PersonId

Short, but more importantly human-proof non-sequential url-friendly unique id generator.

PersonId is a clone of ShortId which is a clone of nano-id. The emphasis is different from both of those projects, and is instead human centric. The characters must be easy to type on a phone. Also there can be no confusion with similar keys. The following letters that might be confusing to someone are:

I -> 1
L -> 1
O -> 0
S -> 5

So in total the alphabet/dictionary consists in total of 32 bits using:

0123456789ABCDEFGHJKMNPQRTUVWXYZ

Usage

const personid = require('personid');

console.log(personid.generate());
// BNPANGQD78C4ZH

Browser Compatibility

The best way to use personid in the browser is via browserify or webpack.

These tools will automatically only include the files necessary for browser compatibility.

All tests will run in the browser as well:

## build the bundle, then open Mocha in a browser to see the tests run.
$ grunt build open

API

var personid = require('personid');

personid.generate()

Returns string non-sequential unique id.

Example

users.insert({
  _id: personid.generate(),
  name: '...',
  email: '...'
});

personid.isValid(id)

Returns boolean

Check to see if an id is a valid personid. Note: This only means the id could have been generated by personid, it doesn't guarantee it.

Example

personid.isValid('A2CJEHGW879D8X');
// true

personid.isValid('i have spaces');
// false

personid.worker(integer)

Default: process.env.NODE_UNIQUE_ID || 0

Recommendation: You typically won't want to change this.

Optional

If you are running multiple server processes then you should make sure every one has a unique worker id. Should be an integer between 0 and 16. If you do not do this there is very little chance of two servers generating the same id, but it is theoretically possible if both are generated in the exact same second and are generating the same number of ids that second and a half-dozen random numbers are all exactly the same.

Example

personid.worker(1);

personid.seed(integer)

Default: 1

Recommendation: You typically won't want to change this.

Optional

Choose a unique value that will seed the random number generator so users won't be able to figure out the pattern of the unique ids. Call it just once in your application before using personid and always use the same value in your application.

Most developers won't need to use this, it's mainly for testing personid.

If you are worried about users somehow decrypting the id then use it as a secret value for increased encryption.

Example

personid.seed(1000);

License

Released under the MIT license.