Digger-container NPM

digger-container

Build status

A JQuery style wrapper for JSON model arrays.

install

node.js

$ npm install digger-container

overview

This library provides an api very similar to JQuery but for an array of JSON models rather than DOM elements.

It can be used a stand-alone data tool or as part of a greater digger network.

containers

You can create a container from some existing data:

var Container = require('digger-container');

// create a container with a single model
var post = Container({
	name:'Hello World',
	height:34
})

// create a container from an array of models
var posts = Container([{
	name:'Post A'
},{
	name:'Post B'
}])

container format

Once some data has been containerized - it will have a _digger property injected into each model.

This allows us to add meta-data like 'tagname', 'id' and 'class' to the containers models.

var post = Container({
	name:'Hello World'
})

post.addClass('frontpage');

console.log(post.toJSON());

/*

	{
		name:'Hello World',
		_digger:{
			class:['frontpage']
		}
	}
	
*/

Notice how the class property lives inside of the _digger property.

This is so anything that digger requires for the model will not get in the way of your model data.

An example of a more complete model:

{
	name:'Ladder',
	height:354,
	_digger:{
		tag:'product',
		class:['tall', 'narrow']
	},
	_children:[]
}

children

Each model in a container can also have a '_children' property.

This is an array of model data that lives inside of the parent container.

This is how the digger tree structure works - by containers living inside of other containers.

examples

Creating containers

Create a new container with a specific tagname - the tagname is like the table name in a traditional database.

// this line will be assumed through all the rest of the examples
var Container = require('digger-container');

var product = Container('product');

You can also pass an attributes object as the second argument:

var product = Container('product', {
	name:'Blue Suede Shoes',
	price:78
})

If you have an array of JSON models already - you can just pass that:

var data = [{
	name:"Superman",
	rating:7.8
},{
	name:"Spiderman",
	rating:7.9
}]

var superheroes = Container(data);

Changing attributes

Once you have a container - you can change the attributes of ALL models within it at once - just like JQuery:

// take our superheros container from above
var superheroes = Container(data);

// set the tagnames of every model to superhero
superheroes.tag('superhero')

// set a deep attribute for each superhero - this creates an object for 'filming'
superheroes.attr('filming.city', 'Los Angeles');

Spawning new containers

We can also generate new containers from the data inside of existing ones:

// get a container with just superman inside
var superman = superheroes.eq(0);

superman.attr('loves', 'Louis Lane');

Accessing models

You can get to the raw underlying model also:

// get the data inside the superman model
var raw_superman = superheroes.get(0);

console.dir(raw_superman)

/*

	{
		name:"Superman",
		rating:7.8,
		loves:"Louis Lane",
		_digger:{
			tag:'superhero'
		}
	}
	
*/

api

these methods can be called on an instantiated container

toJSON

returns an array of the containers underlying models

spawn

returns a new container based upon the provided models

clone

returns a copy of the current container but with all of the diggerids changed

var test = Container('product', {
  price:100,
  address:{
    postcode:'apples'
  }
})

var copy = test.clone();

copy.attr('price').should.equal(100);
copy.diggerid().should.not.equal(test.diggerid());

containers

return an array of containers each one holding a single model in the current models array

var data = [{
	name:"Superman",
	rating:7.8
},{
	name:"Spiderman",
	rating:7.9
}]

var superheroes = Container(data);

var containers = superheroes.containers();

// containers is now an array of 2 containers each with 1 model