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Data not returning from async function with database connection

The goal is to call a function from my main script that connects to a database, reads a document from it, stores pieces of that document in a new object, and returns that object to my main script. The problem is I cannot get it all to work together. If I try one thing, I get the results but my program locks up. If I try something else I get undefined results.
Long story short, how do I open a database and retrieve something from it to another script.
The program is a quiz site and I want to return the quiz name and the questions.
const myDb = require('./app.js');
var myData = myDb.fun((myData) => {
console.log(myData.quizName);
});
Here is the script that tries to open the database and find the data
const { MongoClient } = require("mongodb");
const {mongoClient} = require("mongodb");
const uri = connection uri goes here but my name is hard coded into it at the moment so I removed for privacy
const client = new MongoClient(uri);
const fun = async (cback) => {
try {
await client.connect();
const database = client.db('Quiz-Capstone');
const quizzes = database.collection('Quiz');
const query = {quizName: "CIS01"};
const options = {
sort: {},
projection: {}
};
const quiz = await quizzes.findOne(query, options);
var quizObject = {
quizName: quiz.quizName,
quizQuestions: quiz.quizQuestions
}
//console.log(testOb);
} finally {
await client.close();
cback(quizObject);
}
}
fun().catch(console.dir);
module.exports = {
fun: fun
}
UPDATE: Still stuck. I have read several different threads here about asynchronous calls and callbacks but I cannot get my function located in one file to return a value to the caller located in another file.

Using Node.js to find the value of Bitcoin on a webpage at real time

I'm trying to make a .js file that will constantly have the price of bitcoin updated (every five minutes or so). I've tried tons of different ways to web scrape but they always output with either null or nothing. Here is my latest code, any ideas?
var express = require('express');
var path = require('path');
var request = require('request');
var cheerio = require('cheerio');
var fs = require('fs');
var app = express();
var url = 'https://blockchain.info/charts/';
var port = 9945;
function BTC() {
request(url, function (err, res, body) {
var $ = cheerio.load(body);
var a = $(".market-price");
var b = a.text();
console.log(b);
})
setInterval(BTC, 300000)
}
BTC();
app.listen(port);
console.log('server is running on '+port);
It successfully says what port it's running on, that's not the problem. This example (when outputting) just makes a line break every time the function happens.
UPDATE:
I changed the new code I got from Wartoshika and it stopped working, but im not sure why. Here it is:
function BTCPrice() {
request('https://blockchain.info/de/ticker', (error, response, body) => {
const data = JSON.parse(body);
var value = (parseInt(data.USD.buy, 10) + parseInt(data.USD.sell, 10)) / 2;
return value;
});
};
console.log(BTCPrice());
If I have it console.log directly from inside the function it works, but when I have it console.log the output of the function it outputs undefined. Any ideas?

I would rather use a JSON api to get the current bitcoin value instead of an HTML parser. With the JSON api you get a strait forward result set that is parsable by your browser.
Checkout Exchange Rates API
Url will look like https://blockchain.info/de/ticker
Working script:
const request = require('request');
function BTC() {
// send a request to blockchain
request('https://blockchain.info/de/ticker', (error, response, body) => {
// parse the json answer and get the current bitcoin value
const data = JSON.parse(body);
value = (parseInt(data.THB.buy, 10) + parseInt(data.THB.sell, 10)) / 2;
console.log(value);
});
}
BTC();
Using the value as callback:
const request = require('request');
function BTC() {
return new Promise((resolve) => {
// send a request to blockchain
request('https://blockchain.info/de/ticker', (error, response, body) => {
// parse the json answer and get the current bitcoin value
const data = JSON.parse(body);
value = (parseInt(data.THB.buy, 10) + parseInt(data.THB.sell, 10)) / 2;
resolve(value);
});
});
}
BTC().then(val => console.log(val));

As the other answer stated, you should really use an API. You should also think about what type of price you want to request. If you just want a sort of index price that aggregates prices from multiple exchanges, use something like the CoinGecko API. Also if you need real-time data you need a websocket-based API, not a REST API.
If you need prices for a particular exchange, for example you're building a trading bot for one or more exchanges, you;ll need to communicate with each exchange's websoceket API directly. For that I would recommend something like the Coygo API, a node.js package that connects you directly to each exchange's real-time data feeds. You want something that doesn't add a middleman since that would add latency to your data.

NodeJS restify API caching best practice

I am very new to NodeJS and I am building my first API using restify.
I want to find out what is best practice for caching the response data - each API call must have its own cache time.
I have looked at res.cache() but that seems to be only per user request and not a global application cache.
I then looked at restify-cache but the documentation did not clearly tell me how to use it.
My application works like this:
server.js code:
var restify = require('restify');
var mysqlDB = require('./config/connection');
// REST server declaration and configuration
var server = restify.createServer({
name: 'test-api',
version: '0.0.1'
});
server.pre(restify.pre.sanitizePath());
server.use(restify.queryParser());
server.use(restify.acceptParser(server.acceptable));
server.use(restify.queryParser());
server.use(restify.bodyParser());
server.listen(9007, function() {
console.log('%s listening at %', server.name, server.url);
mysqlDB.handleDisconnect();
console.log(new Date() +': Started Cricket API on port 9007');
});
var routes = require('./routes')(server);
routes.js code:
module.exports = function(app) {
app.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
return res.send("You have reached the test API");
});
var fixtures = require('./controllers/fixtures');
app.get('/getfixtures', fixtures.getFixtures); // Get All Fixtures
};
fixtures.js code snippet:
this.getFixtures = function (req, res, next) {
res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "X-Requested-With");
console.log("Get All Fixtures");
var mysql = mysqlDB.getConnection();
var query = "SELECT * FROM fixtures WHERE fixture_date >= CURDATE() ORDER BY fixture_date, fixture_time";
mysql.query(query,function(err,rows){
if(err) {
var status = mysqlDB.getErrorStatus(err.code);
return res.status(status.code).send("Error : "+ status.Message);
} else {
var data = [];
for (i in rows){
var item = rows[i];
var output = util.formatDate(item.fixture_date);
item.fixture_date = output;
data.push(item);
};
return res.send(data);
}
});
};
Can someone please send me in the right direction? I don't know where to add the caching part?

From the library file:
server.use(cache.before); is a middleware that will be triggered to load before the request is handled, going to Redis and checking if the header_{url} key and payload_{url} exits, and at that case the value is returned.
You could put it as mentioned in this gist:
https://gist.github.com/jeffstieler/3d84fa5468c7eadb7685
var server = restify.createServer({
name: 'test-api',
version: '0.0.1'
});
server.pre(restify.pre.sanitizePath());
server.use(cache.before);
server.use(restify.queryParser());
server.use(restify.acceptParser(server.acceptable));
server.use(restify.queryParser());
server.use(restify.bodyParser());
server.on('after', cache.after);
In your code I would add the cache.before after you sanitize the path as this will be saved in Redis. also a next() should be included in every route cached.

I ended up using node-cache
It was easy to use since I come from a Java/Play Framework background - hopefully it helps someone else in future.
Example usage:
var nodeCache = require( "node-cache" );
var myCache = new nodeCache();
var cachedValue = myCache.get("alltests", true);
if (cachedValue != undefined) {
return res.send(cachedValue);
} else {
// Do work here and then:
success = myCache.set("alltests", valueHere, cacheTime);
}

node.js and express : how to wait for udp response

I am studying a bit node.js programming here and faced a problem.
When express gets POST request it should make a radius authentication over UDP with dgram module. The response for the Radius authentication comes later on, but the POST request callback has already exit and the req and res variables are lost and the response using same TCP connection can not be done.
If I should wait for the radius response (which is quite fast) how should I do the waiting in node.js & express ?
The code below does the basic POST handing and radius authentication.
Thank you very much for any tips.
var http = require('http');
var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var radius = require('radius');
var dgram = require('dgram');
var radius_secret = 'really_secret';
var radius_server = '127.0.0.1';
var radius_port = '1812';
function handleAuthentication(req, res) {
console.log("BODY:",req.body);
var client = dgram.createSocket("udp4");
var account = req.body.account;
var password = req.body.password;
var packet = {
code: 'Access-Request',
secret: radius_secret,
identifier: 0,
attributes: [
['NAS-IP-Address', radius_server],
['User-Name', account + "#exampledomain.something"],
['User-Password', password]
]
};
client.on('error', function(e) {
throw e;
});
client.on('message', function(msg, rinfo) {
var radius_response = radius.decode({packet: msg, secret: radius_secret});
console.log(radius_response);
});
var encoded = radius.encode(packet);
client.send(encoded, 0, encoded.length, radius_port, radius_server);
}
var app = express();
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false}));
app.post('/authenticate', function(req, res) {
// Authenticate against radius server
handleAuthentication(req, res);
// The radius response is not received yet, and we will exit the post request
// here and loose the req and res.
});
var server = http.createServer(app);
server.listen(80);

You need to respond in the client callbacks. So, for example, to respond after the message:
client.on('message', function(msg, rinfo) {
var radius_response = radius.decode({packet: msg, secret: radius_secret});
console.log(radius_response);
res.send('somethingCalculatedWithUDPResponse');
});
And you should handle it similarly in the error callback.
res and req don't "die" when the function ends, they can still be referenced by the closures passed as callbacks.

If you wouldn't be able to use res within the handleAuthentication function, or otherwise, don't want to respond to the client there for some code design purposes, you could use the new JS async/await function.
app.post('/authenticate', async function(req, res) {
// Authenticate against radius server
try{
let udpResponse = await handleAuthentication(req, res);
} catch (error){
// handle error. use 'res' to notify about error
}
// if ok
res.send("your response")
//or better
res.send(udpResponse)
});
And within the function:
client.on('message', function(msg, rinfo) {
var radius_response = radius.decode({packet: msg, secret: radius_secret});
return radius_response;
});
Async/await would wrap the function into a promise, and return statements will be converted in the background as a resolve/reject accordingly, then you can do whatever you want outside the function.

Node.js respond with asynchronous data

Recently I started learning a little bit about Node.js and it's capabilities and tried to use it for some web services.
I wanted to create a web service which will serve as a proxy for web requests.
I wanted my service to work that way:
User will access my service -> http://myproxyservice.com/api/getuserinfo/tom
My service will perform request to -> http://targetsite.com/user?name=tom
Responded data would get reflected to the user.
To implement it I used the following code:
app.js:
var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var app = express();
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
var proxy = require('./proxy_query.js')
function makeProxyApiRequest(name) {
return proxy.getUserData(name, parseProxyApiRequest);
}
function parseProxyApiRequest(data) {
returned_data = JSON.parse(data);
if (returned_data.error) {
console.log('An eror has occoured. details: ' + JSON.stringify(returned_data));
returned_data = '';
}
return JSON.stringify(returned_data);
}
app.post('/api/getuserinfo/tom', function(request, response) {
makeProxyApiRequest('tom', response);
//response.end(result);
});
var port = 7331;
proxy_query.js:
var https = require('https');
var callback = undefined;
var options = {
host: 'targetsite.com',
port: 443,
method: 'GET',
};
function resultHandlerCallback(result) {
var buffer = '';
result.setEncoding('utf8');
result.on('data', function(chunk){
buffer += chunk;
});
result.on('end', function(){
if (callback) {
callback(buffer);
}
});
}
exports.getUserData = function(name, user_callback) {
callback = user_callback
options['path'] = user + '?name=' + name;
var request = https.get(options, resultHandlerCallback);
request.on('error', function(e){
console.log('error from proxy_query:getUserData: ' + e.message)
});
request.end();
}
app.listen(port);
I wish I didn't screwed this code because I replaced some stuff to fit my example.
Anyway, the problem is that I want to post the response to the user when the HTTP request is done and I cant find how to do so because I use express and express uses asynchronous calls and so do the http request.
I know that if I want to do so, I should pass the makeProxyApiRequest the response object so he would be able to pass it to the callback but it is not possible because of asyn problems.
any suggestions?
help will be appreciated.

As you're using your functions to process requests inside your route handling, it's better to write them as express middleware functions, taking the specific request/response pair, and making use of express's next cascade model:
function makeProxyApiRequest(req, res, next) {
var name = parseProxyApiRequest(req.name);
res.locals.userdata = proxy.getUserData(name);
next();
}
function parseProxyApiRequest(req, res, next) {
try {
// remember that JSON.parse will throw if it fails!
data = JSON.parse(res.locals.userdata);
if (data .error) {
next('An eror has occoured. details: ' + JSON.stringify(data));
}
res.locals.proxyData = data;
next();
}
catch (e) { next("could not parse user data JSON."); }
}
app.post('/api/getuserinfo/tom',
makeProxyApiRequest,
parseProxyApiRequest,
function(req, res) {
// res.write or res.json or res.render or
// something, with this specific request's
// data that we stored in res.locals.proxyData
}
);
Even better would be to move those middleware functions into their own file now, so you can simply do:
var middleware = require("./lib/proxy_middleware");
app.post('/api/getuserinfo/tom',
middleware.makeProxyApiRequest,
middleware.parseProxyApiRequest,
function(req, res) {
// res.write or res.json or res.render or
// something, with this specific request's
// data that we stored in res.locals.proxyData
}
);
And keep your app.js as small as possible. Note that the client's browser will simply wait for a response by express, which happens once res.write, res.json or res.render etc is used. Until then the connection is simply kept open between the browser and the server, so if your middleware calls take a long time, that's fine - the browser will happily wait a long time for a response to get sent back, and will be doing other things in the mean time.
Now, in order to get the name, we can use express's parameter construct:
app.param("name", function(req, res, next, value) {
req.params.name = value;
// do something if we need to here, like verify it's a legal name, etc.
// for instance:
var isvalidname = validator.checkValidName(name);
if(!isvalidname) { return next("Username not valid"); }
next();
});
...
app.post("/api/getuserinfo/:name", ..., ..., ...);
Using this system, the :name part of any route will be treated based on the name parameter we defined using app.param. Note that we don't need to define this more than once: we can do the following and it'll all just work:
app.post("/api/getuserinfo/:name", ..., ..., ...);
app.post("/register/:name", ..., ..., ... );
app.get("/api/account/:name", ..., ..., ... );
and for every route with :name, the code for the "name" parameter handler will kick in.
As for the proxy_query.js file, rewriting this to a proper module is probably safer than using individual exports:
// let's not do more work than we need: http://npmjs.org/package/request
// is way easier than rolling our own URL fetcher. In Node.js the idea is
// to write as little as possible, relying on npmjs.org to find you all
// the components that you need to glue together. If you're writing more
// than just the glue, you're *probably* doing more than you need to.
var request = require("request");
module.exports = {
getURL: function(name, url, callback) {
request.get(url, function(err, result) {
if(err) return callback(err);
// do whatever processing you need to do to result:
var processedResult = ....
callback(false, processedResult);
});
}
};
and then we can use that as proxy = require("./lib/proxy_query"); in the middleware we need to actually do the URL data fetching.