promise-toolbox

promise-toolbox

Essential utils for promises.

Features:

• small (< 150 KB with all dependencies, < 5 KB with gzip)
• nice with ES2015 / ES2016 syntax

Install

Installation of the npm package:

> npm install --save promise-toolbox

Usage

If your environment may not natively support promises, you should use a polyfill such as native-promise-only.

On Node, if you want to use a specific promise implementation, Bluebird for instance to have better performance, you can override the global Promise variable:

global.Promise = require('bluebird')

Note that it should only be done at the application level, never in a library!

Decorators

cancellable

Make your async functions cancellable.

import { cancellable } from 'promise-toolbox'

const asyncFunction = cancellable(async function (cancellation, a, b) {
  cancellation.catch(() => {
    // do stuff regarding the cancellation request.
  })

  // do other stuff.
})

const promise = asyncFunction('foo', 'bar')
promise.cancel()

If the function is a method of a class or an object, you can use cancellable as a decorator:

class MyClass {
  @cancellable
  async asyncMethod (cancellation, a, b) {
    cancellation.catch(() => {
      // do stuff regarding the cancellation request.
    })

  // do other stuff.
  }
}

Functions

defer()

Discouraged but sometimes necessary way to create a promise.

import { defer } from 'promise-toolbox'

const { promise, resolve } = defer()

promise.then((value) => {
  console.log(value)
})

resolve(3)

fromCallback((cb) => fn(arg1, ..., argn, cb))

Easiest and most efficient way to promisify a function call.

import { fromCallback } from 'promise-toolbox'

fromCallback((cb) => fs.readFile('foo.txt', cb))
  .then((content) => {
    console.log(content)
  })

isPromise(value)

import { isPromise } from 'promise-toolbox'

if (isPromise(foo())) {
  console.log('foo() returns a promise')
}

join(p1, ..., pn, cb) / join([p1, ..., pn], cb)

Easiest and most efficient way to wait for a fixed amount of promises.

import { join } from 'promise-toolbox'

join(getPictures(), getComments(), getTweets(), (pictures, comments, tweets) => {
  console.log(`in total: ${pictures.length + comments.length + tweets.length}`)
})

Pseudo-methods

This function can be used as if they were methods, i.e. by passing the promise (or promises) as the context.

This is extremely easy using ES2016's bind syntax.

const promises = [
  Promise.resolve('foo'),
  Promise.resolve('bar')
]

promises::all().then((values) => {
  console.log(values)
})
// → [ 'foo', 'bar' ]

If you are still an older version of ECMAScript, fear not: simply pass the promise (or promises) as the first argument of the .call() method:

var promises = [
  Promise.resolve('foo'),
  Promise.resolve('bar')
]

all.call(promises).then(function (values) {
  console.log(values)
})
// → [ 'foo', 'bar' ]

promises::all([ mapper ])

Waits for all promises of a collection to be resolved.

Contrary to the standard Promise.all(), this function works also with objects.

import { all } from 'promise-toolbox'

[
  Promise.resolve('foo'),
  Promise.resolve('bar')
]::all().then((value) => {
  console.log(value)
  // → ['foo', 'bar']
})

{
  foo: Promise.resolve('foo'),
  bar: Promise.resolve('bar')
}::all().then((value) => {
  console.log(value)
  // → {
  //   foo: 'foo',
  //   bar: 'bar'
  // }
})

promise::asCallback(cb)

Register a node-style callback on this promise.

import { asCallback } from 'promise-toolbox'

// This function can be used either with node-style callbacks or with
// promises.
function getDataFor (input, callback) {
  return dataFromDataBase(input)::asCallback(callback)
}

promise::catchPlus(predicate, cb)

Similar to Promise#catch() but:

• support predicates
• do not catch ReferenceError, SyntaxError or TypeError unless they match a predicate because they are usually programmer errors and should be handled separately.

somePromise.then(() => {
  return a.b.c.d()
})::catchPlus(TypeError, ReferenceError, (reason) => {
  // Will end up here on programmer error
})::catchPlus(NetworkError, TimeoutError, (reason) => {
  // Will end up here on expected everyday network errors
})::catchPlus((reason) => {
  // Catch any unexpected errors
})

promise::delay(ms)

Delays the resolution of a promise by ms milliseconds.

Note: the rejection is not delayed.

console.log(await Promise.resolve('500ms passed')::delay(500))
// → 500 ms passed

Also works with a value:

console.log(await delay.call('500ms passed', 500))
// → 500 ms passed

promises::forEach(cb)

Iterates in order over a collection of promises waiting for each of them to be resolved.

[
  Promise.resolve('foo'),
  Promise.resolve('bar'),
]::forEach((value) => {
  console.log(value)
})
// →
// foo
// bar

promise::lastly(cb)

Execute a handler regardless of the promise fate. Similar to the finally block in synchronous codes.

The resolution value or rejection reason of the initial promise if forwarded.

import { lastly } from 'promise-toolbox'

function ajaxGetAsync (url) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest
    xhr.addEventListener('error', reject)
    xhr.addEventListener('load', resolve)
    xhr.open('GET', url)
    xhr.send(null)
  })::lastly(() => {
    $('#ajax-loader-animation').hide()
  })
}

fn::promisify([ context ]) / obj::promisifyAll()

Creates async functions taking node-style callbacks, create new ones returning promises.

import fs from 'fs'
import { promisify, promisifyAll } from 'promise-toolbox'

// Promisify a single function.
//
// If possible, the function name is kept and the new length is set.
const readFile = fs.readFile::promisify()

// Or all functions (own or inherited) exposed on a object.
const fsPromise = fs::promisifyAll()

readFile(__filename).then((content) => console.log(content))

fsPromise.readFile(__filename).then((content) => console.log(content))

promise::reflect()

Returns a promise which resolves to an objects which reflects the resolution of this promise.

import { reflect } from 'promise-toolbox'

const inspection = await promise::reflect()

if (inspection.isFulfilled()) {
  console.log(inspection.value())
} else {
  console.error(inspection.reason())
}

promises::some(count)

Waits for count promises in a collection to be resolved.

import { some } from 'promise-toolbox'

const [ first, seconds ] = await [
  ping('ns1.example.org'),
  ping('ns2.example.org'),
  ping('ns3.example.org'),
  ping('ns4.example.org')
]::some(2)

promise::timeout(ms)

Automatically rejects a promise if it is still pending after ms milliseconds.

import { timeout } from 'promise-toolbox'

await doLongOperation()::timeout(100)

Development

Installing dependencies

> npm install

Compilation

The sources files are watched and automatically recompiled on changes.

> npm run dev

Tests

> npm run test-dev

Contributions

Contributions are very welcomed, either on the documentation or on the code.

You may:

• report any issue you've encountered;
• fork and create a pull request.

License

ISC © Julien Fontanet