Huge News!Announcing our $40M Series B led by Abstract Ventures.Learn More →

babble

Package Overview

Dependencies

Advanced tools

Install Socket

Detect and block malicious and high-risk dependencies

Install

babble

Dynamic communication flows between message based actors.

0.6.0
Source
npm

Version published: 11 years ago

Weekly downloads: 960; increased by7900%

Maintainers: 1

Weekly downloads

Created: 11 years ago

Source

Babble

Dynamic communication flows between message based actors.

Babble makes it easy to code communication flows between actors. A conversation is modeled as a control flow diagram containing blocks ask, tell, listen, decide, and run. Each block can link to a next block in the control flow. Conversations are dynamic: a scenario is build programmatically, and the blocks can dynamically determine the next block in the scenario. During a conversation, a context is available to store the state of the conversation.

Babble uses customizable messaging to communicate between actors. It comes with built in support to communicate locally, and has as support for pubnub to connect actors distributed over multiple devices.

Babble runs in node.js and in the browser.

Usage

Install babble via npm:

npm install babble

Load in node.js:

var babble = require('babble');

Load in the browser:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <!-- load pubnub, only needed when using pubnub -->
  <script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/pubnub/3.5.4/pubnub.min.js"></script>

  <!-- load babble -->
  <script src="../../dist/babble.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Then babble can be loaded and used:


var babble = require('babble');

var emma = babble.babbler('emma').connect(),
    jack = babble.babbler('jack').connect();

emma.listen('ask age')
    .tell(function () {
      return 25;
    });

jack.ask('emma', 'ask age', function (age, context) {
  console.log(context.from + ' is ' + age + ' years old');
});

Control flow

TODO: describe control flow blocks

Examples

Say hi

Babble can be used to listen for messages and send a reply. In the following example, emma listens for a message "hi", then she will listen to the next message. Depending on the contents of this second message, she determines how to respond. Jack says hi to emma, then tells his name or age, and awaits a response from emma.

This scenario can be represented by the following control flow diagram:

ask age

The scenario can be programmed as:

var babble = require('babble');

var emma = babble.babbler('emma').connect(),
    jack = babble.babbler('jack').connect();

function printMessage (message, context) {
  console.log(context.from + ': ' + message);
  return message;
}

emma.listen('hi')
    .listen(printMessage)
    .decide(function (message, context) {
      return (message.indexOf('age') != -1) ? 'age' : 'name';
    }, {
      'name': babble.tell('hi, my name is emma'),
      'age':  babble.tell('hi, my age is 27')
    });

jack.tell('emma', 'hi')
    .tell(function (message, context) {
      if (Math.random() > 0.5) {
        return 'my name is jack'
      } else {
        return 'my age is 25';
      }
    })
    .listen()
    .run(printMessage);

Plan a meeting

The following scenario describes two peers planning a meeting in two steps: First jack asks whether emma has time for a meeting, and if so, jack will propose to meet, and await emma's response.

This scenario can be represented by the following control flow diagram:

plan a meeting

The scenario can be coded as follows. Note that the implementations of the control flow blocks are separated from the flow itself.

var babble = require('babble');

var emma = babble.babbler('emma').connect(),
    jack = babble.babbler('jack').connect();

function decideIfAvailable () {
  return (Math.random() > 0.4) ? 'yes' : 'no';
}

function decideToAgree (response) {
  if (response == 'can we meet at 15:00?' && Math.random() > 0.5) {
    return 'ok';
  }
  else {
    return 'no';
  }
}

emma.listen('do you have time today?')
    .decide(decideIfAvailable, {
      yes: babble.tell('yes')
              .listen()
              .decide(decideToAgree, {
                ok: babble.tell('ok'),
                no: babble.tell('no')
              }),
      no: babble.tell('no')
    });

function noTime () {
  console.log('emma has no time');
}

function agreesToMeet (response) {
  return (response == 'ok') ? 'ok': 'no';
}

function agreement () {
  console.log('emma agreed');
}

function noAgreement () {
  console.log('emma didn\'t agree');
}

jack.ask('emma', 'do you have time today?')
    .decide({
      yes: babble.tell('can we meet at 15:00?')
              .listen()
              .decide(agreesToMeet, {
                ok: babble.run(agreement),
                no: babble.run(noAgreement)
              }),
      no: babble.run(noTime)
    });

API

Babble has the following factory functions:

babble.babbler(id: String) : Babbler Factory function to create a new Babbler.
babble.run(callback: Function) : Block Create a flow starting with an Action block. The provided callback function is called as callback(response, context) and should not return a result.
babble.decide([decision: Function, ] choices: Object<String, Block>) : Block Create a flow starting with a Decision block. When a decision function is provided, the function is invoked as decision(response, context). The function must return the id for the next block in the control flow, which must be available in the provided options. If decision is not provided, the next block will be mapped directly from the response. Parameter choices is a map with the possible next blocks in the flow. The next block is selected by the id returned by the decision function. The returned block is used as next block in the control flow.
babble.tell(message: Function | *) : Block Create a flow starting with a Tell block. Message can be a static value, or a callback function returning a message dynamically. The callback function is called as callback(response, context), where response is the latest received message, and must return a result. The returned result is send to the connected peer.
babble.then(block: Block) : Block Create a flow starting with given block. The provided callback function is called as callback(response, context), where response is the latest received message, and must return a result. The returned result is send to the connected peer.

Babble contains the following prototypes. These prototypes are normally instantiated via the above mentioned factory functions.

babble.Babbler
babble.block.Block
babble.block.Action
babble.block.Decision
babble.block.Tell
babble.block.Start

Babbler

A babbler is created via the factory function babble.babbler(id: String). A babbler has the following functions:

connect([messager: Object] [, callback]) Connect to a messaging system. Babble comes with interfaces to support various messaging systems: pubnub, pubsub-js, and default. These interfaces are available in the babble.messagers namespace. If parameter messager is not provided, babble uses the default messaging system, which works locally. A messaging system can be specified like:
```
babbler.connect(babble.messagers['pubnub'], function () {
  // connected
});
```
disconnect() Disconnect from the connected messaging system.
send(id: String, message: *) Send a message to another peer.
listen(message: String [, callback: Function]) : Block Listen for incoming messages. If there is a match, the returned control flow block will be executed. Other blocks can be chained to the returned block.
tell(id: String, message: Function | *) Send a notification to another peer.
ask(id: String, message: String [, callback: Function]) : Block Send a question to another peer. Other blocks can be chained to the returned block.

Block

Blocks can be created via the factory functions available in babble (tell, decide, run, then, listen), or in a Babbler (listen, tell, ask). Blocks can be chained together, resulting in a control flow. The results returned by blocks are used as input argument for the next block in the chain.

A Block has the following functions:

decide([decision: function, ] choices: Object<String, Block>) : Block Append a decision block to the control flow. Returns the first block in the chain.
tell(message: *) : Block Append a Tell block to the control flow. Parameter message can be callback function or an object or value. Returns the first block in the chain.
listen([callback: Function]) : Block Append a Listen block to the control flow. Returns the first block in the chain.
run(callback: Function) : Block Append an Action block to the control flow. Returns the first block in the chain.
then(block : Block) : Block Append an arbitrary block to the control flow. Returns the first block in the chain.

Build

Babble can be build for use in the browser. This is done using the tools browserify and uglify. First install all project dependencies:

npm install

To build the library ./dist/babble.js, run:

npm run build

To build and minify the library ./dist/babble.min.js, run:

npm run minify

Test

To execute tests for the library, install the project dependencies once:

npm install

Then, the tests can be executed:

npm test

To do

Implement mixin pattern, enrich any object (like an actor) with babbler functionality.
Listen to patterns instead of a predefined message.
Implement error handling
Implement support for promises to allow async callback functions
Store message history in the context.
Implement conversations with multiple peers at the same time.

2014-02-14, version 0.6.0

Renamed functions publish, subscribe, unsubscribe to send, connect, and disconnect. Renamed namespace pubsub to messengers.

Keywords

FAQs

What is babble?

Is babble popular?

Is babble well maintained?

Package last updated on 14 Feb 2014

Did you know?

Socket for GitHub automatically highlights issues in each pull request and monitors the health of all your open source dependencies. Discover the contents of your packages and block harmful activity before you install or update your dependencies.

Install