Improve nestedProperties' type configuration

[pacyL2K19]

This PR

Ensures proper type association for nestedProperties in data type configurations

• Fix Fix nested properties typing when "strict": false #203
• Resolved incorrect handling of nestedProperties for non-object data types:
• • Previously, even primitive types like string or boolean could accept nestedProperties when strict mode was enabled, which is technically invalid.
• • When strict mode was disabled, valid cases involving objects also triggered errors.
• Introduced ObjectDataType and PrimitiveDataType to improve type distinction and prevent misuse.
• Updated NestedPropertyCreate and NestedPropertyConfigCreate to align with conditional dataType logic.
• Preserved support for deeply nested properties with proper validation.

Current behavior (without the fix)

Strict Mode: true

Primitive types (string, boolean, etc.) erroneously accept nestedProperties, which is technically impossible.
Example (Invalid but currently allowed):

const invalidConfig = {
  name: 'Example',
  dataType: 'text', // Primitive type
  nestedProperties: [
    { name: 'Invalid', dataType: 'number' }, // ❌ should trigger a typescript error here, but doesn't
  ],
};

Strict Mode: false

Both invalid and valid configurations trigger errors.
For instance, even proper configurations like the following are flagged:

const validConfig = {
  name: 'ValidExample',
  dataType: 'object',
  nestedProperties: [
    { name: 'ValidNested', dataType: 'text' }, // should not trigger a typescript error but currently triggering `Type '{ name: string; dataType: "text"; }' is not assignable to type 'never'.` which is incorrect
  ],
};

Behavior With This Fix

Primitive Types:

Cannot accept nestedProperties regardless of whether strict mode is enabled or not(desired behavior).
Example (Now correctly flagged as invalid):

const invalidConfig = {
  name: 'Example',
  dataType: 'text',
  nestedProperties: [
    { name: 'Invalid', dataType: 'number' }, // ❌ triggering the `Type '{ name: string; dataType: "text"; }' is not assignable to type 'never'.` error preventing developers from trying this (desired behavior)
  ],
};

Object Types:

Continue to support deeply nested configurations without errors.
Example (Valid and supported):

export const configs: CollectionConfigCreate<undefined, string> = {
  name: 'Movies',
  properties: [
    {
      name: 'Testing',
      dataType: dataType.OBJECT_ARRAY,
      nestedProperties: [
        {
          name: 'width',
          dataType: dataType.NUMBER,
        },
        {
          name: 'isBool',
          dataType: dataType.BOOLEAN,
        },
        {
          name: 'object-with-nested',
          dataType: dataType.OBJECT,
          nestedProperties: [ // ✅ no matter the strict flag, works as expected -> expected behavior
            {
              name: 'nested-url',
              dataType: dataType.TEXT,
            },
            {
              name: 'another-array-object-in-nested',
              dataType: dataType.OBJECT_ARRAY,
              nestedProperties: [ // ✅ works as expected
                {
                  name: 'nested-url',
                  dataType: dataType.TEXT,
                },
              ],
            },
          ],
        },
      ],
    },
  ],
};

The updated types now prevent invalid configurations and allow valid nested configurations without breaking existing functionality no matter the strict flag in tsconfig

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[pacyL2K19]

I agree with the CLA

[tsmith023]

Hey @pacyL2K19, thank you so much for this great contribution! I must admit, when looking into this I didn't have a great solution for it so I'm glad you've found this!

The failing tests are due to some new behaviour on WCD, which we use for one journey test. I just pushed a fix for that so feel free to rebase on main and then your tests should be green, cheers!

[pacyL2K19]

Hey @pacyL2K19, thank you so much for this great contribution! I must admit, when looking into this I didn't have a great solution for it so I'm glad you've found this!

The failing tests are due to some new behaviour on WCD, which we use for one journey test. I just pushed a fix for that so feel free to rebase on main and then your tests should be green, cheers!

Thank you so much @tsmith023
It's my pleasure
Just rebased with the main branch 🤞🏾

[tsmith023]

LGTM, thanks again for the contribution! ❤️

[tsmith023]

Ah, I tried it out locally now that it's merged and still observe the same problem reported in the issue when strict: false. However, I think there's an easy fix for the issue that I missed in the review: #233. LMK if you think this change is good from your PoV! @pacyL2K19

[pacyL2K19]

Ah, I tried it out locally now that it's merged and still observe the same problem reported in the issue when strict: false. However, I think there's an easy fix for the issue that I missed in the review: #233. LMK if you think this change is good from your PoV! @pacyL2K19

Hi @tsmith023
I tried locally the types and they seemed okay, let me have another look at it now

[tsmith023]

For clarity, this tsconfig.json file:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ESNext",
    "module": "NodeNext",
    "moduleResolution": "NodeNext",
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "strict": false,
  },
}

and this code:

import { CollectionConfigCreate, dataType } from "weaviate-client";

function func(): CollectionConfigCreate {
  return {
    name: "Name",
    properties: [
      {
        name: 'images',
        dataType: 'object[]',
        nestedProperties: [
          {
            name: 'url',
            dataType: dataType.TEXT,
          },
          {
            name: 'caption',
            dataType: dataType.TEXT,
          },
          {
            name: 'number',
            dataType: dataType.NUMBER,
          }
        ],
      },
    ],
  };
}

gives me compilation errors seen in the issue with the changes on main. Such errors are fixed by my PR 😁