Node.js based utility to shorten (encode) the date and expand (decode) shortened date back to original date
Actually, I have developed a new way to encode/decode dates within 3 or 4 characters by using base-99 format. So here, we are going to learn about the logic behind this utility tool and reason of it's creation.
Actually, while sharing the files across organisation I would have to maintain version numbers in the filename but those versions won't tell anything about the last updation date until I check when was it last updated. So to maintain the updation dates in the filename, I had started adding timestamp in the filename which solved my issue but looks bad and it also increases the length of the filename.
So I was searching ways to reduce the timestamp, at least the date portion to short string may be having only few characters but can tell the date. Initially, I got an idea of using base36 format instead of date and month because maximum date will be 31 which is less than 36; similary maximum month is 12 that is under 36 too. Well that solves my day-to-day problem but when I applied the same logic to years then it was limited to 36 years only. Then, I thought of using base64 format but that is also limited upto 64 years.
Since I was looking for universal date conversion, so I would require something like base99 format. I looked over the Internet but I didn't found anything like that. So I made it by my own.
In simple language, base99 format refers to series of 0-9 followed by small & capital A-Z characters and variations of vowel characters, i.e., 0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZàèìòùÀÈÌÒÙáéíóúÁÉÍÓÚâêîôûÂÊÔÛÎäëïöüÄËÏ; where each character refers to the position index in series.
Using this format, any number in between 0-99 can be represented by a character positioned in base99 sequence
e.g., 12 → c, 19 → j, 34 → y
where, c is placed at 12th position in the sequence, j at 19th while y at 34th.
Now here is a way to use the same logic for date, so to do that let us take a date and encode it as
15-8-2019 → 15.8.2019 → f.8.kj → f8kj
Similarly, decode it back as
f8kj → f.8.kj → 15.8.2019 → 15-8-2019
Install the app using npm
$ npm install -g date-shortener-node
Open the application in terminal & run the required commands as shown below
Few sample usages are given below
$ ds -t
2ckj
$ ds -t -s
2-12-2019 -> 2.12.2019 -> 2.c.kj -> 2ckj
$ ds -d 2ckj -s
2ckj -> 2.c.kj -> 2.12.2019 -> 2-12-2019
$ ds -e 2/12/2019 -s
2-12-2019 -> 2.12.2019 -> 2.c.kj -> 2ckj
Find out all the available command options & flags
$ ds -h
DATE SHORTENER
It is a tool to shorten (encode) the date and expand (decode) shortened date back to original date.
Usage: ds [options]
Options:
-h, --help display the help menu
-v, --version display the application version
-e, --encode DD-MM-YYYY encode the provided date
-d, --decode DMY decode the provided code
-t, --today encode today's date
-s, --steps show with steps
Examples:
$ ds -v
$ ds -t
$ ds -t -s
$ ds -e 15/08/19
$ ds -e 15/08/2019 -s
$ ds -d f8j
$ ds -d f8kj -s
See the currently available version
$ ds -v
DATE SHORTENER (Version 1.0.0)
Copyright (c) 2019 Abhishek Kumar.
Licensed under the MIT License.
To generate the build, run this command
$ npm run build
Publish the latest build on npm
$ npm login
$ npm publish