Develop Reference

chaining promises in functions

I have a small problem, how to create a promise chain in a sensible way so that the makeZip function will first add all the necessary files, then create the zip, and finally delete the previously added files? (The makeZip function also has to return a promise). In the example below I don't call deleteFile anywhere because I don't know exactly where to call it. when I tried to call it inside the add file function to delete the file immediately after adding it, for some unknown reason the console displayed the zip maked! log first and then file deleted.
const deleteFile = (file, result) => {
new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
fs.unlink(`./screenshots/${file}`, (err) => {
if (err) return reject(err);
console.log(`${file} deleted!`);
return resolve();
});
});
};
const addFile = (file) => {
new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
try {
zip.addLocalFile(`./screenshots/${file}`);
console.log(`${file} added`);
return resolve();
} catch {
return reject(new Error("failed to add file"));
}
});
};
const makeZip = () => {
Promise.all(fs.readdirSync("./screenshots").map((file) => addFile(file)))
.then(() => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
try {
zip.writeZip(`./zip_files/supername.zip`);
console.log("zip maked!");
resolve();
} catch {
return reject(new Error("failed making zip"));
}
});
})
.catch((err) => console.log(err));
};

the main cause of this is that you are not returning the promises you are instantiating in your function calls. Also I have some cool suggestion to make that can improve you code cleanliness.
[TIP]: Ever checked the promisify function in NodeJS util package, it comes with node and it is very convenient for converting functions that require callbacks as arguments into promise returning functions., I will demonstrate below anyhow.
// so I will work with one function because the problem resonates with the rest, so
// let us look at the add file function.
// so let us get the promisify function first
const promisify = require('util').promisify;
const addFile = (file) => {
// if addLocalFile is async then you can just return it
return zip.addLocalFile(`./screenshots/${file}`);
};
// okay so here is the promisify example, realized it wasn't applicable int the function
// above
const deleteFile = (file, result) => {
// so we will return here a. So because the function fs.unlink, takes a second arg that
// is a callback we can use promisify to convert the function into a promise
// returning function.
return promisify(fs.unlink)(`./screenshots/${file}`);
// so from there you can do your error handling.
};
So now let us put it all together in your last function, that is, makeZip
const makeZip = () => {
// good call on this, very interesting.
Promise.all(fs.readdirSync("./screenshots").map((file) => addFile(file)))
.then(() => {
return zip.writeZip(`./zip_files/supername.zip`);
})
.then(() => {
//... in here you can then unlink your files.
});
.catch((err) => console.log(err));
};
Everything should be good with these suggestions, hope it works out...

Thank you all for the hints, the solution turned out to be much simpler, just use the fs.unlinkSync method instead of the asynchronous fs.unlink.
const deleteFile = (file) => {
try {
fs.unlinkSync(`./screenshots/${file}`);
console.log(`${file} removed`);
} catch (err) {
console.error(err);
}
};
const addFile = (file) => {
try {
zip.addLocalFile(`./screenshots/${file}`);
console.log(`${file} added`);
deleteFile(file);
} catch (err) {
console.error(err);
}
};
const makeZip = () => {
fs.readdirSync("./screenshots").map((file) => addFile(file));
zip.writeZip(`./zip_files/supername.zip`);
console.log("zip maked!");
};

How do I access promise callback value outside of the function?

It is to my understanding that callback functions are asynchronous and cannot return a value like regular functions. Upon reading about promises, I thought I grasped a good understanding about them, that they are basically an enhanced version of callbacks that allows returning a value like asynchronous function. In my getConnections method, I am attempting to call the find() function on my database through mongoose, and I am attempting to grab this array of objects and send it to the views.
var test = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
Database.find().then(list => {
resolve(list);
}).catch(err=> {
return reject(err);
})
})
console.log(test)
When I attempt to log to the console outside of the promise function, I get Promise { _U: 0, _V: 0, _W: null, _X: null }
I don't think this is functioning correctly, and I thought I utilized promises correctly. Could anyone point me in the right direction on how to return this array of objects outside of the callback function?

You can simply add await before the promise declaration.
i.e.
var test = await new Promise...

The thing is that when you write a function like this:
const getData = async () => { const response = await fetch(someUrl, {}, {}); return response;}
Then you also need to await that function when you call it. Like this:
const setData = async () => { const dataToSet = await getData(); }

let test = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
Database.find().then(list => {
resolve(list);
}).catch(err=> {
return reject(err);
})
})
test
.then(result=>console.log(result))
Should solve your problem.

var someValue;
var test = await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
Database.find().then(list => {
resolve(list);
}).catch(err=> {
return reject(err);
})
}).then(res => {
someValue=res;
})
console.log(someValue);

How to await Function to finish before executing the next one?

// The Below code already contains the suggestions from the answers and hence works :)
within the below script I tried to fully execute the 'createDatabase' function before the .then call at the end starts to run. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out a solution to achieve just that.
In generell the flow should be as followed:
GetFiles - Fully Execute it
CreateDatabase - Fully Execute it (while awaiting each .map call to finish before starting the next)
Exit the script within the .then call
Thanks a lot for any advise :)
const db = require("../database")
const fsp = require("fs").promises
const root = "./database/migrations/"
const getFiles = async () => {
let fileNames = await fsp.readdir(root)
return fileNames.map(fileName => Number(fileName.split(".")[0]))
}
const createDatabase = async fileNumbers => {
fileNumbers.sort((a, b) => a - b)
for (let fileNumber of fileNumbers) {
const length = fileNumber.toString().length
const x = require(`.${root}${fileNumber.toString()}.js`)
await x.create()
}
}
const run = async () => {
let fileNumbers = await getFiles()
await createDatabase(fileNumbers)
}
run()
.then(() => {
console.log("Database setup successfully!")
db.end()
process.exitCode = 0
})
.catch(err => {
console.log("Error creating Database!", err)
})
The x.create code looks as follows:
const dbQ = (query, message) => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
db.query(query, (err, result) => {
if (err) {
console.log(`Error: ${err.sqlMessage}`)
return reject()
}
console.log(`Success: ${message}!`)
return resolve()
})
})
}
x.create = async () => {
const query = `
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS Country (
Code CHAR(2) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
Flag VARCHAR(1024),
Name_de VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
Name_en VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
Primary Key (Code)
)`
const result = await dbQ(query, "Created Table COUNTRY")
return result
}

If you want each x.create to fully execute before the next one starts, i.e. this is what I interpret where you say while awaiting each .map call to finish before starting the next - then you could use async/await with a for loop as follows:
const createDatabase = async fileNumbers => {
fileNumbers.sort((a, b) => a - b);
for (let fileNumber of fileNumbers) {
const x = require(`.${root}${fileNumber.toString()}.js`);
await x.create();
})
}
However, this also assumes that x.create() returns a Promise - as you've not shown what is the typical content of .${root}${fileNumber.toString()}.js file is, then I'm only speculating
The other interpretation of your question would simply require you to change createDatabase so that promises is actually an array of promises (at the moment, it's an array of undefined
const createDatabase = async fileNumbers => {
fileNumbers.sort((a, b) => a - b);
const promises = fileNumbers.map(fileNumber => {
const x = require(`.${root}${fileNumber.toString()}.js`);
return x.create();
})
await Promise.all(promises);
}
Now all .create() run in "parallel", but createDatabase only resolves onces all promises returned by x.create() resolve - again, assumes that x.create() returns a promise

fetch retry request (on failure)

I'm using browser's native fetch API for network requests. Also I am using the whatwg-fetch polyfill for unsupported browsers.
However I need to retry in case the request fails. Now there is this npm package whatwg-fetch-retry I found, but they haven't explained how to use it in their docs. Can somebody help me with this or suggest me an alternative?

From the fetch docs :
fetch('/users')
.then(checkStatus)
.then(parseJSON)
.then(function(data) {
console.log('succeeded', data)
}).catch(function(error) {
console.log('request failed', error)
})
See that catch? Will trigger when fetch fails, you can fetch again there.
Have a look at the Promise API.
Implementation example:
function wait(delay){
return new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, delay));
}
function fetchRetry(url, delay, tries, fetchOptions = {}) {
function onError(err){
triesLeft = tries - 1;
if(!triesLeft){
throw err;
}
return wait(delay).then(() => fetchRetry(url, delay, triesLeft, fetchOptions));
}
return fetch(url,fetchOptions).catch(onError);
}
Edit 1: as suggested by golopot, p-retry is a nice option.
Edit 2: simplified example code.

I recommend using some library for promise retry, for example p-retry.
Example:
const pRetry = require('p-retry')
const fetch = require('node-fetch')
async function fetchPage () {
const response = await fetch('https://stackoverflow.com')
// Abort retrying if the resource doesn't exist
if (response.status === 404) {
throw new pRetry.AbortError(response.statusText)
}
return response.blob()
}
;(async () => {
console.log(await pRetry(fetchPage, {retries: 5}))
})()

I don't like recursion unless is really necessary. And managing an exploding number of dependencies is also an issue. Here is another alternative in typescript. Which is easy to translate to javascript.
interface retryPromiseOptions<T> {
retryCatchIf?:(response:T) => boolean,
retryIf?:(response:T) => boolean,
retries?:number
}
function retryPromise<T>(promise:() => Promise<T>, options:retryPromiseOptions<T>) {
const { retryIf = (_:T) => false, retryCatchIf= (_:T) => true, retries = 1} = options
let _promise = promise();
for (var i = 1; i < retries; i++)
_promise = _promise.catch((value) => retryCatchIf(value) ? promise() : Promise.reject(value))
.then((value) => retryIf(value) ? promise() : Promise.reject(value));
return _promise;
}
And use it this way...
retryPromise(() => fetch(url),{
retryIf: (response:Response) => true, // you could check before trying again
retries: 5
}).then( ... my favorite things ... )
I wrote this for the fetch API on the browser. Which does not issue a reject on a 500. And did I did not implement a wait. But, more importantly, the code shows how to use composition with promises to avoid recursion.
Javascript version:
function retryPromise(promise, options) {
const { retryIf, retryCatchIf, retries } = { retryIf: () => false, retryCatchIf: () => true, retries: 1, ...options};
let _promise = promise();
for (var i = 1; i < retries; i++)
_promise = _promise.catch((value) => retryCatchIf(value) ? promise() : Promise.reject(value))
.then((value) => retryIf(value) ? promise() : Promise.reject(value));
return _promise;
}
Javascript usage:
retryPromise(() => fetch(url),{
retryIf: (response) => true, // you could check before trying again
retries: 5
}).then( ... my favorite things ... )
EDITS: Added js version, added retryCatchIf, fixed the loop start.

One can easily wrap fetch(...) in a loop and catch potential errors (fetch only rejects the returning promise on network errors and the alike):
const RETRY_COUNT = 5;
async function fetchRetry(...args) {
let count = RETRY_COUNT;
while(count > 0) {
try {
return await fetch(...args);
} catch(error) {
// logging ?
}
// logging / waiting?
count -= 1;
}
throw new Error(`Too many retries`);
}

How to flatten a Promise within a Promise?

I have the following 2 functions, each returns a Promise:
const getToken = () => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
fs.readFile('token.txt', (err, data) => {
if (err) { return reject(err) }
if (!tokenIsExpired(data.token)) {
return resolve(data.token)
} else {
return requestNewToken()
}
})
})
}
const requestNewToken = () => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
restClient.get(url, (data, res) => {
fs.writeFile('tokenfile.txt', data.token, err => {
resolve(data.token)
})
})
})
}
function1()
.then(value => {
console.log('taco')
})
.catch(err => {
console.log(err)
})
So function1 runs, and (depending on some condition), it sometimes returns function2, which is returning another Promise. In this code, when function2 is called, the console.log('taco') never runs. Why is this? I thought that if you return a Promise from within a Promise, the resolved value of the nested Promise is what is resolved at the top level.
In order for me to get this to work, I have to do this:
const getToken = () => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
if (!tokenIsExpired()) {
return resolve(getToken())
} else {
return requestNewToken ()
.then(value => {
resolve(value)
})
}
})
}
That works, but it seems like I'm doing something wrong. It seems like there should be a more elegant way to handle/structure this.

You're right that promises auto-unwrap, but in this case you're returning from inside a promise constructor, which is ignored, you need to invoke either resolve or reject instead of using return. I think this might be the solution you're looking for:
const function1 = () => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
if (someCondition) {
resolve('foobar')
} else {
resolve(function2());
}
})
}
Inside a promise constructor, you need to call resolve or reject, which are equivalent to using return or throw from inside a then callback.
If you find this distinction confusing (I do), you should avoid the promise constructor entirely by just beginning a new chain with Promise.resolve, like this:
const function1 = () => {
return Promise.resolve().then(() => {
if (someCondition) {
return 'foobar';
} else {
return function2();
}
})
}
const function2 = () => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
resolve('hello world')
})
}
someCondition = false;
function1()
.then(value => {
console.log(value)
})
With your updated code, I recommend using a library to wrap APIs, rather than accessing the promise constructor yourself. For example, using bluebird's promisify:
const bluebird = require('bluebird');
const readFile = bluebird.promisify(fs.readFile);
const writeFile = bluebird.promisify(fs.writeFile);
const getUrl = bluebird.promisify(restClient.get, {multiArgs:true});
const getToken = () => {
return readFile('token.txt')
.then((data) => {
if(!tokenIsExpired(data.token)) {
return data.token;
} else {
return requestNewToken();
}
});
};
const requestNewToken = () => {
return getUrl(url)
.then(([data, res]) => {
return writeFile('tokenFile.txt', data.token)
.then(() => data.token);
});
};
I've remained faithful to your source code, but I'll note there may be a bug to do with writing data.token, and later trying to read the token property in that file.
Why use a library instead of the Promise constructor?
It allows you to write code which deals only with promises, which is (hopefully) easier to understand
You can be confident that callback APIs are correctly converted without losing errors. For example, if your tokenIsExpired function throws an error, using your promise constructor code, it would be lost. You would need to wrap all of your inner callback code in try {} catch(e) {reject(e)}, which is a hassle and easily forgotten.