Validating JSON object

One of the nice tools for rapid application development in Bluemix is Node-RED which escaped from IBM research. One passes a msg JSON object between nodes that process (mostly) the msg.payload property. A feature I like a lot is the ability to use a http input node that can listen to a POST on an URL and automatically translates the posted form into a JSON object.
The conversion runs non-discriminatory, so any field that is added to the form will end up in the JSON object.
In a real world application that's not a good idea, an object shouldn't have unexpected properties. I had asked before, so it wasn't too hard to derive a function I could use in Node-RED:

this.deepclean = function(template, candidate, hasBeenCleaned) {
   var cleandit = false;
   
   for (var prop in candidate) {
    
    if (template.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
     // We need to check strict clean and recursion
     var tProp = template[prop];
     var cProp = candidate[prop];
     
     // Case 1: strict checking and types are different
     if (this.strictclean && ((typeof tProp) !== (typeof cProp))) {
      delete candidate[prop];
      cleandit = true;
      
     // Case 2: both are objects - recursion needed 
     } else if (((typeof tProp) === "object") && ((typeof cProp) === "object")) {
      cleandit = node.deepclean(tProp, cProp, (hasBeenCleaned || cleandit));
      candidate[prop] = cProp;
     }
    
    // Case 3: property is not there 
    } else {
     delete candidate[prop];
     cleandit = true;
    }
   }
   
   return (hasBeenCleaned || cleandit);   
  }

The function is called with the template object and the incoming object and the initial parameter false. While the function could be easily used inside a function node, the better option is to wrap it into a node of its own, so it is easy to use anywhere. The details how to do that can be found on the Node-RED website. The easiest way to try the function: add your Node-RED project to version control, download the object cleaner node and unzip it into the nodes directory. Works in Bluemix and in a local Node-RED installation.
If you want to test the flow, simply use npm install node-red-contrib-objectcleaner or add it as dependency to your Node-RED installation. You then can test it with a flow like this:

The flow tests a perfect matching object, an object with a few extra properties, one with missing properties and one empty one. Import this flow:

[
  {
    "id": "2729363c.e9c20a",
    "type": "objectcleaner",
    "name": "Demo",
    "template": "{ \"name\" : \"string\",\n    \"age\" : 42,\n    \"cute\" : true,\n    \"demo\" : true,\n    \"parameters\" : {\n        \"color\" : \"red\",\n        \"shape\" : \"round\",\n        \"taste\" : \"aweful\"\n    }\n}",
    "field": "",
    "strictclean": true,
    "notempty": true,
    "musthaveallproperties": true,
    "x": 359,
    "y": 132,
    "z": "f5e214d6.87925",
    "wires": [
      [
        "f84af920.c4a7c"
      ],
      [
        "282d3700.460122"
      ]
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "bda25c33.917ac8",
    "type": "inject",
    "name": "Test with missing",
    "topic": "",
    "payload": "{ \"name\" : \"string\",     \"demo\" : true, \"age\" : 42,     \"cute\" : true,     \"parameters\" : {         \"color\" : \"red\",         \"shape\" : \"round\"  , \"drehzahl\" : \"hoch\", \"xxx\" : { \"a\" : \"b\", \"c\" : \"e\"}   } }",
    "payloadType": "string",
    "repeat": "",
    "crontab": "",
    "once": false,
    "x": 133,
    "y": 160,
    "z": "f5e214d6.87925",
    "wires": [
      [
        "2729363c.e9c20a"
      ]
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "f84af920.c4a7c",
    "type": "debug",
    "name": "cleaned result",
    "active": true,
    "console": "false",
    "complete": "payload",
    "x": 519,
    "y": 80,
    "z": "f5e214d6.87925",
    "wires": [

    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "282d3700.460122",
    "type": "debug",
    "name": "",
    "active": true,
    "console": "false",
    "complete": "true",
    "x": 508,
    "y": 193,
    "z": "f5e214d6.87925",
    "wires": [

    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "c436845a.d5fe1",
    "type": "inject",
    "name": "Empty",
    "topic": "",
    "payload": "",
    "payloadType": "none",
    "repeat": "",
    "crontab": "",
    "once": false,
    "x": 104,
    "y": 216,
    "z": "f5e214d6.87925",
    "wires": [
      [
        "2729363c.e9c20a"
      ]
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "bf11b968.dffb08",
    "type": "inject",
    "name": "Clean",
    "topic": "",
    "payload": "{ \"name\" : \"string\",     \"age\" : 42,     \"cute\" : true,     \"demo\" : true,     \"parameters\" : {         \"color\" : \"red\",         \"shape\" : \"round\",         \"taste\" : \"aweful\"     } }",
    "payloadType": "string",
    "repeat": "",
    "crontab": "",
    "once": false,
    "x": 103,
    "y": 55,
    "z": "f5e214d6.87925",
    "wires": [
      [
        "2729363c.e9c20a"
      ]
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "5bcdb6a5.de79c",
    "type": "inject",
    "name": "Test with Extra",
    "topic": "",
    "payload": "{ \"name\" : \"string\",     \"age\" : 42,     \"cute\" : true,     \"demo\" : true,     \"parameters\" : {         \"color\" : \"red\",         \"shape\" : \"round\",         \"taste\" : \"aweful\", \"extra\" : { \"a\" : \"b\", \"c\" : \"d\", \"e\" : true}     } }",
    "payloadType": "string",
    "repeat": "",
    "crontab": "",
    "once": false,
    "x": 126,
    "y": 110,
    "z": "f5e214d6.87925",
    "wires": [
      [
        "2729363c.e9c20a"
      ]
    ]
  }
]

As usual: YMMV