Proper way using async/await making parallel calls - node.js

Question

I am struggling with how to do this properly in nodejs. This tries to do two things in parallel:
downloads a webpage using axios
creates a directory
When those are finished:
save result asynchronously to a file in de created directory
Then waits until done
const uuidv1 = require('uuid/v1')
const fs = require('fs')
const util = require('util')
const axios = require('axios')
const path = require('path')
const mkdir = util.promisify(fs.mkdir)
const writeFile = util.promisify(fs.writeFile)
const downloadPage = async (url='http://nodeprogram.com') => {
console.log('downloading ', url)
const fetchPage = async function() {
const folderName = uuidv1()
return axios
.all([
mkdir(folderName),
axios.get(url)
])
.then(axios.spread(function (f, r) {
writeFile(path.join(__dirname, folderName, 'file.html'), r.data);
}));
}
await fetchPage()
}
downloadPage(process.argv[2])

Answer 1

Your question and sample are looking contradictory. Question says, you need to make use of async and await to make parallel calls, but your sample code shows you need sequential calls instead of parallel.
Best use of Async/Awaits are for making sequential calls.
async function is a kind of shorthand function for 'Promise', were things are done implicitly like returning will be considered as 'resolve'.
await should always be within async function, add await on functions you need to wait for before proceeding further.
Syntax change in await function is, instead of
somePromiseFunctionCall().then( (someVarible) => {...}).catch(e => {})
you need to use
const asyncFunction = async (parameters) => {
try {
// First Function call that returns Promise / async
someVariable = await somePromiseFunctionCall();
// Second (sequential) call that returns Promise / async
someNewVariable = await someotherPromiseFunctionCall();
} catch(e) {
throw new Error(e);
}
}
Now, in your sample, if your requirement is to wait for axios to return and then create folder and then write the result to file, that can be done using async and await.

Answer 2

Change this:
writeFile(path.join(__dirname, folderName, 'file.html'), r.data);
to this:
return writeFile(path.join(__dirname, folderName, 'file.html'), r.data);
You need to return the promise from writeFile so it is added to the chain so that the promise you're returning from fetchPage() is linked to the writeFile() operation. As your code was originally, the writeFile() operation is proceeding on it's own and is not connected at all to the promise you were returning from fetchPage() so when you do:
await fetchPage()
it wasn't awaiting the writeFile() operation.
A cleaned up version could look like this:
const downloadPage = (url='http://nodeprogram.com') => {
console.log('downloading ', url)
// don't really need this separate fetchPage() function
const fetchPage = function() {
const folderName = uuidv1()
return axios
.all([
mkdir(folderName),
axios.get(url)
])
.then(axios.spread(function (f, r) {
return writeFile(path.join(__dirname, folderName, 'file.html'), r.data);
}));
}
return fetchPage()
}
Then, you would use it like this:
downloadPage().then(() => {
// page is downloaded now
});
Or, inside an async function, you could do:
await downloadPage();
// page is downloaded here
Note, that I removed several cases of async and await as they weren't needed. await fetchPage() wasn't doing you any good at the end of downloadPage(). From a timing point of view, that does the exact same thing as return fetchPage() and this way, you're actually resolving with the resolved value of fetchPage() which can be more useful. There did not appear to be any reason to use async or await in downloadPage(). Keep in mind that an async function still returns a promise and the caller of that function still has to use .then() or await on the return value from that function. So, using await inside of downloadPage() doesn't change that for the caller.