namespace

Library provides an API for creating sets of namespaced properties for any given objects (frozen or not). This effectively may be used for creating fields that are not part of object's public API, which is useful for hiding internal details or for adding fields to an existing objects (Built-ins or not) without mutating them and there for any risks of naming conflicts.

Usage

It is recommended to use this library with enabled WeakMaps. On node that simply means running it with additional flag: node --harmony_weakmaps. If weak maps are not available library will fallback to using imperfect weak map shim.

var ns = require('namespace/core').ns
var internals = ns()

internals(publicAPI).secret = secret

Namespace may be used with multiple objects:

var observable = ns()

function Observable() {
  observable(this).observers = []
}
Observable.prototype.observe = function(observer) {
  observable(this).observers.push(observer)
}

Also, multiple namespaces can be used with a same object without any conflicts.

var pending = ns()

function Eventual() {
  Observable.call(this)
  pending(this).realized = false
}
Eventual.prototype = Object.create(Observable.prototype)
Eventual.prototype.realize = function realize(value) {
  if (!pending(this).realized) {
    obesrvable(this).observers.splice.forEach(function(observer) {
      observer(value)
    })
  }
}

Access to the namespaced properties can be shared with other code by simple handing a namespace function. Although doing this across modules is not recommended, for example instead of sharing pending namespace one could share following function instead:

exports.isRealized = function isRealized(value) {
  return pending(value).realized
}

Namespaced objects create parallel inheritance chain, or more simply:

var foo = ns()
var ancestor = {}

foo(ancestor) === foo(Object.create(ancestor)) // => true

Namespaces are simply a sugar on top of ES.next WeakMaps allowing you to associate sets of namespaced properties to an object via weak references.

Install

npm install namespace