rlugojr / smolder

A library wrapper that attempts to reshape data going into your functions.

Smolder

Smolder (it's-a-mold-er - sorry) is a JavaScript library wrapper which aims to reshape the input to functions to match a provided schema. It's kind of like casting on speed.

The actual reshaping is done using Reshaper.

Installation

npm install smolder

Usage

Smolder(library, [schema])

• library: The JavaScript library to be wrapped. This should be imported - you can do Smolder(require('your library')), for example.
• [schema]: The schema for the library's functions. This can also be included within the library itself, as shown in the examples.

Examples

If we have a library, arrays.js, which looks like this:

module.exports = {
    sumArray: function (array) {
        return arr.reduce(function(a, b) {
            return a + b;
        });
    }
};

And we have some data on people:

var peopleData = [
    {
        name: 'Joel',
        info: {
            age: 22,
            height: 1.9,
            middleName: 'Robert',
            lastName: 'Auterson'
        }
    },
    {
        name: 'Jake',
        info: {
            age: 24,
            height: 1.85,
            middleName: 'Wild',
            lastName: 'Hall'
        }
    }
];

We can use Smolder to apply the sumArray function to the data above, and still get the result we want.

// First let's create a schema for the arrays library.
var schema = {
    sumArray: {
        array: ['Number'] // Parameter 'array' must be an array of numbers.
    }
}

var Smolder = require('smolder');
// Smolder will wrap the arrays library for us
var arrays = Smolder(require('arrays'), schema);

arrays.sumArray(peopleData);
// => 46

The reshaping process will by default use the first match it finds. In the above case, it creates an array using the age values.

If we want to use something other than the default, we can provide Smolder with 'hints', like so:

var hints = {
    array: 'height' // We want to sum the heights, not the ages.
};

arrays.sumArray(peopleData, hints);
// => 3.75

It's also possible to just provide Smolder with a string or array of strings as the hint. In this case, it'll use this hint for all parameters.

arrays.sumArray(peopleData, 'height');
// => 3.75

If we're using a library we created, we can build it with support for Smolder out-of-the-box. We just need to add the schema to the library's exports, like so:

module.exports = {

    __SMOLDER_SCHEMA: {
        sumArray: {
            array: ['Number']
        }
    },

    sumArray: function (array) {
        var result = 0;
        for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            result += array[i];
        }
        return result;
    }
};

We can then require through Smolder without specifying a schema:

var arrays = Smolder(require('arrays'));

For any function or parameter where a schema is not specified, it won't be changed by the Smolder wrapper.