Develop Reference

Get value of current Observable state

So I am trying to get the value (the email) of my Observable<firebase.User>. I know there is something called BehaviourSubject, but I cannot use it since firebase.User requires an Observable, it seems.
retrieveUserData(){
let emailVal = "";
this.userData.subscribe(
{
next: x => emailVal += x.email && console.log(x.email),
error: err => console.error('Observer got an error: ' + err),
complete: () => console.log('Observer got a complete notification'),
}
);
return emailVal;
}
So my goal is to get x.email in the emailVal let, in order to pass it & display, for example.
The problem is, that I am getting an (by logging the whole method retrieveUserData()), but the console.log(x.email) always returns the value I am looking for.
Why is that & is there a way to get the value & store it in a string, let or something else?

It is because Observables are async. It means when you run subscribe method of the observable, it runs the command without blocking the current runtime. Also, you are assigning the value of emailVal when the observable is run but you return the value without waiting for the assignment to be happened.
What you can do?
You can keep a global variable to keep the email globally and use that variable to display the email in the html side.
#Component({
selector: "my-app",
// See here, I used emailVal to display it
template: "<span>{{emailVal}}</span>",
styles: [""]
})
export class TestComponent {
emailVal = "";
ngOnInit(): void {
this.retrieveUserData();
}
retrieveUserData(): void {
this.userData.subscribe(
x => this.handleData(x.email),
err => console.error("Observer got an error: " + err)
);
}
handleData(email) {
// Here, we assign the value of global variable (defined in class level)
this.emailVal = email;
console.log(email);
}
}
You can use rxjs library in such a way to make the observable return the value and return the observable in the method as below
retrieveUserData(): Observable<firebase.User> {
return this.userData.pipe(
map(x => x.email)
);
}
And in html side, using async pipe (as an example):
<span>{{retrieveUserData() | async}}</span>
async pipe will subscribe to observable and wait for it to complete and then take the value and put it in the value of span. You can check this StackBlitz example to understand this method deeply.

Unable to log user state information to transcript

I am using TranscriptLoggerMiddleware and CosmosDB to log my chatbot transcripts. We are trying to capture the user state information (user name, account number, account type, etc) as top level attributes in the transcript so that specific customers can easily be queried in the DB (if that information is just in the individual timestamp attributes of the document, they can't be queried).
Ideally I would just add the user state when I'm building the file, but I can't figure any way to access it since the logger is defined in index.js and TranscriptLoggerMiddleware only provides the activity to my function, not the full context. If anyone has a way to get the user state data via TranscriptLoggerMiddleware, let me know, that would solve this issue. Here is the customLogger code. Note that due to the function receiving both the user query and bot response, I couldn't get retrieving and resaving the transcript to work, so I'm overwriting the transcript from a local log object. Not trying to come up with a new approach here but if one would solve the overall issue I'd like to hear it.
// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
// Licensed under the MIT License.
const { CosmosDbPartitionedStorage } = require('botbuilder-azure');
const path = require('path');
/**
* CustomLogger, takes in an activity and saves it for the duration of the conversation, writing to an emulator compatible transcript file in the transcriptsPath folder.
*/
class CustomLogger {
/**
* Log an activity to the log file.
* #param activity Activity being logged.
*/
// Set up Cosmos Storage
constructor(appInsightsClient) {
this.transcriptStorage = new CosmosDbPartitionedStorage({
cosmosDbEndpoint: process.env.COSMOS_SERVICE_ENDPOINT,
authKey: process.env.COSMOS_AUTH_KEY,
databaseId: process.env.DATABASE,
containerId: 'bot-transcripts'
});
this.conversationLogger = {};
this.appInsightsClient = appInsightsClient;
this.msDelay = 250;
}
async logActivity(activity) {
if (!activity) {
throw new Error('Activity is required.');
}
// Log only if this is type message
if (activity.type === 'message') {
if (activity.attachments) {
try {
var logTextDb = `${activity.from.name}: ${activity.attachments[0].content.text}`;
} catch (err) {
var logTextDb = `${activity.from.name}: ${activity.text}`;
}
} else {
var logTextDb = `${activity.from.name}: ${activity.text}`;
}
if (activity.conversation) {
var id = activity.conversation.id;
if (id.indexOf('|') !== -1) {
id = activity.conversation.id.replace(/\|.*/, '');
}
// Get today's date for datestamp
var currentDate = new Date();
var day = currentDate.getDate();
var month = currentDate.getMonth()+1;
var year = currentDate.getFullYear();
var datestamp = year + '-' + month + '-' + day;
var fileName = `${datestamp}_${id}`;
var timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now()/1);
// CosmosDB logging (JK)
if (!(fileName in this.conversationLogger)) {
this.conversationLogger[fileName] = {};
this.conversationLogger[fileName]['userData'] = {};
this.conversationLogger[fileName]['botName'] = process.env.BOTNAME;
}
this.conversationLogger[fileName][timestamp] = logTextDb;
let updateObj = {
[fileName]:{
...this.conversationLogger[fileName]
}
}
// Add delay to ensure messages logged sequentially
await this.wait(this.msDelay);
try {
let result = await this.transcriptStorage.write(updateObj);
} catch(err) {
console.log(err);
this.appInsightsClient.trackTrace({message: `Logger Error ${err.code} - ${path.basename(__filename)}`,severity: 3,properties: {'botName': process.env.BOTNAME, 'error':err.body}});
}
}
}
}
async wait(milliseconds) {
var start = new Date().getTime();
for (var i = 0; i < 1e7; i++) {
if ((new Date().getTime() - start) > milliseconds) {
break;
}
}
}
}
exports.CustomLogger = CustomLogger;
Not being able to get user state in this function, I decided to try a few other approaches. The most promising was creating a separate "updateTranscript" function to grab the transcript, add user state, and save it back. But I think it was catching it only on user request and getting overidden again by local object on bot response. I added a delay to try to combat this, but it still didn't work. On my very first prompt of providing customer number user state data is getting stored on transcript, but at the next activity it is gone and never comes back (even though I can see it is supposedly getting written to DB). Here is that update function.
const { CosmosDbStorage } = require('botbuilder-azure');
var updateTranscript = async (context, userData, appInsightsClient) => {
const transcriptStorage = new CosmosDbStorage({
serviceEndpoint: process.env.COSMOS_SERVICE_ENDPOINT,
authKey: process.env.COSMOS_AUTH_KEY,
databaseId: process.env.DATABASE,
collectionId: 'bot-transcripts',
partitionKey: process.env.BOTNAME
});
var id = context.activity.conversation.id;
if (id.indexOf('|') !== -1) {
id = context.activity.conversation.id.replace(/\|.*/, '');
}
// Get today's date for datestamp
var currentDate = new Date();
var day = currentDate.getDate();
var month = currentDate.getMonth()+1;
var year = currentDate.getFullYear();
var datestamp = year + '-' + month + '-' + day;
var filename = `${datestamp}_${id}`;
var msDelay = 500;
await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, msDelay));
var transcript = await transcriptStorage.read([filename]);
transcript[filename]['userData'] = userData
try {
await transcriptStorage.write(transcript);
console.log('User data added to transcript');
} catch(err) {
console.log(err);
appInsightsClient.trackTrace({message: `Log Updater Error ${err.code} - ${path.basename(__filename)}`,severity: 3,properties: {'botName': process.env.BOTNAME, 'error':err.body}});
}
return;
}
module.exports.updateTranscript = updateTranscript
I realize this approach is a bit of a cluster but I've been unable to find anything better. I know the Microsoft COVID-19 bot has a really nice transcript retrieval function, but I haven't been able to get any input from them on how that was accomplished. That aside, I'm quite happy to continue with this implementation if someone can help me figure out how to get that user state into the transcript without being overwritten or running into concurrency issues.
As to why I can't query an account number even via substring() function, here's an example of the documents data object. I have no idea which string to check for a substring, in this case 122809. I don't know what that timestamp could be. If this is stored at the top level (e.g. userData/accountNumber) I know exactly where to look for the value. For further context, I've displayed what I see after the first prompt for account number, where userData is populated. But it gets overidden on subsequent writes and I can't seem to get it back even with a delay in my updateTranscript function.
"document": {
"userData": {},
"botName": "AveryCreek_OEM_CSC_Bot_QA",
"1594745997562": "AveryCreek_OEM_CSC_Bot_QA: Hi! I'm the OEM CSC Support Bot! Before we get started, can you please provide me with your 6-digit Vista number? If you don't have one, just type \"Skip\".",
"1594746003973": "You: 122809",
"1594746004241": "AveryCreek_OEM_CSC_Bot_QA: Thank you. What can I help you with today? \r\nYou can say **Menu** for a list of common commands, **Help** for chatbot tips, or choose one of the frequent actions below. \r\n \r\n I'm still being tested, so please use our [Feedback Form](https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=lVxS1ga5GkO5Jum1G6Q8xHnUJxcBMMdAqVUeyOmrhgBUNFI3VEhMU1laV1YwMUdFTkhYVzcwWk9DMiQlQCN0PWcu) to let us know how well I'm doing and how I can be improved!",
"1594746011384": "You: what is my account number?",
"1594746011652": "AveryCreek_OEM_CSC_Bot_QA: Here is the informaiton I have stored: \n \n**Account Number:** 122809 \n\n I will forget everything except your account number after the end of this conversation.",
"1594746011920": "AveryCreek_OEM_CSC_Bot_QA: I can clear your information if you don't want me to store it or if you want to reneter it. Would you like me to clear your information now?",
"1594746016034": "You: no",
"1594746016301": "AveryCreek_OEM_CSC_Bot_QA: OK, I won't clear your information. You can ask again at any time."
},
"document": {
"userData": {
"accountNumber": "122809"
},
"botName": "AveryCreek_OEM_CSC_Bot_QA",
"1594746019952": "AveryCreek_OEM_CSC_Bot_QA: Hi! I'm the OEM CSC Support Bot! What can I help you with today? \r\nYou can say **Menu** for a list of common commands, **Help** for chatbot tips, or choose one of the frequent actions below. \r\n \r\n I'm still being tested, so please use our [Feedback Form](https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=lVxS1ga5GkO5Jum1G6Q8xHnUJxcBMMdAqVUeyOmrhgBUNFI3VEhMU1laV1YwMUdFTkhYVzcwWk9DMiQlQCN0PWcu) to let us know how well I'm doing and how I can be improved!"
},

You had said you were encountering concurrency issues even though JavaScript is single-threaded. As strange as that sounds, I think you're right on some level. TranscriptLoggerMiddleware does have its own buffer that it uses to store activities throughout the turn and then it tries to log all of them all at once. It could easily have provided a way to get that whole buffer in your own logger function, but instead it just loops through the buffer so that you still only get to log them each individually. Also, it allows logActivity to return a promise but it never awaits it, so each activity will get logged "simultaneously" (it's not really simultaneous but the code will likely jump between function calls before waiting for them to complete). This is a problem for any operation that isn't atomic, because you'll be modifying state without knowing about its latest modifications.
while (transcript.length > 0) {
try {
const activity: Activity = transcript.shift();
// If the implementation of this.logger.logActivity() is asynchronous, we don't
// await it as to not block processing of activities.
// Because TranscriptLogger.logActivity() returns void or Promise<void>, we capture
// the result and see if it is a Promise.
const logActivityResult = this.logger.logActivity(activity);
// If this.logger.logActivity() returns a Promise, a catch is added in case there
// is no innate error handling in the method. This catch prevents
// UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarnings from being thrown and prints the error to the
// console.
if (logActivityResult instanceof Promise) {
logActivityResult.catch(err => {
this.transcriptLoggerErrorHandler(err);
});
}
} catch (err) {
this.transcriptLoggerErrorHandler(err);
}
}
All in all, I don't think transcript logger middleware is the way to go here. While it may purport to serve your purposes, there are just too many problems with it. I would either write my own middleware or just put the middleware code directly in my bot logic like this:
async onTurn(turnContext) {
const activity = turnContext.activity;
await this.logActivity(turnContext, activity);
turnContext.onSendActivities(async (ctx, activities, next) => {
for (const activity of activities) {
await this.logActivity(ctx, activity);
}
return await next();
});
// Bot code here
// Save state changes
await this.userState.saveChanges(turnContext);
}
async logActivity(turnContext, activity) {
var transcript = await this.transcriptProperty.get(turnContext, []);
transcript.push(activity);
await this.transcriptProperty.set(turnContext, transcript);
console.log('Activities saved: ' + transcript.length);
}
Since your transcript would be stored in your user state, that user state would also have the account number you need and hopefully you'd be able to query for it.

Kyle's answer did help me solve the issue, and I think that will be the most reusable piece for anyone experiencing similar issues. The key takeaway is that, if you're using nodejs, you should not be using TranscriptLoggerMiddleware and instead use Kyle's function in your onTurn handler (repeated here for reference):
// Function provided by Kyle Delaney
async onTurn(turnContext) {
const activity = turnContext.activity;
await this.logActivity(turnContext, activity);
turnContext.onSendActivities(async (ctx, activities, next) => {
for (const activity of activities) {
await this.logActivity(ctx, activity);
}
return await next();
});
// Bot code here
// Save state changes
await this.userState.saveChanges(turnContext);
}
You need to note, though, that his logActivity function is just storing the raw activities to the user state using a custom transcriptProperty. As of yet I haven't found a good method to give business/admin users access to this data in a way that is easily readable and searchable, nor construct some sort of file out output to send to a customer requesting a transcript of their conversation. As such, I continued using my CustomLogger instead. Here is how I accomplished that.
First, you must create the transcriptLogger in the constructor. If you create it inside your turn handler, you will lose the cache/buffer and it will only have the latest activity instead of the full history. May be common sense but this tripped me up briefly. I do this in the constructor via this.transcriptLogger = new CustomerLogger(appInsightsClient);. I also modified my logActivity function to accept the userData (my state object) as a second, optional parameter. I have successfully been able to use that userData object to add the required customer information to the bot transcript. To modify Kyle's function above you just need to replace this.logActivity with your function call, in my case this.transcriptLogger.logActivity(context, userData);.
While there are still some other issues with this approach, it does solve the title question of how to get user state data into the transcript.

RxJS: forkJoin seems not working

I'm currently using combineLatest() method to get all my friends and make it as a list. However, it produces an ordering issue when I try to remove an item from the beginning. (View does not render correctly) Therefore, I'd like to switch from combineLatest() to forkJoin() to get all the friends at once.
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/forkJoin';
friends$: Observable<User[]>;
getMyFriendList() {
this.friends$ = this.userService.getMyFriendsId().switchMap(friendKeys => {
return Observable.forkJoin(friendKeys.map(user => this.userService.getFriends(user.key)));
});
}
But nothing happens when I call forkJoin(). What am I doing wrong here?
getMyFriendsId() {
let friendRef = this.getFriendRef(this.currentUserId);
this.friends$ = friendRef.snapshotChanges().map(actions => {
return actions.map(a => ({ key: a.payload.doc.id, ...a.payload.doc.data()}));
});
return this.friends$;
}
getFriends(uid: string) {
return this.getUsersRef(uid).valueChanges();
}
EDIT
getMyFriendsId() updates a new data when a logged in user remove another user in the friend list.
<ion-list>
<ion-list-header>Friends <span class="total-friends"></span></ion-list-header>
<ion-item-sliding *ngFor="let user of friends$ | async">
<ion-item *ngIf="user" (click)="viewUserProfile(user)">
<ion-avatar (click)="showOriginalAvatarImage()" item-start>
<img-loader [src]="user.thumbnailURL" [spinner]="true"></img-loader>
</ion-avatar>
<h2>{{user.displayName}}</h2>
<p>{{user.statusMessage}}</p>
</ion-item>
...
<ion-list>
Lifecycle event
ionViewWillEnter() {
// Runs when the page is about to enter and become the active page.;
this.getMyFriendList();
}

.forkJoin() combines all the observables, and will only emit the values if all observables are COMPLETED. The reason your code doesn't work is because a you are using valueChanges(), and it is a type of event that will never complete -- they are forever listening to the changes of the value!
If you really want to use .forkJoin (or to prove the point), add a take(1) into your valueChanges:
getFriends(uid: string) {
return this.getUsersRef(uid).valueChanges().take(1);
}
The above code will work because it forcefully completes the observable with take(), but obviously will defeat the purpose because your code will only work once. Conclusion is if you want to keep on observing for a change of a particular value, and combine it with another observable, yes, use combineLatest()

How to collect and return aggregated data as an Array from a table in Protractor?

I am trying to aggregate a list of dates from a data table, written in Angular, in a Protractor test. I'm doing the aggregation from a PageObject class that is called in the Protractor test. I know that my code is successfully grabbing the text I want, but when I try to console.log the returned array, I get an empty array. I'm still new to Javascript/Typescript, Angular, and Protractor and this may be a result of my newness to the asynchronous nature of this development environment.
Code is as follows,
The PageObject SpecMapper class with method:
import { browser, element, by } from 'protractor';
export class SpecMapperPage {
getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues() {
let stringDatesArray: Array<string> = [];
// currently this css selector gets rows in both import and export tables
// TODO: get better identifiers on the import and export tables and columns
element.all(by.css('md-card-content tbody tr.ng-tns-c3-0')).each(function(row, index){
// check outerHTML for presence of "unclickable", the rows in the export table
row.getAttribute('outerHTML').then(function(outerHTML:string) {
// specifically look for rows without unclickable
if(outerHTML.indexOf("unclickable") < 0){
// grab the columns and get the third column, where the date submitted field is
// TODO: get better identifiers on the import and export columns
row.all(by.css("td.ng-tns-c3-0")).get(2).getText().then(function(text:string) {
stringDatesArray.push(text);
});
}
});
});
return stringDatesArray;
}
}
I know it's not the prettiest code, but it's temporary place holder while my devs make me better attributes/classes/ids to grab my variables. Key things to note is that I create a string Array to hold the values I consider relevant to be returned when the method is finished.
I used WebStorm and put a breakpoint at the stringDatesArray.push(text) and return stringDatesArray lines. The first line shows that the text variable has a string variable that I'm looking for and is successfully getting pushed. I see the success in debug mode as I can see the stringDatesArray and see the values in it. The second line though, the array return, shows that the local variable stringDatesArray is empty. This is echoed in the following code when I try to console.log the array:
The Protractor run Spec class with my test in it:
import { SpecMapperPage } from "./app.po";
import {browser, ExpectedConditions} from "protractor";
describe('spec mapper app', () => {
let page: SpecMapperPage;
let PROJECT_ID: string = '57';
let PROJECT_NAME: string = 'DO NOT DELETE - AUTOMATED TESTING PROJECT';
beforeEach(() => {
page = new SpecMapperPage();
});
describe('import/export page', () => {
it('verify sort order is desc', () => {
browser.waitForAngularEnabled(false);
// Step 1: Launch Map Data from Dashboard
page.navigateTo(PROJECT_ID);
browser.driver.sleep(5000).then(() => {
// Verify: Mapping Screen displays
// Verify on the specmapper page by checking the breadcrumbs
expect(page.getProjectNameBreadCrumbText()).toContain(PROJECT_NAME);
expect(page.getProjectMapperBreadCrumbText()).toEqual("MAPPER");
// Verify: Verify Latest Submitted Date is displayed at the top
// Verify: Verify the Submitted Date column is in descending order
console.log(page.getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues());
});
});
});
});
I acknowledge that this code is not actively using the niceties of Protractor, there's a known issue with our app that will not be addressed for a couple of months, so I am accessing the driver directly 99% of the time.
You'll note that I call the method I posted above as the very last line in the browser.driver.sleep().then() clause, page.getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues().
I thought maybe I was running into asynchronous issues with the call being done before the page was loaded, thus I put it in the .then() clause; but learned with debugging that was not the case. This code should work once I have the array returning properly though.
The console.log is printing an empty [] array. That is synonymous with the results I saw when debugging the above method directly in the PageObject SpecMapper class. I wish to do some verification that the strings are returned properly formatted, and then I'm going to do some date order comparisons. I feel like returning an array of data retrieved from a page is not an unusual request, but I can't seem to find a good way to Google what I'm trying to do.
My apologies if I am hitting some very obvious roadblock, I'm still learning the nuances of Typescript/Angular/Protractor. Thank you for your consideration!
My attempted to used collated promises seemed promising, but fell through on execution.
My Updated PageObject SpecMapper Class
import {browser, element, by, protractor} from 'protractor';
export class SpecMapperPage {
getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues() {
let promisesArray = [];
let stringDatesArray: Array<string> = [];
// This CSS selector grabs the import table and any cells with the label .created-date
element.all(by.css('.import-component .created-date')).each(function(cell, index) {
// cell.getText().then(function(text:string) {
// console.log(text);
// });
promisesArray.push(cell.getText());
});
return protractor.promise.all(promisesArray).then(function(results) {
for(let result of results) {
stringDatesArray.push(result);
}
return stringDatesArray;
});
}
}
My Updated Spec test Using The Updated SpecMapper PO Class
import { SpecMapperPage } from "./specMapper.po";
import {browser, ExpectedConditions} from "protractor";
describe('spec mapper app', () => {
let page: SpecMapperPage;
let PROJECT_ID: string = '57';
let PROJECT_NAME: string = 'DO NOT DELETE - AUTOMATED TESTING PROJECT';
beforeEach(() => {
page = new SpecMapperPage();
});
describe('import/export page', () => {
it('TC2963: ImportComponentGrid_ShouldDefaultSortBySubmittedDateInDescendingOrder_WhenPageIsLoaded', () => {
browser.waitForAngularEnabled(false);
// Step 1: Launch Map Data from Dashboard
page.navigateTo(PROJECT_ID);
browser.driver.sleep(5000).then(() => {
// Verify: Mapping Screen displays
// Verify on the specmapper page by checking the breadcrumbs
expect(page.getProjectNameBreadCrumbText()).toContain(PROJECT_NAME);
expect(page.getProjectMapperBreadCrumbText()).toEqual("MAPPER");
// Verify: Verify Latest Submitted Date is displayed at the top
// Verify: Verify the Submitted Date column is in descending order
page.getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues().then(function(results) {
for(let value of results) {
console.log("a value is: " + value);
}
});
});
});
});
});
When I breakpoint in the PO class at the return stringDatesArray; line, I have the following variables in my differing scopes. Note that the promisesArray has 3 objects, but the results array going into the protractor.promise.all( block has 0 objects. I'm not sure what my disconnect is. :/
I think I'm running into a scopes problem that I am having issues understanding. You'll note the commented out promise resolution on the getText(), and this was my POC proving that I am getting the string values I'm expecting, so I'm not sure why it's not working in the Promise Array structure presented as a solution below.
Only other related question that I could find has to do with grabbing a particular row of a table, not specifically aggregating the data to be returned for test verification in Protractor. You can find it here if you're interested.

As you've alluded to your issue is caused by the console.log returning the value of the variable before its actually been populated.
I've taken a snippet from this answer which should allow you to solve it: Is there a way to resolve multiple promises with Protractor?
var x = element(by.id('x')).sendKeys('xxx');
var y = element(by.id('y')).sendKeys('yyy');
var z = element(by.id('z')).sendKeys('zzz');
myFun(x,y,z);
//isEnabled() is contained in the expect() function, so it'll wait for
// myFun() promise to be fulfilled
expect(element(by.id('myButton')).isEnabled()).toBe(true);
// in a common function library
function myFun(Xel,Yel,Zel) {
return protractor.promise.all([Xel,Yel,Zel]).then(function(results){
var xText = results[0];
var yText = results[1];
var zText = results[2];
});
}
So in your code it would be something like
getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues() {
let promisesArray = [];
let stringDatesArray: Array<string> = [];
// currently this css selector gets rows in both import and export tables
// TODO: get better identifiers on the import and export tables and columns
element.all(by.css('md-card-content tbody tr.ng-tns-c3-0')).each(function(row, index){
// check outerHTML for presence of "unclickable", the rows in the export table
row.getAttribute('outerHTML').then(function(outerHTML:string) {
// specifically look for rows without unclickable
if(outerHTML.indexOf("unclickable") < 0){
// grab the columns and get the third column, where the date submitted field is
// TODO: get better identifiers on the import and export columns
promisesArray.push(row.all(by.css("td.ng-tns-c3-0")).get(2).getText());
}
});
});
return protractor.promise.all(promisesArray).then(function(results){
// In here you'll have access to the results
});
}
Theres quite a few different ways you could do it. You could process the data in that method at the end or I think you could return the array within that "then", and access it like so:
page.getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues().then((res) =>{
//And then here you will have access to the array
})

I don't do the Typescript but if you're just looking to get an array of locator texts back from your method, something resembling this should work...
getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues() {
let stringDatesArray: Array<string> = [];
$$('.import-component .created-date').each((cell, index) => {
cell.getText().then(text => {
stringDatesArray.push(text);
});
}).then(() => {
return stringDatesArray;
});
}

The answer ended up related to the answer posted on How do I return the response from an asynchronous call?
The final PageObject class function:
import {browser, element, by, protractor} from 'protractor';
export class SpecMapperPage {
getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues() {
let stringDatesArray: Array<string> = [];
let promisesArray = [];
// return a promise promising that stringDatesArray will have an array of dates
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
// This CSS selector grabs the import table and any cells with the label .created-date
element.all(by.css('.import-component .created-date')).map((cell) => {
// Gather all the getText's we want the text from
promisesArray.push(cell.getText());
}).then(() => {
protractor.promise.all(promisesArray).then((results) => {
// Resolve the getText's values and shove into array we want to return
for(let result of results) {
stringDatesArray.push(result);
}
}).then(() => {
// Set the filled array as the resolution to the returned promise
resolve(stringDatesArray);
});
});
});
}
}
The final test class:
import { SpecMapperPage } from "./specMapper.po";
import {browser, ExpectedConditions} from "protractor";
describe('spec mapper app', () => {
let page: SpecMapperPage;
let PROJECT_ID: string = '57';
let PROJECT_NAME: string = 'DO NOT DELETE - AUTOMATED TESTING PROJECT';
beforeEach(() => {
page = new SpecMapperPage();
});
describe('import/export page', () => {
it('TC2963: ImportComponentGrid_ShouldDefaultSortBySubmittedDateInDescendingOrder_WhenPageIsLoaded', () => {
browser.waitForAngularEnabled(false);
// Step 1: Launch Map Data from Dashboard
page.navigateTo(PROJECT_ID);
browser.driver.sleep(5000).then(() => {
// Verify: Mapping Screen displays
// Verify on the specmapper page by checking the breadcrumbs
expect(page.getProjectNameBreadCrumbText()).toContain(PROJECT_NAME);
expect(page.getProjectMapperBreadCrumbText()).toEqual("MAPPER");
// Verify: Verify Latest Submitted Date is displayed at the top
// Verify: Verify the Submitted Date column is in descending order
page.getImportDateSubmittedColumnValues().then((results) => {
console.log(results);
});
});
});
});
});
The biggest thing was waiting for the different calls to get done running and then waiting for the stringDataArray to be filled. That required the promise(resolve,reject) structure I found in the SO post noted above. I ended up using the lambda (()=>{}) function calls instead of declared (function(){}) for a cleaner look, the method works the same either way. None of the other proposed solutions successfully propagated the array of strings back to my test. I'm working in Typescript, with Protractor.

How to iterate through a loop of HTTP requests and store the data of each iteration appropriately to an array

I am using Spotify's API's search functionality to iterate through an array of SongSearchParams defined as:
export class SongSearchParams {
public title: string;
public artist: string;
constructor(title: string, artist: string){
this.title = title;
this.artist = artist;
}
}
My HTTP request looks like:
searchTrack(searchParams: SongSearchParams, type='track'){
var headers = new Headers({'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + this.hash_params.access_token});
this.user_url = "https://api.spotify.com/v1/search?query="+searchParams.artist+' '+
searchParams.title+"&offset=0&limit=1&type="+type+"&market=US";
return this.http.get(this.user_url, {headers : headers})
.map(res => res.json());
}
And in one of my component's typescript file I have access to the array of SongSearchParams that I want to individually pass into this searchTrack function when a certain button is clicked and save the album-image, trackname, and artist of a song.
onClick(){
for(let searchQuery of this.songService.songSearches){
this.spotifyserv.searchTrack(searchQuery)
.subscribe(res => {
this.searchedSong.artist = res.tracks.items[0].artists[0].name;
this.searchedSong.title = res.tracks.items[0].name;
this.searchedSong.imagePath = res.tracks.items[0].album.images[0].url;
console.log(this.searchedSong);
this.songService.addSong(this.searchedSong);
})
}
}
When I run this code, the console logs the correct song for each iteration but for some reason only the last song in my songSearches array gets physically added for the length of songSearches times.
Googling for answers to this issue, it seems that I need to use Promises called right after the other using the then() functionality so I tried implementing (for the searchTrack function):
This makes me think that it is an issue with my addSong function
addSong(song: Song){
this.songs.push(song);
this.songsChanged.next(this.songs.slice());
}
Though I don't really know what could be wrong with it so my second hunch is that I should be using promises called right after the other (which I have tried) but have failed to implement.

I think take a look at forkjoin
so something along the lines of:
let obsArray = [];
for(let searchQuery of this.songService.songSearches) {
obsArray.push(this.spotifyserv.searchTrack(searchQuery));
}
Observable.forkJoin(obsArray)
.subscribe(results => {
// results[0]
// results[1]
// ...
// results(n)
});

I discovered the solution to my problem though I do not know why it fixes it (I only have an assumption).
In the class where I created the onClick() method, I had a private member of type Song called songSearched which I was trying to overwrite for each song being added to the list. I instead rewrote the function to look like:
onClick(){
for(let searchQuery of this.songService.songSearches){
this.spotifyserv.searchTrack(searchQuery,
response => {
let res = response.json();
console.log(res.tracks.items[0].album.images[0].url);
console.log(res.tracks.items[0].name);
console.log(res.tracks.items[0].artists[0].name);
let searched_song = {artist : null, title : null, imagePath : null}
searched_song.artist = res.tracks.items[0].artists[0].name;
searched_song.title = res.tracks.items[0].name;
searched_song.imagePath = res.tracks.items[0].album.images[0].url;
console.log(searched_song);
//song_queue.push(searched_song);
this.songService.addSong(searched_song);
}
)
}
}
Here I instead create a new searched_song to be appended to the list inside the function itself that way for each request, there exists a searched_Song. I think before what was happening was that I was overwriting the same searchedSong and by the time it got to the addSong(searchedSong) the final song had already been searched with Spotify's API and had already overwritten the previous searches so that one song kept getting added.
Though this still wouldn't explain why the console log works in the previous line in my original attempt.