3 [![Made by unshift](https://img.shields.io/badge/made%20by-unshift-00ffcc.svg?style=flat-square)](http://unshift.io)[![Version npm](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/yeast.svg?style=flat-square)](http://browsenpm.org/package/yeast)[![Build Status](https://img.shields.io/travis/unshiftio/yeast/master.svg?style=flat-square)](https://travis-ci.org/unshiftio/yeast)[![Dependencies](https://img.shields.io/david/unshiftio/yeast.svg?style=flat-square)](https://david-dm.org/unshiftio/yeast)[![Coverage Status](https://img.shields.io/coveralls/unshiftio/yeast/master.svg?style=flat-square)](https://coveralls.io/r/unshiftio/yeast?branch=master)[![IRC channel](https://img.shields.io/badge/IRC-irc.freenode.net%23unshift-00a8ff.svg?style=flat-square)](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=unshift)
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7 Yeast is a unique id generator. It has been primarily designed to generate a
8 unique id which can be used for cache busting. A common practice for this is
9 to use a timestamp, but there are couple of downsides when using timestamps.
11 1. The timestamp is already 13 chars long. This might not matter for 1 request
12 but if you make hundreds of them this quickly adds up in bandwidth and
14 2. It's not unique enough. If you generate two stamps right after each other,
15 they would be identical because the timing accuracy is limited to
18 Yeast solves both of these issues by:
20 1. Compressing the generated timestamp using a custom `encode()` function that
21 returns a string representation of the number.
22 2. Seeding the id in case of collision (when the id is identical to the previous
25 To keep the strings unique it will use the `.` char to separate the generated
30 The module is intended to be used in browsers as well as in Node.js and is
31 therefore released in the npm registry and can be installed using:
34 npm install --save yeast
39 All the examples assume that this library is initialized as follow:
44 var yeast = require('yeast');
47 To generate an id just call the `yeast` function.
50 console.log(yeast(), yeast(), yeast()); // outputs: KyxidwN KyxidwN.0 KyxidwN.1
52 setTimeout(function () {
53 console.log(yeast()); // outputs: KyxidwO
59 An helper function that returns a string representing the specified number. The
60 returned string contains only URL safe characters.
63 yeast.encode(+new Date()); // outputs: Kyxjuo1
68 An helper function that returns the integer value specified by the given string.
69 This function can be used to retrieve the timestamp from a `yeast` id.
72 var id = yeast(); // holds the value: Kyxl1OU
74 yeast.decode(id); // outputs: 1439816226334
77 That's all folks. If you have ideas on how we can further compress the ids