I am on a quest for consistency in my code. First off I work exclusively in scoped apps so I cannot use things like JSUtils as they are not available in a scoped application. You also cannot use .nil() in scopped applications either.
Here is my goal: I want to find a consistent way of getting values while avoiding pointer conflicts especially in loops but keep the proper variable type.
I am all about setters and getters but my problem is that GlideRecord.getValue() ALWAYS returns a string. So if I want to get the value of true/false field and then use that value in an expression for example I cannot
I want to be able to use the "falsey" and "truthy" principles of javascript. See this if you don't know what I am talking about Truthy and Falsy Values in JavaScript - A Drip of JavaScript
EMPTY Field examples
if(GlideRecord.getValue("fieldName")){//this will ALWAYS be true since get Value returns a string, even if its empty it returns a string of "null"
//do something
}
But in order for that to actually work I need to do
if(GlideRecord.fieldName){//this does work as it returns an Integer of 0 which is false .
//do something
}
TRUE FALSE Fields
var bool1 = GlideRecordObject.trueFalseField; //this will return a BOOLEAN value
var bool2 = GlideRecordObject.getValue("trueFalseField");//this will return a STRING, which means I cannot do Boolean("0") as this will evaluate to true.
var bool3 = GlideRecordObject.getDisplayValue("trueFalseField"); // returns a STRING of "true" or "false" which means I also cannot use Boolean("false")
//as any String is considered truthy and will return true
Dot walking though has the potential for pointer conflicts especially in loops I know for reference fields but I am not sure if they do for non reference fields.
So....what is the answer? As far as I can tell I only have 3 options
1. Use exact comparison with == against another string and always use getValue() which means I cannot use "truthy" and "falsey" in my logic
2. Dot walk so I can use "truthy" and "falsey" and risk pointer conflicts.
3. Create my own library that extends GlideRecord so I have all the functions and then make my own version of get value that return the proper type as far as "falsey" and "truthy" go.
Thoughts? I don't like the idea of a mixed bag of dot walking and getters and setters.
