So I have module "bot.js" and in this module, it constantly checks for messages and assigns them to a variable (db_users). Since I run my app from "app.js", and I pass the functions that continuously populates db_users, how do I get this information to "app.js"?
Bot.js is using an IRC function that stores user's messages.
var db_users = []
// I then populate db_users with the previous data that is already in mongodb
// using a .find().exec() mongodb command.
bot.addListener('message', function (from, to, text) {
userInfo.checkForUser(db_users);
// checkForUser basically looks through the variable db_users to see if
// there is a username that matches the "from" parameter in the listener
// If it's not there, push some user information into the db_users array
// and create a new MongoDB record.
}
So I have all this, but my main app is a website that can control this "bot" (It's not a spam bot, but a moderation/statistical bot), and I'm using a require function to use "./bot.js" in "app.js"
app.js
bot = require('./bot');
So how would I constantly use the data in bot.js, in app.js? I'm a little fuzzy on how modules work.
Yeah I could just put all of the contents of app.js in bot.js, but it would be too annoying to look through.
Thanks!
Put db_users inside an object so that it's just a reference. Make changes to that reference instead. Then export that outer object. Now since db_users is just a reference, it'll always be a latest copy of whatever it refers to.
bot.js
var data = module.exports = {};
data.db_users = [];
bot.addListener('message', function (from, to, text) {
userInfo.checkForUser(data.db_users);
}
app.js
botData = require('./bot');
botData.db_users will always have the whatever latest changes were made to data.db_users in bot.js
Related
I have two files: server.js and db.js
server.js looks as such:
...
const app = express();
app.use('/db', db());
app.listen(3000, () => {
console.log('Server started on port 3000')
});
...
and db.js as such:
...
function init() {
const db = require('express-pouchdb')(PouchDB, {
mode: 'minimumForPouchDB'
});
return db;
}
...
This works just fine, and I am able to reach the pouchdb http-api from my frontend. But before, I had const PouchDBExpress = require('pouchdb-express'); in the top of db.js, and the first line in init() looked like this; const db = PouchDBExpress(PouchDB, {. This gave an error in one of the internal files in pouchdb saying cannot set property query on req which only has getters (paraphrasing).
So this made me copy the exaples from pouchdb-servers GitHub examples which requires and invokes pouched-express directly, and everthing worked fine. Is there an explanation for this? I'm glad it works now, but I'm sort of confused as to what could cause this.
The only difference between:
require('module')()
and
const mod = require('module');
mod();
is that in the second case, you retain a reference to the module exports object (perhaps for other uses) whereas in the first one you do not.
Both cases load the module and then call the exported object as a function. But, if the module export has other properties or other methods that you need access to then, obviously, you need to retain a reference to it as in the second option.
For us to comment in more detail about the code scenario that you said did not work, you will have to show us that exact code scenario. Describing what is different in words rather than showing the actual code makes it too hard to follow and impossible to spot anything else you may have inadvertently done wrong to cause your problem.
In require('module')(), you don't retain a reference of the module imported.
While in const mod = require('module'); mod(), you retain a reference and can use the same reference later in your code.
This problem might be due to some other reason like -
Are you using a some another global instance of the db, and your code works in the given case as you are making a local instance
Some other code dependent scenario.
Please provide more details for the same
I used Node JS for web application development. I have a confusion in require() module. I am requiring a JS file located in file_handler directory.
What is the difference between both of the following?
// in server.js
var chat = require("./file_handler/chat.js"); // Does not work
OR
var chat = require("./file_handler/chat.js")(); // It works
Why is the extra parenthesis in the last of the statement?
In the first line the exported function is assigned to chat variable so then you can call it like next like chat();
In the second one the return of exported function is returned to chat variable.
It is actually based on what you export in your module. If you export the object you need, you can just directly do require('module'). If you export a function which returns the object you need, you have to execute that exported function require('module')() to get the desired object.
Read the documentation https://nodejs.org/api/modules.html
So I have 2 files a mapgen.js and a main.js. In mapgen.js there is a function that generates a giant 2d array. I want to use this aray in main.js but don't want the function that generates the map to run everytime its 'required' in main.js. I also want to be able to edit the map array eventually.
Example: (not real code just wrote some crap to show what the issue is)
mapgen.js:
var map;
function mapGen(){
//make the map here
this function takes like 2 seconds and some decent CPU power, so
don't want it to ever run more than once per server launch
map = map contents!
}
main.js
var map = require mapgen.js;
console.log(map.map);
//start using map variable defined earlier, but want to use it without
having to the run the big funciton again, since it's already defined.
I know i have to module.exports somewhere but I dont think that will solve my problem still. I would write it to a file but is that not much slower to read and edit than keeping it in the ram? Previously I had gotten past this by keeping everything in 1 file but now I need to clean it all up.
Requiring the module won't automatically invoke the function. You can do that in the main.js file.
mapgen.js
module.exports = function mapGen() {
return [/* hundreds of items here. */];
};
main.js
// Require the module that constructs the array.
const mapGen = require('./mapgen');
// Construct the array by invoking the mapGen function and
// store a reference to it in 'map'.
const map = mapGen(); // `map` is now a reference to the returned array.
// Do whatever you want with 'map'.
console.log(map[0]); // Logs the first element.
I'm not an expert but if you put one condition in mapgen.js that don't work ?
var map;
function mapGen(){
if(!map){
//your code here
map = map contents!
}
}
Combine that with global variable and/or module.exports See
How to use global variable in node.js?
I am trying to get a document from a collection, but it doesn't seem to be working.
when i use the find().fetch(), it returns only an empty array. my code is as follows.
var users = new Mongo.Collection("users");
console.log(users.find());
var userRecord = users.find().fetch();
var returnUserRecord = {};
if (userRecord.length >0){
returnUserRecord = {username:userRecord.username, loginHash:userRecord.loginHash};
console.log("if statement is not complete and the value of the return variable is");
console.log(returnUserRecord);
}
return returnUserRecord
I have checked the database directly and noticed that there is indeed a document in the collection with the command:
meteor mongo
if it makes any difference, all this code in the in the server js file, and is being called from from the client by: Meteor.Methods()/Meteor.call()
EDIT 1
i created another collections with new data from the client, and after selecting the correct database, and running the command:
meteor:PRIMARY> db.newCollection1.find()
i get:
{ "_id" : ObjectId("55d1fa4686ee75349cd73ffb"), "test1" : "asdasd", "test2" : "dsadsa", "test3" : "qweqwe" }
so this confirms that it is available in the database, but running the following in the client console, still doesnt return the result. (autopublish is installed. i tried removing autopublish and made the appropriate changes to subscribe to the table, but that didnt work either).
var coll = new Meteor.Collection('newCollection1');
coll.find().fetch()
this returned an empty array. i have also tried the same on the server.js code using:
meteor debug
but i am still getting an empty array. does anyone know what i might be doing wrong here?
SOLUTION
the solution for this was to create the collection variable in the Meteor object context. this way it can be accessed from the Meteor context.
i.e.
Meteor.coll = new Meteor.Collection('newCollection1');
Meteor.coll.find().fetch();
i hope this helps someone. depending on your code you may want to use a different context.
You don't wait for this subscription to complete, therefore you get empty array.
You should probably read this or this to better understand it.
The thing is you connect users variable to "users" collection, and when you call it, it isn't yet polluted with data (if you don't want to use subscription then maybe use helper - it's reactive so it will return proper value when subscrtiption is finished)
Did you subscribe your users collection somewhere?
if (Meteor.isServer) {
Meteor.publish("users", function(){
return Users.find({})
});
}
if (Meteor.isClient) {
Meteor.subscribe("users");
}
First of all some advice: you can not define a collection twice. If you call new Mongo.Collection("users") a second time you will get an error. Therefore, it should be a global variable an not inside a method.
What I can see in your code is that you are trying to use an array as if it were an object. userRecord.username wont work because userRecord has the value of the fetch() which returns an array.
You could either change your code to userRecord[0].username or loop over the results with forEach like so:
var users = new Mongo.Collection("users");
console.log(users.find());
users.find().forEach(function(singleUser){
console.log(EJSON.stringyfy(singleUser));
}
in order to return the first user, you would be better of using findOne which returns the first object in the result.
my problem is not about "memory leakage", but about "memory purge" of node.js (expressjs) app.
My app should maintain some objects in memory for the fast look-up's during the service. For the time being (one or two days) after starting the app, everthing seemed fine, until suddenly my web client failed to look-up the object bacause it has been purged (undefined). I suspect Javascript GC (garbage collection). However, as you can see in the psedu-code, I assigned the objects to the node.js "global" variable properties to prevent GC from purging them. Please give me some clue what caused this problem.
Thanks much in advance for your kind advices~
My node.js environments are node.js 0.6.12, expressjs 2.5.8, and VMWare cloudfoundry node hosting.
Here is my app.js pseudo-code :
var express = require("express");
var app = module.exports = express.createServer();
// myMethods holds a set of methods to be used for handling raw data.
var myMethods = require("myMethods");
// creates node.js global properties referencing objects to prevent GC from purging them
global.myMethods = myMethods();
global.myObjects = {};
// omited the express configurations
// creates objects (data1, data2) inside the global.myObjects for the user by id.
app.post("/createData/:id", function(req, res) {
// creates an empty object for the user.
var myObject = global.myObjects[req.prams.id] = {};
// gets json data.
var data1 = JSON.parse(req.body.data1);
var data2 = JSON.parse(req.body.data2);
// buildData1 & buildData2 functions transform data1 & data2 into the usable objects.
// these functions return the references to the transformed objects.
myObject.data1 = global.myMethods.buildData1(data1);
myObject.data2 = global.myMethods.buildData2(data2);
res.send("Created new data", 200);
res.redirect("/");
});
// returns the data1 of the user.
// Problem occurs here : myObject becomes "undefined" after one or two days running the service.
app.get("/getData1/:id", function(req, res) {
var myObject = global.myObjects[req.params.id];
if (myObject !== undefined) {
res.json(myObject.data1);
} else {
res.send(500);
}
});
// omited other service callback functions.
// VMWare cloudfoundry node.js hosting.
app.listen(process.env.VCAP_APP_PORT || 3000);
Any kind of cache system (whether is roll-your-own or a third party product) should account for this scenario. You should not rely on the data always being available on an in-memory cache. There are way too many things that can cause in-memory data to be gone (machine restart, process restart, et cetera.)
In your case, you might need to update your code to see if the data is in cache. If it is not in cache then fetch it from a persistent storage (a database, a file), cache it, and continue.
Exactly like Haesung I wanted to keep my program simple, without database. And like Haesung my first experience with Node.js (and express) was to observe this weird purging. Although I was confused, I really didn't accept that I needed a storage solution to manage a json file with a couple of hundred lines. The light bulb moment for me was when I read this
If you want to have a module execute code multiple times, then export a function, and call that function.
which is taken from http://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules_caching. So my code inside the required file changed from this
var foo = [{"some":"stuff"}];
export.foo;
to that
export.foo = function (bar) {
var foo = [{"some":"stuff"}];
return foo.bar;
}
And then it worked fine :-)
Then I suggest to use file system, I think 4KB overhead is not a big deal for your goals and hardware. If you familiar with front-end javascript, this could be helpful https://github.com/coolaj86/node-localStorage