jaquadro/nbtexplorer

Purpose and solution layout

NBTExplorer is a desktop editor for Minecraft-oriented Named Binary Tag (NBT) data. It reads and writes standalone NBT, schematic, region/anvil, and Cubic Chunks region files. The solution separates reusable NBT/domain logic (NBTModel), graphical editor front ends (NBTExplorer), and a command-line utility (NBTUtil). NBTExplorer.sln is the top-level integration point.

Application entry points and platform shells

The graphical application has distinct Windows/Mono WinForms and native macOS startup paths: NBTExplorer/Program.cs, NBTExplorer/ProgramMac.cs, and NBTExplorer/Mac/AppDelegate.cs. Windows centers on NBTExplorer/Windows/MainForm.cs; macOS centers on NBTExplorer/Mac/MainWindowController.cs. Both shells provide equivalent tree-oriented document editing while adapting menus, dialogs, clipboard, and search UI to their runtime toolkits.

NBT domain and file abstraction

NBTModel defines the application’s canonical editable tree model. NBTModel/Data/Nodes/DataNode.cs is the common node abstraction; concrete NBT scalar, array, list, and compound representations live under NBTModel/Data/Nodes/, including TagDataNode.cs and TagCompoundDataNode.cs. Container behavior is separated into NBTModel/Data/CompoundTagContainer.cs and NBTModel/Data/ListTagContainer.cs, allowing UI and operations to manipulate structured NBT independent of file format.

File loading, format selection, and persistence

NBTModel/Data/FileTypeRegistry.cs selects supported document/file implementations. File-backed and filesystem hierarchy nodes, such as NBTModel/Data/Nodes/NbtFileDataNode.cs, NBTModel/Data/Nodes/RegionFileDataNode.cs, and NBTModel/Data/Nodes/DirectoryDataNode.cs, bridge on-disk NBT sources into the shared DataNode hierarchy. Region-specific structures include chunk nodes and Cubic Chunks support in NBTModel/Data/Nodes/RegionChunkDataNode.cs and NBTModel/Data/CubicRegionFile.cs. The core boundary is therefore: format-specific storage parsing/serialization below, normalized editable node tree above.

Editor coordination and user operations

Controllers coordinate the visual tree, selection, and explorer commands rather than embedding this behavior directly in platform forms: NBTExplorer/Controllers/NodeTreeController.cs, NBTExplorer/Controllers/ExplorerBarController.cs, and NBTExplorer/Controllers/RuleTreeController.cs. Platform-specific create/edit/find dialogs collect user input, while controller-driven mutations apply it to model nodes. Clipboard interoperability is abstracted in NBTModel/Interop/NbtClipboardController.cs and implemented per UI platform in NBTExplorer/Windows/NbtClipboardControllerWin.cs and NBTExplorer/Mac/NbtClipboardControllerMac.cs.

Search and filtering pipeline

Search rules are model-level objects in NBTModel/Search/SearchRule.cs, with parsing support in NBTModel/FilterExpressionParser.cs and path representation in NBTModel/NbtPath.cs. NBTExplorer/SearchWorker.cs performs search work outside the interactive UI flow; each platform supplies state/UI integration through NBTExplorer/Windows/SearchStateWin.cs or NBTExplorer/Mac/SearchStateMac.cs. This separates long-running traversal and rule evaluation from cancellation/progress presentation.

CLI and delivery infrastructure

NBTUtil/Program.cs and NBTUtil/ConsoleRunner.cs provide a separate automation-oriented entry point over the model, dispatching commands such as editing, JSON conversion, printing, and tree printing from NBTUtil/Ops/EditOperation.cs, NBTUtil/Ops/JsonOperation.cs, and NBTUtil/Ops/PrintTreeOperation.cs. Material runtime targets are .NET Framework/WinForms and Mono, plus native macOS UI bindings. Windows packaging is defined by the WiX installer project at NBTExplorer.Installer/NBTExplorer.Installer.wixproj and NBTExplorer.Installer/Product.wxs; no network service or backend dependency is represented.