# RAE File Format

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The RAE file format is an open and flexible format to transport any kind of measurement.

It consists of three main parts:

- The "magic string" at the beginning of the file for file identification.
- The container properties (the file header)
- The actual data.

The data containers are RFC 8949 Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR) encoded ([cbor.io](https://cbor.io/), [Wikipedia CBOR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBOR)). \
CBOR is a compact, efficient binary serialization format, designed to be easily parsed and interoperable. It is ideal for transmitting structured data. \
There are a lot of free implementations for reading/writing CBOR for every widely used programming language like C#, C++, Java, or TypeScript: [https://cbor.io/impls.html](https://cbor.io/impls.html)

### File structure

- [File Identification](rhopoint-elements-hub-rae-file-format-file-identification.md) — the magic string at the start of every RAE file
- [MIME Type](rhopoint-elements-hub-rae-file-format-mime-type.md) — `application/vnd.rhopoint.rae+binary`
- [File Header](rhopoint-elements-hub-rae-file-format-file-header.md) — CBOR-encoded `RaeBinaryFile` record
- [Decompression and parsing](rhopoint-elements-hub-rae-file-format-decompression-and-parsing.md) — gzip and CBOR decoding steps

### Payload structure

- [MeasurementComponentMetaTuple](rhopoint-elements-hub-rae-file-format-measurementcomponentmetatuple.md) — the payload: an array of meta/component tuples
- [MeasurementComponent](rhopoint-elements-hub-rae-file-format-measurementcomponent.md) — the measurement tree: components, metadata, source
- [Measurement Data Types](rhopoint-elements-hub-rae-file-format-measurement-data-types.md) — polymorphic data records: single values and files

### Related formats

- [JSON Variant](rhopoint-elements-hub-rae-file-format-json-variant.md) — the same content as a plain JSON document (`application/vnd.rhopoint.rae+json`)
- [RAA File Format](rhopoint-elements-hub-raa-file-format.md) — an archive (ZIP) bundling multiple RAE files