Cannot print object through res.json in express JS - javascript

I am trying to build an API through which I can get whois detail in the JSON output like below
For this, I installed the whois package from npm (https://www.npmjs.com/package/whois[whois Link]2). I tried to convert the string to object and print it in JSON format but I am not getting any output on the web but it console i can get the data easily. Can you guys please fix my error.
function whoisFunction() {
var whois = require('whois')
whois.lookup(url,async function(err, data) {
try {
a = await data.split('\n')
}
catch (e) {
console.log(e)
return e
}
c=[]
for(i = 0; i < a.length; i++){
c.push(a[i])
}
await console.log(typeof (c))
console.log(c)
return a
})
}
// res.json({'Headers':+whoisFunction()})
res.status(200).json(whoisFunction())

There are async and awaits sprinkled seemingly randomly all over your function.
You should realize that the only thing that is asynchronous here is whois.lookup().
console.log is not asynchronous. Array.prototype.split is not asynchronous. The callback (err, data) => {...} is not asynchronous.
If you want to use the callback pattern, then you need to use res.send() inside of the callback
(err, data) => {
res.send(data)
}
But we got fed up with callback-patterns because of how messy it is to nest them. So instead we went over to using promises. If you have callbacks but want use promises, then you wrap the callback in a promise. You do it once, and you do it as tight to the offending callback as you can:
function promisifiedLookup(url){
return new Promise( (resolve, reject) => {
whois.lookup(url, function(err, data) {
if(err) reject(err)
else resolve(data)
})
})
}
So, to use async/await we need that:
the calling function is declared async
the called function is returning a promise (or else there is nothing to wait for)
async function whoisFunction() {
let data = await promisifiedLookup(url) // _NOW_ we can use await
data = data.split('\n')
// ...
return data; // Because this funtion is declared async, it will automatically return promise.
}
If your express-handler is defined as async, then you now can use await here as well:
res.status(200).json(await whoisFunction())

Related

How to return an 'await' variable in JavaScript?

I have the following JS code
async function readAtlasAll() {
return await MongoClient.connect(url, async function(err, db) {
var dbo = db.db("Users");
c = dbo.collection("List");
r = await c.find({}).toArray();
console.log(r);
return r;
});
}
console.log(readAtlasAll());
I'm not sure why, but printing the result of readAtlasAll() comes before printing the variable r inside the function, even though I'm awaiting the result of r beforehand. The terminal prints Promise { <pending> } first and afterwards prints the contents of r.
I'm relatively new to JavaScript, so I would really appreciate the help. Thanks!
You cannot use both await and a plain callback on MongoDB API calls as the await won't do anything useful. Use one or the other, not both. This is because the MongoDB asynchronous APIs will return a promise if you do NOT pass a callback to them and you can then await that promise, but if you pass a callback, they do not return a promise, therefore the await does nothing useful at all. Here's how you would implement it by leaving out the callback and using await:
async function readAtlasAll() {
const db = await MongoClient.connect(url);
const dbo = db.db("Users");
const c = dbo.collection("List");
const r = await c.find({}).toArray();
return r; // this will be the resolved value of the returned promise
}
readAtlasAll().then(r => {
console.log(r);
}).catch(err => {
console.log(err);
});
Keep in mind that await has no magic powers at all. ALL it does is suspend execution of the function until a promise resolves/rejects. So, it only does anything useful when you await a promise.
And, further, ALL async functions return a promise so there is NO way to return an asynchronously-retrieved value directly from your function. You have to use an asynchronous mechanism for communicating back an asynchronously retrieved value such as a promise, a callback or an event. So readAtlasAll() can never return your value directly.
See How to return the response from an asynchronous call for more info on that.

How to get data from async functions and after getting data allow the next code to execute

I get some data from mongodb using mongoose find() and perform some validation on that data, but the problem is that this function is async and it does not wait for the data to be completed and execute the next code.
and when the next code is executed it enables to perform because it has null data. then i wrote my validation logic in the async function so that when data is available only then it move to next code but on every return it sends undefined data.
function isValidObject(obj) {
schemaData.find({}, (error, data) => { // calls data from db
var contactSchema = data; // this is data i need
if(//validation fails){
return "wrong data";// every time it returns undrfined on every
// condition
}
});
}
var validationResp = isValidObject(obj);
console.log(validationResp); // output is undefined
i also used "await" to wait for the data, but in that case it return [object promise] on every return statement
use async/await
In your case:
async function isValidObject(obj) {
let data = await schemaData.find({}); // wait until it resolve promise
//do your validaion
return data;
}
isValidObject(obj).then((validationResp)=>{console.log(validationResp)});
use the then() method it return a promise
var promise1 = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
resolve('Success!');
});
promise1.then(function(value) {
console.log(value);
// expected output: "Success!"
});
more details at MDN Using the then method
Are you familiar with "promises".You can use ".then(callback)". It will wait until async function is executed. And you can perform your validation in the callback function
User.findById(id)
.then(function(user) {
if (!user) {
return "here you return an error";
}
return "you return OK with payload from database";
})
.catch(next);
What is happening in your case is that when you assign var validationResp = isValidObject(obj); the function isValidObject(obj) has not returned anything and has only scheduled a callback(This is a very important concept when working with callbacks). As pointed out above you need to use Promises. The below is an example of your case as to how you can use Promises.
function isValidObject(obj){
return new Promise((resolve,reject) => {
schemaData.find({}, (error, data) => { // calls data from db
if(validation fails){
reject(error)// every time it returns undrfined on every
// condition
}else{
var contactSchema = data; // this is data i need
resolve(data)// You can resolve the promise with the data directly instead
// of assigning it to a variable or you can use (resolve(contactSchema))
}
})
})
}
After this when you want to use the data you can use do something like the below code snippet.
isValidObject(obj)
.then(result => {
// Use the result object here. This is the result from the Database
})
.catch(error => {
//Handle the Error
})

Why do i get undefined, even when using a promise?

I am trying to use a promise to call a function getTweets.
Not using an AJAX call, but a simple promise 'call' from 1 javascript file to another.
The function works, but i keep getting 'undefined'.
I have read dozens of questions here on stackoverflow and have spent days
to understand promises, but still can't solve it.
var Twit = require('twit') // Imports the Twitter library
require('dotenv').config() // to get the environment vars into the app
// This is the function:
function getTweets (screen_name) {
let T = new Twit({ /* <twitter key and token here> */ });
T.get('statuses/user_timeline', { screen_name: screen_name, count: 3}, function (err, data, response) {
let myTweets = [];
for (let i in data) {
let text = data[i].text;
myTweets.push(text);
}
return myTweets;
})
}
module.exports.getTweets = getTweets;
And this is the promise that tries to get the tweets:
var promise = tweets.getTweets('dizid');
promise.then(
console.log(myTweets),
console.log(err))
// gives error: promise.then(
// ^
// TypeError: Cannot read property 'then' of undefined
Any help greatly appreciated.
Your problem is that you never return anything from your getTweets() function even though it needs to return a promise. The function calls T.get() and pass it a callback function. You return from this callback function but this doesn't do anything, it doesn't mean that this value gets returned from getTweets().
This is a pretty common mistake when it comes to working with asynchronous calls. What needs to be done is to make getTweets() return a promise that gets resolved when it should.
When working with asynchronous calls that don't implement the promise interface, you need to wrap this call with a new promise. Your getTweets() function should then look like this:
function getTweets (screen_name) {
let T = new Twit({ /* <twitter key and token here> */ });
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
T.get('statuses/user_timeline', { screen_name: screen_name, count: 3}, function (err, data, response) {
if (err) {
reject(err); // Reject the promise since there was an error
} else {
let myTweets = [];
for (let i in data) {
let text = data[i].text;
myTweets.push(text);
}
resolve(myTweets); // Resolve the promise with the result
}
});
});
}
However, it seems the Twit API does support the promise interface, so instead of providing a callback function you can just use the promise created by T.get(). HMR's answer explains how to do this.
Another mistake you've made is with this code:
promise.then(
console.log(myTweets),
console.log(err))
The way you've written it, it reads "Run console.log(myTweets) and console.log(err), then invoke promise.then() with the result of the former as the first argument and the result of the latter as the second argument.
then() takes callback functions (which get invoked depending on the resolving/rejection of the promise) as arguments, so the code should look like this:
promise.then(
function(myTweets) {
console.log(myTweets);
},
function(err) {
console.log(err);
});
Async/await
If you're interested in taking things further, the modern approach to working with asynchronous code is async/await, which is syntactic sugar for promises that lets you write asynchronous code more similar to regular synchronous code.
A function marked as async will implicitly return a promise, but you write it as if you return a regular value. Using the await keyword inside an async function will implicitly wait for a promise to resolve and unwrap the resolved value. The main practical benefits of this is that you can use asynchronous calls in loops and handle errors with regular try-catch blocks. Your getTweets() function would look like this using async/await:
async function getTweets(screen_name) {
let T = new Twit({ /* <twitter key and token here> */ });
const data = await T.get('statuses/user_timeline', { screen_name: screen_name, count: 3});
// Let's also use map() instead of a for loop
let myTweets = data.map(function(item) { return item.text; });
return myTweets;
}
Since get seems to return a promise you don't need to use a callback. Get Tweets can look something like this:
// in getTweets
return T.get(
'statuses/user_timeline',
{ screen_name: screen_name, count: 3}
).then(
function (data) {
console.log("data:",JSON.stringify(data,undefined,2));
return data.map(item=>item.text);
}
)
// exports the function getTweets so that other modules can use it
module.exports.getTweets = getTweets;
If that didn't work please let us know what the output of the program is (update question).
You can call getTweets like so:
tweets.getTweets('dizid')
.then(
myTweets=>
console.log(myTweets),
err=>
console.log(err)
)
I think you forget add function like
promise.then(function(res){
//code
}
Your .then() should include a call back function.
promise.then( res => {
console.log(res);
});
edit: I'm using an ES6 syntax for arrow functions, in case you're new to that.

React Native - Function not returning correct value

I have this little code snippet:
var okidok = parseString(myXml, (err, result) => {
console.log(result.rss.channel[0].item); //Gives the output that I want.
return result.rss.channel[0].item;
});
console.log(okidok); //Output is rubbish.
Why okidok is not assigned value which return from parseString. All of this is happening inside an async function.
If anyone can enlighten me, I would be very greatful!
If this is happening inside an ES7 async function you can wait parseString function to resolve doing this :
First you'll need to promisify parseString (in case it's not already thenable) :
function parseStringPromise(text){
return new Promise((resolve,reject) => {
parseString(text, (err, result) => {
if(err) return reject(err);
return resolve(data);
});
});
}
Then you can await for this function to get the result outside of its scope in an async function :
async function parseXml(myXml) {
const result = await parseStringPromise(myXml);
var okidok = result.rss.channel[0].item;
}
Note that you can add a try/catch statement to handle errors in async function.
Edit : I forgot to tell you why.
You don't have the same result because the parseString function is a Node style callback ("nodeback") asynchronous function. Asynchronous function means that you have to wait for it to resolve in order to get the result. There's some different types of asynchronous functions, the main 2 are the callback based (like your parseString) and the promises (resolvable by .then(fn) or await in async functions).
In order to use await on a function this function needs to return a promise (that's why we promisified parseString)
Here's a promise tutorial easier to understand : https://scotch.io/tutorials/javascript-promises-for-dummies

Asynchonous issue with loop in nodejs

I'm trying to iterate threw a list of item and do some actions on them by calling an API like this example :
for (i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
if (arr[i].id == 42) {
api.requestAction(arr[i].id, function(error, response){ });
}
}
Problem is the loop obviously ended before all the requests are done and the program exits. What should I do to manage it ? I saw the "Promise" method but don't really know how I can use it in this case or maybe there's an other solution.
Thank you by advance !
With node-fetch (a promisify http api) you can together with async/await halt the for loop until it's done but this requires node v6+ with --harmony-async-await flag added
const fetch = require('node-fetch')
async function foo() {
for (let item of arr) {
if (item.id == 42) {
let res = await fetch(url)
let body = await res.text()
console.log(body)
}
}
console.log('done (after request)')
}
now every time you add the async keyword in front of a function it will always return a promise that resolve/rejects when everything is done
foo().then(done, fail)
alternetive you can just wrap you api fn in a promise if you don't want to install node-fetch
await new Promise((rs, rj) => {
api.requestAction(arr[i].id, function(error, response){
error ? rj(error) : rs(response)
})
})
Install bluebird
npm install bluebird --save
Code
//require npm
var Promise = require("bluebird");
//code
//"promisify" converts traditional callback function into a Promise based function
var _requestAction = Promise.promisify(api.requestAction);
//loop over array
Promise.map(arr, function (value) {
if (value.id == 42) {
//async request
return _requestAction(value.id).then(function (_result) {
//success
console.log(_result);
}).catch(function (e) {
//error
console.error(e);
});
}
});
You could use async.js. It's an asyncronous control flow library which provides control flows for things like sequential loops, looping in parralel, and many other common flow control mechanism, check it out.
See code below, the code assumes that you're variable 'arr' is defined somewhere in scope.
npm install async
var async = require("async");
//Loop through each item, waiting for your
//asyncronous function to finish before continuing
//to move onto the next item in the array
//NOTE: This does not loop sequentially, if you want that function with asyncjs then user eachSeries
async.each(arr,
//Item is the current item being iterated over,
//callback is the callback you call to finish the current iteration, it accepts an error and result parameter callback(error, result);
function (item, callback) {
api.requestAction(item.id, function(error, response){
//Check for any errors...
if (error) return callback(error);
callback(null);
});
},
function (err, result) {
//You've now finished the loop
if (err) {
//Do something, you passed an error object to
//in one of the loop's iterations
}
//No errors, move on with your code..
});
Use Bluebird Promises:
var Promise = require('bluebird');
Promise.map(arrayOfIds, function(item){
return api.requestAction(item);
})
.then(function(response){
// all the requests are resolved here
})
if u want sequential execution of the ids then use Promise.mapSeries (is slow as it waits for task to finish)

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