Awesome
banditstash
TypeScript-first, extensible local and sessionStorage wrapper:
- Type-safe: no sneaky bugs if storage is corrupted.
- Sane defaults: JSON serialization, runtime validation and catching errors out of the box.
- Key scoping: prevent collisions and access values with ease.
- Tiny: 400 bytes full build, or a 187-byte core with modular features.
- Extensible: replace JSON with any serializer or use your favorite validation library.
- Familiar API: no trickery, just good old getItem / setItem with stricter types.
- Custom storage: not limited to local / sessionStorage, works in SSR.
Beware! This is an early version of the package. API might change, bugs might exist.
Banditstash has a companion 400-byte type-checking library, banditypes, to make validation much more convenient without inflating your bundle.
Install
npm install --save banditstash
Basic usage
Default banditStash
factory gives you:
- JSON serialization for convenience
- Type-safe access
- Runtime validation to prevent malformed objects from exploding at runtime
- Catching getItem / setItem errors
- Optional scoping to prevent key collisions
- Fallback for missing storage (e.g. in SSR)
import { banditStash, fail } from 'banditstash';
// Passing explicit type parameter for outer type is recommended
const setStash = banditStash<Set<string>>({
storage: window.sessionStorage,
parse: (raw) => {
// parse must convert arbitrary JSON to Set<string>...
if (Array.isArray(raw)) {
return new Set(raw.filter((x): x is string => typeof x === 'string'));
}
// or throw error via fail()
fail();
},
// prepare must convert Set to a JSON-serializable format
prepare: (data) => [...data],
// If getItem can't return Set<string>
fallback: () => new Set<string>(),
// (optional) prefix all storage keys with "app:"
scope: 'app'
});
// getItem always returns Set<string> — either from storage or fallback:
const readMessages: Set<string> = setStash.getItem('read-ids');
const isMessageRead = readMessages.has('id');
// setItem accepts Set<string> and serializes it for you:
setStash.setItem('read-ids', new Set(['123', '234']));
// removeItem is same as in raw storage
setStash.removeItem('read-ids');
// Bind key with .singleton() for easy access to a sinlge item:
const readStash = setStash.singleton('read-messages');
const ids = readStash.getItem();
readStash.setItem(ids.add('123'));
readStash.removeItem();
This setup catches errors from both getItem
(validation fails, invalid JSON in storage, missing storage) and setItem
(full or missing storage, failed serialization). This can be disabled with explicit fallback: false
and safeSet: false
, respectively — useful for debugging, or to show an explicit error message to the user.
Manual object validation is quite tedious, so I suggest the companion validator — banditypes. If you want something more established, every other validation library — superstruct, zod, io-ts — also integrates easily.
Custom banditStashes
banditstash
is designed to be modular and extensible via plugins. In fact, default banditStash
is just a combination of 3 plugins — safeGet
, safeSet
, and scope
— and two formatters, json
and your custom formatter defined via prepare
and parse
. Plugins modify getItem / setItem / removeItem behavior (like wrapping in try / catch, changing keys, or whatever.) Formatters are a special case of plugins that validate and transform the stored value during getItem and setItem.
Using the base makeBanditStash
factory with use
and format
methods, you can further reduce bundle size (down to 187 bytes without plugins) or modify the behavior of your stores. Plugins and formatters are chainable and always return a new object.
import { makeBanditStash, fail } from 'banditstash';
const stringStore = makeBanditStash(localStorage).format<string>({
parse: data => data == null ? fail() : data
});
const readonlyStringStore = stringStore.use(stash => ({
getItem: stash.getItem,
setItem: () => {
throw new Error('setItem on readonly store');
},
removeItem: () => {
throw new Error('removeItem on readonly store');
},
}));
Stashes built using the default factory can be further enhanced with more plugins or formatters.
Custom storage
Banditstash is not limited to browser Storage APIs — you can provide any object with getItem
, setItem
and removeItem
methods that accept string key. The values needn't be strings, and makeBanditStash will infer storage value type.
import { makeBanditStash, fail } from 'banditstash';
const map = new Map<string, number>();
const memoryStorage = makeBanditStash({
getItem: (key) => map.get(key) ?? fail(),
setItem: (key, value) => map.set(key, value),
removeItem: (key) => map.delete(key),
});
const universalStorage = makeBanditStash(typeof window === 'undefined' ? {
getItem: () => null,
setItem: (() => {}),
removeItem: (() => {}),
} : window.localStorage);
banditstash provides one built-in custom storage — noStorage
. It throws error on any access, but lets you construct a banditstash instance when no storage is available (e.g. in SSR).
Custom serializer
If JSON does not satisfy you as a storage format, you can easily use your own serializer. Here's an example of manually serializing a number:
import { makeBanditStash, fail } from 'banditstash';
const numberStash = makeBanditStash(localStorage).format<number>({
parse: raw => {
const num = Number(raw);
return Number.isNaN(num) ? fail() : num;
},
prepare: String,
});
Any serialization library, like arson or devalue, will work:
import { makeBanditStash, fail } from 'banditstash';
import arson from 'arson';
const dateStash = makeBanditStash(localStorage).format<Date>({
parse: arson.parse,
prepare: arson.stringify
});
dateStash.setItem('registered', new Date(2022, 3, 16));
const registeredAt: Date = dateStash.getItem('registered');
Default JSON serialization is implemented via json
formatter:
import { makeBanditStash, json } from 'banditstash';
makeBanditStash(localStorage).format(json());
Using a validation library
Manual type-checking can get tedious. Banditstash plays nicely with any validation library, as long as you throw
(or fail()
) on invalid values. I recommend either the 400-byte companion library banditypes or superstruct — it's small and modular, just like banditstash:
import { makeBanditStash, fail } from 'banditstash';
import { object, string, number, min, type Infer } from 'superstruct';
const userSchema = object({
name: string(),
age: min(number(), 0),
});
const userStore = makeBanditStash(localStorage)
.format<Infer<typeof userSchema>>({
parse: raw => userSchema.create(raw),
});
userStore.setItem('me', { name: 'vladimir', age: 28 });
localStorage.set('broken', JSON.stringify({ name: 'evil' }));
try {
userStore.getItem('broken');
} catch (err) {
console.log('validation failed');
}
Any other validation library — zod, io-ts, yup, etc — is similarly easy to add.
Scoping
scope
plugin adds prefix to all keys to avoid key collisions. It's still useful even without TypeScript:
import { makeBanditStash, scope } from 'banditstash';
const appStorage = makeBanditStash(localStorage)
.use(scope('app'));
const userStorage = appStorage.use(scope('user'));
const cacheStorage = appStorage.use(scope('cache'));
userStorage.getItem('avatar');
// equivalent to
localStorage.getItem('app:user:avatar')
Runtime safety
Banditstash provides two helpers for catching runtime errors: safeGet
to handle getItem
errors, and safeSet
for setItem
:
import { makeBanditStash, safeGet, safeSet, json } from 'banditstash';
const safeStorage = makeBanditStash(window.localStorage)
.format(json())
.use(safeGet(() => ({})))
.use(safeSet());
Note that, due to chaining, safeGet
and safeSet
only handle errors from plugins applied above them, so it's best to use these in the tail of the chain.
API reference
banditStash<Data>(options)
Creates a default stash with JSON serialization, validation and error handling. Specifying data type explicitly is recommended.
Options:
storage
:localStorage
,sessionStorage
, or an object with compatiblegetItem
,setItem
, andremoveItem
methods. Ifundefined
is passed,noStorage
is used to construct the instance.parse
: a function that either converts a free-form JSON to theData
type, or throws an error, duringgetItem
. Usually required.prepare
: a function that convertsData
to a JSON-serializable object duringsetItem
. Required for non-serializable types likeDate
,Map
,Set
, etc.fallback: (() => Data) | false
: value to return whengetItem
can't retrieve data from storage. If set to false, error will be thrown.safeSet?: false
(optional): if false, setItem might throw. Defaults to true.scope: string
: (optional) a prefix for all the keys in the storage.
fail()
A helper to conveniently throw errors in parse
:
{
parse: raw => raw.length === 10 ? raw : fail(),
// equivalent to
parse: raw => {
if (raw.length === 10) return raw;
throw new TypeError();
}
}
noStorage()
A custom storage that throws on every access. Can be used when Storage
is not available to safely construct banditstash
:
import { makeBanditStash, noStorage } from 'banditstash';
makeBanditStash(typeof window === 'undefined' ? noStorage() : window.localStorage);
Full banditStash
falls back to noStorage
if storage
option is falsy.
makeBanditStash(storage)
Creates a custom banditStash instance without formatters or plugins. getItem
, setItem
and removeItem
are always bound to storage, format
, use
and singleton
methods are added.
#BanditStash<T>.getItem(key)
Reads value from storage, passing it through parse
pipeline. Returns a parsed Data
type. Throws if parse fails and safeGet
plugin is not used.
#BanditStash.setItem(key, value)
Writes value to storage, passing it through prepare
pipeline. Throws if prepare fails or storage.setItem
throws, and safeSet
is not used.
#BanditStash.removeItem(key)
Removes value from storage.
#BanditStash.singleton(key)
Returns a singleton store whose getItem
, setItem
and removeItem
can be called without key. Singleton stores don't support formatters and plugins, so make sure it's called last.
#BanditStash<Inner>.format<Outer>(formatter)
Returns a new stash that exposes data of Outer
type. Formatter object contains 2 functions:
parse
maps data from Inner (storage) type to Outer or throws (usefail()
helper).prepare
maps data from Outer to Inner type.
If Outer is assignable to Inner (e.g. string -> Json
), prepare
is optional. If Inner is assignable to Outer (e.g. string -> string
), parse
is optional.
There is a built-in json()
formatter that converts between JSON objects and strings.
#BanditStash.use(plugin)
Return a new stash with getItem
, setItem
or removeItem
behavior modified by the plugin. Plugin is a function called with the original stash. At this point plugin API is unstable, so prefer built-in plugins:
safeGet(() => fallback)
— returnfallback
instead of throwing error ingetItem
safeSet()
— ignore errors insetItem
scope(prefix: string)
— prefix all keys with prefix,'key' -> 'prefix:key'