@dataclinic/interview
v1.0.1
Published
A small TypeScript library for interactive data collection. Stack-based question routing supports branching based on past answers, looping, and named checkpointing to jump to previous interview states. An interview is defined by:
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@dataclinic/interview
A small TypeScript library for interactive data collection. Stack-based question routing supports branching based on past answers, looping, and named checkpointing to jump to previous interview states. An interview is defined by:
- A TypeScript type which models a question to be asked. Simply, this could be an enum whose constants enumerate the possible questions, but there are no restrictions on the nature of this type.
- A
Moderator
which will be called upon to prompt the user for answers to each question as they come up in the interview. - A
Script
which sets up initial state, and routes the user interview through questions based on given responses.
Getting Started
A simple example uses an enum as the question type.
export enum GuessingGameQuestion {
NAME,
GUESS,
INCORRECT_GUESS,
CORRECT_ENDING,
}
Next, we need to write a Script
to drive the routing of the interview. The Script
interface has two methods: setup()
, which is called at the beginning of the interview, and process()
which is called after each question is answered.
The Script
has access to a QuestionRouter
which allows it to modify the interview state. Since the state is stack-based, questions will be asked in the reverse of the order that they are pushed.
import { Script, QuestionRouter, ResponseData } from '@dataclinic/interview';
import { GuessingGameQuestion } from './GuessingGameQuestion';
export class GuessingGameScript implements Script<GuessingGameQuestion> {
private correctAnswer: number = 7;
public setup(router: QuestionRouter<GuessingGameQuestion>) {
router.push(GuessingGameQuestion.GUESS);
router.push(GuessingGameQuestion.NAME);
}
public process(
router: QuestionRouter<GuessingGameQuestion>,
question: GuessingGameQuestion,
data: ResponseData
) {
switch (question) {
case GuessingGameQuestion.GUESS:
if (data.numbersGuessed[0] == this.correctAnswer) {
router.push(GuessingGameQuestion.CORRECT_ENDING);
} else {
router.push(GuessingGameQuestion.INCORRECT_GUESS);
}
router.next();
break;
case GuessingGameQuestion.INCORRECT_GUESS:
router.push(GuessingGameQuestion.GUESS);
router.next();
break;
case GuessingGameQuestion.CORRECT_ENDING:
router.complete();
break;
default:
router.next();
break;
}
}
}
The Script
just describes the logic of the interview, but not how it should be presented to a user. For that, we need to write a Moderator
. As questions are popped from the stack, the Moderator
will be prompted to present them to the user and record the user's input with a ResponseConsumer
. This example uses the Node console interface to prompt the user and read their response.
import {
Moderator,
ResponseConsumer,
ResponseData,
} from '@dataclinic/interview';
import { GuessingGameQuestion } from './GuessingGameQuestion';
import { createInterface, Interface } from 'readline';
class ConsoleModerator implements Moderator<GuessingGameQuestion> {
private io: Interface = createInterface({
input: process.stdin,
output: process.stdout,
});
public ask(
consumer: ResponseConsumer,
question: GuessingGameQuestion,
data: ResponseData
) {
switch (question) {
case GuessingGameQuestion.NAME:
io.question(`What is your name? `, (answer) => {
consumer.answer({ name: answer.trim() });
consumer.submit();
});
break;
case GuessingGameQuestion.GUESS:
io.question(
`Guess a number between 1 and 10, ${data.name}: `,
(answer) => {
const answer: number = parseInt(answer, 10);
consumer.answer({
numbersGuessed: [answer, ...data.numbersGuessed],
});
consumer.submit();
}
);
break;
case GuessingGameQuestion.INCORRECT_GUESS:
io.question(`Not quite... try again! `, (_) =>
consumer.submit()
);
break;
case GuessingGameQuestion.CORRECT_ENDING:
io.question(`Great job! `, (_) => consumer.submit());
break;
}
}
}
And finally, to put it all together:
import {
Interview,
ResponseData,
Script,
Moderator,
} from '@dataclinic/interview';
import { GuessingGameQuestion } from './GuessingGameQuestion';
import { GuessingGameScript } from './GuessingGameScript';
import { ConsoleModerator } from './ConsoleModerator';
const script: Script<GuessingGameQuestion> = new GuessingGameScript();
const moderator: Moderator<GuessingGameQuestion> = new ConsoleModerator();
const interview: Interview<GuessingGameQuestion> = new Interview(
script,
moderator
);
interview.run((result: ResponseData) => {
console.log(
`Your guesses were ${JSON.stringify(result.numbersGuessed.reverse())}`
);
process.exit(0);
});