Attribute

About

attributes are metadata key pair values that are used:

• to configure the behavior of tabulify (known as parameter)
• or as template variable

Type

There is 3 kinds of attributes:

• parameters: fixed value that you can set
• literal: literal value retrieved from a system (Example: creation date, …)
• computed: value derived through computation (Example: count, digest, …)

Value

The value of an attribute may be:

• encrypted
• an environment variable
• or a literal (ie not derived, the raw value)

Key Casing

Case Input: Independent sensitivity

Attribute names are case independent meaning that all these names are equivalent

• UserCount / userCount - Camel Case
• user_count / USER_COUNT - Snake Case
• user-count / USER-COUNT - Kebab/Hyphen Case

But the following are not:

• dataset and dataSet
• uSerCount and userCount

Why ? We parse the attribute name into words using as separators:

• uppercase
• spaces,
• underscores
• and any non alphanumeric character

Therefore:

• dataset is 1 word: dataset
• dataSet'is 2 words: data and set
• userCount is 2 words: user and count
• uSerCount is 3 words: u, ser and count

Casing output

Casing is a matter of:

• visual taste
• convention
• specification and target system (ie SQL does not allow a - minus in a name if not quoted)

We try to follow the following conventions when printing or serializing:

• Print Value: UPPER_SNAKE_CASE (mostly to show that they can be set via os environment variable
• Print Header / Column Name: lower_snake_case because
  • lowercase is the standard state on a keyboard (one key press won, is one key press less)
  • and we don't like shouting
• Yaml file: kebab-case (ie hyphen)