Knwl.js is a Javascript library that parses through text for dates, times, phone numbers, emails, places, and more.

The future of the Knwl.js project: #97

Parser plugins are what make Knwl.js tick and give it new parsing abilities. There are many already available under ./default_plugins for a number of tasks. If you're interested in developing plugins for Knwl.js, ./plugin_development.md is a great place to start.

Installation instructions are specific to whether you want to run Knwl.js in the browser, or on the server with Node.js.

	npm install knwl.js

1. Load the knwl module using require() and create a new Instance.

   	var Knwl = require("./knwl.js");
   	
   	var knwlInstance = new Knwl('english');

   You can optionally specify a language in the first parameter. This helps plugins identify and better suit particular languages.

2. Load a parser plugin.

   	knwlInstance.register('dates', require('./default_plugins/dates'));

   The first parameter is the desired label for the plugin. The second parameter is a require() call to load the plugin.

   Note: The plugins in the ./default_plugins directory will be loaded automatically.

Note: A packaged version of Knwl.js for the browser with default plugins is available in the ./dist directory.

These steps require the npm package.

1. Run npm install to install dependencies.

2. browserify may be used to build a Knwl.js project from Node.js for the browser.

   Use the following syntax in the terminal:

   	./node_modules/.bin/browserify script.js knwl.js > output.js

   The script.js file is the Node.js file you wish to package for the browser.

These steps are the same regardless of whether Knwl.js is running on the server or client.

3. Initiate Knwl.js on a String.

   knwlInstance.init("This is a string. This was written on the 2nd of June, of 2015.");

   This line runs the initial parser functions that prepare the String for plugins to use. Plugins will not function without this method first being called on the String.

4. Initiate a plugin to parse the String.

   var dates = knwlInstance.get('dates');

   The first parameter of knwl.get() is the name of the parser plugin you're trying to access (make sure you've added the plugin's .js file to the header of the page). The names of all default parser plugins are provided towards the end of this document. If you're using plugins other than the defaults, see their respective documentation.

   Anyways, if the parser plugin is found, knwl.get() will return an array of this format:

   var results = [
   	{ //result
   		//plugin-specific properties
   		"preview": "This was written on the 2nd of June of 2015.", //the sentence of rough location of the data from the String
   		"found": integer //the position (in words) of the result in the String
   	}
   ]

   For example, here's what is returned from knwl.get('dates') when called on the previously mentioned String:

   [
   	{
   		"year": 2015,
   		"month": 6,
   		"day": 2,
   		"preview": "This was written on the 2nd of June of 2015.",
   		"found": 5
   	}
   ]

These are automatically loaded by default.

knwl.get('dates');
	
	//Returns any dates found in the String.

knwl.get('times');
	
	//Returns any times found in the String.
	

knwl.get('phones')

	//Returns any phone numbers found in the String.

knwl.get('links')

	//Returns any links found in the String.

knwl.get('emails')
	
	//Returns any email addresses found in the String.

knwl.get('places')

	//Returns any places found in the String.

These parser plugins are not as accurate as the default plugins. However, they should be stable (they shouldn't crash the page) to use if you are willing to use them. They are considerably more static and rigid than default plugins.

In the future, some of these plugins may reach a level of accuracy that promotes them from experimental status to the default plugins. However, some will merely stay as experiments.

knwl.get('english')

	//Returns the simple parts (verb, subject, etc.) of basic sentences found in the String.
	//WARNING: this is a rigid and simplistic plugin, thus it is merely an experiment.

knwl.get('units')
	
	//Returns any units (grams, pounds, etc.) found in the String.

What's awesome about the new version of Knwl.js is that it makes it much easier for anyone with a little knowledge of JS to build plugins. These plugins offer new parsing abilities for Knwl.js that otherwise wouldn't exist.

If you want to try your hand at building plugins for Knwl.js, there's documentation available in plugin_development.md.