aguid

A Globally Unique IDentifier (GUID) generator in JS.

[![Node.js Version][node-version-image]][node-version-url]
[![NPM Version][npm-image]][npm-url]

Why?

There are already great node module(s) for generating random UUIDs:
https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=uuid

What we need is a way to return the same UUID/GUID for a given input string;
i.e. Deterministic !

$3

The use-case is very specific: generate a key for a record in a database.

Imagine you want to store a person's personal details in a record
but don't want use a username or email as the key for the record.
We solved this by creating a UUID (string) from the username or email address
and using that instead. (see usage below)

Usage

### Install

``sh
npm install aguid --save
`

$3

`javascript
var aguid = require('aguid');
var guid = aguid("hello@world.io"); // d828ed52-32ed-4908-86df-df934d3c315d (ALWAYS)
// use the guid as the key for our record in Redis, ElasticSearch, Postgres, etc.

`

Note: even though the GUID we are returning for a given input is deterministic,
it's still globally unique because we are using SHA256 hash for the characters.
and in our specific use-case we are hashing an email address
(which is its' self unique be definition!)

$3

`javascript
var aguid = require('aguid');
var guid = aguid(); // 525be54a-1101-46bf-97d7-2e9c89dd1b16 (Random)
// use for what ever you need a random guid

``

Research

$3

+ Wikipedia UUID (gentler intro):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier
+ Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) Specification:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4122
+ V.4 Random UUID:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier#Version_4_.28random.29

$3

+ Hex to Base64 and back:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23190056/hex-to-base64-converter-for-javascript
+ Snowflake approach:
http://blog.tompawlak.org/generate-unique-identifier-nodejs-javascript
+ GUIDs using Math.random() https://gist.github.com/jed/982883

$3

Instead of trying to re-invent this, I invested the time to read,
download and play with the source-code
for node-uuid (the most popular & performant module for creating GUIDs):
https://github.com/broofa/node-uuid
See: #3

[node-version-image]: https://img.shields.io/node/v/aguid.svg?style=flat
[node-version-url]: http://nodejs.org/download/
[npm-image]: https://img.shields.io/npm/v/aguid.svg?style=flat
[npm-url]: https://npmjs.org/package/aguid