[TINKERPOP-2990] Javascript GLV: Add getters and setters for Client and Connection classes

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Critical
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 3.7.0
• Component/s: javascript
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Taylor Riggan
• Created: 25/Aug/23 18:02
• Updated: 17/Nov/23 20:20

Description

Java provides the ability to override a class constructor, which has allowed a Client or Connection class in Java to be instantiated using varying different parameters.  Javascript classes only allow a single constructor.  This limits a developer's ability to access or modify class properties for a Client or Connection object.

Example:

A DriverRemoteConnection object in gremlin-javascript can only be instantiated via:

let drc = new DriverRemoteConnection(some_url);

A developer would not be able to create a Client object first and create a new DriverRemoteConnection object based on the Client as they would be able to do using the Java GLV.

 

Similarly, if a user needed to gain access to an underlying Client or Connection object from within a DriverRemoteConnection, they would be accessing these properties using the _client or _connection variable names.  The underscore prefix typically denotes that these should be viewed as private class properties.  As such, we should be treating these as private until a time comes as to when we can adopt actual private class properties and functions (a fairly new concept added to JS in ES2019).

To address these issues, I suggest we add setter and getter functions to the respective classes that would allow a user to more properly interact with class properties that cannot be defined via overridden constructor.