dedelimit

0.0.4 • Public • Published

Node.js: dedelimit

Scott Ivey -> http://www.scivey.net

Takes an object with flattened key-value pairs, like this:

{
    "user.name.first": "Tim",
    "user.name.last": "Generic",
    "user.age": 27,
    "user.messages.latest": ["Pick up the pace, Tim."]
}

And builds an object with the nested structure indicated by the delimited key order, like this:

{
    user: {
        name: {
            first: "Tim",
            last: "Generic"
        },
        age: 27,
        messages: {
            latest: ["Pick up the pace, Tim."]
        }
    }
}

Installation

npm install dedelimit

Usage

var dedelimit = require("dedelimit").dedelimit;
 
var flattenedKeys = {
    "user.name.first": "Tim",
    "user.name.last": "Generic",
    "user.age": 27,
    "user.messages.latest": ["Pick up the pace, Tim."],
};
 
dedelimit(flattenedKeys, function(err, restoredObject) {
    // restoredObject is the object with restored hierarchy
});

dedelimit has an async interface, but the implementation is basically synchronous -- the call is returned on process.nextTick. It's async because a future version may split the task into several async chunks if there are a large number of keys. So far that doesn't seem necessary.

dedelimit can also take an options object as its second argument, which currently provides a delimiter attribute for customizing the delimiter used to split the original keys into sequences. The delimiter defaults to a single period ("."). If an options object is passed, dedelimit expects a callback as its third argument.

var dedelimit = require("dedelimit").dedelimit;
 
var flattenedKeys = {
    "user,name,first": "Tim",
    "user,name,last": "Generic",
    "user,age": 27,
    "user,messages,latest": ["Pick up the pace, Tim."],
};
 
dedelimit(flattenedKeys, {delimiter: ","}, function(err, restoredObject) {
    // restoredObject is the object with restored hierarchy,
    // in this case using "," as the delimiter
});

The module also exports insertDelimitedKey, the internal method used for handling each key sequence. This function takes a pre-split array of keys, which is assumed to represent the ordering from a flattened string in an object like flattenedKeys, and the value to assign to the terminal key in the sequence. Its first argument is an object reference, which will be mutated. dedelimit uses this to build a reconstituted object one (nested) key-value pair at a time.

If a sequence of keys needs to be calculated in a way too complex to be handled by passing a different delimiter, custom key-splitting code can be paired with insertDelimitedKey to provide the same functionality as dedelimit.

If you just need an object rebuilt out of delimited keys, use dedelimit.

var insertDelimitedKey = require("dedelimit").insertDelimitedKey;
 
var _objectRef = {};
 
insertDelimitedKey(_objectRef, ["user", "name", "first"], "Gary");
 
console.log(_objectRef);
 
// output:
// {
// user: {
// name: {
// first: "Gary"
// }
// }
// }
//
 

API

  • dedelimit(flattenedObject[, options], callback)

    • flattenedObject is a one-level object with nested structure indicated by delimiters in its keys, e.g. "user.name": "name" for {user: { name: "name"} }.
    • options takes one property, delimiter, which is used to split flattened keys into the intermediate form used to rebuild their structure. A single period, ".", is the default delimiter.
    • callback has a typical (err, results) signature. results is the hierarchical object created from flattenedObject's split keys.
    • If options is omitted, callback is assumed to be the second parameter. (i.e. if the second parameter is a function, it will be treated as the callback.)
  • insertDelimitedKey(objectRef, keyList, value)

    • objectRef is a reference to a plain object which will have the keys in keyList added to it recursively. This object reference is mutated.
    • keyList is an array of pre-split keys, i.e. ['user', 'name'] instead of the "user.name" key used in dedelimit. Each subsequent key is assumed to be one level deeper, i.e. name is a property of user.
    • value is the value assigned to the property described by the last element of keyList. In the case of the same ['user', 'name'] array, value would be assigned to the name field of user, with user itself a property of the top-level object.

Use Cases

This module was created to rebuild objects from delimited property lists in the name attributes of HTML form inputs, e.g. from the following Handlebars view:

<form action="/customers/{{_id}}" method="post">
    <input type="text" name="name.first" value="{{name.first}}"/>
    <input type="text" name="name.last" value="{{name.last}}"/>
    <input type="text" name="address.ZIP" value="{{address.ZIP}}"/>
    <!-- and so on -->
    <input type="submit" value="Submit"/>
</form>

dedelimit can be used to recreate objects from flattened keys on the client-side or server-side. In the most straightforward case, this form will just be serialized and passed via POST call to /api/customers, with no further action on the client side. Recreating the original object is pointless there. If client-side models also need updating, then handling it in-browser is more important.

Used server-side with Express, parsing the form looks like this:

app.use(express.bodyParser());
    // parses POST data into req.body
 
app.post("/customers/:id", function(req, res) {
    var flattenedKeyVals = req.body;
    var _id = req.params.id;
 
    dedelimit(flattenedKeyVals, function(err, restoredObj) {
        // handle the restored object, e.g. pass to a Mongoose
        // model to update properties in persistence layer
    });
 
    res.redirect("/customers/" + _id);
});

This can easily be implemented as middleware for a group of form-handling routes.

GitHub

https://github.com/scivey/dedelimit

Contact

https://github.com/scivey

http://www.scivey.net

scott.ivey@gmail.com

License

MIT

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npm i dedelimit

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Version

0.0.4

License

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  • scivey