beforefn

Execute a function before a function.

var before = require('beforefn')
 
// replace user.save with a function that executes
// customBeheviour() before every .save  call
user.save = before(user.save, function() {
  customBehaviour()
})
 
// roughly equivalent to
var oldSave = user.oldSave
user.save = function() {
  customBehaviour()
  return oldSave.apply(this, arguments)
}

API Facts

• beforefn returns a new Function.
• Original arguments will be passed as the second argument to the before function.
• Original function will be passed as the third argument to the before function.
• Properties and prototype are only inherited if you use before.inherit. Function arity will not be preserved.
• To use with a constructor function, you'll need to use before.inherit.

Differences between beforefn 2.x and 3.x

beforefn 3.x no longer inherits properties from the function you're wrapping. In many cases this is not needed, and the inheritance slows down beforefn by ~300%. Blame V8.

Examples

 
var user = {
  name: 'tim oxley',
  save: function() {
    // save routine
  },
  formatName: function() {
    this.name = this.name.toUpperCase()
  }
}
 
// always calls 'user.formatName' before 'user.save'
user.save = before(user.save, user.formatName)
 
console.log(user.name) // => tim oxley
user.save()
console.log(user.name) // => TIM OXLEY
 

Modify arguments

function add(a, b) {
  return a + b
}
 
var addByTen = before(add, function fn(a, b) {
  fn.args = fn.args.map(function(x) { return x * 10 })
})
 
console.log(add(1,2)) // => 3
console.log(addByTen(1,2)) // => 30
 

Fix context

 
var user = {
  name: 'hodor',
  speak: function() {
    return this.name
  }
}
 
user.speak = before(user.speak, function() {
  this.name = this.name[0].toUpperCase() + this.name.slice(1)
}, user)
 
 
console.log(user.speak()) // => 'Hodor'
 
// Reset name
user.name = 'hodor'
 
// Original function runs in call-time context
console.log(user.speak.call({name: 'bran'})) // => 'bran'
 
// But the before function runs in context set when defined
console.log(user.name) // => 'Hodor'
 

Adjust Context

 
var user = {
  name: 'hodor',
  speak: function() {
    return this.name
  }
}
 
user.speak = before(user.speak, function fn() {
  // make 'this' in all 'befores' effectively immutable
  fn.context = Object.create(this)
})
 
user.speak = before(user.speak, function fn() {
  this.name = this.name[0].toUpperCase() + this.name.slice(1)
}, user)
 
 
console.log(speak()) // => 'Hodor'
 
// the 'this' was altered when the function ran,
// but the original object is unmodified due to
// the Object.create(this)
 
console.log(user.name) // => 'hodor'
 

Performance

As of beforefn 2.2.0, beforefn performs comparably to a manually replaced function.

iterations 700000
...
366ms - manually replaced function
299ms - using before function
...

 
test('manually replaced function', function() {
  var user = setup()
  var s = user.speak
  user.speak = function() {
    this.name = this.name.toUpperCase()
    return s.apply(this, arguments)
  }
  user.speak()
})
 
test('using before function', function() {
  var user = setup()
  function a() {
    this.name = this.name.toUpperCase()
  }
  user.speak = before(user.speak, a)
  user.speak()
})

Other runnable benchmarks are located in bench/index.

See Also

• timoxley/guardfn
• timoxley/afterfn
• timoxley/namefn

License

MIT