We Keep Coding

JavaScript variable doesn't exist

So I'm creating a simple Web Page that takes data from a json file and appends a number of paragraphs equal to the number of objects in the json file array:
$(function () {
function init() {
console.log("OK");
var dat;
var i;
load();
fill();
}
function load()
{
$.get("data.json", function (data, status) {
dat=data;
console.log(dat);
})
}
function fill()
{
console.log(dat);
for(i=0; i<dat.length(); i++) $("#container").append("<p>Testing</p> <br/><br/>")
}
$(".front").on("load", init());
});
However when I run the web page the first time I try to do a console log it prints out the data however the second time, inside the fill() function it says:
"Uncaught ReferenceError: dat is not defined"
Any ideas?

There are several problems:
dat is a local variable within your init function, so naturally code in your load function doesn't have access to it.
You're calling init and then passing its return value into on, not hooking up init as a load handler.
$.get is asynchronous, so just calling load and then calling fill won't work, fill will run before the GET has completed.
See comments:
$(function () {
var dat; // *** Make this global to the code (it's not actually global, which is good)
function init() {
load(fill); // *** Pass `fill` into `load`
}
function load(next) // *** Accept the callback to call when ready
{
$.get("data.json", function (data, status) {
dat = data;
console.log(dat);
next(); // *** Call it
})
}
function fill()
{
console.log(dat);
for(i=0; i<dat.length(); i++) $("#container").append("<p>Testing</p> <br/><br/>")
}
$(".front").on("load", init); // *** No () on init, you want to pass the function into `on`, not *call* the function
});
Some other notes:
You might also look into promises.
Unless you need dat for more than fill, consider not having the dat variable at all; just have load call fill with the data as an argument.

Variable dat is in scope of function init() and it doesnt exists outside that function , move variable dat outside function.
var dat;
function init(){
// rest of code
}

Javascript node.js callback function variable scope problems [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How do I return the response from an asynchronous call?
(41 answers)
Closed 8 years ago.
I am in the process of relearning Javascript and last week when writing this code for a university assignment I think that there is probably a much better way of executing this code
app.get('/member/all', function(req, res) {
connection.query('CALL GetAllMembers()', function(err,rows){
connection.query('CALL CountMembers()', function(err, allMembers){
console.log(err);
connection.query('CALL CountAllIndMembers()', function(err,indMembers){
console.log(err);
connection.query('CALL CountInactiveMembers()', function(err,inactiveMembers){
console.log(err);
connection.query('CALL CountAllMembersInGroups()', function(err,groupMembers){
console.log(err);
res.render('members', {members : rows[0], title : "All Members", groupMembers : groupMembers[0][0].AllGrpMembers,
inactiveMembers : inactiveMembers[0][0].AllInactiveMembers, indMembers : indMembers[0][0].AllIndMembers,
allMembers : allMembers[0][0].AllMembers, statistics : true});
});
});
});
});
});
});
});
When I was trying to declare variables under the app.get such as var allMembers... when the callback was executed I was unable to set allMembers = rowsFromTheCallback. It seemed that it was a local variable to that callback. I'm sure this is something to do with the variable scope and/or hoisting. Just wanted to ask you guys if there would be a better way to do this as even though this function works. It is very ugly to look at haha!
Thanks in advance
Jack

As far as scope goes, all the inner functions should be able to read and write to the outer variable unless it is shadowed by an inner variable declaration or function parameter.
The problem you are having might be related to the async-ness of the code. See this code:
function delay(n, cb){
setTimeout(function(){ bs(delay) }, delay);
}
function main(){
var allMembers = 17;
delay(500, function(){
console.log(allMembers); // This looks at the outer "allMembers"
allMembers = 18;
delay(200, function(allMembers){ // <-- SHADOW
console.log(allMembers); // This looks at the allMembers from "delay 200"'s callback
allMembers = 42;
});
delay(300, function(){
console.log(allMembers); //This is the outside "allMembers" again
});
});
return allMembers; // Still 17!
}
main();
main will return before the setTimeouts have even fired so its going to return the original value of that variable. In order to wait for the inner callbacks to run, the only way is to make main take a callback to signa when its done, instead of just returning.
function main(onResult){
delay(500, function(){
//...
onResult(allMembers);
});
// <-- no return value
});
main(function(allM){
console.log(allM);
});

See async library: https://github.com/caolan/async
async.series([
getAllMembers,
countMembers,
...
], function(err, results) {
// err contains an error if any of the functions fails. No more functions will be run.
// results is an array containing results of each function if all the functions executed without errors
}));
function getAllMembers(callback) {
connection.query('CALL CountMembers()', callback);
}
function countMembers(callback) {
...
}
If the execution order of the functions does not matter, async.parallel can be used instead of async.series.

There is power in using a library to handle and encapsulate "Continuation Passing Style" (CPS) interactions with your asynchronous calls. The following code isn't from a library, but I'm going to walk through it and use it as an example of one way to implement CPS.
Setting up a scope appropriate queue is the first step. This example uses about the most simple method for doing so:
var nextList = [];
After that we need a method to handle our first case, the need to queue tasks to be performed in the future. In this case I was focused on performing them in order so I named it next.
function next() {
var todo,
current,
task,
args = {};
if (arguments.length > 0) { // if called with parameters process them
// if parameters aren't in an array wrap them
if (!Array.isArray(arguments['0'])) {
todo = [arguments];
} else { // we were passed an array
todo = [];
arguments['0'].forEach(function (item) {
// for each item we were passed add it to todo
todo.push(item);
});
}
nextList = todo.concat(nextList);
// append the new items to the end of our list
}
if (nextList.length > 0) { // if there are still things to do
current = Array.prototype.slice.apply(nextList.shift());
task = current[0];
args = current.slice(1);
task.apply(null, args); // execute the next item in the list
}
}
This allows us to make calls like:
.map(function (filepath) {
tasks.push(
[
handleAsset,
{
'path': filepath,
}
]
);
});
tasks.push([done]);
next(tasks);
This will call handleAsset, which is async, once for each file, in order. This will allows you to take your code and change each of the nested calls into a separate function in the form:
function memberAll() {
app.get('/member/all', function(req, res) {
if (err) {
handleError(err, 'memberAll');
} else {
next(getAllMembers, 'parameters to that call if needed');
}
});
}
where handleError is a common error handler, and the next call allows you to pass on relevant parameters to the next function that is needed. Importantly in the success side of the if statement you could either:
conditionally call one of several functions
call next with an array of calls to make, for instance if you had functions for processFolder and processFile you could expect that processing a folder might involve processing other folders and files and that the number would vary
do nothing except call next() with no parameters and end the current branch
Embellishments can include writing a clean function for emptying the nextList, adding items to nextList without calling an item from the list, etc. The alternative at this point is to either use an existing library for this or to continue writing your own.

Variable used as function argument gets changed, affecting the later function call

I have no idea what is going on, I have spent countless hours debugging my code until I found the weak spot.
Concept
function fnc() {
var hl = { // hl stands for hyperlink (<a>)
uid : ["player.id", "uid"],
inVal : ["infra.value*", "infrastructure_value"]
}
for (key in hl) { .. do the code in block 1 at bottom .. }
}
The code should go through the array (object) of values consisting of id : [text, call] and bind a click(fnc(call)) event to an <a>text</a> with given id.
(Clicking the link launches the same function - it is desired.)
The Code
This is the code in short:
fnc = function(sort_by, direction) {
var qswitch = 1;
if (qswitch == 1) {
key = "uid"; console.log("#"+key); // #uid
$("#"+key).unbind("click").click( function() { fnc(hl[key][1], direction); });
console.log(key); // uid
key = "inVal"; console.log("#"+key); // #inVal
$("#"+key).unbind("click").click( function() { fnc(hl[key][1], direction); });
console.log(key); // inVal
}
if (qswitch == 2) {
$("#uid").unbind("click").click( function() { fnc(hl["uid"][1], direction); });
$("#inVal").unbind("click").click( function() { fnc(hl["inVal"][1], direction); });
}
}
The problem
You can see two blocks of the same code. The first is supposed to work dynamically as described above, but both links refer to the same function call. (<-this is the error) Binding the events without using a variable works just fine and each link fires it's own function(parameters).
Is it a bug?
..or am I just dumb and overworked?
Install the tampermonkey userscript, visit any site, open console (F12) and watch the output. Whenever you click a link, it writes what function(parameters) it calls. Each of the two links should have different function call. I suggest using this blank site.
theCode.monkey.js

key = "uid"; console.log("#"+key); // #uid
$("#"+key).unbind("click").click( function() { fnc(hl[key][1], direction); });
console.log(key); // uid
key = "inVal"; console.log("#"+key); // #inVal
$("#"+key).unbind("click").click( function() { fnc(hl[key][2], direction); });
console.log(key); // inVal
The problem here is that key is overwritten by the second assignment before it's used in the first callback. Event callbacks are not called at the same time as their defining function and their defining function does not wait for them to be run. The easiest solution would be to use two separate variables, but since it looks like I'm looking at an unrolled loop and your code actually looks like this:
for(var key in hl){
//compute i
key = "inVal"; console.log("#"+key); // #inVal
$("#"+key).unbind("click").click( function() { fnc(hl[key][i], direction); });
console.log(key); // inVal
}
(if var is missing, you should add it - undeclared variables reside in the global scope. You don't want them there. In strict mode, they fail completely) (not sure where i comes from, but let's assume it's generated in each loop before what is seen) you can use an immediately invoked function expression (IIFE) to capture the value into a new variable in a new scope (remember, javascript uses function scopes):
for(var key in hl){
// compute `i`
(function(key, i){
key = "inVal"; console.log("#"+key); // #inVal
$("#"+key).unbind("click").click( function() { fnc(hl[key][i], direction); });
console.log(key); // inVal
})(key,i)
}
now key and i inside the loop refer to the IIFE arguments, not to the constantly changing variable variables declared outside the loop.
Also note that: if previous values of i are not used to generate new ones, then the computation of i can be moved into the function body. If they are used - please note that the order of object keys is not guaranteed.

Help needed with JavaScript variable scope / OOP and call back functions

I think this issue goes beyond typical variable scope and closure stuff, or maybe I'm an idiot. Here goes anyway...
I'm creating a bunch of objects on the fly in a jQuery plugin. The object look something like this
function WedgePath(canvas){
this.targetCanvas = canvas;
this.label;
this.logLabel = function(){ console.log(this.label) }
}
the jQuery plugin looks something like this
(function($) {
$.fn.myPlugin = function() {
return $(this).each(function() {
// Create Wedge Objects
for(var i = 1; i <= 30; i++){
var newWedge = new WedgePath(canvas);
newWedge.label = "my_wedge_"+i;
globalFunction(i, newWedge]);
}
});
}
})(jQuery);
So... the plugin creates a bunch of wedgeObjects, then calls 'globalFunction' for each one, passing in the latest WedgePath instance. Global function looks like this.
function globalFunction(indicator_id, pWedge){
var targetWedge = pWedge;
targetWedge.logLabel();
}
What happens next is that the console logs each wedges label correctly. However, I need a bit more complexity inside globalFunction. So it actually looks like this...
function globalFunction(indicator_id, pWedge){
var targetWedge = pWedge;
someSql = "SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE id = ?";
dbInterface.executeSql(someSql, [indicator_id], function(transaction, result){
targetWedge.logLabel();
})
}
There's a lot going on here so i'll explain. I'm using client side database storage (WebSQL i call it). 'dbInterface' an instance of a simple javascript object I created which handles the basics of interacting with a client side database [shown at the end of this question]. the executeSql method takes up to 4 arguments
The SQL String
an optional arguments array
an optional onSuccess handler
an optional onError handler (not used in this example)
What I need to happen is: When the WebSQL query has completed, it takes some of that data and manipulates some attribute of a particular wedge. But, when I call 'logLabel' on an instance of WedgePath inside the onSuccess handler, I get the label of the very last instance of WedgePath that was created way back in the plugin code.
Now I suspect that the problem lies in the var newWedge = new WedgePath(canvas); line. So I tried pushing each newWedge into an array, which I thought would prevent that line from replacing or overwriting the WedgePath instance at every iteration...
wedgeArray = [];
// Inside the plugin...
for(var i = 1; i <= 30; i++){
var newWedge = new WedgePath(canvas);
newWedge.label = "my_wedge_"+i;
wedgeArray.push(newWedge);
}
for(var i = 0; i < wedgeArray.length; i++){
wedgeArray[i].logLabel()
}
But again, I get the last instance of WedgePath to be created.
This is driving me nuts. I apologise for the length of the question but I wanted to be as clear as possible.
END
==============================================================
Also, here's the code for dbInterface object should it be relevant.
function DatabaseInterface(db){
var DB = db;
this.sql = function(sql, arr, pSuccessHandler, pErrorHandler){
successHandler = (pSuccessHandler) ? pSuccessHandler : this.defaultSuccessHandler;
errorHandler = (pErrorHandler) ? pErrorHandler : this.defaultErrorHandler;
DB.transaction(function(tx){
if(!arr || arr.length == 0){
tx.executeSql(sql, [], successHandler, errorHandler);
}else{
tx.executeSql(sql,arr, successHandler, errorHandler)
}
});
}
// ----------------------------------------------------------------
// A Default Error Handler
// ----------------------------------------------------------------
this.defaultErrorHandler = function(transaction, error){
// error.message is a human-readable string.
// error.code is a numeric error code
console.log('WebSQL Error: '+error.message+' (Code '+error.code+')');
// Handle errors here
var we_think_this_error_is_fatal = true;
if (we_think_this_error_is_fatal) return true;
return false;
}
// ----------------------------------------------------------------
// A Default Success Handler
// This doesn't do anything except log a success message
// ----------------------------------------------------------------
this.defaultSuccessHandler = function(transaction, results)
{
console.log("WebSQL Success. Default success handler. No action taken.");
}
}

I would guess that this is due to that the client side database storage runs asynchronous as an AJAX call would. This means that it doesn't stops the call chain in order to wait for a result from the invoked method.
As a result the javascript engine completes the for-loop before running the globalFunction.
To work around this you could perform the db query inside a closure.
function getDataForIndicatorAndRegion(indicator_id, region_id, pWedge){
return function (targetWedge) {
someSql = "SELECT dataRows.status FROM dataRows WHERE indicator_id = ? AND region_id = ?";
dbInterface.sql(someSql, [indicator_id, region_id], function(transaction, result) {
targetWedge.changeColor(randomHex());
});
}(pWedge);
}
This way you preserve pWedge for each execution. Since the second method is invoking it self and send what pWedge is right now as an argument.
EDIT: Updated the code from comments. And made a change to it. The callback function maybe shouldn't be self invoked. If it invoke it self the result of the function is passed as a argument. Also if it doesn't work, try passing the other arguments.

i suspect your problem is the modifed closure going on inside globalFunction:
function(transaction, result){
targetWedge.logLabel();
})
read this

Javascript - synchronizing after asynchronous calls

I have a Javascript object that requires 2 calls out to an external server to build its contents and do anything meaningful. The object is built such that instantiating an instance of it will automatically make these 2 calls. The 2 calls share a common callback function that operates on the returned data and then calls another method. The problem is that the next method should not be called until both methods return. Here is the code as I have implemented it currently:
foo.bar.Object = function() {
this.currentCallbacks = 0;
this.expectedCallbacks = 2;
this.function1 = function() {
// do stuff
var me = this;
foo.bar.sendRequest(new RequestObject, function(resp) {
me.commonCallback(resp);
});
};
this.function2 = function() {
// do stuff
var me = this;
foo.bar.sendRequest(new RequestObject, function(resp) {
me.commonCallback(resp);
});
};
this.commonCallback = function(resp) {
this.currentCallbacks++;
// do stuff
if (this.currentCallbacks == this.expectedCallbacks) {
// call new method
}
};
this.function1();
this.function2();
}
As you can see, I am forcing the object to continue after both calls have returned using a simple counter to validate they have both returned. This works but seems like a really poor implementation. I have only worked with Javascript for a few weeks now and am wondering if there is a better method for doing the same thing that I have yet to stumble upon.
Thanks for any and all help.

Unless you're willing to serialize the AJAX there is no other way that I can think of to do what you're proposing. That being said, I think what you have is fairly good, but you might want to clean up the structure a bit to not litter the object you're creating with initialization data.
Here is a function that might help you:
function gate(fn, number_of_calls_before_opening) {
return function() {
arguments.callee._call_count = (arguments.callee._call_count || 0) + 1;
if (arguments.callee._call_count >= number_of_calls_before_opening)
fn.apply(null, arguments);
};
}
This function is what's known as a higher-order function - a function that takes functions as arguments. This particular function returns a function that calls the passed function when it has been called number_of_calls_before_opening times. For example:
var f = gate(function(arg) { alert(arg); }, 2);
f('hello');
f('world'); // An alert will popup for this call.
You could make use of this as your callback method:
foo.bar = function() {
var callback = gate(this.method, 2);
sendAjax(new Request(), callback);
sendAjax(new Request(), callback);
}
The second callback, whichever it is will ensure that method is called. But this leads to another problem: the gate function calls the passed function without any context, meaning this will refer to the global object, not the object that you are constructing. There are several ways to get around this: You can either close-over this by aliasing it to me or self. Or you can create another higher order function that does just that.
Here's what the first case would look like:
foo.bar = function() {
var me = this;
var callback = gate(function(a,b,c) { me.method(a,b,c); }, 2);
sendAjax(new Request(), callback);
sendAjax(new Request(), callback);
}
In the latter case, the other higher order function would be something like the following:
function bind_context(context, fn) {
return function() {
return fn.apply(context, arguments);
};
}
This function returns a function that calls the passed function in the passed context. An example of it would be as follows:
var obj = {};
var func = function(name) { this.name = name; };
var method = bind_context(obj, func);
method('Your Name!');
alert(obj.name); // Your Name!
To put it in perspective, your code would look as follows:
foo.bar = function() {
var callback = gate(bind_context(this, this.method), 2);
sendAjax(new Request(), callback);
sendAjax(new Request(), callback);
}
In any case, once you've made these refactorings you will have cleared up the object being constructed of all its members that are only needed for initialization.

I can add that Underscore.js has a nice little helper for this:
Creates a version of the function that will only be run after first
being called count times. Useful for grouping asynchronous responses,
where you want to be sure that all the async calls have finished,
before proceeding.
_.after(count, function)
The code for _after (as-of version 1.5.0):
_.after = function(times, func) {
return function() {
if (--times < 1) {
return func.apply(this, arguments);
}
};
};
The license info (as-of version 1.5.0)

There is barely another way than to have this counter. Another option would be to use an object {} and add a key for every request and remove it if finished. This way you would know immediately which has returned. But the solution stays the same.
You can change the code a little bit. If it is like in your example that you only need to call another function inside of commonCallback (I called it otherFunction) than you don't need the commonCallback. In order to save the context you did use closures already. Instead of
foo.bar.sendRequest(new RequestObject, function(resp) {
me.commonCallback(resp);
});
you could do it this way
foo.bar.sendRequest(new RequestObject, function(resp) {
--me.expectedCallbacks || me.otherFunction(resp);
});

That's some good stuff Mr. Kyle.
To put it a bit simpler, I usually use a Start and a Done function.
-The Start function takes a list of functions that will be executed.
-The Done function gets called by the callbacks of your functions that you passed to the start method.
-Additionally, you can pass a function, or list of functions to the done method that will be executed when the last callback completes.
The declarations look like this.
var PendingRequests = 0;
function Start(Requests) {
PendingRequests = Requests.length;
for (var i = 0; i < Requests.length; i++)
Requests[i]();
};
//Called when async responses complete.
function Done(CompletedEvents) {
PendingRequests--;
if (PendingRequests == 0) {
for (var i = 0; i < CompletedEvents.length; i++)
CompletedEvents[i]();
}
}
Here's a simple example using the google maps api.
//Variables
var originAddress = "*Some address/zip code here*"; //Location A
var formattedAddress; //Formatted address of Location B
var distance; //Distance between A and B
var location; //Location B
//This is the start function above. Passing an array of two functions defined below.
Start(new Array(GetPlaceDetails, GetDistances));
//This function makes a request to get detailed information on a place.
//Then callsback with the **GetPlaceDetailsComplete** function
function GetPlaceDetails() {
var request = {
reference: location.reference //Google maps reference id
};
var PlacesService = new google.maps.places.PlacesService(Map);
PlacesService.getDetails(request, GetPlaceDetailsComplete);
}
function GetPlaceDetailsComplete(place, status) {
if (status == google.maps.places.PlacesServiceStatus.OK) {
formattedAddress = place.formatted_address;
Done(new Array(PrintDetails));
}
}
function GetDistances() {
distService = new google.maps.DistanceMatrixService();
distService.getDistanceMatrix(
{
origins: originAddress,
destinations: [location.geometry.location], //Location contains lat and lng
travelMode: google.maps.TravelMode.DRIVING,
unitSystem: google.maps.UnitSystem.IMPERIAL,
avoidHighways: false,
avoidTolls: false
}, GetDistancesComplete);
}
function GetDistancesComplete(results, status) {
if (status == google.maps.DistanceMatrixStatus.OK) {
distance = results[0].distance.text;
Done(new Array(PrintDetails));
}
}
function PrintDetails() {
alert(*Whatever you feel like printing.*);
}
So in a nutshell, what we're doing here is
-Passing an array of functions to the Start function
-The Start function calls the functions in the array and sets the number of PendingRequests
-In the callbacks for our pending requests, we call the Done function
-The Done function takes an array of functions
-The Done function decrements the PendingRequests counter
-If their are no more pending requests, we call the functions passed to the Done function
That's a simple, but practicle example of sychronizing web calls. I tried to use an example of something that's widely used, so I went with the Google maps api. I hope someone finds this useful.

Another way would be to have a sync point thanks to a timer. It is not beautiful, but it has the advantage of not having to add the call to the next function inside the callback.
Here the function execute_jobs is the entry point. it take a list of data to execute simultaneously. It first sets the number of jobs to wait to the size of the list. Then it set a timer to test for the end condition (the number falling down to 0). And finally it sends a job for each data. Each job decrease the number of awaited jobs by one.
It would look like something like that:
var g_numJobs = 0;
function async_task(data) {
//
// ... execute the task on the data ...
//
// Decrease the number of jobs left to execute.
--g_numJobs;
}
function execute_jobs(list) {
// Set the number of jobs we want to wait for.
g_numJobs = list.length;
// Set the timer (test every 50ms).
var timer = setInterval(function() {
if(g_numJobs == 0) {
clearInterval(timer);
do_next_action();
}
}, 50);
// Send the jobs.
for(var i = 0; i < list.length; ++i) {
async_task(list[i]));
}
}
To improve this code you can do a Job and JobList classes. The Job would execute a callback and decrease the number of pending jobs, while the JobList would aggregate the timer and call the callback to the next action once the jobs are finished.

I shared the same frustration. As I chained more asynchronous calls, it became a callback hell. So, I came up with my own solution. I'm sure there are similar solutions out there, but I wanted to create something very simple and easy to use. Asynq is a script that I wrote to chain asynchronous tasks. So to run f2 after f1, you can do:
asynq.run(f1, f2)
You can chain as many functions as you want. You can also specify parameters or run a series of tasks on elements in an array too. I hope this library can solve your issues or similar issues others are having.