We Keep Coding

Only execute a function once in a given amount of time

I have an api request that is called multiple times in a given amount of time. More specifically this request is for refreshing the user token, so it's called on every request, which adds up pretty quickly. I would like to create a function that tells the function not to run for a given amount of seconds. I have tried using lodash debounce but I can't get it to work.
let debounceRefresh;
debounceRefresh = debounce(() => {
api.request(){
});
}, 1000);
debounceRefresh();
Am I executing this wrong? Is it possible to do?

Yes, you definitely need throttle for the job.
// in this example we invoke a fn for a period of 10 sec, invoking it 2 times a second, but we can perceive that the original function is only invoked at most once per 2 seconds according to the parameter below:
var TOTAL_TIME_TO_RUN = 10000; // 10 sec
var THROTTLE_INTERVAL = 2000; // <= adjust this number to see throttling in action
var INVOCATION_INTERVAL = 500; // 0.5 sec
// regular fn
var punchClock = function punchClock() {
console.log(new Date().toISOString() + ' - call api');
};
// wrap it and supply interval representing minimum delay between invocations
var throttledPunchClock = _.throttle(punchClock, THROTTLE_INTERVAL);
// set up looping
var intervalId = setInterval(function() {
console.log("attempting call api");
throttledPunchClock()
}, INVOCATION_INTERVAL);
// run the demo
setTimeout(() => clearInterval(intervalId), 10000)
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash#4.17.21/lodash.min.js"></script>
<pre>
var TOTAL_TIME_TO_RUN = 10000; // 10 sec
var THROTTLE_INTERVAL = 2000; // < = adjust this number to see throttling in action
var INVOCATION_INTERVAL = 500; // 0.5 sec
</pre>
Snippet from github

Have you tried with a timeout?
const myTimeout = setTimeout(debounceRefresh, 1000);
If the function is called again, you can clear the timeout and reset it
clearTimeout(myTimeout);
Why don't you use a different listener? Perhaps when data is received?

How to check time in JavaScript on load

I have a javascript function that runs an if-else statement depending on the time of day. Example:
window.setInterval(function(){
var date = new Date();
if(date.getHours() >= 15){
//code to run
} else {
//other code to run
}
}, 300000);
My problem is that it only refreshes to load what is in the if-else statement 300000 milliseconds(5 minutes) after the webpage is opened. However, I do not want to change that time to a very low digit and potentially cause issues from it refreshing so often. So the question is, can I make it check the time once on load, and then every 5 minutes after that?

Wrap your logic in a separate function. Call it on load and inside the interval.
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => {
const myIntervalFun = (date) => {
console.log(date.getHours())
if (date.getHours() >= 15) {
//code to run
} else {
//other code to run
}
}
myIntervalFun(new Date())
window.setInterval(function() {
myIntervalFun(new Date())
}, 3000);
});

multiple setInterval timers on node server

My app is a game where a user has 30 mins to finish....node backend
Each time a user starts a game then a setInterval function is triggered server side....once 30mins is counted down then I clearInterval.
How do I make sure that each setInterval is unique to the particular user and the setInterval variable is not overwritten each time a new user starts a game? (or all setInterval's are cleared each time I clear).
Seems like I might need to create a unique "interval" variable for each new user that starts game??
Below code is triggered each time a new user starts a game
let secondsLeft = 300000;
let interval = setInterval(() => {
secondsLeft -= 1000;
if (secondsLeft === 0) {
console.log("now exit");
clearInterval(interval);
}
}, 10000);
Thanks!!

We used agenda for a pretty big strategy game backend which offers the benefit of persistence if the node app crashes etc.
We incorporated the user id into the job name and would then schedule the job, along with data to process, to run at a determined time specifying a handler to execute.
The handler would then run the job and perform the relevant tasks.
// create a unique jobname
const jobName = `${player.id}|${constants.events.game.createBuilding}`;
// define a job to run with handler
services.scheduler.define(jobName, checkCreateBuildingComplete);
// schedule it to run and pass the data
services.scheduler.schedule(at.toISOString(), jobName, {
id: id,
instance: instance,
started: when
});
Worked pretty well and offered decent protection against crashes. Maybe worth considering.

First: Concurrent Intervals and Timers are not the best design approach in JS, it is better to use one global timer and a list of objects storing the start, end, userid etc and update these in a loop.
Anyway. To have your interval id bound to a certain scope, you can use a Promise like so:
const createTimer = (duration, userid) => new Promise(res => {
const start = new Date().getTime();
let iid;
(function loop () {
const
now = new Date().getTime(),
delta = now - start
;
//elapsed
if (delta >= duration) {
clearTimeout(iid);
res(userid);
//try again later
} else {
iid = setTimeout(loop, 100)
}
})();
});
This way each timer will run »on its own«. I used setTimeout here since that wont requeue loop before it did everything it had to. It should work with setInterval as well and look like that:
const runTimer = (duration, userid, ontick) => new Promise(res => {
const
start = new Date().getTime(),
iid = setInterval(
() => {
const delta = new Date().getTime() - start;
if (delta < duration) {
//if you want to trigger something each time
ontick(delta, userid);
} else {
clearInterval(iid);
res(userid);
}
}, 500)
;
});
You do not even need a promise, a simple function will do as well, but then you have to build some solution for triggering stuff when the timer is elapsed.

Thanks #Chev and #philipp these are both good answers.
I was also made aware of a technique where you use an array for the setInterval variable.....this would make my code as follows;
let intervals = []
let secondsLeft = 300000;
intervals['i'+userId] = setInterval(() => {
secondsLeft -= 1000;
if (secondsLeft === 0) {
console.log("now exit");
clearInterval(interval);
}
}, 10000);
Does anyone else foresee this working?.
UPDATE 6.56pm PST.....it works!!

JS variable containing ongoing time value

I'm working on a chatbot script (Hubot - running in terminal) exercise and looking for a method to count the time since the last message was left in the thread. Then after nobody has left a message for X number of minutes (let's say 10,000 milliseconds) I would like to console.log("CRICKETS!..CRICKETS!..")
I'm imagining something like:
//currentTime - startTime = timeSince
//and
// if( timeSince > 10,000)
// {console.log("Crickets!..")
however I'm not sure of how to create the currentTime variable as continuously growing counter
Below is the code I've started which doesn't appear to throw any errors in the , but also doesn't seem to work as I'm running it in the terminal. It just prints the current time twice
module.exports = function(robot) {
return robot.hear(/$/i, function(msg) {
var startTime = (Date.now()) ;
return(startTime);
if (Date.now() - startTime > 1000) {
console.log("CRICKETS..!...")
};
});
};
You'll notice I'm using Date.now() but I'm not attached if there's a better method. Also here is a link to basic hubot scripts in case it is needed for context - https://github.com/github/hubot/blob/master/docs/scripting.md

You can always use setTimeout and cancel it if need be
Pseudo-code:
var myTimeout = setTimeout(function () {
//nobody has left a message for 10 seconds
}, 10000);
if (user has left message)
clearTimeout(myTimeout);

The window.setTimeout function allows you to trigger a callback function after a delay. And you can clear that timeout by calling window.clearTimeout(value_returned_by_setTimeout).
We could define a callback: function crickets(){ console.log('Chirp! Chirp!'); }
Assuming some function newMessage gets called whenever a a new message appears, you could try something like this:
var cricketTimeout = null;
function newMessage(){
//... your code
if (cricketTimeout) clearTimeout(cricketTimeout);
cricketTimeout = setTimeout(crickets, delayInMilliseconds);
}

Javascript setTimeout and frame rate

I seem to be having some unexpected results with a framerate counter in javascript. Up until recently the counter has been fine and I have been running my little js app at 30fps.
It uses setTimeout() (with a time adjustment to counter the system 'falling behind').
window.requestAnimFrame = (function()
{
return function (callback) {
time += FPS;
Heartbeat._eTime = (new Date().getTime() - Heartbeat._start);
var diff = Heartbeat._eTime - time;
Heartbeat._delta = FPS - diff;
Heartbeat._deltaS = Heartbeat._delta / 1000;
window.setTimeout(callback, FPS - diff);
};
})();
Heartbeat is merely an object that contains the frame rate info.
*Here is my problem: *
_MainLoopHandler: function () {
timer = new Date().getTime();
counter = timer;
while (this._messages.length > 0 && (counter - timer) < 5)
{
// process messages from _messages array
}
counter = new Date().getTime();
// THE ABOVE IS HAPPY AT 30 FPS
while ((counter - timer) < 6) {
1 + 1;
}
// THE ABOVE WHILE IS VERY UNHAPPY :(
}
So the above code block is the function that is called from setTimeout every 33.33 milliseconds (30 fps). if I take the bottom while loop out, the FPS counter will sit happily at 30fps. However, if I leave it in, the FPS counter goes crazy. it goes up to the 200FPS 300FPS then suddenly goes -200FPS -10FPS 0.01FPS. Its completely off the wall. The while loop will only run maybe 10 times per "frame".
Note also, the hard-coded values 5 and 6 are simply a check to see if 5 or 6 milliseconds have passed while processing the loops (for load balance).
Is this simply javascript being unable to handle the amount of info or has anyone else had a similar problem.
Thanks!

I don't really know what's going on, but I think you should use local variables to control your time, constantly reassess counter and process 1 message at a time. Also, I don't really understand that last loop (I've also renamed the variables):
_MainLoopHandler: function () {
var start = new Date().getTime();
var current;
do {
if (this._messages.length === 0) break;
// process 1 message
current = new Date().getTime();
} while (current - start < 5);
}
You can also encapsulate the timing concern in an object (not shown) to streamline the code:
_MainLoopHandler: function () {
var timing = new Timing();
do {
if (this._messages.length === 0) break;
// process 1 message
} while (timing.elapsed() < 5);
}