" # => 'server.host'
Port: 8080 # => 'server.port'
[.Credentials] # ▶︎ Relative subsection of Server
User: "admin" # => 'server.credentials.user'
Password: "secret" # => 'server.credentials.password'
[Name Rules] # ▶︎ Name Rules
ValidName1: "Starts with a letter"
Valid_Name2: "Uses letters, digits, underscores"
Valid Name3: "Spaces are converted to underscores"
# Invalid Names
1Invalid: "Starts with a digit" # ERROR! Names must start with a letter
Invalid__Name: "Consecutive underscores" # ERROR! No consecutive underscores
InvalidName_: "Trailing underscore" # ERROR! No trailing underscores
[Config] # ▶︎ Name Conflicts
Setting: "Value1"
Setting: "Value2" # ERROR! 'Setting' is already defined in 'Config'
[Config] # ERROR! 'Config' section is already defined
NewSetting: "Value"
[Wrong Value Placement]
BadValue: # ERROR! Value must be indented if on a new line
"This is incorrect"
Standard Features
[Floating Point Values] # ▶︎ Floating-Point Values:
Value A: 0. # As soon there is a decimal point,
Value B: .0 # the value is a floating point value.
Value C: 12'802. # With digit separators
Value D: 1.293'281 # Fractional number with digit separators
Value E: 12e+12 # Exponent notation
Value F: 0.45E-7 # Exponent notation with decimal fraction
Value G: -Inf # Negative infinity
Value H: NaN # Not a number
[Byte Counts] # ▶︎ Integers that are Byte Counts:
Value A: 1kb # Equals 1'000
Value B: 540 TiB # Equals 593'736'278'999'040
[Multiline Text] # ▶︎ Multi-line Text Values:
Value A: """ # Must start on the next line ...
This is the first line of text.
This is the second line of text.
""" # Must end with """ on its own line.
Value B: # even better, start the value here
""" # First line sets indent sequence.
Another multi-line text value.
It spans multiple lines.
""" # Indent sequence, space to text and after the text is removed.
[Value Lists] # ▶︎ Value Lists:
Value A: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 # Single-line list of integers
Value B: "text", 5, Yes # Mixed type list
Rainbow Colors: # Multi-line value list
* "Red"
* "Orange"
* "Yellow"
* "Green"
* "Blue"
# ▶︎ List Sections:
*[Server.Connection] # Asterik marks a list section
Name: "Web Localhost"
Port: 8090
*[Server.Connection]* # Second asterix, after section is valid
Name: "Web Public"
Port: 80
---*[Server.Connection]*---------------- # Can be combined with `-` as well
Name: "Connector"
Port: 9010
# ▶︎ Text Names for Sections:
[Email Filter . "[email protected]"] # Text name in section
Reject: Yes
[Email Filter . "[email protected]"] # Another text-named section
Reject: No
Forward To: "[email protected]"
[Translations . jp] # ▶︎ Text Names for Values:
"Good Morning!" = "おはようございます！"
"Have a great day!" = "良い一日をお過ごしください！"
"What is your name?" = "お名前は何ですか？"
[Time Values] # ▶︎ Time Values:
Value A: 01:23, 23:59:01, 04:27:09.003 # Hours and minutes [:seconds [.fractions]]
Value D: 01:23z, 22:45:15z # UTC time indicated by 'z'
Value G: 12:01+02, 17:31-03:30 # Time with timezone offset in hours[:minutes]
Value I: t16:49:03z # Optional 't' prefix for ISO compatibility
[Date Values] # ▶︎ Date Values:
Value A: 2024-12-01 # Date in YYYY-MM-DD format
Value B: 2018-01-14 # Another date
[DateTime Values] # ▶︎ Date-Time Values:
Value A: 2024-11-19 17:45 # Date and time with hours and minutes
Value B: 2024-11-19 23:59:01 # Including seconds
Value C: 2024-11-19 04:27:09.003 # Including fractions of a second
Value D: 2024-11-19t01:23z # Using 't' separator and UTC time
Value E: 2024-11-19T22:45:15z # Using 'T' separator and UTC time
[Code Text] # ▶︎ Code Text Values:
Value A: `return $name + "\r\n";` # Single-line code text, no escape possible.
Value B: ``` # Multi-line code text, must start on new line
function callback($name) {
return $name + "\r\n";
}
``` # must end on its own line
Value C: # ... text can have single backticks
```js # Language identifier is allowed
const overlay = document.createElement('div');
overlay.innerHTML = `
<div class="content">
<span>Name: ${name}</span>
</div>
`;
```
[Byte Data Values] # ▶︎ Byte-Data Values
Value A: <01b203c405> # Single-line byte-data
Value B: < 01B2 03C4 05 > # Spacing between bytes is allowed
Value C: <hex: 01 b2 03 c4 05> # Optional 'hex:' prefix
Value D: <<< # Multi-line byte-data
01b2 03c4 05a6 # Comments and line breaks are allowed
0728 390a 1b0c
>>>
Value E: <<<hex # Format specifier for multi-line byte-data
01b203c4 05a60728 390a1b0c
>>>
# ▶︎ Include Meta Command
@include: "file:configurations/*.ecl" # Include additional configuration files
Advanced Features
[Regular Expressions] # ▶ Regular Expressions
Value A: /^m(a+)tch!$/ # Enclosed in `/` characters
Value B: /// # Multi-line is verbose, enclosed in `///`
^
m (a+) tch !
$
/// # Must end on its own line.
[Time Deltas] # ▶ Time Deltas
Value A: 10s # Integer with suffix, like `s`, `m`, `h`
Value B: 59m # Single `m` is minutes.
Value C: 5 minutes # Optional single space, long names
Value D: -4days # Positive and negative values.
# ▶ Validation Rules Support
# ▶ Document Signatures
# --→ more about these in the documentation.