Develop Reference

Promises structure misunderstood

I have a problem with understanding Promises syntax.
So, what I am trying to do:
getPosts() gets some data from a DB then, I want to get some metadata for each row with another promise call, addMetadata(). Then, once all the metadata is fetched, I want to console it out.
See my attempt below:
var getPosts = function(){
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject){
postModel.find()
.exec(function(err, posts) {
resolve(posts);
);
});
};
var addMetadata = function(posts){
var options = {
host: 'localhost',
port: 3000,
path: '',
method: 'GET'
};
var postPromises = posts.map(function(post) {
return new Promise(function(resolve) {
options.path = '/api/user?id=' + post.profileID;
var req = http.get(options, function(res) {
var bodyChunks = [];
res.on('data', function(chunk) {
bodyChunks.push(chunk);
}).on('end', function() {
var body = Buffer.concat(bodyChunks);
var parsedBody = JSON.parse(body);
post.fullname = parsedBody.user.fullname;
post.profilePic = parsedBody.user.profilePic;
// resolve the promise with the updated post
resolve(post);
});
});
});
});
// Is this the right place to put Promise.all???
Promise.all(postPromises)
.then(function(posts) {
//What should I put here
});
};
getPosts()
.then(function(posts){
return addMetadata(posts);
})
.then(function(posts){//I get a little lost here
console.log();//posts is undefined
});
Of course, my understanding is wrong but I thought I was going the right way. Can someone please guide me to the right direction?
Thanks

Change
// Is this the right place to put Promise.all???
Promise.all(postPromises)
.then(function (posts) {
//What should I put here
});
into
// Is this the right place to put Promise.all???
return Promise.all(postPromises);
This way your addMetadata function will return Promise that resolve when all promises from postPromises resolves or reject if any of postPromises rejects.

The key point to understand the async concept of it and what time the content is available.
Reading this will help to put you in the right direction.
For instance:
var promise = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
resolve(1);
});
promise
.then(function(val) {
console.log(val); // 1
return val + 2;
})
.then(function(val) {
console.log(val); // 3
})
After as per your scenario, in order to have all the metadata Promise.all is the way to go.
Promise.all(arrayOfPromises).then(function(arrayOfResults) {
// One result per each promise of AddMetadata
})

What you wanna do here, if I am correct, is called streams, as you wanna call multiple paralel promises as your concept of looping through list of posts using map is not going to work this way
Take a look at this short video introducing streams Streams - FunFunFunction, he is using library for workin with streams called Baconjs
Here is a short example on streams
const stupidNumberStream = {
each: (callback) => {
setTimeout( () => callback(1), 3000 )
setTimeout( () => callback(2), 2000 )
setTimeout( () => callback(3), 1000 )
}
}
stupidNumberStream.each(console.log)

Your getPosts function is good in the sense that its only job is to promisfy the database find. (Though, I think if it's mongo, the exec produces a promise for you).
Your addMetadataToAPost is less good, because it mixes up processing an array of posts and "promisifying" the http.get. Use the same pattern you applied correctly in the first function and return a promise to do a single get and add metadata. (It would be even better to just wrap the get, which you can reuse, and build a simple add-metadata function that returns - rather than creates - a promise)
// renamed pedantically
var addMetadataToAPost = function(post) {
return new Promise(function(resolve) {
options.path = '/api/user?id=' + post.profileID;
var req = http.get(options, function(res) {
var bodyChunks = [];
res.on('data', function(chunk) {
bodyChunks.push(chunk);
}).on('end', function() {
var body = Buffer.concat(bodyChunks);
var parsedBody = JSON.parse(body);
post.fullname = parsedBody.user.fullname;
post.profilePic = parsedBody.user.profilePic;
// resolve the promise with the updated post
resolve(post);
});
});
});
}
Now your batching function is simple:
// also renamed pedantically
var addMetadataToAllPosts = function(posts){
var postPromises = posts.map(function(post) {
return addMetadataToAPost(post)
})
return Promise.all(postPromises)
};
Your original code should work...
getPosts().then(function(posts){
return addMetadataToAllPosts(posts);
})
.then(function(posts){
console.log(posts);//posts should be an array of posts with metadata added
});

how to can i handle multiple callbacks return values in nodejs?

I am trying to perform sql queries based on the callback results in if conditions but i am unable to write the code .so please provide som information in code
app.get('/resell-property', function(req, res) {
var data = {}
data.unit_price_id = 1;
function callback(error, result) {
if (result.count == 0) {
return hp_property_sell_request.create(data)
}
else if (result.count > 0) {
return hp_unit_price.findAll({
where: {
unit_price_id: data.unit_price_id,
hp_property_id: data.property_id,
hp_unit_details_id: data.unit_details_id
}
})
}
}
hp_property_sell_request.findAndCountAll({
where: {
unit_price_id: data.unit_price_id
}
}).then(function (result) {
if (result) {
callback(null, result);
}
});
});
In this how can i write the callbacks for
hp_property_sell_request.create(data) ,hp_unit_price.findAll({
where: {
unit_price_id: data.unit_price_id,
hp_property_id: data.property_id,
hp_unit_details_id: data.unit_details_id
}
})
In that after returning result again i have to handle callbacks and perform this query
if(result.request_id){
return hp_unit_price.findAll({
where:{
unit_price_id:result.unit_price_id,
hp_property_id:result.property_id,
hp_unit_details_id:result.unit_details_id
}
}).then(function (result){
if(result.is_resale_unit==0 && result.sold_out==0){
return Sequelize.query('UPDATE hp_unit_price SET resale_unit_status=1 WHERE hp_unit_details_id='+result.unit_details_id+' and hp_property_id='+result.property_id)
}
})
}

The promise resolve function takes only one input argument, so if you need to pass in multiple stuff, you have to enclose them in a single object. Like, if you have to go with something like:
database.openCollection()
.then(function(collection){
var result = collection.query(something);
var resultObject = { result: result, collection: collection };
})
.then(function(resultObject){
doSomethingSyncronousWithResult(resultObject.result);
resultObject.collection.close();
});
You can't use Promise all if all of your stuff isn't a result of a promise resolve, you might need to go with something like this.
Disclaimer: The code example is a very poor one, but it explains the concept.

I would suggest you to learn about Promises, particularly Bluebird.
You can promisify traditional callback methods.
I would also create model level functions in different files. Here's an example.
parent.js
const db = require("./connections/database"); // connection to database
const getChildForParent = function (parentId, childId, callback) {
db.find({parent: parentId, child_id: childId}, "childrenTable", function(err, result) {
if (err) {
return callback(err);
}
return callback(null, result);
});
};
children.js
const db = require("./connections/database"); // connection to database
const getToysForChild = function (childId, callback) {
db.find({toy_belongs_to: parentId}, "toysTable", function(err, result) {
if (err) {
return callback(err);
}
return callback(null, result);
});
};
Then in controller you can do something like this:
const Bluebird = require("bluebird");
const Parent = require("./parent.js");
const Child = require("./child.js");
// Promisifying adds "Async" at the end of your methods' names (these are promisified)
Bluebird.promisifyAll(Parent);
Bluebird.promisifyAll(Child);
// Just an example.
app.get("/parent/:parentId/children/:childId", function(req, res) {
return Bluebird.try(function() {
return User.getChildForParentAsync(req.params.parentId, req.params.childId);
}).then(function(child) {
return Child.getToysForChildAsync(child.child_id);
}).then(function(toys) {
// Do something with toys.
});
});
Of course you can do much more with this and this is not the only way.
Also you can use Promise.all(). This method is useful for when you want to wait for more than one promise to complete.
Let's say you have a list of urls that you want to fetch and process the results after all the data has been fetched.
var urls = [url1, url2, url3, url4, url5 .......... ];
var Bluebird = require("bluebird");
var request = require("request"); // callback version library
Bluebird.promisifyAll(request);
// create a list which will keep all the promises
var promises = [];
urls.forEach(function(url) {
promises.push(request.getAsync(url1));
});
// promises array has all the promises
// Then define what you want to do on completion.
Bluebird.all(promises).then(function(results) {
// results is an array with result a url in an index
// process results.
});

I would recommend to use Promises to solve that. If you need all results of all Requests, when they are all done Promise.all() will do that for you. Your basic could look like that:
var req1 = new Promise(function(res, rej){
var req = new XMLHttpRequest()
…
req.addEventListener('load', function (e) {
res(e);
})
var req2 = //similar to the above
Promise.all([req1, req2, …]).then(function(values){
//all requests are done here and you can do your stuff
});
You can also use the new fetch api, which creates Promises like so:
var req1 = fetch(…);
var req2 = fetch(…);
Promise.all([req1, re2, …]).then(…);

Return object from within Callback function

This question might sound duplicate of the one here but my scenario is quiet different. I have getSystemIds.js file like this:
var system_ids_list = {};
var getSystemIDs = function(req, callback) {
var client = //creating an object using internally developed node library
client.request('sql_parameter', {'Query.ID' : query_number},
function(err, req, res){
//Do some stuff to calculate necessary values
system_ids_list[key_value] = value_array;
i+= 1;
}
return(req, callback)
}
)
};
module.exports = getSystemIDs;
Now, as shown in the answer in the link above, I am doing this in app.js
appSSL.get('/sysids', function(req, res) {
var sys_ids = system_ids_list(req, function(err, sys_ids) {
res.render('sysids', sys_ids);
})
});
I am not getting any specific error but the web page never loads as if something is stuck in the process or it does not know where to go next. Can someone help me figure out what would be the best way to do this?

Your getSystemIds() function is never calling the callback that was passed to it so the caller of getSystemIds() never gets a result - thus nothing ever happens on the request.
Change it to this:
var system_ids_list = {};
var getSystemIDs = function (req, callback) {
var client = //creating an object using internally developed node library
client.request('sql_parameter', {'Query.ID': query_number}, function (err, req, res) {
//Do some stuff to calculate necessary values
system_ids_list[key_value] = value_array;
i += 1;
// call the callback now to communicate back the async results
callback(null, system_ids_list);
});
};
module.exports = getSystemIDs;
The way you have your code structured, system_ids_list will accumulate more and more values each time getSystemIDs() is called. That seems a bit of an odd way to structure things so I'm pointing that out in case that is not really what you intend.
Also, your getSystemIDs() function does not return anything so you should change this:
appSSL.get('/sysids', function(req, res) {
var sys_ids = system_ids_list(req, function(err, sys_ids) {
res.render('sysids', sys_ids);
});
});
to this to make it less missleading about what is going on:
appSSL.get('/sysids', function(req, res) {
system_ids_list(req, function(err, sys_ids) {
res.render('sysids', sys_ids);
});
});
And, if res.render() is from a system like ExpressJS, then you probably want to be passing an object and naming a template:
res.render('sometemplate.html', {sysids: sys_ids});
If you want system_ids_list to not accumulate values, but to return a fresh value each time, you can define it within your function like this:
var getSystemIDs = function (req, callback) {
var system_ids_list = {};
var client = //creating an object using internally developed node library
client.request('sql_parameter', {'Query.ID': query_number}, function (err, req, res) {
//Do some stuff to calculate necessary values
system_ids_list[key_value] = value_array;
i += 1;
// call the callback now to communicate back the async results
callback(null, system_ids_list);
});
};
module.exports = getSystemIDs;

Node js - How to correctly use make async network calls within a module

So for part of a project I am working on I have created a module that uses the Facebook graph API to make calls and return JSON data. I can console.log() the data within the method out fine and it's all good.
But I can not return the values from the methods, so I tried to use the 'async' npm module. I have followed the examples on the website, but still am struggling to get everything working, spent all day on it so far and still things arn't looking any clearer.
So what I am asking is:
Firstly I need to call the method that sets the authentication_token for the fbgraph api before I can do anything else
Then I need to call each of the functions (in any order) and get the json result for each and add it to one big json result
Finally I need to get this one big json result back into my origional javascript page (even though it's currently in a module), how would I invoke it?
Here is a snippit of my original module (only works with console.log, can't return)
module.exports = {
/**
* Pass the access token to the fbgraph module
* and call other methods to populate
*/
setUp: function (access_token) {
graph.setAccessToken(access_token);
},
/**
* Fetches users basic info:
* Age, Gender, Hometown, Relationship status
*/
getBasicInfo: function(){
graph.get("/me/", function(err, res) {
var result = {
'age' : _calculateAge(res.birthday),
'gender' : res.gender,
'hometown' : res.hometown.name,
'relationship_status' : res.relationship_status
};
//console.log(result);
return result;
}, function(){ console.log("DONE");});
},
/**
* Creates a body of text as a string
* made up of all the users status updates
*/
getPosts: function(){
graph.get("/me/feed?limit="+PHOTO_LIMIT, function(err, res) {
var posts = "";
for(var i=0;i<res.data.length;i++){
var obj = res.data[i];
if(obj.message!=undefined) posts += obj.message+"\n";
}
//console.log(posts);
return {'posts':posts};
});
},
/**
* Fetches a single dimension string array of
* photos user is tagged in
*/
getPhotos: function(){
graph.get("/me/photos?limit="+PHOTO_LIMIT, function(err, res) {
var photos = [];
for(var i=0;i<res.data.length;i++){
var obj = res.data[i];
photos.push(obj.source); // .source is full size image, .picture is a thumbnail
}
return {'photos': photos};
});
}
}
The rest of this module continues in a similar way
I have tried using parralel async
module.exports = {
getFacebookInfo: function (access_token) {
results = {};
setUp(access_token);
async.parallel([
facebookDataRequests.getBasicInfo(),
facebookDataRequests.getPosts()
Any guidence on how I should structure this would be very much appreciated, thanks in advance

I'd recommend that you structure this differently. It's not necessary to make three calls to Facebook, because you can get the info in one call as well.
So, what I'd do:
Call the Facebook Graph API using field expansion
Format results
Return results
Also, I'd advise you to use a Promise library like Q
Something like this (untested!):
module.exports = {
getFacebookInfo: function (access_token) {
setUp(access_token);
function setUp(access_token) {
graph.setAccessToken(access_token);
}
function getFBInfo() {
var deferred = Q.deferred();
graph.get("/me?fields=id,name,birthday,gender,hometown,relationship_status,feed.limit(25),photos.limit(25)", function(err, res) {
if (err) deferred.reject(err);
deferred.resolve(res);
});
return deferred.promise
}
function handleResult(result) {
var deferred = Q.deferred();
result.posts = result.feed.data
delete result.feed.data;
result.photos = result.photos.data
delete result.photos.data;
deferred.resolve(result);
return deferred.promise
}
Q.fcall(getFBInfo)
.then(handleResult)
.then(function(result) {
return result;
})
.catch(function (error) {
// Handle any error from all above steps
})
.done();
}
}
In your main file:
var FB = require('./path/to/file/above');
var results = FB.getFacebookInfo('ACCESS_TOKEN_SDAIOFHIOSDHFOSO');

Asynchronously Perform Recursive Data Tree Construction?

I am working on a web application that makes use of a file tree. The frontend JavaScript performs an ajax request to my Node.js server which calls my browse2 exported function. This function is then responsible for supplying the correct path to my function, getFolderContents(), that recursively builds the file system hierarchy object structure.
My issue is that I am currently doing things synchronously. Having done research into the inner workings of Node.js, it seems as though I should avoid synchronous operations at all costs. As such, I wanted to convert my code to work asynchronously. However, I couldn't get it working and all of my solutions were convoluted.
I have tried managing the flow using the "async" package. I had no luck with figuring that out. I tried implementing my own system of counters/loops/callbacks to determine when processes had finished executing. Ultimately, I suppose I can't wrap my mind around asynchronous execution flow.
I would like to ask two questions:
1. In this case, would it be detrimental to perform this request synchronously instead of asynchronously?
2. If yes to the first question, how should I go about converting this code to be asynchronous?
Note: When I tried to do things asynchronously, I used each synchronous function's asynchronous counterpart.
Below is my synchronous (working) code:
var path = require('path');
var fs = require('fs');
exports.browse2 = function(request, response) {
var tree = getFolderContents('C:\\Users\\AccountName\\folder1\\folder2\\folder3\\test\\');
response.send(tree);
};
function getFolderContents(route) {
var branch = {};
branch.title = path.basename(route);
branch.folder = true;
branch.children = [];
var files = fs.readdirSync(route);
var size = files.length;
for (var i = 0; i < size; i++) {
var file = files[i];
var concatPath = path.join(route, file);
if (fs.lstatSync(concatPath).isDirectory())
branch.children.push(getFolderContents(concatPath));
else
branch.children.push({
"title" : path.basename(file),
"path" : file
});
}
return branch;
}
I appreciate all input!
Edit:
Added asynchronous code attempt. Not fully working. Only a part of the tree is received.
exports.browse2 = function(request, response) {
getFolderContents(
'C:\\Users\\AccountName\\folder1\\folder2\\folder3\\test\\',
function(tree) {
response.send(tree);
});
};
function getFolderContents(route, callback) {
var branch = {};
branch.title = path.basename(route);
branch.folder = true;
branch.children = [];
fs.readdir(route, function(err, files) {
files.forEach(function(file) {
var concatPath = path.join(route, file);
fs.lstat(concatPath, function(err, stats) {
if (stats.isDirectory())
branch.children.push(getFolderContents(concatPath, callback));
else
branch.children.push({
"title" : path.basename(file),
"path" : file
});
callback(branch);
});
});
});
}

The basic problem you're having is that when you use asynchronous calls, you can't just assign things to the return of the function. The entire point of async is that the function won't wait. So for example:
function get_data(a) {
var data = some_async_call(a);
//at this point, data is undefined because execution won't wait on the calls to finish
data.do_something(); // this breaks because of the above
}
So instead what you do is pass an anonymous function to the asynchronous function called a callback, and the asynchronous function calls that function once the operations actually complete. The above example would become this:
function get_data(a) {
some_async_call(a, function(data) {
data.do_something();
});
}
function some_async_call(variable, callback) {
call_async({
data: variable,
success: callback
});
}
And in your case that would look like this:
exports.browse2 = function(request, response) {
getFolderContents('C:\\Users\\AccountName\\folder1\\folder2\\folder3\\test\\', function(tree) {
response.send(tree);
});
};
function getFolderContents(route, callback) {
var branch = {};
branch.title = path.basename(route);
...
callback(branch);
}
If you're familiar with setTimetout, this is how that works - the design pattern is to pass an anonymous function that does the work, and that function then executes once the data/information is actually available.

I managed to get it working. Here are my answers to my own questions:
It is better to perform the tasks asynchronously because to do it otherwise would mean that the application would block other users from receiving their responses until subsequent requests have been responded to.
The way to convert the synchronous code to asynchronous code is to use a parallel loop. The code for my particular case is this:
var path = require('path');
var fs = require('fs');
exports.browse2 = function(request, response) {
getFolderContents(
'C:\\Users\\AccountName\\folder1\\folder2\\folder3\\test\\',
function(err, tree) {
if (err)
throw err;
response.send(tree);
});
};
function getFolderContents(route, callback) {
var branch = {};
branch.title = path.basename(route);
branch.folder = true;
branch.children = [];
fs.readdir(route, function(err, files) {
if (err)
return callback(err);
var pending = files.length;
if (!pending)
return callback(null, branch);
files.forEach(function(file) {
var concatPath = path.join(route, file);
fs.lstat(concatPath, function(err, stats) {
if (stats && stats.isDirectory()) {
getFolderContents(concatPath, function(err, res) {
branch.children.push(res);
if (!--pending)
callback(null, branch);
});
} else {
branch.children.push({
"title" : path.basename(file),
"path" : file
});
if (!--pending)
callback(null, branch);
}
});
});
});
}
Thanks to user "chjj" with his response to a similar question on this thread: node.js fs.readdir recursive directory search
And thanks to user "Dan Smolinske" for directing me to the thread.