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Release r202601

What's new​

In this first release of the new year, we have upgraded the AutomatorScript engine and added support for many modern JavaScript features:

We have also added some code completion and highlighting improvements to the code editor.

Object and array destructuring​

Destructuring lets you pull values out of objects and arrays in a single step.

const request = fetch("requests", 704540, "wdc");
const { id, subject, member: assignee } = request;
// id = 704540 
// subject = "NNM agent on CMP00002 is down" 
// assignee = { id: 6, name: "Howard Tanner", ... }

function f() { // Function with multiple return values
  return [1, 2];
}

let [a, b] = f(); // Destructure to get the individual return values
// a = 1, b = 2
[b, a] = [a, b]; // Swap the values
// a = 2, b = 1

Destructuring is a very powerful feature that has many applications. Learn more at the MDN Destructuring reference.

Spread syntax​

Spread syntax makes it easy to copy, merge, or extend objects and arrays.

const defaults = { retries: 3, timeout: 5000 };
const overrides = { timeout: 10000, logErrors: true };
const options = { ...defaults, ...overrides };
// options = { retries: 3, timeout: 10000, logErrors: true }

const arr1 = [1, 2, 3];
const arr2 = [4, 5];
const arr3 = [...arr1, ...arr2];
// arr3 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

Learn more at the MDN Spread syntax reference.

Optional chaining​

Optional chaining allows you to safely access deeply nested properties in a concise way.

Previously, you would have to write code like this:

const email = event && event.user && event.user.profile && event.user.profile.email;

With optional chaining, you can now simply write:

const email = event?.user?.profile?.email;

Learn more at the MDN Optional chaining reference.

Nullish coalescing​

The nullish coalescing operator ?? is a safer way to provide sensible defaults for values that might be null or undefined.

In the past, JavaScript developers often used the || operator for this purpose, for example:

const nrOfRetries = config.retries || 3;

However, this is not safe. If config.retries is 0, you might expect nrOfRetries to be 0, but the above will still evaluate to 3.

The ?? operator solves this:

const config = { retries: 0 };
const nrOfRetries = config.retries ?? 3;
// nrOfRetries = 0

Learn more at the MDN Nullish coalescing reference.

Logical assignment operators​

The logical assignment operators ||=, &&= and ??= are shorthand ways to combine logical operators with assignment.

let a = 0, b = 1, c = null;
a ||= 2; // Result: a = 2;
b &&= 3; // Result: b = 3;
c ??= "test"; // Result: c = "test";

Learn more:

Delete operator​

Although not really "modern" JavaScript, the delete operator can still come in handy every now and then. It allows you to remove a property from an object.

const person = { firstName: "John", lastName: "Doe" };
delete person.lastName;
// person = { firstName: "John" }

Learn more at the MDN delete operator reference.

Object methods​

To make working with objects easier, we have added support for several standard Object methods:

  • Object.assign()
  • Object.entries()
  • Object.fromEntries()
  • Object.keys()
  • Object.values()

For example, you can use these methods to easily convert between Object and Map:

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2 };
const mapFromObj = new Map(Object.entries(obj)); // mapFromObj = Map { a => 1, b => 2 }
const objFromMap = Object.fromEntries(mapFromObj); // objFromMap = { a: 1, b: 2 }

Learn more at the MDN Object reference.

Code completion and highlighting improvements​

Code completion for account parameters​

In many of the AutomatorScript functions, one of the parameters is an account. The code editor now helps you to select the correct account, by providing appropriate suggestions based on the type of the account:

Code completion for account parameter

Highlighting unsupported keywords​

AutomatorScript is a JavaScript-based language, but not all of its keywords are supported. The code editor will now highlight these:

Unsupported keywords highlighting

Important​

As indicated in the release notes for the previous release, packages containing syntax errors that are only considered valid in "loose mode" are not supported by the new AutomatorScript engine.

These packages will continue to work as before, but they are highlighted with a warning sign in the UI, and the syntax errors are indicated in the code editor. If you want to make changes to these packages, you will first need to fix the syntax errors in them.

Timeline​

The deployments of the release will be performed on

EnvironmentDate
DemoFriday, December 19th
ProductionThursday, January 8th

The deployment of the Production environments will be conducted outside of office hours (Central European Time Zone).