scientistSerializer.js

// key-value data structure seems redundant in that the id is provided twice
// when a property is not present, the serialization seems to require 
// that the property is present but with a 'None' value

let scientists = {
    "e3d46de8c7194cb1a32275195c15dc07": {
        "id": "e3d46de8c7194cb1a32275195c15dc07",
        "name": "Niels Bohr",
        "specialization": "Quantum Mechanics",
        "known_for": ["Wave/Particle Duality", "Uncertainty"],
    },
    "7064c3f9c99743b2838bbd8eacafe0d6": {
        "id": "7064c3f9c99743b2838bbd8eacafe0d6",
        "name": "Max Planck",
        "known_for": "Planck's constant",
    },
    "b19e575a0d3f4151a1391452d8a47a44": {
        "id": "b19e575a0d3f4151a1391452d8a47a44",
        "name": "Jane Goodall",
        "specialization": "Apes",
    },
    "17d9d0908f454253b5337e8c1ef4b564": {
        "id": "17d9d0908f454253b5337e8c1ef4b564",
        "name": "Caroline Herschel",
        "specialization": "Stars",
    }
};

// Do whitespace and line breaks need to be preserved?
// Guessing they do because Python is whitespace-conscious
// I'll follow whitespace and linebreak patterns provided in the output from the Python methods

function getSerializedScientistInfoById(scientistId) {
  const scientistList = Object.values(scientists);

  const scientist = scientistList.find(scientist => scientist["id"] === scientistId);

  return serializeScientistInfo(scientist);
}

function serializeScientistInfo(scientistInfo, isNested = false) {
  const scientist = scientistInfo;
  // to ensure each scientist has all properties 
  const requiredKeysStingValues = ['id', 'name', 'specialization', 'known_for'];
  
  const fourSpaces = '    ';
  const keyIndentation = isNested ? fourSpaces.repeat(2) : fourSpaces;
  const bracketIndentation = isNested ? fourSpaces : '';
  const linebreak = '\n';

  let serialization = '';

  requiredKeysStingValues.forEach((key) => {
    if (!scientist[key]) {
      scientist[key] = 'None';
    }

    if (key == 'known_for' && Array.isArray(scientist[key])) {
      scientist[key] = escapeArrayValues(scientist[key]);
    }

    serialization = `${serialization}${keyIndentation}'${key}': '${scientist[key]}',${linebreak}`;
  });

  return `${bracketIndentation}{${linebreak}${serialization}${bracketIndentation}}`;
}

function escapeArrayValues(arrayValues) {
  let serialization = '';

  arrayValues.forEach((value) => {
    if (serialization == '') { 
      serialization = `'${value}'`; 
    } else {
      serialization = `${serialization}, '${value}'`;
    }
  });  
  
  return `[${serialization}]`;
}

// method for getting a serialization of a dump of scientist information returning 
// an object with a property of "scientists" seems redundant 
// because consumers of the object will always need to access the property 
// to do anything meaningful with the object
// I've decided to return just a list of info objects for more declarative use

function getSerializedScientistInfos(scientists) {
  const scientistList = Object.values(scientists);

  const lineBreak = '\n';

  let serialization = '';
  scientistList.forEach((scientist) => {
    serialization = `${serialization}${serializeScientistInfo(scientist, true)},${lineBreak}`;
  });

  return `[${lineBreak}${serialization}]`;
}

// need a bit more time for refactoring... -_-