object-modeler v0.0.1

object-modeler

Create a model from an array of (preferably) similar JS objects.

Maybe it's a bunch of MongoDB documents or SQL result rows from a collection you're unfamiliar with. Maybe it's just the output of some module with poor documentation. Either way, this is an extremely lightweight module will give you a model object compiled from all given objects.

##Installation

$ npm install object-modeler

##Parameters

• Array collection -- An array of objects to be modeled.
• string modelName (optional) -- If this is given, the model's constructor name will be set to it.

Setting collection to a type other than Array will result in a TypeError being thrown.

##Usage Let's say we have an array of 2 objects representing people.

var collection = [
    {
        firstName: "Sharon",
        lastName: "White",
        age: 44,
        created: 2016-06-23T18:25:43.511Z, // Date when the record was created,
        spouse: {
            firstName: "Timothy",
            lastName: "White"
        },
        likes: [
            "Westerns",
            "Chardonnay",
            "Romantic trips with Tim"  
        ],
        admin: false
    },
    {
        firstName: "William",
        middleName: "Phillip",
        lastName: "Brown",
        age: 31,
        created: 2016-08-14T16:18:40.218Z
        spouse: null
        likes: null
        dislikes: [
            "Cats",
            "Rural areas",
            "Any movie with Seth Rogan",
            "Domestic beer",
            "People who aren't sufficiently jaded"
        ],
        admin: true
    }
];

By examining the two objects, we can see that the two objects share most properties, but not all. Some of Sharon's properties are missing from William's object, and vice versa. Also, William is kind of a negative person.

In order to work with these objects as a collection, we'll use this module to see what an object in this collection could have as properties.

var objectModeler = require('object-modeler');

var personModel = objectModeler(collection, 'PersonModel');

The value of personModel will be:

{
    firstName: {
        _type: "string"
    },
    middleName: {
        _type: "string"
    },
    lastName: {
        _type: "string"
    },
    age: {
        _type: "number"
    },
    created: {
        _type: "string"   
    },
    spouse: {
        _type: "object",
        _properties: {
            firstName: {
                type: "string"
            },
            lastName: {
                type: "string"
            }
        }
    }
    likes: {
        _type: "array",
        _element: {
            type: "string"
        },
    },
    dislikes: {
        _type: "array",
        _element: {
            _type: "string"
        },
    },
    admin: {
        _type: "boolean"
    }
}

All properties found in objects have been modeled in personModel and their types documented.