chrisocast / grunt-faker

grunt-faker

grunt-faker

Grunt task for specifying the shape of a JSON object with a basic tag syntax, then generating that object with the Faker library. Each time the task is run the data will look slightly different - making it easy to test against dynamic, ever-changing data scenarios (like the real world!).

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.4

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-faker --save-dev

One the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-faker');

The "faker" task

Overview

In your project's Gruntfile, add a section named faker to the data object passed into grunt.initConfig().

grunt.initConfig({
  faker: {
    my_task: {
      options: {
        jsonFormat: "json/test_all.json",
        out: 'tmp/test_all.json'
      }
    },
    my_other_task: {
      options: {
        jsonFormat: "json/example.json",
        out: ['tmp/example1.json', 'tmp/example2.json']
      }
    }
  }
})

Options

Only two options here, both are required.

options.jsonFormat

Type: String

A string value that is a path to a JSON file with the desired format.

options.out

Type: String|Array

A string value or an array of string values, that is a path to the resulting JSON output file(s).

JSON format

To choose how the output JSON will look, a double curly-bracket syntax is used to identify Faker API methods. To prefix or postfix values you just add them before or after the curly-bracket. The JSON format below could be used to generate a fake customer data object. The strings ("id", "firstName", etc) will always remain static, while the object values will be randomly generated each time the task is run. If options.out is an array, the values will be randomly generated for each file.

Example JSON format file

{
  "customers" : [
    {  
      "id" : "{{random.number(999999)}}",
      "name" : {
          "first" : "{{Name.firstName}} Hubert",
          "last" : "{{Name.lastName}}"
        },
      "address" : {
        "streetAddress" : "{{Address.streetAddress}}",
        "city" : "{{Address.city}}",
        "state" : "{{Address.usState}}",
        "zip" : "{{Address.zipCode}}"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Outputs as:

{
  "customers": [
    {
      "id": 110021,
      "name": {
        "first": "Emerald Hubert",
        "last": "Hintz"
      },
      "address": {
        "streetAddress": "0922 Huels Inlet",
        "city": "Barneyberg",
        "state": "New Hampshire",
        "zip": "22819"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.

Release History

• 2014-04-25   v0.2.1 Bumping version to force npm update
• 2014-04-25   v0.2.0   Support for writing JSON data into multiple files and pre/post fixing values, updated dependencies, unit tests
• 2013-05-12   v0.1.0   Initial release

grunt-faker's Issues

Accept a directory of template files?

Currently, grunt-faker doesn't accept minimatch patterns; i.e. if you wanted to compile a whole directory of templates you would have to specify another target for each one. Are you open to a pull request for this feature?

I'd imagine it would work like this:

faker: {
    templates: {
        jsonFormat: ['data-templates/**/*.json'],
        dest: 'data'
    }
}

Allow format json in gruntfile, rather than only in separate json file

{{tree.createTree()}} example

I'm trying to figure out, how to use {{tree.createTree()}}. Does anyone have a gist with an example of how it's used?

Handle required Faker params

Some Faker methods don't have default values for params. If the user misses one, grunt-faker should throw a helpful error message.

They are:
Address.zipCodeFormat
PhoneNumber.phoneNumberFormat
Helpers.randomNumber
Helpers.randomize
Helpers.randomize
Helpers.slugify
Helpers.replaceSymbolWithNumber - two params string, symbol, only first required
Helpers.shuffle
random.number
random.array_element

Fails when JSON doesn't contain Faker instructions

If the is no Faker instructions in a JSON line, grunt-faker should just ignore it.

Handle {{repeat(x)}} function to avoid having to dupe similar objects

Allow multiple {{tags}} in the same json val

Add testing for the args detection in getFunctionNameAndArgs()