Fluff

Hierarchical Data Structure

Fluff data is represented as a hierarchy.

When accessing a node you use a path starting from the root to the node that you want access to.

graph TD
company  --> department_a
department_a--> team_a_1
department_a--> team_a_2
company  --> department_b
department_b --> team_b_1

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For example, suppose we define a structure that looks like above. If we wanted to get access to data on the team_a_1 node, we would use a path that below...

{company}.{department_a}.{team_a_1}

If we pass this path to the get method to the Fluff Builder (plus other required values to be discussed later) we would get back a json object that has all fields set on the object.

The JSON you got back might look like following...

// Path: {company}.{department_a}.{team_a_1}
{
    "id":"team_a_1",
    "name":"Team A1",
}

• to get the Department A JSON, we would write the path below....

// Path: {company}.{department_a}
{
    "id":"department_a",
    "name":"Department A",
}

Notice that each of the nodes is surrounded by curly brackets and separated by a period.

Let's suppose you wanted to just get the name of Department A, you would add a ".name" to the end of the path.

// Path: {company}.{department_a}.name
{
    "name":"Department A",
}

Updating Values

How do you add values to the fluff.

• you add values to fluff by calling the set method, passing in the path and value.

// some parameters not included for the sudo code
fluff.set("{company}.{department_a}.{team_a2}.name", "Team A1");

rule: the set method path must end in a field (ex. .name), not an object (ex. {team_a2})

• to build our fluff structure out lined above, the following paths and values were used.

Path	Value
{company}.name	Company
{company}.{department_a}.name	Department A
{company}.{department_b}.name	Department B
{company}.{department_a}.{team_a1}.name	Team A1
{company}.{department_a}.{team_a2}.name	Team A2
{company}.{department_a}.{team_b1}.name	Team B1

Adding a new value

• currently our data saved in fluff can be represented by the following table.

Id	Name
company	Company
department_a	Department A
department_b	Department B
team_a1	Team A1
team_a2	Team A2
team_b1	Team B1

We want to add a new field numberEmployees with the value of 5 to team_a1. To do this, we would send the Fluff set() method following values.

Path	Value
{company}.{department_a}.{team_a1}.numberEmployees	5

Our data would now look like this...

id	name	numberEmployees
company	Company
department_a	Department A
department_b	Department B
team_a1	Team A1	5
team_a2	Team A2
team_b1	Team B1

To update the A2 team...

Path	Value
{company}.{department_a}.{team_a2}.numberEmployees	20

Our data now looks like this...

id	name	numberEmployees
company	Company
department_a	Department A
department_b	Department B
team_a1	Team A1	5
team_a2	Team A2	20
team_b1	Team B1

Now lets suppose we want to add a new field region to the departments. Department A is in Canada. Department B is in Brazil.

We would send the following two updates...

Path	Value
{company}.{department_a}.region	Canada
{company}.{department_b}.region	Brazil

Our data now looks like this...

id	name	numberEmployees	region
company	Company
department_a	Department A		Canada
department_b	Department B		Brazil
team_a1	Team A1	5	Canada
team_a2	Team A2	20	Canada
team_b1	Team B1		Brazil

Notice that the teams have automatically inherited their departments region.

Let us see what happens when we add a new team to Department A.

graph TD
company  --> department_a
department_a--> team_a_1
department_a--> team_a_2
department_a--> team_a_3
company  --> department_b
department_b --> team_b_1

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We can do this by using the following path and value.

Path	Value
{company}.{department_a}.{team_a_3}	Team A3

id	name	numberEmployees	region
company	Company
department_a	Department A		Canada
department_b	Department B		Brazil
team_a1	Team A1	5	Canada
team_a2	Team A2	20	Canada
team_a3	Team A3		Canada
team_b1	Team B1		Brazil

Notice that Team 3 automatically inherits the Canada region.