@bigab/async-transform

async-transform

A tiny utility function for composing asynchronous transformations

• great for unit testing
• composable
• works great with ES2017's async/await

Install

npm install async-transform

ES6

With StealJS, you can import this module with ES6 imports:

import plugin from 'async-transform';

CommonJS

var plugin = require("async-transform");

Standalone

Load the global version of the plugin:

<script src='./node_modules/async-transform/dist/global/async-transform.js'></script>
<script>
asyncTransform([transformFunctions], val);
</script>

Use

Async-Transform is a simple utility function, that takes an array of transform functions and a value and runs each transform function in sequence, passing the result of the last transform function (or value at the start) as the sole argument. asyncTransform returns a promise, which makes chaining and composing transform functions trivial.

A transform function is just a function that takes a single argument as the value and returns either a new value, or a promise that will resolve to a new value.

Basic use

// some are sync transforms, some are async
const transformFunctions = [
  v => v+1,
  v => Promise.resolve(v*2),
  v => v*v,
  v => Promise.resolve({foo:v})
];

asyncTransform(funcs, 1)
  .then( v => console.log(v) ); // { foo: 16 }

Partial application

You can also omit the value argument and asyncTransform will return a transform function that will return a promise:

const transformFunctions = [
  v => v+1,
  v => Promise.resolve(v*2),
  v => v*v,
  v => Promise.resolve({ value: v })
];

const process = asyncTransform( transformFunctions );

process(3)
  .then( v => console.log(v) ) // { value: 64 }

Since the partial application option returns what is considered a transform function, you can then use that return value to compose more complicated async-transformations, built up from easily testable pieces.

Setting context

You can also add an optional 3rd argument, which is the context the transformFunctions will be run with (using Function.prototype.call).

class Thing {
  constructor(baseValue) {
    this.value = baseValue;
  }
  addValue(v) {
    return v + this.value;
  }
  multiplyValue(v) {
    return v * this.value;
  }
  wrap(v) {
    return { value: v };
  }
  calculate(v) {
    const transforms = [
      this.addValue,
      this.multiplyValue,
      this.wrap
    ];
    return asyncTransform(transforms, v, this);
  }
};

const process = asyncTransform( funcs );

process(3)
  .then( v => console.log(v) ) // { value: 64 }

If you want to use the partial application option while also setting a context, just make sure to pass undefined for your value.

/*...*/
buildDocumentationSite( filesGlob ) {
  const convertFilesToDocsJSON = asyncTransform([
    readFiles,
    parseFiles
  ], undefined, this.plugins);

  const docsToSiteData = asyncTransform([
    createSiteStructure,
    orderPages,
    orderMenu
  ], undefined, this.plugins);

  const generateDocsFromTemplates = asyncTransform([
    generateHTMLSite,
    generatePDF,
    generateMarkdownDocs
  ], undefined, this.templates);

  return asyncTransform([
    convertFilesToDocsJSON,
    docsToSiteData,
    generateDocsFromTemplates
  ], filesGlob);
}
/*...*/

Though ES2017's async/await feature may make hand-rolling your own async transformations super easy, asyncTransform still has a place due to it's context binding and dynamic composability, but it still works well with async/await.

async function get( req ) {
  const requestsToServer = await asyncTransform([
    checkBootstrapCache,
    checkLocalStore
  ], req);
  const res = await axios.get( requestsToServer );
  const model = await asyncTransform([
    parseResponse,
    extractData,
    instantiateModel
  ], res);
  addToLocalStore( model );
  return model;
}

Composition

Because the partial application option of asyncTransform returns a transform function, composition becomes trivial, and allows you to break down the problem into tiny, easily testable, bite-sized pieces and compose those pieces into a powerful asynchronous transformation function.

const hooks = {
  /*...*/
  findAll: {
    before: [
      authenticate({ field: 'user' }),
      authorize,
      convertToQueryParams,
      transformFields({ 'id': '_id' })
    ],
    after: [
      payload => payload.data,
      transformFields({ '_id': 'id' })
    ]
  }
  /*...*/
}

const beforeFindAllHooks = asyncTransform(hooks.findAll.before);

const afterFindAllHooks = asyncTransform(hooks.findAll.after);

export const findAll = asyncTransform([
  beforeFindAllHooks,
  service.findAll,
  afterFindAllHooks
]);

/* use:
 findAll({ completed: true })
  .then( completedTasks => display( completedTasks ) )
  .catch( err => displayError( err.reason ) )
*/

The example above, describes a complex findAll operation broken down into easy to test functions that do one thing well: authenticate, authorize, convertToQueryParams, and transformFields. By abstracting that complexity away, you can easily understand what findAll does without having to understand each piece until the point you need to.

Async-Transform is not a lot of code, it probably doesn't need to be it's own package, you could just copy the source into your own project. It is really more of a pattern. By unifying an interface: a function that takes on value and returns a new value or promise of a value we allow for composition and easy testing, and it's surprising how many problems can be solved using this pattern.

---

Though async-transform is pretty powerful and flexible, it still can only return one asynchronous value; What if you wanted to return more than one value, over time? When you want to take it to the next level, checkout RxJS and other FRP libraries in JavaScript. Good luck, and good learning!

Contributing

Contributing

Making a Build

To make a build of the distributables into dist/ in the cloned repository run

npm run build

Running the tests

Tests can run in the browser by opening a webserver in the root, or running npm run develop and visiting the /src/test page. Automated tests that run the tests from the command line in Firefox can be run with

npm test