design-patterns/strategy.html

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		<title>JavaScript Patterns</title>
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		<script>
			/* Title: Strategy
			 Description: allows one of a family of algorithms to be selected on-the-fly at runtime
			 */

			var validator = {

				// all available checks
				types:{},

				// error messages in the current
				// validation session
				messages:[],

				// current validation config
				// name: validation type
				config:{},

				// the interface method
				// 'data' is key => value pairs
				validate:function (data) {

					var i, msg, type, checker, result_ok;

					// reset all messages
					this.messages = [];

					for (i in data) {

						if (data.hasOwnProperty(i)) {

							type = this.config[i];
							checker = this.types[type];

							if (!type) {
								continue; // no need to validate
							}
							if (!checker) { // uh-oh
								throw {
									name:"ValidationError",
									message:"No handler to validate type " + type
								};
							}

							result_ok = checker.validate(data[i]);
							if (!result_ok) {
								msg = "Invalid value for *" + i + "*, " + checker.instructions;
								this.messages.push(msg);
							}
						}
					}
					return this.hasErrors();
				},

				// helper
				hasErrors:function () {
					return this.messages.length !== 0;
				}
			};

			// checks for non-empty values
			validator.types.isNonEmpty = {
				validate:function (value) {
					return value !== "";
				},
				instructions:"the value cannot be empty"
			};

			// checks if a value is a number
			validator.types.isNumber = {
				validate:function (value) {
					return !isNaN(value);
				},
				instructions:"the value can only be a valid number, e.g. 1, 3.14 or 2010"
			};

			// checks if the value contains only letters and numbers
			validator.types.isAlphaNum = {
				validate:function (value) {
					return !/[^a-z0-9]/i.test(value);
				},
				instructions:"the value can only contain characters and numbers, no special symbols"
			};

			var data = {
				first_name:"Super",
				last_name:"Man",
				age:"unknown",
				username:"o_O"
			};

			validator.config = {
				first_name:'isNonEmpty',
				age:'isNumber',
				username:'isAlphaNum'
			};

			validator.validate(data);

			if (validator.hasErrors()) {
				console.log(validator.messages.join("\n"));
			}

			// reference
			// http://www.addyosmani.com/resources/essentialjsdesignpatterns/book/#strategypatternjquery
			// http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596806767.do?sortby=publicationDate
		</script>
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