Parser for the .fbp flow definition language
var parser = require'fbp';// Some FBP syntax codevar fbpData = "'hello, world!' -> IN Display(Output)";// Parse into a Graph definition JSON objectvar graphDefinition = parserparsefbpData caseSensitive: true;
false the parser will convert port names to lowercase. This is currently the default behavior, but in future releases the default will change to preserve case. It is therefore recommended that you always specify the
caseSensitive option to make your code future-proof.
The fbp package also provides a command-line tool for converting FBP files into JSON:
$ fbp somefile.fbp [--case-sensitive] > somefile.json
FBP is a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) for easy graph definition. The syntax is the following:
'somedata' -> PORT Process(Component)sends initial data somedata to port PORT of process Process that runs component Component
A(Component1) X -> Y B(Component2)sets up a connection between port X of process A that runs component Component1 and port Y of process B that runs component Component2
You can connect multiple components and ports together on one line, and separate connection definitions with a newline or a comma (
Components only have to be specified the first time you mention a new process. Afterwards, simply use the process name.
'somefile.txt' -> SOURCE Read(ReadFile) OUT -> IN Split(SplitStr)Split OUT -> IN Count(Counter) COUNT -> IN Display(Output)Read ERROR -> IN Display
The syntax also supports blank lines and comments. Comments start with the
Example with the same graph than above :
# Read the content of "somefile.txt" and split it by line'somefile.txt' -> SOURCE Read(ReadFile) OUT -> IN Split(SplitStr)# Count the lines and display the resultSplit() OUT -> IN Count(Counter) COUNT -> IN Display(Output)# The read errors are also displayedRead() ERROR -> IN Display()
When FBP-defined graphs are used as subgraphs in other flows, it is often desirable to give more user-friendly names to their available ports. In the FBP language this is done by
INPORT=Read.IN:FILENAMERead(ReadFile) OUT -> IN Display(Output)
This line would export the IN port of the Read node as FILENAME.
It is possible to append metadata to Nodes when declaring them by adding the metadata string to the Component part after a colon (
'somefile.txt' -> SOURCE Read(ReadFile:main)Read() OUT -> IN Split(SplitStr:main)Split() OUT -> IN Count(Counter:main)Count() COUNT -> IN Display(Output:main)Read() ERROR -> IN Display()
In this case the route leading from Read to Display through Split and Count would be identified with the string main. You can also provide arbitrary metadata keys with the
Read() OUT -> IN Split(SplitStr:foo=bar,baz=123)
In this case the Split node would contain the metadata keys
baz with values