2011 NEWS 2011-11-13 - New Utility Belt Features
The Uize base module has been given a boost with the addition of a slew of convenient utility belt features.
1. Promotion of Methods That Have Proven Their Worth
Many of the utility belt features that are new to the Uize module may be familiar to seasoned UIZE developers, since many of them already existed in very similar forms in the Uize.Data module and have now been promoted to the Uize base module so that they can be more easily accessible.
UIZE has evolved over time. Periodically, features that have gathered dust and turned out to be more esoteric than initially thought are relegated to deeper modules within the framework. And sometimes the opposite occurs. This is an occasion where methods in a deeper module have proven useful enough in everyday development that it makes sense to promote them to a shallower module, in this case the base module.
2. New Additions
Besides the numerous methods of the Uize.Data module that have been promoted to Uize, a number of fresh methods have been added.
Fresh methods include the Uize.inRange, Uize.isNully, Uize.isObject, Uize.isPlainObject, Uize.isString, Uize.isBoolean, Uize.isPrimitive, and Uize.defaultNully static methods.
3. Improved Methods
In the course of adding the new utility belt methods, a few of the previously existing methods have been improved.
Improved methods include...
Uize.isIn - now supports testing if a value is the value of one of an object's properties (previously only supported testing if a value was in an array, but now you can test if a value is in an object) |
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Uize.callOn - now supports calling a method on values that are not just Uize class instances (as long as those values are not null or undefined), so Uize.callOn can now be used to call a method on a list of strings, booleans, numbers, Date object instances, etc. |
4. All the New Utility Belt Methods
The full list of utility belt methods that are new to the Uize module is as follows...
Uize.inRange - tests if a value is within a specified value range (new method) |
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Uize.keys - returns an array containing the names of the properties (i.e. keys) in an object (promoted from Uize.Data.getKeys, shortened for brevity / convenience) |
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Uize.values - returns an array containing the values of the properties in an object (promoted from Uize.Data.getValues, shortened for brevity / convenience) |
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Uize.totalKeys - counts the number of keys in an object (promoted from Uize.Data.getTotalKeys, shortened for brevity / convenience) |
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Uize.min - returns the largest value in a values array (promoted from Uize.Data.min) |
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Uize.max - returns the smallest value in a values array (promoted from Uize.Data.max) |
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Uize.lookup - creates a lookup object from an array of values (promoted from Uize.Data.getLookup, shortened for brevity / convenience) |
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Uize.reverseLookup - creates a reverse lookup from a specified lookup object or values array (promoted from Uize.Data.getReverseLookup, shortened for brevity / convenience) |
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Uize.isObject - tests if a value is non-null and an object (added for consistency with other type checking methods, but also checks for non-null) |
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Uize.isPlainObject - tests if a value is a plain object, meaning an instance of JavaScript's built-in Object object (new method) |
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Uize.isString - tests if a value is a string (added for consistency with other type checking methods) |
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Uize.isBoolean - tests if a value is a boolean (aded for consistency with other type checking methods) |
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Uize.isNully - tests if a value is null or undefined (new method) |
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Uize.defaultNull - defaults a value to the specified default, if the value is null or undefined (new method) |
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Uize.isPrimitive - tests if a value is a JavaScript primitive, meaning a string, number, or boolean (new method) |
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Uize.isEmpty - tests if an object or array is empty, or if a non-object value is "falsy" (promoted from Uize.Data.isEmpty) |
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Uize.emptyOut - empties out the contents of an object or array (promoted from Uize.Data.emptyOut) |
5. Deprecated Uize.Data Methods
As a consequence of being promoted to the Uize base module, all the promoted methods have been deprecated from the Uize.Data module.
Deprecation means that the methods are officially on death row, but they'll be there for about a year before being eliminated. So, the promoted methods can still be used by their old names as they existed in the Uize.Data module - those methods in the Uize.Data module are now simply references to the methods as they now exist in the Uize module, since the signatures of the methods did not change.
5.1. Uize Modules Updated
All Uize modules that used any of the promoted Uize.Data methods have been updated to use the new equivalents in the Uize module.
5.2. Update Your Modules
The promoted Uize.Data method are deprecated and still supported for some time, but they will go away eventually and you should updated your modules to use the new equivalents in the Uize module as soon as you can.
When you do update your modules, check after making your changes if the module you're updating still needs to have a dependency on the Uize.Data module. If your module only depended on the Uize.Data module to use a single method in that module which happens to be one of those promoted to the Uize base module, then the module shouldn't require Uize.Data after being updated.