boxed-immutable

boxed-immutable

Immutable proxy wrapper with auto-vivification of intermediate objects/arrays with syntactic sugar to keep access/modification to deeply nested properties looking almost the same as plain object property access.

Install

Use npm to install.

npm install boxed-immutable --save

Usage

Create a boxed-immutable object proxy then access and/or modify its nested properties, ignoring whether intermediate values are objects/arrays or whether they exist.

Original object/array are shallow copied on first modification (all the way back to the root collection), thereafter all mods are done on the copy. This occurs at every level so minimal copying is done on all modifications and any unmodified values are re-used.

Subsequent modifications will be done on a copy. Once a copy is made it is re-used for the life of the boxed object since it is detached from the original.

Access to object's original properties occurs in two ways:

1. Use original property name to get access to the raw underlying object's property value. Trying to access a field or array index when the property is not valid will throw TypeError.
2. Use original property name with _$ appended to the end of it to get access to a proxy which will auto-vivify the property container when the first property is set.

Use option 1 to access leaf values in the object since JavaScript handles this nicely.

Use option 2 to access intermediate properties.

const _$ = require('boxed-immutable')._$;

function updateState(confirmationName, confirmationValue) {
    let state = _$(this.getState());

    state.fieldStatus = 5; // direct access to first level field, state will be copied if field's value !== 5 
    
    // can hold intermediate values for easy access 
    const confirmationData = state.properties_$.confirmations_$[confirmationName + "_$"]; // add _$ to get boxed proxy
    confirmationData.count = 1 + (confirmationData.count || 0);
    confirmationData.value = confirmationValue;
    
    // get all the first level children to update state
    this.setState(state.delta$_$);
    
    // get only the changed leaf fields and their parents, minimal update image
    this.setState(state.deepDelta$_$);
}

Use it to safely access deeply nested values without throwing TypeError:

let boxed = _$(someValue);

// anything accessed via proxied properties (ending in _$) could be undefined, null, or anything that would throw a TypeError, the result is undefined
let caption = boxed.appState_$.dashboard_$[dashboardName + "_$"].captionText || 'default caption';

// would work just as well
let boxed = _$(undefined);

// everything could be completely empty, the end result is undefined
let caption = boxed.appState_$.dashboard_$[dashboardName + "_$"].captionText || 'default caption';

Auto-Vivication of intermediate properties

When setting properties on non-existent or non-array or object properties the proxy will auto-create the array or object, ie. auto-vivify it.

Auto-vivication takes the property name into account: integers whether numbers or numbers in strings will create an Array, everything else will create an Object.

You can use the special end of array value of "_$" or just the global box _$ or ._$ property on any boxed value when setting an array property to have the value added to the end of the array. Effectively, _$ is always equal to the length of the array.

let empty = _$();

// all are equivalent
empty["_$"] = 5;
empty[_$] = 5;  // may not work, depends on how functions is converted to string
empty._$ = 5;  // simplest and safest alternative
// result: [5]

empty._$ = 10;
// result: [5, 10]

empty._$ = 20;
let result = empty.unboxed$_$;
// result: [5, 10, 20]

The following will create an object:

let empty = _$();

// all are equivalent
empty["field"] = 5;
empty.field = 5; 
// result: {field: 5}

empty._$ = 10;
// result: {0: 10, field: 5}

empty._$ = 20;
let result = empty.unboxed$_$;
// result: {0: 10, 1: 20, field: 5}

For symmetry, you can also use _$ on objects. In case of objects _$ is equal to the greatest integer key in the object or 0 if no integer keys. Here is why:

let obj = {};

obj.prop = "a";
obj[0] = 5;
obj[1] = 15;
obj[2] = 25;
let result = obj.unboxed$_$;
// result: {0: 5, 1:15, 2:25, prop: "a"}

// the same can be achieved with, without having to increment the index
let obj = _$({});
obj.prop = "a";
obj._$ = 5;
obj._$ = 15;
obj._$ = 25;

Options

You can change a couple of options on how the boxing handles properties whose value is undefined and also modify the prefix/suffix used for accessing boxed properties:

Use the createBox(options) function from the module to create a boxing function with non-default options:

const createBox = require('boxed-immutable').createBox;
const $__$ = createBox({prefixChars: "$_", suffixChars:"_$"});

// Now all your properties are wrapped 
let obj = $__$();

obj.$_field_$.subField = 4;
obj.$_prop_$.$__$ = "a";
obj.$_prop_$.$__$ = "b";
obj.$_prop_$.$__$ = "c";

let result = obj.$_unboxed$_$;
// result: { field: { subField: 4 }, prop: [ "a", "b", "c"] };

Option	Default	Description
deleteEmptyCollections:	true	if deleting a property results in an empty collection, delete that too
ignoreUndefinedProperties:	true	when copying delta and deepDelta ignore properties with undefined value
arrayDeltaObjects:	false	return array delta as objects with index as key
arrayDeltaObjectMarker:	undefined	field name to set when returning array delta as objects, undefined means don't set
arrayDeltaObjectMarkerValue:	undefined	value for above
arrayDeltaPartials:	false	return array delta as partials, any unset indices will be undefined
arrayDeepDeltaObjects:	false	return array deepDelta as objects with index as key
arrayDeepDeltaObjectMarker:	undefined	field name to set when returning array deepDelta as objects, undefined means don't set
arrayDeepDeltaObjectMarkerValue:	undefined	value for above
arrayDeepDeltaPartials:	false	return array deepDelta as partials, any unset indices will be undefined
prefixChars:[1]	""	prefix for boxed properties.
suffixChars:[1]	"_$"	suffix for boxed properties.
magicPrefixChars:[1]	""	prefix for magic properties, applied after prefixChars
magicSuffixChars:[1]	"$"	suffix for magic properties, applied before suffixChars

* [1]: Note use of [_$] is not affected by prefixes or suffixes since the function is passed as property, use of ["_$"] and ._$ has to have the prefix/suffix used in the options for the box context

API

boxed-immutable box

Change _$ to your combination of prefix/suffix if modifying defaults.

With default settings all magic properties except _$ get an extra $ added because of the default magicSuffixChars being "$"

Magic Properties of boxed properties:

Property	Get	Set	Delete	Call
_$	proxy of the boxed object, ie. boxed === boxed._$, so you can do boxed._$() or boxed()	append end of array	error	does a call on first argument, use: boxed._$(_$ => { }); returns boxed
get$_$	function	error	error	.get$_$("prop") is same as ["prop" + "_$"], convenience function when you have a property name in a variabel and need a boxed version of it
forEach$_$	function	error	error	functions executes callback for each own property, passes .forEach$_$((boxedValue, prop, unboxedValue) =>{});
unboxed$_$	unboxed value	set value of boxed property and mark as modified	delete property in parent	error
modified$_$	value if modified else undefined	same as above	same as above	error
default$_$	function	set value if it is undefined, otherwise do nothing	error	error
delta$_$	modified properties of first level, full props thereafter: shallow delta	do shallow delta update of properties, all properties after first level will be changed	error	error
deepDelta$_$	modified properties only of all levels: deep delta	do deep delta update with value, only modified properties of all levels are changed.	error	error

Use of ._$(), sometimes you need to modify deep properties based on programming logic. Instead of creating an object then adding it to your modified state, you can use this option and benefit from not worrying about immutability:

let boxed = _$(someState);

boxed.appState_$.dashboards_$.userData_$(_$ => {
    // here _$ is boxed.dashboards_$.userData_$, get/set/call it or properties
    if (condition) {
        // fill
        _$.undoList_$.modified_$(_$ => {
            // here _$ is boxed.dashboards_$.userData_$.undoList_$.modified_$, get/set/call it or properties
        });
    }
});

:warning: When a value is set on the parent collection it orphans the boxed state for all the properties of the parent for which you kept reference. These detached properties will still work but only on their own copy of the data since they are now detached from the root.

For example this will happen when you do something like:

let boxed = _$();

let nested = boxed.level1_$.level2_$.level3_$;
nested._$ = 0;
nested._$ = 1;
nested._$ = 2;
// boxed is now: { level1: { level2: { level3: [0,1,2]}}};

boxed.level1_$.level2_$.level3 = [0,1,2]; // this will detach all boxed properties from level3 and below, like nested  

nested._$ = 3;
nested._$ = 4;
nested._$ = 5;
// nested is [0,1,2,3,4,5]
// boxed is still: { level1: { level2: { level3: [0,1,2]}}};

boxed-immutable boxOnDemand

Provides a boxed proxy to immutable state, with .save() and .cancel() methods for saving or canceling state changes. With minimal code this allows transparent access to current state without the callers worrying about stale data or how to apply the changes back to the state holder.

const boxOnDemand = require('boxed-immutable').boxOnDemand;

// your current function for returning immutable state object
function getSimpleState() {
}

let stateHolder;

// your current function for setting a new state 
function saveState(newState) {
    // 1. update state

    // 2. regardless of how this function is called, cancel the boxed on demand so next access will be forced to get a fresh state
    stateHolder.cancel();
}

// wrap in proxy so boxed state can be provided automatically
// use in new getState to get boxed on demand
stateHolder = boxOnDemand(undefined, () => {
    return getSimpleState();
}, (modified, boxed) => {
    // call the save state function to apply changes in full
    saveState(modified);

    // or if your saveState can handle delta
    //saveState(boxed.delta$_$);
    // or anything else without having to change the users of your state API
});

// use new function to provide access to now boxed immutable state
function getState() {
    return stateHolder;
}

// somewhere in the code.
let state = getState();

// can use state as before or as boxed state, except now there is no need to get a new state 
// every time. The same state will reflect latest changes. Make a copy if you need immutable state

// NOTE: now it is not immutable, make a copy of its .unboxed$_$ property if you need an immutable copy  


// make changes
// saving is handled by the provider instead of having the caller know how to update state
state.save(); // save changes
state.cancel(); // discard changes

// next access to any properties of the boxed state will get a fresh copy to eliminate invalid state content after update/cancel

Property	Get	Set	Delete	Call
save	function	error	error	calls the saveState callback passed to boxOnDemand function, returns value returned from callback, callback only called if there were changes made to boxed object
cancel	function	error	error	cancels any changes and destroys the boxed object, it is recreated on next access with a fresh copy of the immutable state, returns proxy this for chaining calls

boxOnDemand(getState, saveState, options)

const boxOnDemand = require('boxed-immutable').boxOnDemand;
const onDemandState = boxOnDemand();

Used to construct a new boxed on demand proxy.

argument	default	Description
getState	none	callback to call to obtain the current state
saveState	none	callback to call on save operation, returned result passed back to caller of save().
options	box	options to use. Can be a box as provided by boxedImmutable.box or boxedImmutable.createBox(), then all other options are set to defaults

Option	Default	Description
box:	global box	Which box creation to use for each new boxed state object
saveBoxedProp:	'save'	name of the save property to use, allows changing of the function to 'commit' or something that will not conflict with your state's properties
cancelBoxedProp:	'cancel'	name of the cancel property to use, allows changing of the function to something that will not conflict with your state's properties
wrapProps:	false	if true will wrap the saveBoxedProp and cancelBoxedProp the same as magical properties of the boxed object created from the box

License

MIT, see LICENSE.md for details.