Command validation in .js instead of .json?

[hilkeheremans]

Currently command validation is done only in .json files. I strongly feel pure json notation is rather heavy ( "), which makes it more difficult to read and maintain.

What if we also allow these validations to be written as .js files? Ie, we do

// some_validation.js
module.exports = {
  title: 'command/hr/person',
  allOf: [
    {
      '$ref': '/command/hr'
    },
    {
      properties: {
        aggregate: {
          type: 'object',
          properties: {
            name: {
              type: 'string',
              pattern: 'person' // I can also add comments now
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

instead of

// some_validation.json (which can't contain this comment or the json is invalid ;-))
 {
  "title": "command/hr/person",
  "allOf": [
    {
      "$ref": "/command/hr"
    },
    {
      "properties": {
        "aggregate": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "name": {
              "type": "string",
              "pattern": "person"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Pro's:

• much easier to define and maintain your tv4 files (in my opinion anyway, not sure if you agree)
• more flexibility: allows for other js features (comments, even function calls for whatever reason, ...)

Cons:

• the files themselves are more difficult to distinguish from the other definitions (right now the validation files stand out because they are json)
• you need to use module.exports
• validation (isSchema()) becomes slightly weaker, but this validation was rather weak in the first place

The changes needed to the lib code are minimal (exactly one line).

What do you think?

[adrai]

If we're able to write json and js files I would accept a PR ;-)