Utilities for NodeJS

Installation

npm install nodutils

Usage

var utils = require("nodutils");

String

• utils.string.trim(str) or String.trim()

• utils.string.ltrim(str) or String.trim()

• utils.string.rtrim(str) or String.trim()

• utils.string.toi(str) or String.toi()

  • Converts to integer

• utils.string.tof(str[,decimals]) or String.tof([decimals])

  • Converts to float, with number of decimals

• utils.string.dropDiacritics(str) or String.dropDiacritics()

  • Converts accents, diacritics into a plain letter

• utils.string.isNumber(str) or String.isNumber()

• utils.string.stripHtml(str) or String.stripHtml()

  • Strip all html tags and leaves only text

• utils.string.contains(str,substr[,flags]) or String.contains(substr[,flags]).

  • It counts the number of ocurrences of substr. Flags can be "i" (ignore case) and/or "d" (drop accents)

• utils.string.reverse(str) or String.reverse()

• utils.string.toHtml(str) or String.toHtml()

  • Converts diacritics and almost all chars into html entities

• utils.string.fromHtml(str) or String.fromHtml()

  • Converts into diacritics html encoded entities

Numeric

• utils.number.round(num[,decimals]) or Number.round([decimals])

  • Rounds number to the given number of decimals

Array

• utils.array.max(array) or Array.max()

  • Returns the max value in an array of numbers

• utils.array.min(array) or Array.min()

  • Returns the min value in an array of numbers

• utils.array.uniques(array) or Array.uniques()

  • Returns an array of uniques values in the original array

• utils.array.aggregate(array) or Array.aggregate()

  • Returns an array of uniques values and counts its occurrences, sorted descending (sample code)

    	//returned array
    	[['itemX',15],['itemY',12],....]

• utils.array.contains(array,value[,flags]) or Array.contains(value[,flags])

  • Returns the number of occurrences of "value"

  • Flags can be "i" (ignore case) and/or "d" (drop accents)

Date

• utils.date.diff(date1,date2[,unit])

  • Unit = "d": days,"h": hours,"m": minutes,"s": seconds. Default unit is millis

• utils.date.millis([date])

  • Returns a timestamp in millis from current date or date passed as param (string or date object)

• utils.date.frommillis(millis)

  • Returns a date object from millis passed as parameter

File

• utils.file.write(file,data[,options],callback)

  • options = "w" write or "a" append

• utils.file.read(file[,encoding],callback)

• utils.file.exists(file,callback)

• utils.file.getModTime(file,callback)

  • Date object is given to the callback as an argument

• utils.file.remove(file,callback)

• utils.file.createpath(path,callback)

Url

			//get sample
			utils.url.get("www.bbc.com",function(html){
				console.log(html);
			});			

			//post sample
			utils.url.post('httpbin.org/post',{post_data:{data:'lorem ipsum dolor sit amet'}}, 
				function(resp){
					console.log(resp);
				}
			);
			

• utils.url.get(url[,options],callback)

• utils.url.post(url[,options],callback)

  • Support for http and https

  • Support for proxy requests (in url. E.g: "url"=http://www.proxy.com:8080/www.urltobeproxied.com)

  • It is possible to set only url or options, but options need to set host, path, ...

  • Options is an object with some props:

    • "encoding" default is "utf-8"

    • "post_data" (for post()) is an object

      with the vars (post_data:{a:1,b:2})

      or with the body in "data" key (post_data:{data:"whatever"})

    • "headers" (object)

    • "auth" (string)

    • "forceparse": if the url is with proxy data is better to set to true

Cache

• utils.cache.getPath()

  • Get the current cache dir (default is "./cache")

• utils.cache.setPath(path,callback)

  • Set the cache dir (and create if it doesn't exists)

  • It's recommended to use absolute paths ("/apps/myapp/cache")

• utils.cache.setOptions({path : "/mypath", size : 1}},callback)

  • Set the cache dir (and create if it doesn't exists) and cache max size

  • Cache size is in MB

• utils.cache.set(key,data[,expiretime],callback)

  • Expiretime is in seconds. If not informed, then unlimited

• utils.cache.get(key,callback)

• utils.cache.remove(key,callback)

(sample code)

Properties

• utils.props.load(path_to_file,callback)

  • properties in the file are loaded into a JSON object passed in callback

  • Format of the properties file is

      	key1=value1
      	key2=value2
      	key3=value3
      	key4=123456789

• utils.props.save(path_to_file,properties,callback)

  • properties param is a json object. You can save properties dynamically

Samples

• Caching twitter request due to twitter api limits (it uses url and cache utilities)

  		var utils = require("nodutils");
  		var twitterquery = "davidayalas";
  		var twitterurl = "http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.json?screen_name=";
  
  		utils.cache.get(twitterquery, function(content){
  			if(!content){
  				utils.url.get(twitterurl+twitterquery,function(result){
  					utils.cache.set(twitterquery,result,300);
  					console.log(result);
  				});
  			}else{
  				console.log(content);
  			}
  		});

• Easy "tagcloud" from url content (it uses url, string and array utilities)

    		var utils = require("nodutils");
  
    		utils.url.get("www.bbc.com",function(content){
    			var topwords = content.stripHtml().split(" ").aggregate().filter(function(i){
    				return i[0].length<=3 || i[0].indexOf("&")>-1?false:true;
    			}).slice(0,50);
    			console.log(topwords)
    		});