quaff

quaff

Important!

quaff is now a pure ESM package. It can no longer be require()'d from CommonJS. If this functionality is still needed please continue to use quaff@^4.

Key features

• 🚚 A data pipeline helper written in Node.js that works similar to Middleman's Data Files collector
• 📦 Point the library at a folder filled with JS, AML (ArchieML), JSON, YAML, CSV and/or TSV files and get a JavaScript object back that reflects the folder's structure and content/exports
• 🤓 Under the hood it uses parse-json (for better JSON error support), js-yaml and d3-dsv to read files efficiently

Installation

npm install quaff --save-dev

quaff requires Node.js 12.20.0 or later.

Usage

Assume a folder with this structure.

data/
  mammals/
    cats.json
    dogs.json
    bears.csv
  birds/
    parrots.yml
    story.aml

After import'ing quaff:

import { load } from 'quaff';

const data = await load('./data/');
console.log(data);

And the results...

{
	"mammals": {
		"cats": ["Marty", "Sammy"],
		"dogs": ["Snazzy", "Cally"],
		"bears": [
			{
				"name": "Steve",
				"type": "Polar bear"
			},
			{
				"name": "Angelica",
				"type": "Sun bear"
			}
		]
	},
	"birds": {
		"parrots": {
			"alive": ["Buzz"],
			"dead": ["Moose"]
		},
		"story": {
			"title": "All about birds",
			"prose": [
				{ "type": "text", "value": "Do you know how great birds are?" },
				{ "type": "text", "value": "Come with me on this journey." }
			]
		}
	}
}

As of 5.0.0 it's now possible to load a single file at a time, enabling more custom approaches in case load doesn't work exactly the way you'd like.

import { loadFile } from 'quaff';

const data = await loadFile('./data/mammals/bears.csv');
console.log(data);

And the results...

[
	{
		"name": "Steve",
		"type": "Polar bear"
	},
	{
		"name": "Angelica",
		"type": "Sun bear"
	}
]

Advanced Usage with JavaScript files

One of the biggest features added in quaff 4.0 is the ability to load JavaScript files. But how exactly does that work?

JavaScript files that are consumed by quaff have to follow one simple rule - they must export default a function, an async function or value. All three of these are valid and return the same value:

export default [
	{
		name: 'Pudge',
		instagram: 'https://instagram.com/pudgethecorgi/',
	},
];

export default () => [
	{
		name: 'Pudge',
		instagram: 'https://instagram.com/pudgethecorgi/',
	},
];

export default async () => [
	{
		name: 'Pudge',
		instagram: 'https://instagram.com/pudgethecorgi/',
	},
];

The final example above is the most interesting one - async functions also work! This means you can write code to hit API endpoints, or do other asynchronous work, and quaff will wait for those to resolve.

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

export default async () => {
	const res = await fetch('https://my-cool-api/');
	const data = await res.json();

	// whatever the API returned will be added to the quaff object!
	return data;
};

Don't have a Promise to do async work with? Working with a callback interface? Just wrap it in one!

import {apiHelper } from 'my-callback-api';

export default () => {
	return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
		apiHelper('people', (err, data) => {
			if (err) return reject(err);

			// quaff will take it from here!
			resolve(data);
		});
	});
};

License

By Ryan Murphy.

Available under the MIT license.

Changelog

[5.0.0] - 2021-06-12

Added

• The quaff individual file processor is now available at loadFile. This makes it possible to tap into all of quaff's processors to load a single file. The newly named load export works the same as before and uses loadFile behind the scenes.
• It is now possible to include JavaScript files using the .cjs and .mjs extensions.

Changed

• quaff is now a pure ESM package. It can no longer be require()'d from CommonJS. If this functionality is still needed please continue to use quaff@^4. It is also possible to dynamically import ESM in CommonJS (await import('quaff')) if that is compatible with your use case.
• quaff no longer has a default export and now uses two named exports - load and loadFile.