Thoughts for convict 6.0+

[brianjenkins94]

This is the code that I put in front of convict:

import * as fs from "fs";
import * as path from "path";
import convict from "convict";

const flattenedOptions = {
	"env": {
		"format": ["production", "development", "test"],
		"default": "development",
		"env": "NODE_ENV",
		"arg": "env"
	},
	"port": {
		"format": "port",
		"default": 8080,
		"env": "PORT",
		"arg": "port"
	}
};

(function bindConfigurations(directory) {
	function convictify(options, namespace = []) {
		for (const option of options) {
			if (option["name"] === undefined) {
				throw new Error("`option[\"name\"]` is required.");
			}

			const name = [...namespace, ...option["name"].split(/(?=[A-Z])/)].reduce(function(previous, current) {
				return previous + current[0].toUpperCase() + current.substring(1);
			});

			const environmentVariableName = option["env"] || [...namespace, ...option["name"].split(/(?=[A-Z])/)].join("_").toUpperCase();
			const commandLineArgumentName = option["arg"] || [...namespace, ...option["name"].split(/(?=[A-Z])/)].join("-").toLowerCase();

			// For third-party scripts that make direct access to `process.env.*`
			if (process.env[environmentVariableName] === undefined) {
				if (typeof option["default"] === "object" && option["default"] !== null) {
					process.env[environmentVariableName] = JSON.stringify(option["default"]);
				} else {
					process.env[environmentVariableName] = option["default"];
				}
			}

			flattenedOptions[name] = {
				"format": option["format"] || "String",
				"default": option["default"],
				"env": option["default"] && environmentVariableName,
				"arg": commandLineArgumentName
			};

			if (option["sensitive"] !== undefined) {
				flattenedOptions[name]["sensitive"] = option["sensitive"];
			}
		}
	}

	(function recurse(directory) {
		for (const file of fs.readdirSync(directory)) {
			if (fs.statSync(path.join(directory, file)).isDirectory()) {
				recurse(path.join(directory, file));
			} else if (directory === __dirname) {
				if (file !== "index.ts" && path.extname(file).toLowerCase() === ".ts") {
					convictify(require(path.join(directory, file))["default"], [file]);
				}
			} else if (path.extname(file).toLowerCase() === ".ts") {
				let namespace;

				if (file === "index.ts") {
					namespace = directory.substring(__dirname.length + 1).split(/\//g);
				} else {
					namespace = [...directory.substring(__dirname.length + 1).split(/\//g), path.basename(file, path.extname(file))];
				}

				convictify(require(path.join(directory, file))["default"], namespace);
			}
		}
	})(directory);
})(__dirname);

export const config = convict(flattenedOptions);

// Perform validation
config.validate({ "allowed": "strict" });

And then I setup my config directory like so:

config
├── google
│   ├── persistenceToken.json
│   └── index.ts
├── index.ts // Shown above
└── mssql
    └── index.ts

The code that I have added recursively crawls the config directory and builds a config object for convict with these added benefits:

• Smaller configs:

export default [
	{
		"name": "username",
		"format": "String",
		"default": "AzureDiamond"
	},
	{
		"name": "password",
		"format": "String",
		"default": "hunter2"
	},
];

• Consistant naming conventions

Say the above the configuration was in a directory called irc in a file called index.ts, the two keys above would become ircUsername and ircPassword. If the file was named something other than index, then that would be camelcased and inserted in between the folder name and the key name.

• Automatically set env and args properties

Unless otherwise specified, the above mentioned keys would automatically be given the env of IRC_USERNAME and the arg of --irc-username.

I have also considered adding dynamic shorthand flags on a first come, first served basis and an auto-generated help command.

I submit these ideas for your consideration 🙂