promise-toolbox

promise-toolbox

Essential utils for promises.

Features:

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

Node & Browserify/Webpack

Installation of the npm package:

> npm install --save promise-toolbox

Browser

You can directly use the build provided at unpkg.com:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/promise-toolbox@0.8/dist/umd.js"></script>

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!

Cancelation

This library provides an implementation of CancelToken from the cancelable promises specification.

A cancel token is an object which can be passed to asynchronous functions to represent cancelation state.

import { CancelToken } from 'promise-toolbox'

Creation

A cancel token is created by the initiator of the async work and its cancelation state may be requested at any time.

// Create a token which requests cancelation when a button is clicked.
const token = new CancelToken(cancel => {
  $('#some-button').on('click', () => cancel('button clicked'))
})

const { cancel, token } = CancelToken.source()

Consumption

The receiver of the token (the function doing the async work) can:

1. synchronously check whether cancelation has been requested
2. synchronously throw if cancelation has been requested
3. register a callback that will be executed if cancelation is requested
4. pass the token to subtasks

// 1.
if (token.reason) {
  console.log('cancelation has been requested', token.reason.message)
}

// 2.
try {
  token.throwIfRequested()
} catch (reason) {
  console.log('cancelation has been requested', reason.message)
}

// 3.
token.promise.then(reason => {
  console.log('cancelation has been requested', reason.message)
})

// 4.
subtask(token)

Is cancel token?

if (CancelToken.isCancelToken(value)) {
  console.log('value is a cancel token')
}

Combining cancel tokens

Create a token which is canceled as soon as one token amongst many is.

// `token` will be canceled (synchronously) as soon as `token1` or
// `token2` or token3` is, with the same reason.
const token = CancelToken.race([ token1, token2, token3 ])

Forking cancel tokens

Create a new token which is canceled as soon as the original token is or as soon as the executor decides.

// token is canceled as soon as otherToken is or when the button is
// clicked.
const token = otherToken.fork(cancel => {
  $('#some-button').on('click', () => cancel('button clicked'))
})

If no executor is passed, #fork() works like .source() and returns an object with a cancel function and a token:

const { cancel, token } = otherToken.fork()

@cancelable decorator

Make your async functions cancelable.

If the first argument passed to the cancelable function is not a cancel token, a new one is created and injected and the returned promise will have a cancel() method.

import { cancelable, CancelToken } from 'promise-toolbox'

const asyncFunction = cancelable(async ($cancelToken, a, b) => {
  $cancelToken.promise.then(() => {
    // do stuff regarding the cancelation request.
  })

  // do other stuff.
})

// Either a cancel token is passed:
const source = CancelToken.source()
const promise1 = asyncFunction(source.token, 'foo', 'bar')
source.cancel('reason')

// Or the returned promise will have a cancel() method:
const promise2 = asyncFunction('foo', 'bar')
promise2.cancel('reason')

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

class MyClass {
  @cancelable
  async asyncMethod ($cancelToken, a, b) {
    // ...
  }
}

Resource management

See Bluebird documentation for a good explanation.

import { disposer, using } from 'promise-toolbox'

const getConnection = () =>
  // disposer() is used to associate a disposer to a resource
  //
  // The returned resource can only be used with using()
  db.connect()::disposer(connection =>
    connection.close()
  )

using(getConnection(), getConnection(), (connection1, connection2) => {
  // So something with connection1 and connection2
})).then(() => {
  // Both connections are now closed
})

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}`)
})

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

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 = promisify(fs.readFile)

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

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

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

try(fn) / attempt(fn)

Starts a chain of promises.

import PromiseToolbox from 'promise-toolbox'

const getUserById = id => PromiseToolbox.try(() => {
  if (typeof id !== 'number') {
    throw new Error('id must be a number')
  }
  return db.getUserById(id)
})

Note: similar to Promise.resolve().then(fn) but calls fn() synchronously.

wrapApply(fn, args, [thisArg]) / wrapCall(fn, arg, [thisArg])

Wrap a call to a function to always return a promise.

function getUserById (id) {
  if (typeof id !== 'number') {
    throw new TypeError('id must be a number')
  }
  return db.getUser(id)
}

wrapCall(getUserById, 'foo').catch(error => {
  // id must be a number
})

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

collection::forEach(cb)

Iterates in order over a collection, or promise of collection, which contains a mix of promises and values, waiting for each call of cb to be resolved before the next one.

The returned promise will resolve to undefined when the iteration is complete.

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

  // Wait for the promise to be resolve before the next item.
  return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 10))
})
// →
// 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 is forwarded unless the callback rejects.

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()
  })
}

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::tap(onResolved, onRejected)

Like .then() but the original resolution/rejection is forwarded.

Like ::lastly(), if the callback rejects, it takes over the original resolution/rejection.

import { tap } from 'promise-toolbox'

// Contrary to .then(), using ::tap() does not change the resolution
// value.
const promise1 = Promise.resolve(42)::tap(value => {
  console.log(value)
})

// Like .then, the second param is used in case of rejection.
const promise2 = Promise.reject(42)::tap(null, reason => {
  console.error(reason)
})

promise::timeout(ms, [cb])

Call a callback if the promise is still pending after ms milliseconds. Its resolution/rejection is forwarded.

If the callback is omitted, the returned promise is rejected with a Timeout error.

import { timeout } from 'promise-toolbox'

await doLongOperation()::timeout(100, () => {
  return doFallbackOperation()
})

await doLongOperation()::timeout(100)

Development

# Install dependencies
> npm install

# Run the tests
> npm test

# Continuously compile
> npm run dev

# Continuously run the tests
> npm run dev-test

# Build for production (automatically called by npm install)
> npm run build

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