chainable-keyword

One word method chaining with CoffeeScript.

Wait, another chaining package?

Yes, well. All the other chaining packages are much more complicated than this one.

(Yawn) we've heard that before.

No, seriously, the entire functionality is in four lines of code. I wouldn't have even bothered making it a package if it weren't for the lack of green in my Github activity chart.

What's more, those four lines of code make for a pretty cool way to create chaining API:s.

Cool, eh?

Ice cold, bro! Just prepend your functions with the word chainable and you're good to go!

A short example maybe?

Your typical API might look like this:

class MyAPI
	run:  -> console.log "running!"
	jump: -> console.log "jumping!"
	swim: -> console.log "swimming!"

Now, you would like to be able to do that jQuery thing where you can type:

myApi = new MyAPI()
myapi
	.run()
	.jump()
	.swim()

But doing that normally means you have to start doing stuff like this:

class MyAPI
	run:  ->
		console.log "running!"
		return this
	jump: ->
		console.log "jumping!"
		return this
	swim: ->
		console.log "swimming!"
		return this

Now your code is littered with loads of the same return statements! That's not cool, and it's not right for you to have to choose between beautiful API implementation and beautiful API usage.

So, what's the alternative? Put this at the top of your file:

chainable = require "chainable-keyword"

and rewrite your APIs as follows:

class MyAPI
	run:  chainable -> console.log "running!"
	jump: chainable -> console.log "jumping!"
	swim: chainable -> console.log "swimming!"

Now you can chain your API:s to your heart's content. But wait, there's more! If you find yourself writing a method that you for some reason don't want to chain, you simply don't write the chainable keyword in the method declaration:

class MyAPI
	run:  chainable -> console.log "running!"
	jump: chainable -> console.log "jumping!"
	swim: chainable -> console.log "swimming!"
	getAnswer: -> 42 # This method is non-chainable

Of course, your API can take arguments in its functions as well:

class MyAPI2
	buy: chainable (item, cost) ->
		console.log "Bought #{item} for #{cost}!"
	sell: chainable (item) ->
		console.log "Sold #{item}"

Wow, that's amazing!

Thank you, I hope you find it useful for your next social-media-platform-with-a-twist startup.

How do I install it again?

npm install chainable-keyword

Bonus round: Plain Jane Javascript?

You can of course use the package in a similar sort of way in vanilla Javascript, since chainable is a function like any other function:

function MyAPI() {
	this.run = chainable(function() {
		console.log("running");
	});
	this.jump = chainable(function() {
		console.log("jumping");
	});
	this.swim = chainable(function() {
		console.log("swimming");
	});
}
var myAPI = new MyAPI();
myAPI
	.run()
	.jump()
	.swim();

With love, from Mac <3