Allow nested field values in session

[colinrotherham]

Hello!

We've got a service where we use the same nunjucks views to collect data for both claimants and optionally their partners.

E.g.

<!-- Claimant fields -->
<input name="claimant[field1]" value="Example 1">
<input name="claimant[field2]" value="Example 2">
<input name="claimant[field3]" value="Example 3">

<!-- Partner fields -->
<input name="partner[field1]" value="Example 1">
<input name="partner[field2]" value="Example 2">
<input name="partner[field3]" value="Example 3">

With this pull request useAutoStoreData will store the data correctly 👍

session: {
  data: {
    claimant: {
      field1: 'Example 1',
      field2: 'Example 2',
      field3: 'Example 3'
    },
    partner: {
      field1: 'Example 1',
      field2: 'Example 2',
      field3: 'Example 3'
    }
  }
}

i.e. Nicely grouped as claimant and partner as specified in the HTML.

We also regularly switch express-session with client-sessions (cookie vs. memory store) but it doesn't have the session.destroy() method. I've added a little compatibility change for this too.

It'll help other teams also wanting to use another session store that survives Node.js restarts.

[colinrotherham]

Useful for other fields too…

<input name="address[line1]">
<input name="address[line2]">
<input name="address[town]">
<input name="address[postcode]">

[colinrotherham]

Pushed another change up as this affects the nunjucks checked() function.

It now supports dot or bracket notation:

// Flat name/value pairs
checked("example1", "true")
checked("example2", "true")

// Nested name/value pairs (mixed notation)
checked("[parent1].example1", "true")
checked("[parent1].example2", "true")
checked("[parent2].example1", "true")
checked("[parent2].example2", "true")

// Nested name/value pairs (bracket notation, quoted)
checked("['parent-hyphenated-1']['example-1']", "true")
checked("['parent-hyphenated-1']['example-2']", "true")
checked("['parent-hyphenated-2']['example-1']", "true")
checked("['parent-hyphenated-2']['example-2']", "true")

Object notation as strings is hard to parse, so I've used keypather here.

[NickColley]

Hey Colin,

This looks like a useful addition, my only thought is:

How will users know about this feature? Is there any guidance we need to add to the documentation?

[colinrotherham]

Hi @NickColley,

Glad you like it. I've gone ahead and added documented in /docs/session:

[colinrotherham]

Example added for usage of nunjucks checked() with nested fields in /docs/examples/pass-data:

Usage in views

Usage in checked()

Usage in checked() (full macro example)

Usage in route functions

[colinrotherham]

Add new entry to changelog

[joelanman]

One thing I'm thinking about - we generally tell people to use [''] notation (for example data['first-name'], as that supports hyphens and possibly even spaces in name, instead of teaching people to use camelCase in some situations.

Could this work using [''] notation?

[colinrotherham]

Hi @joelanman,

I've changed all the examples to use [''] notation.

Some screenshots from the documentation have been edited above.

Also #573 (comment) has been updated to show both dot and bracket notation examples.

[colinrotherham]

Rebased with latest from master

[colinrotherham]

Rebased with latest from master (more!)

[hannalaakso]

Hi @colinrotherham

This looks really useful, thanks for picking it up 👍 I've left some comments.

[colinrotherham]

Hi @hannalaakso, cheers again for the review.

I've replied to all your points and pushed a new version up 😊

[hannalaakso]

Hi @colinrotherham

Thanks for addressing my comments. I've tested the new version and it's looking good 🙂

Just need another person in the team to review this as well before we can merge it.

[NickColley]

LGTM 👍