I'm making a request to a service that generates several strings in rapid succession. My problem arise from having to return a promise with this service, as I do not control the service process that returns the string.
I want to emphasize the fact that I necessarily need to return a promise.
Right now, what I have is the main function (handler.ts) and it doesn't mantain any business logic, including only the following:
public static callback: any;
public static async init(configuration, callback): Promise<any> {
this.callback = callback;
...
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
try {
const result = await Service.bootstrap(configuration)
return resolve(result)
} catch(err) {
reject(err)
}
}
}
This handler calls the service, which has the bootstrap function that performs a call to a .js file that obtains some information from my computer and then returns a string about it.
import loadComputerInformation from 'load.js'
public async bootstrap() : Promise<any> {
loadComputerInformation();
function useComputerInfoString() {
// window.getInfo is generated by loadComputerInformation(), and I can not control
// when does it return it, as it generates several strings with rapid succession
// and until the function exists, I will not get my string.
if (typeof window.getInfo !== 'function') {return;}
const data = window.getInfo();
if (data.finished) {
clearTimeout(timeoutId);
const infoString = data.computerInfo;
Service.axiosCall(infoString);
}
}
// I have to set an interval to perform the call several times, and until it resolves it
// it will not stop performing this call.
const timeoutId = setInterval(useComputerInfoString, 500);
}
return;
}
Therefore, the problem that I'm facing is that my promise gets lost in another thread, and I can not return the value from Service.axiosCall(infoString), which is just a standard axios call, but that necessarily needs the infoString.
Adding the axios call function just in case it is useful. Right now, I'm using the callback passed to the handler.js to return the axios call, but I want to be able to include it in the Promise without the necessity of a callback function
public static async axiosCall(blackbox): Promise<any> {
await axios.post('https://somecall.com/info', blackbox)
.then((response) => { this.callback(element)
return element);
}
}
Any idea of how to solve this?
Highlight
Please note that loadComputerInformation() asynchronously loads Window.getInfo(), but it does not resolve only one value, but several, therefore I can not await on Window.getInfo() because at the beggining it does not exist, and will only return undefined
Also, right now, the code is up and running, but the way it is returning the value is with the callback and not as a promise.
Try a bootstrap function whose returned promise resolves with the response returned from an axios call.
This suggestion (based on information in the post) is vanilla JavaScript to demonstrate how to the problem might be approached. Obviously modification to integrate it into the application will be needed:
const bootstrap = () => new Promise( resolve => {
loadComputerInformation();
let state = "load";
const timer = setInterval( ()=> {
if( state == "load") {
if( typeof window.getData != "function") {
return;
}
state = "get";
}
let data;
if( state == "get") {
data = window.getData();
if(!data.finished) {
return;
}
// state = "request";
}
clearInterval(timer);
resolve( axios('post', "https:example.com/info", data.computerInfo) );
}, 100); // 1/10th second?
};
Note this answer has been modified to use a state machine to wait for getData to be loaded asynchronously, then to wait for a call to getData to return a data object with a finished property, before resolving the promise returned with the promise returned by the axios call - the first answer was simpler right up until it needed to wait for getData code to be loaded asynchronously.
Beneath the question lies a problem that may have to be written off to code debt: JavaScript is event driven. loadComputerInformation appears to have been written for its results to be polled. It is hard to imagine a justifiable reason why it was left in that state.
Is there any other way other than setTimeout() to wait for the result come back after api call and then call that api again immediately after result is received?
In my case, I have to call n times times (depending on user input) and the api call takes 20-40 seconds to process and return result from the backend. If I send another request, while the previous one is still being processed in the backed, then it breaks the backend.
What is the right way to do call api once result is received and fully processed?
sendRequest() {
let self = this;
function f() {
if (self.state.callPerSite < self.state.selectedSites.length) {
self.processData(transid);
setTimeout(f, 20)
}
} else {
self.setState({progress: 100});
}
}
f();
}
processData(transid) {
rest.apiCall({transactionId: transid}, 'json').then(results => {
if (!firstCallIsProcessed) {
firstCallIsProcessed = true;
}
callPerSite++;
this.setState({
resultsData: results.data,
callPerSite: callPerSite
});
}).catch(err => this.onError(err));
Just a few changes:
Make your function processData return the promise, by just prefixing the return keyword:
return rest.apiCall( // ....
Chain a call to f with the then method on that return value without further need for calling setTimeout:
self.processData(transid).then(f)
That's it.
You want to look at the new await and async methods.
Check this out: https://javascript.info/async-await
I am developing a nodejs application that needs to get settings from an array(in a settings object), call a rest api based on the settings and write the response to mongodb and repeat this for the next setting in the array.
Here is a simplified version of the application
var setting //global
process(){ //top level function
for(let s of config.settings){
setting = s;
getData();
}
}
function getData(){
init()
.then(makeRequest) // constructs and makes the rest api call
.then(insert) // writes the response to the db
.catch(function(err){
// logs err
}
}
Running it, only the data for the last setting (in the array) is written to the db and this happens for each iteration. Basically the same data is written on the db for as many iterations.
The problem I can see from this is that the for loop finishes executing, before the promises return with the value.
I have seen some examples of async.for
Any suggestions on fixing this. How do you go about designing this kind of a flow?
You can bind the settings to each function call to preserve the value. looks like you'd have to refactor though as the value would be passed in as an argument though i'm not sure if your code is pseudo code or actual code.
async await would work as well but would take longer as it would pause execution at each api call.
You should return an object or array that you can use to store an internal state for your request. Please see the example for how it works.
Also never set a global variable to store your state, with your function being asynchronous the value may not be what you expect it to be.
With this approach you are passing { init } for the first promise, then { init, request } for the next so you have the response from each part of your promise chain that you can use to make further requests.
// return an object to store the state on init
const init = () =>
new Promise((res, rej) => res({
init: 'initted'
}))
// pass init and the request to the next function in the chain
const makeRequest = ({ init }) =>
new Promise((res, rej) => res({
init,
request: {
msg: 'this is the response',
id: 33
}
}))
// insert stuff from the request
// then return the data to the next query
const insert = ({ init, request }) =>
new Promise((res, rej) => res({
request,
init,
created_at: Date.now()
}))
const trace = name => x => (console.log(name, x), x)
function getData(){
return init() // return your promise so you can chain it further
.then(trace('after init'))
.then(makeRequest)
.then(trace('after request'))
.then(insert)
.then(trace('after insert'))
.catch(console.error)
}
// call you function
getData()
// since the promise is returned we can continue the chain
.then(state => console.log({ state }))
<script src="https://codepen.io/synthet1c/pen/KyQQmL.js"></script>
All of your loop will have executed by the time the callbacks are coming in. So settings will be the last value.
Instead of relying on globals, pass setting into getData, for example.
Can anyone recommend a pattern for instantly retrieving data from a function that returns a Promise?
My (simplified) example is an AJAX preloader:
loadPage("index.html").then(displayPage);
If this is downloading a large page, I want to be able to check what's happening and perhaps cancel the process with an XHR abort() at a later stage.
My loadPage function used to (before Promises) return an id that let me do this later:
var loadPageId = loadPage("index.html",displayPage);
...
doSomething(loadPageId);
cancelLoadPage(loadPageId);
In my new Promise based version, I'd imagine that cancelLoadPage() would reject() the original loadPage() Promise.
I've considered a few options all of which I don't like. Is there a generally accepted method to achieve this?
Okay, let's address your bounty note first.
[Hopefully I'll be able to grant the points to someone who says more than "Don't use promises"... ]
Sorry, but the answer here is: "Don't use promises". ES6 Promises have three possible states (to you as a user): Pending, Resolved and Rejected (names may be slightly off).
There is no way for you to see "inside" of a promise to see what has been done and what hasn't - at least not with native ES6 promises. There was some limited work (in other frameworks) done on promise notifications, but those did not make it into the ES6 specification, so it would be unwise of you to use this even if you found an implementation for it.
A promise is meant to represent an asynchronous operation at some point in the future; standalone, it isn't fit for this purpose. What you want is probably more akin to an event publisher - and even that is asynchronous, not synchronous.
There is no safe way for you to synchronously get some value out of an asynchronous call, especially not in JavaScript. One of the main reasons for this is that a good API will, if it can be asynchronous, will always be asynchronous.
Consider the following example:
const promiseValue = Promise.resolve(5)
promiseValue.then((value) => console.log(value))
console.log('test')
Now, let's assume that this promise (because we know the value ahead of time) is resolved synchronously. What do you expect to see? You'd expect to see:
> 5
> test
However, what actually happens is this:
> test
> 5
This is because even though Promise.resolve() is a synchronous call that resolves an already-resolved Promise, then() will always be asynchronous; this is one of the guarantees of the specification and it is a very good guarantee because it makes code a lot easier to reason about - just imagine what would happen if you tried to mix synchronous and asynchronous promises.
This applies to all asynchronous calls, by the way: any action in JavaScript that could potentially be asynchronous will be asynchronous. As a result, there is no way for you do any kind of synchronous introspection in any API that JavaScript provides.
That's not to say you couldn't make some kind of wrapper around a request object, like this:
function makeRequest(url) {
const requestObject = new XMLHttpRequest()
const result = {
}
result.done = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
requestObject.onreadystatechange = function() {
..
}
})
requestObject.open(url)
requestObject.send()
return requestObject
}
But this gets very messy, very quickly, and you still need to use some kind of asynchronous callback for this to work. This all falls down when you try and use Fetch. Also note that Promise cancellation is not currently a part of the spec. See here for more info on that particular bit.
TL:DR: synchronous introspection is not possible on any asynchronous operation in JavaScript and a Promise is not the way to go if you were to even attempt it. There is no way for you to synchronously display information about a request that is on-going, for example. In other languages, attempting to do this would require either blocking or a race condition.
Well. If using angular you can make use of the timeout parameter used by the $http service if you need to cancel and ongoing HTTP request.
Example in typescript:
interface ReturnObject {
cancelPromise: ng.IPromise;
httpPromise: ng.IHttpPromise;
}
#Service("moduleName", "aService")
class AService() {
constructor(private $http: ng.IHttpService
private $q: ng.IQService) { ; }
doSomethingAsynch(): ReturnObject {
var cancelPromise = this.$q.defer();
var httpPromise = this.$http.get("/blah", { timeout: cancelPromise.promise });
return { cancelPromise: cancelPromise, httpPromise: httpPromise };
}
}
#Controller("moduleName", "aController")
class AController {
constructor(aService: AService) {
var o = aService.doSomethingAsynch();
var timeout = setTimeout(() => {
o.cancelPromise.resolve();
}, 30 * 1000);
o.httpPromise.then((response) => {
clearTimeout(timeout);
// do code
}, (errorResponse) => {
// do code
});
}
}
Since this approach already returns an object with two promises the stretch to include any synchronous operation return data in that object is not far.
If you can describe what type of data you would want to return synchronously from such a method it would help to identify a pattern. Why can it not be another method that is called prior to or during your asynchronous operation?
You can kinda do this, but AFAIK it will require hacky workarounds. Note that exporting the resolve and reject methods is generally considered a promise anti-pattern (i.e. sign you shouldn't be using promises). See the bottom for something using setTimeout that may give you what you want without workarounds.
let xhrRequest = (path, data, method, success, fail) => {
const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
// could alternately be structured as polymorphic fns, YMMV
switch (method) {
case 'GET':
xhr.open('GET', path);
xhr.onload = () => {
if (xhr.status < 400 && xhr.status >= 200) {
success(xhr.responseText);
return null;
} else {
fail(new Error(`Server responded with a status of ${xhr.status}`));
return null;
}
};
xhr.onerror = () => {
fail(networkError);
return null;
}
xhr.send();
return null;
}
return xhr;
case 'POST':
// etc.
return xhr;
// and so on...
};
// can work with any function that can take success and fail callbacks
class CancellablePromise {
constructor (fn, ...params) {
this.promise = new Promise((res, rej) => {
this.resolve = res;
this.reject = rej;
fn(...params, this.resolve, this.reject);
return null;
});
}
};
let p = new CancellablePromise(xhrRequest, 'index.html', null, 'GET');
p.promise.then(loadPage).catch(handleError);
// times out after 2 seconds
setTimeout(() => { p.reject(new Error('timeout')) }, 2000);
// for an alternative version that simply tells the user when things
// are taking longer than expected, NOTE this can be done with vanilla
// promises:
let timeoutHandle = setTimeout(() => {
// don't use alert for real, but you get the idea
alert('Sorry its taking so long to load the page.');
}, 2000);
p.promise.then(() => clearTimeout(timeoutHandle));
Promises are beautiful. I don't think there is any reason that you can not handle this with promises. There are three ways that i can think of.
The simplest way to handle this is within the executer. If you would like to cancel the promise (like for instance because of timeout) you just define a timeout flag in the executer and turn it on with a setTimeout(_ => timeout = true, 5000) instruction and resolve or reject only if timeout is false. ie (!timeout && resolve(res) or !timeout && reject(err)) This way your promise indefinitely remains unresolved in case of a timeout and your onfulfillment and onreject functions at the then stage never gets called.
The second is very similar to the first but instead of keeping a flag you just invoke reject at the timeout with proper error description. And handle the rest at the then or catch stage.
However if you would like to carry the id of your asych operation to the sync world then you can also do it as follows;
In this case you have to promisify the async function yourself. Lets take an example. We have an async function to return the double of a number. This is the function
function doubleAsync(data,cb){
setTimeout(_ => cb(false, data*2),1000);
}
We would like to use promises. So normally we need a promisifier function which will take our async function and return another function which when run, takes our data and returns a promise. Right..? So here is the promisifier function;
function promisify(fun){
return (data) => new Promise((resolve,reject) => fun(data, (err,res) => err ? reject(err) : resolve(res)));
}
Lets se how they work together;
function promisify(fun){
return (data) => new Promise((resolve,reject) => fun(data, (err,res) => err ? reject(err) : resolve(res)));
}
function doubleAsync(data,cb){
setTimeout(_ => cb(false, data*2),1000);
}
var doubleWithPromise = promisify(doubleAsync);
doubleWithPromise(100).then(v => console.log("The asynchronously obtained result is: " + v));
So now you see our doubleWithPromise(data) function returns a promise and we chain a then stage to it and access the returned value.
But what you need is not only a promise but also the id of your asynch function. This is very simple. Your promisified function should return an object with two properties; a promise and an id. Lets see...
This time our async function will return a result randomly in 0-5 secs. We will obtain it's result.id synchronously along with the result.promise and use this id to cancel the promise if it fails to resolve within 2.5 secs. Any figure on console log Resolves in 2501 msecs or above will result nothing to happen and the promise is practically canceled.
function promisify(fun){
return function(data){
var result = {id:null, promise:null}; // template return object
result.promise = new Promise((resolve,reject) => result.id = fun(data, (err,res) => err ? reject(err) : resolve(res)));
return result;
};
}
function doubleAsync(data,cb){
var dur = ~~(Math.random()*5000); // return the double of the data within 0-5 seconds.
console.log("Resolve in " + dur + " msecs");
return setTimeout(_ => cb(false, data*2),dur);
}
var doubleWithPromise = promisify(doubleAsync),
promiseDataSet = doubleWithPromise(100);
setTimeout(_ => clearTimeout(promiseDataSet.id),2500); // give 2.5 seconds to the promise to resolve or cancel it.
promiseDataSet.promise
.then(v => console.log("The asynchronously obtained result is: " + v));
You can use fetch(), Response.body.getReader(), where when .read() is called returns a ReadableStream having a cancel method, which returns a Promise upon cancelling read of the stream.
// 58977 bytes of text, 59175 total bytes
var url = "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/anonymous/"
+ "2250b78a2ddc80a4de817bbf414b1704/raw/"
+ "4dc10dacc26045f5c48f6d74440213584202f2d2/lorem.txt";
var n = 10000;
var clicked = false;
var button = document.querySelector("button");
button.addEventListener("click", () => {clicked = true});
fetch(url)
.then(response => response.body.getReader())
.then(reader => {
var len = 0;
reader.read().then(function processData(result) {
if (result.done) {
// do stuff when `reader` is `closed`
return reader.closed.then(function() {
return "stream complete"
});
};
if (!clicked) {
len += result.value.byteLength;
}
// cancel stream if `button` clicked or
// to bytes processed is greater than 10000
if (clicked || len > n) {
return reader.cancel().then(function() {
return "read aborted at " + len + " bytes"
})
}
console.log("len:", len, "result value:", result.value);
return reader.read().then(processData)
})
.then(function(msg) {
alert(msg)
})
.catch(function(err) {
console.log("err", err)
})
});
<button>click to abort stream</button>
The method I am currently using is as follows:
var optionalReturnsObject = {};
functionThatReturnsPromise(dataToSend, optionalReturnsObject ).then(doStuffOnAsyncComplete);
console.log("Some instant data has been returned here:", optionalReturnsObject );
For me, the advantage of this is that another member of my team can use this in a simple way:
functionThatReturnsPromise(data).then(...);
And not need to worry about the returns object. An advanced user can see from the definitions what is going on.
I have a javascript file where I'm grabbing a user's geolocation. I've wrapped it in a promise to make sure that it returns back coordinates.
geoLocation.js:
const getGeoLocation = () => {
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject){
function positionSuccess(position){
resolve(position);
}
function positionError(error){
reject('ERROR: ' + error.code + ': ' + error.message);
};
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(positionSuccess, positionError);
});
};
async function userCoords() {
const response = await getGeoLocation();
}
module.exports = userCoords;
From here I'm importing the async userCoords function into a Main.js react component. In it's render method I'm asking it to console.log(userCoords()), but what I'm getting in the console is:
It looks like it's still waiting to finish with my getGeoLocation promise. What should I be doing to make sure that getGeoLocation is finished completely and that I can pass on it's return coordinates to my Main.js component?
Thank you!
An async function will always return a promise, even if it is already settled. You must use promise.then or await. If you can make your render function async, then you can write:
console.log(await userCoords());
A function being async is poisonous, meaning that any function calling an async function (and expecting a settled value) must be itself async. This is particularry painful when programming user interface, because UI codes are inherently synchronuous. Showing data which comes from an asynchronouos datasource is hard to do well and demand careful engineering.
Maybe the simplest thing you can do is to poll the user coordinates independently from your render cycle:
var coords_promise = null;
var coords = null;
function render() {
if (!coords_promise) {
coords_promise = userCoords().then(function(newCoords) {
coords = newCoords;
coords_promise = null;
});
}
console.log(coords);
}
setInterval(render, 20);
This piece of code will start fetching the coordinates at invocation to the render function. This means the first few cycles of the render function will print the initial value of the coords variable, but after then it will use the newest settled return value of userCoords(). This code also makes sure that no fetching is made if no call was made to the render() function, and no parallel invocations will be made to userCoords().