Repeating Section Function Library

In the previous Function Library, we saw how to build the event line of a sheet worker very easily. It saved a lot of typing if you had a lot of attributes to watch. But it didn’t handle repeating sections. We’ll expand that here.

The original function:

const build_changes = (stats, sheet_open = false) => 
   stats.reduce((all,stat) => 
   `${all} change:${stat.toLowerCase()}`, sheet_open ? 'sheet:opened' : '');Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

This will work for attributes like this:

let attributes = ['strength', 'dexterity', 'constitution', 'repeating_example'];

But might hit problems if you use attributes like:

let attributes = ['repeating_example:test', 'repeating_example:another_test'];

To be clear, these attributes will work. But you often want to insert that array into getAttrs, and that expects attributes to be named like either of these:

let attributes = ['repeating_example_test', 'repeating_example_another_test'];

let attributes = ['repeating_example_-fger6h7u_test', 'repeating_example_-fger69xa_test'];

The problem is, you cannot use the same array for the event line and for getAttrs – you need two different arrays. That is certainly doable, but it would be nice to use the same array for both.

Section Changes

The method I’d recommend involves creating an object whose format you’ll remember from the Custom Function post. The reason for the similar format will become apparent.

const my_section = {
   example: ['first', 'second', 'third']
};Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

This is an object where you name the object, then put the section at the start of the next line, followed by a colon, then an array containing the attributes inside the repeating section you want to watch.

The advantage of this approach is you can create a globals list (attributes that aren’t in a srepeating section), and can watch multiple sectioons at the same time, like this:

const my_fields = {
   globals: ['strength', 'dexterity', 'constitution'],
   buffs: ['mod', 'cost'],
   gear: ['mod#, 'quantity']
};Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

The names above don’t really matter- it’s just an example of what is possible. Then you need a function to turn the above into a “watch changes” function.

const section_changes = section_object => {
   let output = '';
   Object.keys(section_object).forEach((key, index) => {
     if(index) section += ' ';
     section_object[key].forEach(field => {
       output += key === 'globals' ? field : `repeating_${key}:${field}`;
     });
   });
   return output;
};Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

This is the function to add to your script block. Then you’d use it like this:

const my_fields = {
   globals: ['strength', 'dexterity', 'constitution'],
   buffs: ['mod', 'cost'],
   gear: ['mod', 'quantity']
};
on(section_changes(my_fields), () => {
   getSectionObject(my_fields, data => {
       getAttrs(data.fields, values => {Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

See how the same object is used for both section_changes and getSectionObject.

For the record, the section_changes string would look like this:

'change:strength change:dexterity change:constitution change:repeating_buffs:mod change:repeating_buffs:cost change:repeating_gear:mod change:repeating_gear:cost'

The section_changes function is simpler than writing all that out. And at this point you have a data object that looks like this:

const data = {
   fields: [ / * all attributes, both inside repeatig sections and globals */],
   buffs: [ /* all row IDs for the buffs section */ ],
   gear: [ /* all row IDs for the gear section */]
};Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

You sheet worker can then operate on any stats you need to. You can use the original object to find the fieldnames in any section, and you can identify which attributes in fields aren’t in a repeating section (they don’t stat with ‘repeating_’.