timebomb-js v0.3.0

Timebomb

Timebomb is a tiny cross-language library for failing loudly after a certain date or time has passed.

• JS installation via npm install --save timebomb-js
• Python installation via pip install timebomb

The Problem

Migrations leave TODOs all over the place. After a migration is completed, these todos linger on for weeks, months, and years. If only there was a way to make absolutely sure that you revisited them before a certain date...

The solution

Fail loudly and violently if the date passes.

This comes in 3 varieties, in increasing aggressiveness:

1. warnAfter
2. slowAfter
3. failAfter

warnAfter

Timebomb provides the ability to throw a warning after a certain date:

import timebomb from "timebomb-js";

function foo(bar) {
  // Temporary workaround: bar.hack() is required because of x/y/z reasons
  timebomb.warnAfter(new Date("2021-10-30"));
  bar.hack();
}

slowAfter

Timebomb provides the ability to add arbitrary latency after a certain date:

import timebomb from "timebomb-js";

function foo(bar) {
  // Temporary workaround: bar.hack() is required because of x/y/z reasons
  timebomb.slowAfter(new Date("2021-10-30"), 100);
  bar.hack();
}

This ensures that if some migration goes on too long, then the un-migrated code is far slower than a refactored implementation.

If you need to force other people to move away from a deprecated method progressively, perhaps if you've got a deprecated endpoint or sdk method, you can specify a progressive latency increase. This will ensure that important requests get migrated first, followed by less important ones:

import timebomb from "timebomb-js";

function deprecatedFoo(bar) {
  // Don't use this method after 2021-10-30, as it's being deprecated
  timebomb.slowAfter(new Date("2021-10-30"), (daysLate) => 100 * daysLate);
  bar.doSomethingWrong();
}

This will provide a warning for a week before failing, and slow the implementation afterwards.

failAfter

If nothing else works, the most extreme option is to outright fail the request.

import timebomb from "timebomb-js";

function foo(bar) {
  // Temporary workaround: bar.hack() is required because of x/y/z reasons
  timebomb.failAfter(Date("2021-10-30"));
  bar.hack();
}

This will provide a warning for a week before failing, and throw an error afterwards.