===== Fabric Transfer API: Understanding Storage ===== //This article is part of a series on the Fabric Transfer API. [[tutorial:transfer-api|Link to the home page of the series]].// **''Storage'' is a thing that contains fluids, it is what tanks, buckets, etc... implement and it is what pipe mods and others use to move fluids between containers.** ==== You already used Storage ==== [[tutorial:transfer-api/simpletank|Now that you implemented a simple tank]], let's have a look at what exactly this ''SingleVariantStorage'' is.


public abstract class SingleVariantStorage> extends ... implements SingleSlotStorage { ... }
public interface SingleSlotStorage extends Storage, ... { ... }

The takeaway here is that ''SingleVariantStorage'' is a ''Storage'', which is what we registered to ''FluidStorage.SIDED''! ==== Retrieving a Storage from the world ==== Let's see how we can retrieve one from the world:


World world = ...; // Important: must be a server world!!! You must never query this on the client.
BlockPos pos = ...; // The postion in the world
Direction direction = ...; // The side for which we want a storage.
@Nullable
Storage storage = FluidStorage.SIDED.find(world, pos, direction);

if (storage != null) {
	// Use the storage
}

==== A look at Storage ==== Let's have a look at ''Storage.java'':


public interface Storage {
	// Try to insert a resource in the storage, return how much was inserted.
	long insert(T resource, long maxAmount, TransactionContext transaction);
	// Try to extract a resource from the storage, return how much was extracted.
	long extract(T resource, long maxAmount, TransactionContext transaction);
	// Iterate over the contents of this storage.
	default Iterable> iterable(TransactionContext transaction) { ... }

	...
}

This interface allows us to insert into a storage, extract from it, and read its contents. ==== First example: how to insert exactly one bucket of water into a storage ====


Storage storage = ...;
FluidVariant water = FluidVariant.of(Fluids.WATER);

// Open a transaction: this allows cancelling the operation if it doesn't go as expected.
try (Transaction transaction = Transaction.openOuter()) {
	// Try to insert, will return how much was actually inserted.
	long amountInserted = storage.insert(water, FluidConstants.BUCKET, transaction);
	if (amountInserted == FluidConstants.BUCKET) {
		// "Commit" the transaction: this validates all the operations that were part of this transaction.
		// You should call this if you are satisfied with the result of the operation, and want to keep it.
		transaction.commit();
	} else {
		// Doing nothing "aborts" the transaction: this cancels the insertion.
		// You should call this if you are not satisfied with the result of the operation, and want to abort it.
	}
}

==== Second example: move exactly one bucket of lava from a storage to another storage ====


import static net.fabricmc.fabric.api.transfer.v1.fluid.FluidConstants.BUCKET; // a bit shorter to type :)

Storage source, destination;
FluidVariant lava = FluidVariant.of(Fluids.LAVA);

try (Transaction transaction = Transaction.openOuter()) {
	if (source.extract(lava, BUCKET, transaction) == BUCKET && destination.insert(lava, BUCKET, transaction) == BUCKET) {
		transaction.commit();
	}
}

Hopefully you understand why this works, and why this will never duplicate or void fluid. ==== A more complicated example: Extracting the contents of a storage ==== In the previous example, we knew that we wanted to move water or lava. But what if we don't know what to extract? The answer is: iterate over the contents! This example also introduces the concept of nested transactions.


Storage storage;
Predicate filter = fv -> fv.isOf(Fluids.WATER); // What we want to extract, in this example let's say we want to extract any water, regardless of its NBT tag.
long totalExtracted = 0;

// Open a transaction, as before.
try (Transaction transaction = Transaction.openOuter()) {
	// Loop over the contents! Each StorageView can contain at most one resource. You can think of a StorageView as an inventory slot.
	for (StorageView view : storage.iterable(transaction)) {
		if (view.isResourceBlank()) continue; // This means that the view contains no resource, represented by FluidVariant.blank().
		FluidVariant storedResource = view.getResource(); // Current resource
		if (!filter.test(storedResource)) continue; // The filter rejected this resource, skip it.

		// If you want to extract any amount <= view.getAmount(), do this.
		totalExtracted += view.extract(storedResource, view.getAmount(), transaction);

		// If you want to extract either the exact amount or nothing, you can use a nested transaction!
		try (Transaction nestedTransaction = transaction.openNested()) {
			long amount = view.getAmount(); // The amount will change after the call to extract, so make sure to save it first.
			long extracted = view.extract(storedResource, amount, nestedTransaction);
			if (extracted == amount) {
				totalExtracted += amount;
				nestedTransaction.commit(); // Validate the nestedTransaction: the outer one will have to committed as well to validate this change.
			} else {
				// If we do nothing, the extraction is cancelled immediately when nestedTransaction is closed at the end of the try { ... } block.
			}
		}
	}
	transaction.commit(); // Don't forget to commit, or all of the extraction will be cancelled!
}

==== Conclusion ==== You should now be able to use ''Storage''s and ''StorageView''s. They can be a bit challenging in the beginning, but once you're used to them they are very easy to work with. You should also have a look at ''StorageUtil'': it already contains functions that perform common transfer operations. In particular, [[https://maven.fabricmc.net/docs/fabric-api-0.41.0+1.17/net/fabricmc/fabric/api/transfer/v1/storage/StorageUtil.html#move(net.fabricmc.fabric.api.transfer.v1.storage.Storage,net.fabricmc.fabric.api.transfer.v1.storage.Storage,java.util.function.Predicate,long,net.fabricmc.fabric.api.transfer.v1.transaction.TransactionContext)|move]] is very useful if you just want to move resources between two storages.