@tootallnate/once

What is @tootallnate/once?

The @tootallnate/once package is designed to ensure a given function can only be called once. It is particularly useful in scenarios where you want to prevent duplicate execution of event handlers or other functions that should only run a single time during the lifecycle of an application.

What are @tootallnate/once's main functionalities?

Ensuring a function is only called once

This feature allows you to wrap any function with `once` to ensure it can only be executed a single time. Subsequent calls to the wrapped function will have no effect, preventing duplicate execution.

const once = require('@tootallnate/once');

function myFunction() {
  console.log('This will only be logged once.');
}

const wrappedFunction = once(myFunction);
wrappedFunction(); // Logs: 'This will only be logged once.'
wrappedFunction(); // Does nothing on subsequent calls.

Other packages similar to @tootallnate/once

once

The 'once' package offers similar functionality to @tootallnate/once by ensuring a function can only be executed once. It's a widely used package for handling one-time events or operations. The main difference lies in their implementation and possibly the API surface, but both aim to solve the same problem of preventing duplicate function execution.

lodash.once

Part of the Lodash library, lodash.once provides a utility function to ensure a given function can only be called once. While it offers similar functionality to @tootallnate/once, it comes as part of the larger Lodash utility library, which includes a wide range of functions for different purposes. This might be preferable for projects already using Lodash for other utilities.

README

@tootallnate/once

Creates a Promise that waits for a single event

Installation

Install with npm:

$ npm install @tootallnate/once

API

once(emitter: EventEmitter, name: string, opts?: OnceOptions): Promise<[...Args]>

Creates a Promise that waits for event name to occur on emitter, and resolves the promise with an array of the values provided to the event handler. If an error event occurs before the event specified by name, then the Promise is rejected with the error argument.

import once from '@tootallnate/once';
import { EventEmitter } from 'events';

const emitter = new EventEmitter();

setTimeout(() => {
    emitter.emit('foo', 'bar');
}, 100);

const [result] = await once(emitter, 'foo');
console.log({ result });
// { result: 'bar' }

Promise Strong Typing

The main feature that this module provides over other "once" implementations is that the Promise that is returned is strongly typed based on the type of emitter and the name of the event. Some examples are shown below.

The process "exit" event contains a single number for exit code:

const [code] = await once(process, 'exit');
//     ^ number

A child process "exit" event contains either an exit code or a signal:

const child = spawn('echo', []);
const [code, signal] = await once(child, 'exit');
//     ^ number | null
//           ^ string | null

A forked child process "message" event is type any, so you can cast the Promise directly:

const child = fork('file.js');

// With `await`
const [message, _]: [WorkerPayload, unknown] = await once(child, 'message');

// With Promise
const messagePromise: Promise<[WorkerPayload, unknown]> = once(child, 'message');

// Better yet would be to leave it as `any`, and validate the payload
// at runtime with i.e. `ajv` + `json-schema-to-typescript`

If the TypeScript definition does not contain an overload for the specified event name, then the Promise will have type unknown[] and your code will need to narrow the result manually:

interface CustomEmitter extends EventEmitter {
    on(name: 'foo', listener: (a: string, b: number) => void): this;
}

const emitter: CustomEmitter = new EventEmitter();

// "foo" event is a defined overload, so it's properly typed
const fooPromise = once(emitter, 'foo');
//    ^ Promise<[a: string, b: number]>

// "bar" event in not a defined overload, so it gets `unknown[]`
const barPromise = once(emitter, 'bar');
//    ^ Promise<unknown[]>

OnceOptions

• signal - AbortSignal instance to unbind event handlers before the Promise has been fulfilled.