What is neo-async?
The neo-async package is a utility module which provides straight-forward, powerful functions for working with asynchronous JavaScript. It is similar to the async package but with some performance improvements.
What are neo-async's main functionalities?
Control Flow
Execute a series of functions in sequential order. Each function is passed a callback it must call on completion.
async.series([
function(callback) {
// do some stuff ...
callback(null, 'one');
},
function(callback) {
// do some more stuff ...
callback(null, 'two');
}
],
function(err, results) {
// results is now equal to ['one', 'two']
});
Collections
Apply a function to each item in a collection and collect the results.
async.map(['file1','file2','file3'], fs.stat, function(err, results) {
// results is now an array of stats for each file
});
Utilities
Call a function a certain number of times and collect the results.
async.times(5, function(n, next) {
createUser(n, function(err, user) {
next(err, user);
});
}, function(err, users) {
// we should now have 5 users
});
Other packages similar to neo-async
async
The original async package offers a wide array of functions for working with asynchronous code. Neo-async claims to offer similar functionality with improved performance.
bluebird
Bluebird is a full-featured promise library with a focus on innovative features and performance. It can be used as an alternative to neo-async for handling asynchronous operations using promises instead of callbacks.
q
Q is a tool for making and composing asynchronous promises in JavaScript. It's an older promise library that can serve similar purposes to neo-async but with a different style of handling async operations.