Figson

Simple configuration storage.

Note: This project is in early development, and versioning is a little different. Read this for more details.

Why should you care?

This project is in very early development, but already makes working with JSON, CSON and YAML configuration files a lot easier.

Installation

$ npm install figson --save

Usage

Async Example

var figson = require('figson');
var path   = require('path');
 
figson.parse('./config.json', function(error, config) {
  if (error) { throw error; }
  config.set('foo', 'bar');
  config.save(function(error) {
    if (error) { throw error; }
  });
});

Sync Example

var figson = require('figson');
var path   = require('path');
 
try {
  var config = figson.parse('./config.json');
  config.set('foo', 'bar');
  config.save();
} catch (error) {
  throw error;
}

You can swap out config.json for config.cson, config.yaml or config.yml. Everything will still work, and uses the exact same API as described below.

Figson API

Figson itself exposes one method:

figson.parse(config_file, [callback]);

Asynchronously reads a configuration file (if there is a callback function), parses it, and exposes an error and a config object to the callback (function(error, config) {}). config_file is the path to the file. Omit the callback for a synchronous operation.

Config API

The config object is basically just a tiny wrapper around the data inside the configuration file. It exposes a few properties and methods. All of config's methods are chainable, and accessing a property with a config method uses a tiny DSL string similar to how you would access that property using JavaScript's dot notation.

config.data

An object representing the configuration file.

config.val()

Returns the value of the last key/property in the config chain.

config.get([key])

Retrieves the value of the given key. If no key is provided, it retrieves the value of the last known key in the chain.

key is a string containing the object property who's value you want to retrieve.

Example:

// { some: { property: 'value1' }}
config.get('some.property').val() // => value1
// or
config.get().val() // => value1

config.set([key], value)

Sets the key to the value. If no key is given, uses the most recent key in the chain. The value can be a string, number, object, array or null.

Example:

// { an: { array: { property: [] }}}
config.set('an.array.property[0]', 'the value') // { an: { array: { property: ['the value'] }}}
// or
config.set('a different value') // { an: { array: { property: ['a different value'] }}}
 

config.update([key], value)

First, attempts a get() to determine the existence of the given key property. If it exists, it will then call set() with the new value. Otherwise, throws an error. Useful if you need to safely set a value. If no key is given, updates the key from the last call in the chain.

Example:

config.update('foo', 'baz')
config.get('foo').update('baz')

config.destroy([key])

"deletes" the given key property by setting it's value to undefined. If no key is given, it will "delete" the key from the last method in the chain.

Example:

config.destroy('foo');
config.get('bar').destroy()

config.find(partial_key)

This method is useful for accessing properties that are very deeply nested. Suppose you have an object:

{
  a: {
    very: {
      deeply: {
        nested: {
          property: 'value'
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

You want to update a.very.deeply.nested.property to have the value foobar, but you don't want to have to type out the whole property name. Just use .find()! As long as the property ends with the key you pass to find(), it'll work:

config.find('nested.property').set('foobar') // done!

config.save([callback])

This saves the current state of config.data to the configuration file. This is a synchronous operation, but passing in an optional callback (function(error) {}) will make it perform asynchronously.

Example:

config.save(); // synchronous
 
// asynchronous
config.save(function(error) {
  if (error) { throw error; }
});

Adding your own configuration file types

Figson exposes a small interface for you to add your own configuration file handlers, if you wish to use a separate data format. Figson uses this interface internally to add support for JSON, CSON and YAML files.

All you have to do is call figson.addHandler(name, object), where name is the name of your handler (e.g. "CSON" for CSON files) and where object is a JavaScript object that lists file extensions as well as synchronous and asynchronous parse and stringify operations. For example, if you wanted to register JSON, you would do this:

figson.addHandler('JSON', {
  extensions: ['.json'],
  parse: JSON.parse,
  parseSync: JSON.parse,
  stringify: JSON.stringify,
  stringifySync: JSON.stringify
});

Figson will automatically register the file extension to the correct data format. You can look in lib/handlers for other examples.

Contributing:

Please read the contribution guidelines.