I'm having trouble puzzling this resolve function out...
function _resolve(){
var $deferred = $.Deferred();
return $deferred.resolve.apply($deferred, arguments).promise();
}
I see it being used like
if (availableLanguages.length === 1) {
return _resolve(availableLanguages[0]);
}
and
if (detectedLocale && availableLanguages.indexOf(detectedLocale) > -1) {
// save the locale so the user does not get asked for it again
return _resolve(detectedLocale, true);
}
The _resolve function is a shortcut for creating kind of a dummy jQuery Deferred object, which is initially resolved. They should have rather called it for example _createResolvedPromise which would be more intuitive, but we always used to save some characters don't we.
In general this technique is needed when you have a function which returns a deferred, but in some cases you can have an early return with some value. In this case you cannot just return the value, because the caller expects a deferred, so you have to create a deferred object and immediately resolve it with that value. You can perhaps call these deferred objects constant deferred objects or so.
The apply is used to call the resolve with the optional arguments passed to _resolve. Those arguments will be passed to the done callback later on. See the documentation here.
Calling promise() on the deferred object is nothing more than wrapping it into a promise object, so that the consumer cannot call resolve for example. See the documentation here.
For example, let's assume we want to retrieve something via ajax, but also we cache the results.
var _cachedResult;
function getResults() {
if (_cachedResult) {
// for THIS line they made the _resolve shortcut, with which I could write _resolve(_cachedResult)
return $.Deferred().resolve(_cachedResult).promise();
}
return $.ajax(...).done(function(result) {
_cachedResult = result;
});
}
The caller can use it like this.
getResult().done(function(result) {
// do something with result, which maybe came from the cache
});
Hope it makes sense.
In short, it appears to be wrapping up various calls in a Promise/async fashion.
It's likely that detectLocale is an async function, and they're using _resolve to simply handle it in a synchronous manner. Your _resolve function is returning a Promise, which presumably the consumers of those return values are using.
I would expect to see something like this if you trace it up:
function getLanguages() {
if (availableLanguages.length === 1) {
return _resolve(availableLanguages[0]);
}
return new Promise(); // or something, unless it's checking for null outside
}
function doSomething() {
getLanguages().then(languages => console.log(languages));
}
I need a function which will return a boolean value. The first time this function is called, it should load the value from an async service (that returns a promise) and then cache it. Subsequent calls to this function should return the cached value. Problem is the caller of this function should be blocked until it gets a value. Whats the best solution in this case? Should the function return a promise either way (i.e whether its cached or not), and just put everything that needs to be blocked inside promise.then(). And if thats a good solution, how do I return a promise in either case (e.g. when its cached or not)?
Below is some code to better illustrate the problem:
function isSomethingStored() {
if(getFromBrowserStorage() != null) {
var deferred = $q.defer();
deferred.resolve(true);
return deferred.promise;
}
var promise = ThirdParty.getSomethingThroughAjax();
promise.then(function(theSomething) {
addToBrowserStorage(theSomething);
return true;
});
return promise;
}
function caller() {
var promise = isSomethingStored();
promise.then(function(isReady) {
//we can continue
});
}
Yes - it should always return a promise unless there is another consideration preventing it from doing so. This is for consistency - if a method might be asynchronous it is best practice to always treat it as asynchronous so you won't get funky race conditions later on.
Since you can't block anyway, and the workarounds are hacky - I think it probably fits your problem optimally anyway. Simply put all reliant code in a then.
tl;dr : I'm looking for a way to have the first .then callback make changes to the data that is passed to subsequent chained events.
I have a library that encapsulates some async operations.
dudetools.getDude(2); // causes an XHR against REST resource "Dude" for row id 2
For awesomeness purposes, dudetools.getDude returns the promise created by the underlying $.ajax call. Thus, I can do things like:
dudetools.getDude(dudeId).done(function(dudeData) { /* do stuff with dude's data */ });
Now I'm trying to modify dudetools so that it'll do some convenient data-massaging on response data before continuing along the promise chain. I want this massage to happen universally, without calling code having to request it or even know about it.
Because the dudetools implementation can't share a closure with all calling code, I'm hoping to leverage the fact that, in JavaScript, non-scalars are always passed by reference rather than by value.
Consider:
var urStuff = {};
function wreck(x) {
x.isWrecked = 'so wrecked';
}
wreck(urStuff);
// urStuff.isWrecked === 'so wrecked' ^.^
I dare you to try it.
So, I was hoping this would work:
dudetools = {
'getDude': function(dudeId) {
return $.ajax('/api/Dude/' + dudeId).then(function(dudeData) {
// I'm so clever!
dudeData.isDuplicated = dudeData.isDuped && dudeData.drillDown > 5;
});
}
}
Of course, it doesn't work. My clever code is being executed (I've seen it), and it's reaching the right conclusions, but subsequent Deferred events in the chain never see the modifications. I.e.:
$.when(
dudetools.getDude(dudeId)
).done(function(mysteriouslyUnmodifiedInfo) {
/* the info passed to this function is mysteriously unmodified! HALP */
});
Any suggestions? Is there a way to accomplish what I'm after?
Also: I'm still kind of new to promises in general, and my grasp of the differences between Deferreds, Promises, and associated constructs is still kind of fuzzy, so I'd very much appreciate your efforts to be clear and explicit when explaining to me how I've ruined everything.
Thanks very much.
EDIT: updated to reflect fact that dudetools.getDude returns a promise, not a Deferred. Because I now (mostly) understand the difference.
The magic of .then is that it pipes its return value into the next callbacks param.
If you don't return your object (even if you haven't changed anything), then undefined is returned by default.
do_something()
.then(function (json) { return JSON.parse(json); })
.then(function (response) { return response.data; })
.then(function (data) { data.tweaked = true; return data; });
You'll want to return your own new Deferred.promise() object.
http://api.jquery.com/deferred.promise/
dudetools = {
'getDude': function(dudeId) {
var dfd = new jQuery.Deferred();
$.ajax('/api/Dude/' + dudeId).then(function(dudeData) {
dudeData.isDuplicated = dudeData.isDuped && dudeData.drillDown > 5;
// I'm so clever!
dfd.resolve(dudeData);
});
return dfd.promise();
}
}
Hope that helps.
I would like to return x || $.get.
Or in other words, if x is true, then return x, else perform a GET call and return the value provided by the server.
My attempt is listed below (ideally, it would follow the return x || y format maybe with an anonymous function? instead of the if/then).
Problem is my return from my $.get function appears not to be what I expected.
Would appreciate an explanation of what is going on.
Thanks
$(function(){
function test(x,y) {
if(x==true) {return true;}
else{
//test.php is echo($_GET['y']==123);
$.get('ajax.php',{'y':y},function (status) {return status;});
}
}
alert(test(false,123));
});
If you're using jQuery 1.5 or later, Deferred and Promise are your friend for this kind of thing. Any time you call AJAX calls what you get back are Promise objects which you can attach functions to via .done(), .fail(), and .then().
However! As pointed out by this excellent intro to deferred/promise and all this stuff (http://www.erichynds.com/jquery/using-deferreds-in-jquery/), you can also use $.wait()'s ability to handle a value that isn't a promise to automatically do caching. So code like this:
$.when(getToken()).done(
function (token) {
// do something with the token, which may or may not have been
// retrieved from the remote service
}
);
Can handle getting either a cached value back or a promise with no problem:
function getToken() {
// Return either the cached value or a jQuery Promise. If $.when() gets the
// cached value it will immediately realize that you didn't give it a
// promise and it will instead create a jQuery Deferred to return and
// .resolve() it using the value it did get. Thus, either way what
// comes out of the function is something .when() can deal with and call a function.
if (this.cache["token"]) {
return this.cache["token"];
} else {
return $.get(" ... some url ... ");
}
};
I’ve been seeing code that looks like:
myObj.doSome("task").then(function(env) {
// logic
});
Where does then() come from?
The traditional way to deal with asynchronous calls in JavaScript has been with callbacks.
Say we had to make three calls to the server, one after the other, to set up our
application. With callbacks, the code might look something like the following (assuming
a xhrGET function to make the server call):
// Fetch some server configuration
xhrGET('/api/server-config', function(config) {
// Fetch the user information, if he's logged in
xhrGET('/api/' + config.USER_END_POINT, function(user) {
// Fetch the items for the user
xhrGET('/api/' + user.id + '/items', function(items) {
// Actually display the items here
});
});
});
In this example, we first fetch the server configuration. Then based on that, we fetch
information about the current user, and then finally get the list of items for the current
user. Each xhrGET call takes a callback function that is executed when the server
responds.
Now of course the more levels of nesting we have, the harder the code is to read, debug,
maintain, upgrade, and basically work with. This is generally known as callback hell.
Also, if we needed to handle errors, we need to possibly pass in another function to each
xhrGET call to tell it what it needs to do in case of an error. If we wanted to have just one
common error handler, that is not possible.
The Promise API was designed to solve this nesting problem and the
problem of error handling.
The Promise API proposes the following:
Each asynchronous task will return a promise object.
Each promise object will have a then function that can take two arguments, a success
handler and an error handler.
The success or the error handler in the then function will be called only once, after
the asynchronous task finishes.
The then function will also return a promise, to allow chaining multiple calls.
Each handler (success or error) can return a value, which will be passed to the next
function as an argument, in the chain of promises.
If a handler returns a promise (makes another asynchronous request), then the next
handler (success or error) will be called only after that request is finished.
So the previous example code might translate to something like the following, using
promises and the $http service(in AngularJs):
$http.get('/api/server-config').then(
function(configResponse) {
return $http.get('/api/' + configResponse.data.USER_END_POINT);
}
).then(
function(userResponse) {
return $http.get('/api/' + userResponse.data.id + '/items');
}
).then(
function(itemResponse) {
// Display items here
},
function(error) {
// Common error handling
}
);
Propagating Success and Error
Chaining promises is a very powerful technique that allows us to accomplish a lot of
functionality, like having a service make a server call, do some postprocessing of the
data, and then return the processed data to the controller. But when we work with
promise chains, there are a few things we need to keep in mind.
Consider the following hypothetical promise chain with three promises, P1, P2, and P3.
Each promise has a success handler and an error handler, so S1 and E1 for P1, S2 and
E2 for P2, and S3 and E3 for P3:
xhrCall()
.then(S1, E1) //P1
.then(S2, E2) //P2
.then(S3, E3) //P3
In the normal flow of things, where there are no errors, the application would flow
through S1, S2, and finally, S3. But in real life, things are never that smooth. P1 might
encounter an error, or P2 might encounter an error, triggering E1 or E2.
Consider the following cases:
• We receive a successful response from the server in P1, but the data returned is not
correct, or there is no data available on the server (think empty array). In such a
case, for the next promise P2, it should trigger the error handler E2.
• We receive an error for promise P2, triggering E2. But inside the handler, we have
data from the cache, ensuring that the application can load as normal. In that case,
we might want to ensure that after E2, S3 is called.
So each time we write a success or an error handler, we need to make a call—given our
current function, is this promise a success or a failure for the next handler in the promise
chain?
If we want to trigger the success handler for the next promise in the chain, we can just
return a value from the success or the error handler
If, on the other hand, we want to trigger the error handler for the next promise in the
chain, we can do that using a deferred object and calling its reject() method
Now What is deferred object?
Deferred objects in jQuery represents a unit of work that will be
completed later, typically asynchronously. Once the unit of work
completes, the deferred object can be set to resolved or failed.
A deferred object contains a promise object. Via the promise object
you can specify what is to happen when the unit of work completes. You
do so by setting callback functions on the promise object.
Deferred objects in Jquery : https://api.jquery.com/jquery.deferred/
Deferred objects in AngularJs : https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/service/$q
then() function is related to "Javascript promises" that are used in some libraries or frameworks like jQuery or AngularJS.
A promise is a pattern for handling asynchronous operations. The promise allows you to call a method called "then" that lets you specify the function(s) to use as the callbacks.
For more information see: http://wildermuth.com/2013/8/3/JavaScript_Promises
And for Angular promises: http://liamkaufman.com/blog/2013/09/09/using-angularjs-promises/
As of ECMAScript6
The .then() method has been included with pure JavaScript with Promises.
From the Mozilla documentation:
The then() method returns a Promise. It takes two arguments: callback
functions for the success and failure cases of the Promise.
The Promise object, in turn, is defined as
The Promise object is used for deferred and asynchronous
computations. A Promise represents an operation that hasn't completed
yet, but is expected in the future.
That is, the Promise acts as a placeholder for a value that is not yet computed, but shall be resolved in the future. And the .then() function is used to associate the functions to be invoked on the Promise when it is resolved - either as a success or a failure.
Before ECMAScript6
To my knowledge, there isn't a built-in then() method in javascript (at the time of this writing).
It appears that whatever it is that doSome("task") is returning has a method called then.
If you log the return result of doSome() to the console, you should be able to see the properties of what was returned.
console.log( myObj.doSome("task") ); // Expand the returned object in the
// console to see its properties.
Here is a thing I made for myself to clear out how things work. I guess others too can find this concrete example useful:
doit().then(function() { log('Now finally done!') });
log('---- But notice where this ends up!');
// For pedagogical reasons I originally wrote the following doit()-function so that
// it was clear that it is a promise. That way wasn't really a normal way to do
// it though, and therefore Slikts edited my answer. I therefore now want to remind
// you here that the return value of the following function is a promise, because
// it is an async function (every async function returns a promise).
async function doit() {
log('Calling someTimeConsumingThing');
await someTimeConsumingThing();
log('Ready with someTimeConsumingThing');
}
function someTimeConsumingThing() {
return new Promise(function(resolve,reject) {
setTimeout(resolve, 2000);
})
}
function log(txt) {
document.getElementById('msg').innerHTML += txt + '<br>'
}
<div id='msg'></div>
Here is a small JS_Fiddle.
then is a method callback stack which is available after a promise is resolved it is part of library like jQuery but now it is available in native JavaScript and below is the detail explanation how it works
You can do a Promise in native JavaScript : just like there are promises in jQuery, Every promise can be stacked and then can be called with Resolve and Reject callbacks, This is how you can chain asynchronous calls.
I forked and Edited from MSDN Docs on Battery charging status..
What this does is try to find out if user laptop or device is charging battery. then is called and you can do your work post success.
navigator
.getBattery()
.then(function(battery) {
var charging = battery.charging;
alert(charging);
})
.then(function(){alert("YeoMan : SINGH is King !!");});
Another es6 Example
function fetchAsync (url, timeout, onData, onError) {
…
}
let fetchPromised = (url, timeout) => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
fetchAsync(url, timeout, resolve, reject)
})
}
Promise.all([
fetchPromised("http://backend/foo.txt", 500),
fetchPromised("http://backend/bar.txt", 500),
fetchPromised("http://backend/baz.txt", 500)
]).then((data) => {
let [ foo, bar, baz ] = data
console.log(`success: foo=${foo} bar=${bar} baz=${baz}`)
}, (err) => {
console.log(`error: ${err}`)
})
Definition :: then is a method used to solve Asynchronous callbacks
this is introduced in ES6
Please find the proper documentation here Es6 Promises
.then returns a promise in async function.
Good Example would be:
var doSome = new Promise(function(resolve, reject){
resolve('I am doing something');
});
doSome.then(function(value){
console.log(value);
});
To add another logic to it, you can also add the reject('I am the rejected param') call the function and console.log it.
It's about the use of curly braces {} in our arrow functions:
Those 3 examples are doing the same thing (nothing, but have valid grammar, and are a valid Promise chain!)
new Promise(function(ok) {
ok(
/* myFunc1(param1, param2, ..) */
)
}).then(function(){
/* myFunc1 succeed */
/* Launch something else */
/* console.log(whateverparam1) */
/* myFunc2(whateverparam1, otherparam, ..) */
}).then(function(){
/* myFunc2 succeed */
/* Launch something else */
/* myFunc3(whatever38, ..) */
})
console.log("This code has no errors GG!")
The same logic using arrow functions shorthand without {}
new Promise((ok) =>
ok(
/* myFunc1(param1, param2, ..) */
).then(() =>
0 // HEY DID YOU NOTICE! A number that does nothing,
// but otherwise the parsing will fail!
// The code is pretty clean but have a major downside
// As arrow functions without {} can contains only one declaration
// console.log("something") will FAIL here
).then(() =>
"" // HEY DID YOU NOTICE! An empty string that does nothing,
// but otherwise the parsing will fail!
// As arrow functions without {} can contains only one declaration
// We can't add more code here, hence:
// console.log("something")
// Will break the whole promise
// This is likely the error in y(our) code ;)
))
console.log("This code has no errors GG!")
Arrow function with {}
new Promise( (ok) => {
ok(
/* myFunc1(param1, param2, ..) */
)
}).then( () => {
/* myFunc1 succeed */
/* Launch something else */
}).then( () => {
/* myFunc2 succeed */
/* Launch something else */
/* myFunc3(whatever38, ..) */
console.log("something")
/* More console logs! */
console.log("something else")
})
console.log("This code has no errors GG!")
I suspect doSome returns this, which is myObj, which also has a then method. Standard method chaining...
if doSome is not returning this, being the object on which doSome was executed, rest assured it is returning some object with a then method...
as #patrick points out, there is no then() for standard js
doSome("task")must be returning a promise object , and that promise always have a then function .So your code is just like this
promise.then(function(env) {
// logic
});
and you know this is just an ordinary call to member function .
In this case then() is a class method of the object returned by doSome() method.
The ".then()" function is wideley used for promised objects in Asynchoronus programming For Windows 8 Store Apps.
As far as i understood it works some way like a callback.
Find Details in this Documentantion
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh700330.aspx
Of Cause it could also be the name for any other defined function.
I am about 8 years late, well...anyways, I don't really know what then() does but maybe MDN might have an answer. Actually, I might actually understand it a little more.
This will show you all the information (hopefully), you need. Unless someone already posted this link.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Promise/then
The format is promise.prototype.then()
The promise and prototype are kind of like variables but not like variables in javascript, I mean like other things go there like navigator.getBattery().then() where this one actually exists but is barely used on the web, this one shows statuses about the battery of the device, more information and more on MDN if you are curious.