jsbuilder — convert Python code to JavaScript strings

Just annotate a Python function with @js and then call str() on it to get a fully-working JavaScript version of that function. Why? Because why not.

(If you like this, check out htbuild. It's the HTML equivalent of jsbuilder: an HTML string builder for Python folks who don't like templating languages.)

Installation

Just PIP it!

pip install jsbuilder

Simple Example

from jsbuilder import js

@js
def js_code():

  def sum_and_check_if_42(a, b):
    c = a + b
    if c == 42:
      return True
    else:
      return False

  result = sum_and_check_if_42(10, 30)
  console.log("Is it 42?", result)

Now you can just call str(js_code) or print(js_code) to see the JavaScript version of that code:

(Note: the code below has been pretty-printed for clarity)

function sum_and_check_if_42(a, b) {
  var c = (a + b);

  if (c === 42) {
    return true
  } else {
    return false
  }
};

result = sum_and_check_if_42(10, 30);
console.log("Is it 42?", result)

Complex Example

Here's some code that was copy/pasted directly from the D3 documentation, then converted to Python:

from jsbuilder import js

@js
def js_code():
    bleed = 100
    width = 960
    height = 760

    pack = (d3.layout.pack()
            .sort(None)
            .size([width, height + bleed * 2])
            .padding(2))

    svg = (d3.select("body").append("svg")
           .attr("width", width)
           .attr("height", height)
           .append("g")
           .attr("transform", "translate(0," + (-bleed) + ")"))

    def json_read(js, error, json):
        if error:
            raise error

        node = (svg.selectAll(".node")
                .data(pack.nodes(flatten(json)))
                .filter(lambda d: not d.children)
                .enter()
                .append("g")
                .attr("class", "node")
                .attr("transform", lambda d: "translate(" + d.x + "," + d.y + ")"))

        (node.append("circle")
         .attr("r", lambda d: d.r))

        (node.append("text")
         .text(lambda d: d.name)
         .style("font-size", lambda d: Math.min(2 * d.r, (2 * d.r - 8) / getComputedTextLength() * 24) + "px")
         .attr("dy", ".35em"))

    d3.json("README.json", json_read)

    def flatten(root):
        nodes = []

        def recurse(node):
            if node.children:
                node.children.forEach(recurse)
            else:
                nodes.push({"name": node.name, "value": node.size})

        recurse(root)
        return {"children": nodes}

And the JS-converted version is:

var bleed = 100;
var width = 960;
var height = 760;

var pack = d3.layout
    .pack()
    .sort(null)
    .size([width, (height + (bleed * 2))])
    .padding(2);

var svg = d3.select("body")
    .append("svg")
    .attr("width", width).attr("height", height)
    .append("g")
    .attr("transform", (("translate(0," + (-bleed)) + ")"));

function json_read(js, error, json) {
    if (error) {
        throw new Error(error)
    } else {
    };
    var node = svg.selectAll(".node")
        .data(pack.nodes(flatten(json)))
        .filter(((d) => ((!d.children))))
        .enter()
            .append("g")
            .attr("class", "node")
            .attr("transform", ((d) => (
                (((("translate(" + d.x) + ",") + d.y) + ")"))));
    node.append("circle")
        .attr("r", ((d) => (d.r)));
    node.append("text")
        .text(((d) => (d.name)))
        .style("font-size", ((d) => (
            (Math.min(
                (2 * d.r),
                ((((2 * d.r) - 8) / getComputedTextLength()) * 24)
            ) + "px"))))
        .attr("dy", ".35em")
};

d3.json("README.json", json_read);

function flatten(root) {
    var nodes = [];

    function recurse(node) {
        if (node.children) {
            node.children.forEach(recurse)
        } else {
            nodes.push({"name": node.name, "value": node.size})
        }
    };

    recurse(root);
    return {"children": nodes}
}

Support

Some Python features are not yet supported (like assert and async) and others will likely never be, since they don't have an obvious analogue in JS (like slices, and the in operator).

For a full list, see the source code.

Also note that Python has some keywords like from that are not keywords in JavaScript, so you cannot use those directly in your code for things like variable names and object members. If you really need to, you'll have to find work-arounds. For example, instead of Array.from() you'll have to use Array['from']().

For loops

For loops are a tricky one! They're supported, but Python and JS have different enough syntaxes for for loops that a perfect conversion isn't possible. Instead, Python's for is being mapped to JS's .forEach(). So you can do:

for word in ["hello", "hi", "whattup"]:
  console.log(word)

...since that translates to:

["hello", "hi", "whattup"].forEach((word, _i) => console.log(word))

And note that if you're using things like range() and enumerate(), those don't exist in JS so you'll have to define them first. For example:

def range(n):
  return Array['from'](Array(n).keys())

for i in range(10):
  console.log(i)

...which translates to:

function range(n) {
    return Array["from"](Array(n).keys())
};

range(10).forEach((i, _i) => {
    console.log(i)
})

Related: did you notice how you get a free _i variable in the JS version of the for/forEach loop? Feel free to use that variable inside the Python version of your JS code, since enumerate() doesn't work!

Variable declarations

Code like this in Python gets translated correctly to JS:

# Python
a = 0
a = 10

// JavaScript
var a = 0;
a = 10

And so do slightly more complex cases like:

# Python
def foo(b):
  a = 0
  a = b = c = 10

// JavaScript
function foo(b) {
  var a = 0;
  a = 10;
  b = 10;
  var c = 10
}

However, because of the way Python and JS variable hoisting work, variable declarations in places like if/else blocks are not handled differently in the two worlds. In particular, this Python code

if x:
  a = 10
else:
  a = 100

becomes this JS code

if (x) {
  var a = 10
} else {
  a = 100
}

...which is correct, but rather odd!

If for any reason you need to solve this, just declare the variable above the if:

# Python

a = None

if x:
  a = 10
else:
  a = 100

// JavaScript

var a = null

if (x) {
  a = 10
} else {
  a = 100
}