asyncbox

asyncbox

A collection of ES7 async/await utilities. Install via NPM:

npm install asyncbox

Then, behold!

Sleep

An async/await version of setTimeout

import { sleep } from 'asyncbox';

async function myFn () {
    // do some stuff
    await sleep(1000); // wait one second
    // do some other stuff
};

withTimeout

Race a promise against a deadline. If the promise settles first, its result is returned; if the deadline passes first, the call rejects. By default that rejection is a TimeoutError whose message includes how long you waited; you can pass a non-empty string for a custom TimeoutError message, or an Error instance to reject with that exact value. Omitted or other falsy third arguments (except a real Error) use the default timeout message.

withTimeout only stops waiting on the promise: the underlying async work keeps running (there is no built-in cancellation). Aborting a fetch, clearing timers, or tearing down other resources is the caller’s responsibility if you need that behavior.

import { withTimeout, TimeoutError } from 'asyncbox';

// default: TimeoutError, message includes timeoutMs
await withTimeout(fetch('/slow').then((r) => r.json()), 5000);

// custom TimeoutError message
await withTimeout(slowWork(), 10_000, 'slowWork exceeded 10s');

// reject with a specific error you constructed (same object on timeout)
const err = new MyAppError('upstream did not respond');
await withTimeout(slowWork(), 5000, err);

Cancelling an in-flight fetch when the timeout wins:

import { withTimeout, TimeoutError } from 'asyncbox';

async function fetchJsonWithTimeout(url, timeoutMs) {
  const controller = new AbortController();
  const body = fetch(url, { signal: controller.signal }).then((r) => r.json());
  try {
    return await withTimeout(body, timeoutMs);
  } catch (err) {
    if (err instanceof TimeoutError) {
      controller.abort();
    }
    throw err;
  }
}

Long Sleep

Sometimes Promise.delay or setTimeout are inaccurate for large wait times. To safely wait for these long times (e.g. in the 5+ minute range), you can use longSleep:

import { longSleep } from 'asyncbox';

async function myFn () {
  await longSleep(10 * 60 * 1000); // wait for 10 mins
  await longSleep(5000, {thresholdMs: 10000}); // wait for 5s. Anything below the thresholdMs will use a single sleep
  await longSleep(5000, {intervalMs: 500}); // check the clock every 500ms to see if waiting should stop
}

You can also pass a progressCb option which is a callback function that receives an object with the properties elapsedMs, timeLeft, and progress. This will be called on every wait interval so you can do your wait logging or whatever.

function progressCb({elapsedMs, timeLeft, progress}) {
  console.log(`We are {progress * 100}% complete waiting`);
}
await longSleep(10 * 60 * 1000, {progressCb});

Retry

An async/await way of running a method until it doesn't throw an error

import { sleep, retry } from 'asyncbox';

async function flakeyFunction (val1, val2) {
    if (val1 < 10) {
        throw new Error("this is a flakey value");
    }
    await sleep(1000);
    return val1 + val2;
}

async function myFn () {
    let randVals = [Math.random() * 100, Math.random() * 100];

    // run flakeyFunction up to 3 times until it succeeds.
    // if it doesn't, we'll get the error thrown in this context
    let randSum = await retry(3, flakeyFunction, ...randVals);
}

You can also use retryInterval to add a sleep in between retries. This can be useful if you want to throttle how fast we retry:

await retryInterval(3, 1500, expensiveFunction, ...args);

Filter/Map

Filter and map are pretty handy concepts, and now you can write filter and map functions that execute asynchronously!

import { asyncmap, asyncfilter } from 'asyncbox';

Then in your async functions, you can do:

const items = [1, 2, 3, 4];
const slowSquare = async (n) => { await sleep(5); return n * n; };
let newItems = await asyncmap(items, slowSquare);
console.log(newItems);  // [1, 4, 9, 16];

const slowEven = async (n) => { await sleep(5); return n % 2 === 0; };
newItems = await asyncfilter(items, slowEven);
console.log(newItems); // [2, 4];

By default, asyncmap and asyncfilter run their operations in parallel, but you can set the third argument to false to enforce sequential execution, or set a custom concurrency pool limit using {concurrency: <number>}:

const items = [1, 2, 3, 4];
const slowSquare = async (n) => { await sleep(5); return n * n; };
// this will run sequentially (~20ms)
const newItemsSeq = await asyncmap(items, slowSquare, false);
// this will handle 2 items at a time (~10ms)
const newItemsMaxTwo = await asyncmap(items, slowSquare, {concurrency: 2});

waitForCondition

Takes a condition (a function returning a boolean or boolean promise), and waits until the condition is true.

Throws a /Condition unmet/ error if the condition has not been satisfied within the allocated time, unless an error is provided in the options, as the error property, which is either thrown itself, or used as the message.

The condition result is returned if it is not falsy. If the condition throws an error then this exception will be immediately passed through.

The default options are: { waitMs: 5000, intervalMs: 500 }

// define your own condition
function condFn () { return Math.random()*1000 > 995; }

// with default params
await waitForCondition(condFn);

// with options
await waitForCondition(condFn, {
  waitMs: 300000,
  intervalMs: 10000
});

// pass a logger to get extra debug info
await waitForCondition(condFn, {
  waitMs: 300000,
  intervalMs: 10000
  logger: myLogger // expects a debug method
});

// pass an error string to get that message in the resulting exception
try {
  await waitForCondition(condFn, {
    error: 'Unable to satisfy condition'
  });
} catch (err) {
  // err.message === 'Unable to satisfy condition'
}

// pass an error instance to be thrown
const error = new Error('Unable to satisfy condition');
try {
  await waitForCondition(condFn, {
    error: error
  });
} catch (err) {
  // err === error
}

Run the tests

npm test

Similar packages

Other packages similar to asyncbox

async

The `async` package provides a collection of functions for working with asynchronous JavaScript. It includes utilities for parallel and sequential execution, as well as flow control. Compared to asyncbox, it offers a broader range of utilities but may be more complex to use.

bluebird

The `bluebird` package is a fully-featured Promise library that provides additional functionality over native Promises, such as cancellation, progress tracking, and more. While it doesn't focus on utilities like asyncbox, it enhances promise handling and chaining.

p-retry

The `p-retry` package is a simple utility for retrying failed promises. It is similar to the retry functionality in asyncbox but is more focused and configurable, offering options like exponential backoff.