Node File Parser

The Node File Parser package was initially created to support other packages with their configurations.

It can read and write many different file formats. Being written for use with node.js, it can be used asynchronously or synchronously by choice.

This package contains several parsers and formatters by default, but can easily be extended to read and write any file format that you want.

Table of contents

• Node File Parser
• Default file types
• Custom file types
• Contributing
• Versioning
• Roadmap

Default file types

Abbreviation	File Extensions	Description	Limitations
JSON	.json .js	JavaScript Object Notation	Does not preserve comments.
INI	.ini	Initialization files	Does not preserve comments.
SRT	.srt	SubRip Text	Does not preserve comments.
TXT	.txt	Plaintext	None!

Any file type that is not directly supported will be parsed as text. You could modify this text in your own application, or register a pluggable parser to streamline the process.

Custom file types

Adding support for a new or custom file type is easy! Let's give an example for a file type called Swag, which has the extension .swg.

• Create a new FileParser implementation:

/**
 * @class swag
 * @module Parsers
 */
var SwagParser = (function() {

    //Note: you will probably have to change the filepath
    var FileParser = require('../interfaces/FileParser');

    /**
     * @method Parser
     * @constructor
     */
    function Parser() {
        FileParser.apply(this, arguments);
    }

    Parser.prototype = Object.create(FileParser.prototype);
    Parser.constructor = Parser;

    /**
     * Encodes any JavaScript object into a Swag string that can be written to a file.
     *
     * @method encode
     * @param [data] {Object} Any JavaScript object to be encoded.
     * @return {String} A valid Swag representation of the data.
     */
    Parser.prototype.encode = function(data) {
        return Swagger.swaggify(data);
    };

    /**
     * Decodes a Swag string to a JavaScript object.
     *
     * @method decode
     * @param [data] The Swag string to be decoded.
     * @returns {Object} An Object with the decoded data, or an empty object if something went wrong.
     */
    Parser.prototype.decode = function(data) {
        var result;
        try {
            var temp = Swagger.parse(data);
            result = temp;
        } catch (exception) {
            result = {};
        }
        return result;
    };

    return Parser;
}());

• Register the extension:

var swag = {
    name: 'swag',
    pattern: /\.swg$/i,
    Handler: SwagParser
};
NodeFileParser.parsers.push(swag);

• Use the extension:

var file = NodeFileParser.link('./data/glasses.swg');
var content = file.read().getContent();

Contributing

Whether you're a programmer or not, all contributions are very welcome! You could add features, improve existing features or request new features. Assuming the unit tests cover all worst-case scenarios, you will not be able to report bugs because there will be no bugs.

If you want to make changes to the source, you should fork this repository and create a pull-request to our master branch. Make sure that each individual commit does not break the functionality, and contains new unit tests for the changes you make.

To test your changes locally, run npm install followed by npm test. All files that you added or changed must have score 100% coverage in its statements, branches, functions and lines. You will also have to sign the Contributor License Agreement, which will take a minute of your time but ensures that neither of us will sue the other.

Versioning

As much as we want everyone to always use the latest version, we know that this is a utopia. Therefore, we adhere to a strict versioning system that is widely accepted: major.minor.patch. This is also known as the SemVer method.

Roadmap

We seem to have lost our map, so we don't know where we will end up next... but we do know what we still want to do! The following list is in no particular order and probably also does not contain all of our goals, but a roadmap is cool to have.

• .csv support;
• .xml (and thus .html) support;
• A command-line interface nfp;
• Conversion from one file format to any other file format;
• World domination.