Enumerated Constants, or enums, in Soapi.js
The advantages of using enums include the elimination of magic strings scattered about your codebase and the ability to update all references to an enum value in one location.
Typically, in a statically typed language, enums are readonly or immutable values. While this concept is alien to the dynamically typed JavaScript language the benefits of enums are not mitigated. You simply need to treat them as immutable and not assign values to them.
Soapi.js defines 'enums' for all of the 'choice' parameters and return types in the API. Using enums may seem like more work in that they are more verbose than using string constant but in reality they make your code more robust and much easier to read and maintain.
For example:
var $sd = Soapi.Domain;// as a parameterroute.Sort = $sd.UserSort.reputation;// identifying values in return typesswitch(user.user_type){ case $sd.UserType.anonymous: // do something break; case $sd.UserType.unregistered: // do something break; case $sd.UserType.registered: // do something break; case $sd.UserType.moderator: // do something break;}Enums used in parameters
SortOrder
- desc
- asc
PostSort
- activity
- views
- creation
- votes
CommentSort
- creation
- votes
QuestionSort
- activity
- votes
- creation
- featured
- hot
- week
- month
TagSort
- popular
- activity
- name
UserSort
- reputation
- creation
- name
FavoritesSort
- activity
- views
- creation
- added
- votes
Enums used in return types
SiteState
- normal
- closed_beta
- open_beta
- linked_meta
UserType
- anonymous
- unregistered
- registered
- moderator
PostType
- question
- answer
PostTimelineType
- question
- answer
- comment
- revision
- votes
- state
- accepted
- unaccepted
RevisionType
- single_user
- vote_based
UserTimelineType
- comment
- askoranswered
- badge
- revision
- accepted
Users of Visual Studio will get extra benefit from the use of the defined enum types as they have the luxury of intellisense code completion, which will be covered in detail in the Intellisense Support post.
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Next: Studio JavaScript Intellisense and Code Completion Support