Stores chronicles of plain objects as diffs and snapshots


Keywords
objects, chronicle, backend, timeline
License
MIT
Install
npm install chrobject@0.3.3

Documentation

NPM version NPM downloads

Installation

npm install --save chrobject
// Then include in a node.js file
var chrobject = require('chrobject');

Contributing

Clone the repo, then

npm install
node_modules/typings/dist/bin.js install

and here we go. Develop your new features or fixes, test it using npm test and create a pull request.

Usage

This is a working example:

var chrobject = require('chrobject');
var mongoose = require('mongoose');

// Configure a storage strategy
 // The only included strategy is mongoose which needs a mongoose connection
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/testChrobject');
var loggerConfig = {
    baseDir: '/Users/chotz/Desktop/logs',
    console: {
        logLevel: 'debug'
    },
    file: {
        logLevel: 'debug',
        executionFile: 'server.log',
        exceptionsFile: 'error.log'
    }
};
var mongooseStorage = new chrobject.MongooseStorage(loggerConfig);

// instanciate Chrobject
var entity = new chrobject.Entity('testObj', 'a.id');
var config = chrobject.Configuration.SNAP_AND_DIFF;
var creator = new chrobject.Creator('username', 'sourceapp');
var options = {
    ignoreProperties: [
        'data.ignoredProp'
    ]
};
var history = new chrobject.Chrobject(entity, config, mongooseStorage);

// save a snapshot + diff entry
history.saveEntry({ a: { id: 'adsf' }, data: { test: 'val', ignoredProp: 'asdf' } }, creator, new Date(), function (err, result) {
    console.log('error:', err);
    console.log('result:', result);
    mongoose.disconnect();
    process.exit();
});

Features

Entity

This describes the entities to be stored. The name of it is something like car if you want to save the history of car objects. The idPath is the path in the object by which this object is identified, eg. exterior.plate.number with the car example.

Configuration

You can configure the Chrobject in three ways by using the Configuration enum:

  • SNAP_ONLY: Only snapshots of the objects will be saved with a timestamp so you can get the status of the object at any time in the past.
  • DIFF_ONLY: Only diffs of the object compared to the last status before will be saved, so you can see who changed what and when did he do so.
  • SNAP_AND_DIFF: In this case both snapshots and diffs are stored, so you can see which changes were made at what time and what was the status of the object after that change. Each diff is therefore connected to a snapshot by a link id.

ChrobjectOptions

You can set some options to Chrobject:

  • ignoreProperties: String array of properties to be ignored when diff-ing Objects, eg. [ 'my.path.to.prop1', 'my.other.path' ].

Storage Strategy

You can implement your own storage strategy, which hast to implement interface chrobject/src/storage/StorageStrategy.ts.

Currently implemented Strategies:

  • MongooseStorage: This can be used as shown in the above example. It needs an established mongoose connection.

Creator

Each time you save an entry (snap, diff or snap + diff) you can assign a creator to the change to keep track of who is changing what. The creator consists of a user and a sourceapp to clarify through which application the user made the change.