Boobst. Node.js Caché driver

An Intersystems Caché driver that implements basic functionality and can run routines. Several things have yet to be implemented, but the driver can be used for simple use-cases. Server part was inspired by M.Wire project. I took from it infinitive loop organization, fork methods and open/use directives.

Main goal of this project is to replace Apache + Weblink connection with Node.js server. Or just to use Cache' as an hierarchical database to store you data (probably JSON data) and execute routines and functions.

Licensed under the The MIT License which can be found at http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

Installation

via npm:

npm install boobst

Usage

1. Import Caché Object Script program boobst.m (please rename it to boobst.int. I use .m extension for MUMPS legacy) to your Caché instance
2. Run Boobst server by typing do start^boobst in Caché terminal

Sample program

var BoobstSocket = require('boobst').BoobstSocket
    , assert = require('assert')
    ;
 
var bs = new BoobstSocket({
    host: 'localhost'
    , port: 6666
});
bs.connect(function(err){
    var test = 'test';
    // 'this' refers to the socket itself
    this.zn('USER').set('^test', [1, 2], test).get('^test', [1, 2], function(err, data) {
        assert.equal(data, test, 'should be "' + test + '"');
        this.disconnect();
    });
});

Tests

Tests use Mocha test framework. You can install it by typing npm install mocha You should specify configuration of Cache' Boobst server at ./test/test.config.js and then run tests this way: npm test

Commands

Set

Set local or global variable. Type of value should be a string, number, buffer or object. Local variables could be accessed throw server process.

bs.set('^var', ['a', 1], 'value', function(err) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    console.log('done');
});

Set can accept values more than 32kb. In this case global or local will be splitted in this structure:

global(subscript) = <first part>
global(subscript, 1) = <second part>
global(subscript, 2) = <third part>
...

You can also save JSON objects in your database. Mapping JSON to globals is similar to document storage in this paper: http://www.mgateway.com/docs/universalNoSQL.pdf pp. 19-21

{
    "array": ["a", "ab", "abc"],
    "object": {
        "a": "a",
        "b": 2
    },
    "boolean": true,
    "number": 42
}

var obj = {
    a: {
        b: 1
    },
    c: [1, 2, 3],
    d: 'e'
};
 
bs.set('^test', obj, function(err) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    console.log('object saved');
});

Or, if we use subscripts:

bs.set('^test', ['sub1', 'sub2'], obj, function(err) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    console.log('object saved');
});

Get

Get local or global variable. Notice that data type always has a Buffer type (for binary data) and you should manually convert it to string or other type if you want.

bs.get('^var', ['a', 1], function(err, data) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    console.log(data.toString());
});

If we have previously saved a javascript object with set or saveObject command, we can get it back. Driver can automaticly detects the global stucture and converts it into JSON.

bs.set('^var', ['a', 1], {a: 1, b: [2, 3], c: {d: 4}}, function(err) {
    bs.get('^var', ['a', 1], function(err, data) {
        if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
        console.log(JSON.parse(data.toString())); // {a: 1, b: [2, 3], c: {d: 4}}
    });
});

This is a table of mapping different data types from javascript to Cache' and backwards:

In the case when we have wrong global stucture (which differs from what we got with set command), get command will return only node value. But we can try to force JSON generation with setting second/third optional argument forceJSON to true.

bs.get('^var', ['a', 1], true, function(err, data) {
    // working with JSON here
});

Order (Next)

Gets the next key based on the current key.

bs.next('^var', ['a', 1], function(err, key) {
    assert.equal(err, null);
    assert.equal(key, 2);
});

Kill

Kill global variable.

bs.kill('^var', ['a', 1], function(err) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    console.log('done');
});

Zn

Change namespace

bs.zn('%SYS', function(err, switched) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    console.log(switched ? 'successfully changed namespace' : 'already been there');
});

Execute

Executes the routine. All local variables that have been set previously are available in the routine.

bs.set('a', 'value', function(err) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    this.execute('showVarA^test' /**program body: "w a q"*/, function(err, data) {
        if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
        console.log(data === 'value' ? 'successfully executed': 'something wrong');
    });
});

Considering that commands are sending to the database in series, we can write code which executing without callbacks.

bs.set('a', '2')
  .set('b', '2')
  .execute('multAB^test' /**program body: "w a*b q"*/, function(err, data) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    console.log(data === '4' ? 'successfully executed': 'something wrong');
});

Also, this two commands are equivalent and second version is preferable :

bs.set('a("abc",1)', 5);
bs.set('a', ['abc', 1], 5);

SaveObject

Deprecated. Use set command instead which can save javascript objects into database too.

Blob

Send stream to the database server. file://path/to/the/file saves file on the disk, global://blobGlobalName saves file into ^blobGlobalName global.

Note: if you are using node.js v0.8 or later with old Streams API, it is better to pause you stream after creating. There is no such problem in node.js v0.10 with "Streams2" API.

bs.blob('global://blob', fs.createReadStream('/home/und/00109721.jpg'), function(err) {
    if (err) { console.log(err); return; }
    console.log('file saved');
});

Increment

Increments a global/local variable by a numeric value. Works just like $increment command in MUMPS. Arguments are:

• name global or local name
• subscript (optional) subscripts
• value (optional, defaults 1)
• callback callback function with error and new incremented value

Useful links

Socket programming