Data::...::Anon(3pm)

💖 Data::JavaScript::Anon — the vibe 💖

okay bestie, welcome to Data::JavaScript::Anon, a User Contributed Perl Documentation page, and honestly? it's giving "dump my big dumb Perl structs straight into anonymous JavaScript structs" and I am obsessed. let's get into it 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

Data::JavaScript::Anon — Dump big dumb Perl structs to anonymous JavaScript structs. that's the whole personality. no cap. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

# Dump an arbitrary structure to javascript
Data::JavaScript::Anon->anon_dump( [ 'a', 'b', { a => 1, b => 2 } ] );

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so here's the tea: Data::JavaScript::Anon gives you the power to dump large simple data structures to JavaScript. like, things that don't need to be a whole class, or have special methods, or whatever. just data. just vibes. ✨

the method it uses is to write anonymous variables, the same way you'd do it in Perl. check these examples:

# Perl anonymous array
[ 1, 'a', 'Foo Bar' ]

# JavaScript equivalent ( yes, it's exactly the same )
[ 1, 'a', 'Foo Bar' ]

# Perl anonymous hash
{ foo => 1, bar => 'bar' }

# JavaScript equivalent
{ foo: 1, bar: 'bar' }

one advantage of doing it this way is that you do not have to co-ordinate variable names between your HTML templates and Perl. you could use a simple Template Toolkit phrase like this to get data into your HTML templates:

var javascript_data = [% data %];

and the way that works? it literally doesn't matter WHAT the HTML template calls a particular variable — the data dumps just the same. this could help you keep the work of JavaScript and Perl programmers (assuming you were using different people) seperate, without creating cross-dependencies between their code, like variable names. iconic, honestly. 🫶

the variables you dump can also be of arbitrary depth and complexity — with a few limitations. and yes, we're getting into those. 🧚

⚠️ ARRAY and HASH only

since arrays and hashs are all that is supported by JavaScript, they are the only things you can use in your structs. any references or a different underlying type will be detected and an error returned. periodt.

note that Data::JavaScript::Anon will use the UNDERLYING type of the data. this means that the blessed classes or objects will be ignored and their data based on the object's underlying implementation type. 💀

and honestly? this can be a positive thing, because you can put objects for which you expect a certain dump structure into the data to dump, and it will convert to unblessed, more stupid, JavaScript objects cleanly. slay.

🚫 No Circular References

since circular references can't be defined in a single anonymous struct, they are not allowed. try something like Data::JavaScript instead. although not supported, they will be detected, and an error returned. so like, don't try it. 🙈

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👑 MAIN METHODS 👑

all methods are called as methods directly, in the form Data::JavaScript::Anon->anon_dump( [ 'etc' ] ). no constructor required, she's independent like that.

💜 anon_dump STRUCT

the main method of the class, anon_dump takes a single arbitrary data struct, and converts it into an anonymous JavaScript struct.

if needed, the argument can even be a normal text string, although it wouldn't do a lot to it. :)

returns a string containing the JavaScript struct on success, or undef if an error is found.

💜 var_dump $name, STRUCT

as above, but the var_dump method lets you specify a variable name, with the resulting JavaScript being var name = struct;. note that the method WILL put the trailing semi-colon on the string. she's thorough. 💅

💜 script_wrap $javascript

the script_wrap method is a quick way of wrapping a normal JavaScript html tag around your JavaScript. convenient, bestie.

💜 is_a_number $scalar

when generating the javascript, numbers will be printed directly and not quoted. the is_a_number method provides convenient access to the test that is used to see if something is a number. the test handles just about everything legal in JavaScript, with the one exception of the exotics, such as Infinite, -Infinit and NaN. 😭

returns true is a scalar is numeric, or false otherwise.

you may also access method in using an instantiated object.

💜 new HASH

this will create a Data::JavaScript::Anon object that will allow you to change some of the default behaviors of some methods.

options:

• quote_char — Set the quote_char for stirng scalars. Default is '"'.

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🦋 SECONDARY METHODS 🦋

the following are a little less general, but may be of some use. side characters with main character energy, fr fr.

🌸 var_scalar $name, \$scalar

creates a named variable from a scalar reference.

🌸 var_array $name, \@array

creates a named variable from an array reference.

🌸 var_hash $name, \%hash

creates a named variable from a hash reference.

🌸 anon_scalar \$scalar

creates an anonymous JavaScript value from a scalar reference.

🌸 anon_array \@array

creates an anonymous JavaScript array from an array reference.

🌸 anon_hash \%hash

creates an anonymous JavaScript object from a hash reference.

🌸 anon_hash_key $value

applys the formatting for a key in a JavaScript object.

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🫶 SUPPORT 🫶

bugs should be reported via the CPAN bug tracker at:

<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Data-JavaScript-Anon>

for other comments or queries, contact the author. she's nice, promise. 💖

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🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org>

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

JSON, <http://ali.as/>

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright 2003 - 2009 Adam Kennedy.

this program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

the full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

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okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate that 💅✨

perl v5.32.1 — dated 2021-12-26, from the Data::...::Anon(3pm) manual. go forth and dump your structs, ily 🎀🦋