DotObjectArray, a.k.a. DOA a.k.a. ObjectArray

Why DOA ?

For three reasons :

• No support for associative arrays in vanilla JS
• Creating deep levels keys in a vanilla JS <tt>Object</tt> can programmatically be a pain if none of parent keys exists
• Bored of always using the same snippets everywhere and wants to have a less then 10KB NPM dependency ready to import

Features

DOA is an object with a set of methods to :

• Check, push, get and store data with ease regardless of its level
• Bring some array-like behaviours for convenience (you know forEach for arrays, eh ?)
• Provide data serializers and parsers
• Work as well on a whole dataset or a key-based sub-selection of the dataset
• Ease management of options default values

Quick examples

// Import data at creation
var doa = new ObjectArray({
    item1: 3,
 item2: 12,
 item3: 5
});

// Add data
doa.push('item4', 4); // Single item or dataset
doa.import({
  item5: 5,
  item6: 6
});

// Add data with dotted notations
doa.push('dat.long.darn.key','isntIt?'); // Will automatically create each keys

// Define default values
// Will keep value if existent or create keys with value if not
doa.define('options.section1.item14', true);

//Iterate on keys at root level or in sub dataset
doa.forEach(function(value, key, index) {
 [...]
});
doa.forEach(function(value, key, index) {
 [...]
}, 'dat.path.to.data');

// Sub dataset import
doa.import({
 subitem1: 1,
 subitem2: 'astring',
 subitem3: {obj: really}
}, 'dat.long.and.far.away.key');

// sub dataset access
doa.dataset('dat.long.and.far.away.key');
// or
doa.pull('dat.long.and.far.away.key');

// And many more !

Installation

Module

The ObjectArray class is provided as a UMD module.

npm install dot-object-array

or

yarn add dot-object-array

Then simply require/import it :

import ObjectArray from 'dot-object-array';
const ObjectArray = require('dot-object-array').default;

ObjectArray have been coded with ECMA6 class standard.

Browser

DOA is available as CDN external link or can easily be installed locally.

Bundle

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://bundle.run/dot-object-array@latest"></script>

JsDelivr

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/dot-object-array@latest"></script>

Unpkg

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/dot-object-array@latest"></script>

Local install

For browser install, you can simply fetch file dist/objectarray.min.js in this repo or clone it and load it :

<script type="text/javascript" src="myJsFolder/objectarray.min.js"></script>

An ObjectArray constructor will be added to global (window) scope.

Configuring ObjectArray behaviour when a required key doesn't exist

In version 1.x, a non-existent key yields to an undefined returned value.

In version 2.x, a non-existent key data request raises an exception except for some methods that can leverage a throwable trigger.

Since version 3.x, the behaviour can be configure per method call or override globally. Each data request have a predefined behaviour given its goal. For instance, the empty method will throw an exception by default and a dataset call will return undefined by default.

Please check API reference for details.

Playground

If you want to go further and try a bit, you can go to the playground.

Documentation

A full documentation (manual and API reference) set is available :

• Manual
• API reference

JSON support

You can easily use ObjectArrays to manipulate JSON data. Just rely on JSON native object to import your JSON structure, manipulate it with ObjectArray ease and get it back at the end :wink:

var jstring = '{"dat": {"long": {"path": "foo", "dream": "baz"}}}';
var doa = new ObjectArray(JSON.parse(jstring));

// Let's say we want to move all dat.long stuff to a short thing
doa.push('short', doa.dataset('dat.long')).remove('dat');

console.log(JSON.stringify(doa.data)); // outputs {"short":{"path":"foo","dream":"baz"}}

Bugs and features requests

ObjectArray is test-driven though it did not prevent all issues. Please report here any trouble or features request.

Want to help ?

There is many more to do to implements othe features. Don't mind fork DOA, tweak it and submit a pull request :wink: