Module: utils

A collection of utility functions

Methods


getUniqueChars(string)

Returns an array of all the unique characters in a string. Works with both UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoding.
Parameters:
Name Type Description
string String The string to retrieve unique characters from
Returns:
Returns an array of the unique characters
Type
Array

sanitize(string, substitutions)

Performs a series of substitutions on a string, replacing unwanted characters with the desired ones (or nothing, meaning the character is simply removed everywhere it occurs). NB: This function cannot properly handle cases where the output of one substitution is also the input of another subsitition (e.g. if you pass it both `ch` => `c` and `c` => `k`).
Parameters:
Name Type Description
string String The string to sanitize
substitutions Object An object whose attributes are the characters you wish to replace, and values are the characters you wish to replace them with
Returns:
Returns the sanitized string, with substitutions made
Type
String

tokenize(string, delimiters, punctuation)

Removes punctuation from a string, and then tokenizes the string, returning an array of tokens.
Parameters:
Name Type Description
string String The string to tokenize
delimiters Array An array of characters to tokenize the string with
punctuation Array An array of punctuation characters to remove from the string
Returns:
Returns an array of tokens
Type
Array

transliterate(string, substitutions)

Converts a string from one writing system to another.
Parameters:
Name Type Description
string String The string to transliterate.
substitutions Object A hash of substitutions to make on the string. Each key in the object should be a string to replace, and its value should be the string to replace it with.
Returns:
Returns the transliterated string
Type
String

<inner> checkProp(item, type, prop)

Checks whether an item is valid for the specified type, and returns a generic error message with the provided property name if not.
Parameters:
Name Type Description
item Any The item to check
type String The type to check for
prop String The name of the property to use in the error message
Returns:
Returns the original value if no error is thrown
Type
Any

<inner> createElement(type, props)

Creates a new DOM element, and sets its properties
Parameters:
Name Type Description
type String The type of element to create (e.g. 'div', 'p')
props Object An object of properties and their values to assign to the new element
Returns:
Returns the new DOM Node
Type
Object

<inner> isAbbr(string)

Tests whether a string is a valid abbreviation according to the DLx Abbreviation schema.
Parameters:
Name Type Description
string String The string to test
Returns:
Returns true if the string is a valid abbreviation, false otherwise
Type
Boolean

<inner> isDateString(string)

Tests whether a string is a valid ISO Internet Date-Time string.
Parameters:
Name Type Description
string String The string to test
Returns:
Returns true if the string is a valid date
Type
Boolean

<inner> isUrl(string)

Tests whether a string is a valid URI. Code taken from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8667070/javascript-regular-expression-to-validate-url/15855457#15855457
Parameters:
Name Type Description
string String The string to validate
Returns:
Returns true if the string is a valid URI, false otherwise
Type
Boolean

<inner> toDOM(html)

Takes an HTML string and converts it to DOM nodes
Parameters:
Name Type Description
html String an HTML string
Returns:
returns an array of DOM nodes
Type
Array