define-options

Micro lib to define valid properties for an options litteral, and return a function that can validate the options.

The main benefit is self-documenting code. Users of your library doesn't have to scan through the code to see what properties from the options object that is used throughout the code. As a bonus you can easily throw an error early if a consumer is using an option with the wrong type, or a required option is missing. They will get a hint from the error message what they did wrong instead of searching for docs.

API

var defineOpts   = require('define-options');
var validateOpts = defineOpts({
        optionalParam   : '*             - This parameter can be null, undefined or any value',
        optionalString  : '?|string      - This is an optional string',
        aString         : 'string        - Required string. Can be blank.',
        aNumber         : 'number        - Required number. Can be 0.',
        aNumberOrString : 'number|string - Required number or string',
        aStringArray    : 'array         - Required array of any types',
        aStringArray    : 'string[]      - Required array with strings',
        aNumberArray    : 'number[]      - Required array with numbers',
        anObject        : 'object        - Required object',
        aFunction       : 'function      - Required function',
        aBboolean       : 'boolean       - Required boolean'
    });

function yourAPI(options) {
  validateOpts(options); // throws an error if options doesn't validate

  // do your stuff
}

Optional options object

If all options are optional, the null will not throw an error.

var validateOpts = defineOpts({ foo: '?|string' });
validateOpts();               //all OK
validateOpts({foo: 'bar'});   // all OK
validateOpts({foo: 123});     // Exception: foo has to be of type ?|string but was number

Valid types

'array', 'boolean', 'function', 'number', 'object', 'string'

Arrays with type

Just add [] after the type

'array[]', 'boolean[]', 'function[]', 'number[]', 'object[]', 'string[]'

Releasing

npm run build
git add dist/
git commit -m "Updated dist files"
npm version [<newversion> | major | minor | patch]
git push --follow-tags origin master
npm publish