Proper use of artifacts.require? - truffle

I am trying to understand how artifacts.require should be used. I've seen the standard paragraph describing it as being for migrations and testing. From this I infer that the globally scoped artifacts with its method require are automatically defined by the truffle executable tool when doing migrations or running tests. However, I am working with some code that uses artifacts.require outside the context of any migrations or tests, rather, this code just needs to do the usual at and new. However, in this context, the object artifacts is not defined.
Do I have the right picture here? Is this an appropriate use of artifacts.require? If so, what must be done to make it be defined outside of migrations and testing?
Thanks for any suggestions!

artifacts.require really isn't meant to be used outside of a test. this is where it is defined: https://github.com/trufflesuite/truffle-core/blob/3e96337c32aaae6885105661fd1a6792ab4494bf/lib/test.js#L240
when in production code you should load the compiled contract into your application using truffle-contract https://github.com/trufflesuite/truffle-contract
here is a short example (from http://truffleframework.com/docs/getting_started/packages-npm#within-javascript-code and see
http://truffleframework.com/docs/getting_started/contracts#making-a-transaction )
var contract = require("truffle-contract");
var contractJson = require("example-truffle-library/build/contracts/SimpleNameRegistry.json");
var SimpleNameRegistry = contract(contractJson);
SimpleNameRegistry
.deployed()
.then(function(instance) {
return instance.setRegistry(address);
})
.then(function(result) {
// If this callback is called, the transaction was successfully processed.
alert("Transaction successful!")
})
.catch(function(e) {
// There was an error! Handle it.
});

Related

typescript replaceent for require inside a function in nodejs

I trying to convert a nodejs project to TypeScript and while mostly I did not faced really difficult obstacles during this process, the codebase has few gotchas like this, mostly in startup code:
function prepareConfiguration() {
let cloudConfigLoader = require('../utils/cloud-config');
return cloudConfigLoader.ensureForFreshConfig().then(function() {
//do some stuff
});
}
I may be need just an advice on which approach for refactoring this has less code changes to be made to make it work in TypeScript fashion.
In response to comments, more details:
That require loads the node module, not a JSON file. From that module the ensureForFreshConfig function contacts with a cloud service to load a list of values to rebuild a configuration state object.
Problem is that mdule was made in standard node approach of "module is isngleton object" and its independencies include auth component that will be ready only when the shown require call is made. I know it is not best a way to do so..
Typesript does not allow "mport that module later" except with dynamyc import which is problematic as mentiond in comment.
The "good" approach is to refactor that part of startup and make the ensureForFreshConfig and its dependency to initiate its ntenras on demand via cnstructors.. I just hoped ofr some soluiton to reduce things to be remade durng this transition to the TypeScript
import { cloudConfigLoader } from '../utils/cloud-config'
async function prepareConfiguration() {
await cloudConfigLoader.ensureForFreshConfig()
// do some stuff
// return some-stuff
}
The function is to be used as follows.
await prepareConfiguration()

Is it possible to have "thread" local variables in Node?

I would like to store a variable that is shared between all stack frames (top down) in a call chain. Much like ThreadLocal in Java or C#.
I have found https://github.com/othiym23/node-continuation-local-storage but it keeps loosing context for all my use cases and it seems that you have to patch the libraries you are using to make it local-storage-aware which is more or less impossible for our code base.
Are there really not any other options available in Node? Could domains, stacktraces or something like that be used to get a handle (id) to the current call chain. If this is possible I can write my own thread-local implementation.
Yes, it is possible. Thomas Watson has spoken about it at NodeConf Oslo 2016 in his Instrumenting Node.js in Production (alt.link).
It uses Node.js tracing - AsyncWrap (which should eventually become a well-established part of the public Node API). You can see an example in the open-source Opbeat Node agent or, perhaps even better, check out the talk slides and example code.
Now that more than a year has passed since I originally asked this question, it finally looks like we have a working solution in the form of Async Hooks in Node.js 8.
https://nodejs.org/api/async_hooks.html
The API is still experimental, but even then it looks like there is already a fork of Continuation-Local-Storage that uses this new API internally.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/cls-hooked
TLS is used in some places where ordinary, single-threaded programs would use global variables but where this would be inappropriate in multithreaded cases.
Since javascript does not have exposed threads, global variable is the simplest answer to your question, but using one is a bad practice.
You should instead use a closure: just wrap all your asynchronous calls into a function and define your variable there.
Functions and callbacks created within closure
(function() (
var visibleToAll=0;
functionWithCallback( params, function(err,result) {
visibleToAll++;
// ...
anotherFunctionWithCallback( params, function(err,result) {
visibleToAll++
// ...
});
});
functionReturningPromise(params).then(function(result) {
visibleToAll++;
// ...
}).then(function(result) {
visibleToAll++;
// ...
});
))();
Functions created outside of closure
Should you require your variable to be visible inside functions not defined within request scope, you can create a context object instead and pass it to functions:
(function c() (
var ctx = { visibleToAll: 0 };
functionWithCallback( params, ctx, function(err,result) {
ctx.visibleToAll++;
// ...
anotherFunctionWithCallback( params, ctx, function(err,result) {
ctx.visibleToAll++
// ...
});
});
functionReturningPromise(params,ctx).then(function(result) {
ctx.visibleToAll++;
// ...
}).then(function(result) {
ctx.visibleToAll++;
// ...
});
))();
Using approach above all of your functions called inside c() get reference to same ctx object, but different calls to c() have their own contexts. In typical use case, c() would be your request handler.
Binding context to this
You could bind your context object to this in called functions by invoking them via Function.prototype.call:
functionWithCallback.call(ctx, ...)
...creating new function instance with Function.prototype.bind:
var boundFunctionWithCallback = functionWithCallback.bind(ctx)
...or using promise utility function like bluebird's .bind
Promise.bind(ctx, functionReturningPromise(data) ).then( ... )
Any of these would make ctx available inside your function as this:
this.visibleToAll ++;
...however it has no real advantage over passing context around - your function still has to be aware of context passed via this, and you could accidentally pollute global object should you ever call function without context.

Using node module in angularjs?

What's the best practice for using external code, e.g. code found in node modules, in angular?
I'd like to use this https://www.npmjs.com/package/positionsizingcalculator node module in my angular app. I've created an angular service intended to wrap the node module, and now I want to make the service use the node module.
'use strict';
angular.module('angularcalculator')
.service('MyService', function () {
this.calculate = function () {
return {
//I want to call the node module here, whats the best practice?
};
}
});
To do this, I would crack open the package and grab the .js out of it. This package is MIT license, so we can do whatever we want. If you navigate to /node_modules/positionsizingcalculator/ you'll find an index.js. Open that up and you'll see the moudle export, which takes a function that returns an object.
You'll notice this is an extremely similar pattern to .factory, which also takes a function that returns an object (or constuctor, depending on your pattern). So I'd do the following
.factory('positionsizingcalculator', function(){
basicValidate = function (argument) {
... //Insert whole declaration in here
return position;
})
and the inject it where you need it:
.controller('AppController', function(positionsizingcalculator){
//use it here as you would in node after you inject it via require.
})
--
Edit: This is good for one off grabs of the JS, but if you want a more extensible solution, http://browserify.org/ is a better bet. It allows you to transform your requirements into a single package. Note that this could result in pulling down a lot more code that you might otherwise need, if you make one require bundle for your whole site, as this is not true AMD, and you need to to load everything you might want one the client, unless you make page specific bundles.
You'd still want to do the require in a factory and return it, to keep it in angular's dependency injection framework.

how to pass a shared variable to downstream modules?

I have a node toplevel myapp variable that contains some key application state - loggers, db handlers and some other data. The modules downstream in directory hierarchy need access to these data. How can I set up a key/value system in node to do that?
A highly upticked and accepted answer in Express: How to pass app-instance to routes from a different file? suggests using, in a lower level module
//in routes/index.js
var app = require("../app");
But this injects a hard-coded knowledge of the directory structure and file names which should be a bigger no-no jimho. Is there some other method, like something native in JavaScript? Nor do I relish the idea of declaring variables without var.
What is the node way of making a value available to objects created in lower scopes? (I am very much new to node and all-things-node aren't yet obvious to me)
Thanks a lot.
Since using node global (docs here) seems to be the solution that OP used, thought I'd add it as an official answer to collect my valuable points.
I strongly suggest that you namespace your variables, so something like
global.myApp.logger = { info here }
global.myApp.db = {
url: 'mongodb://localhost:27017/test',
connectOptions : {}
}
If you are in app.js and just want to allow access to it
global.myApp = this;
As always, use globals with care...
This is not really related to node but rather general software architecture decisions.
When you have a client and a server module/packages/classes (call them whichever way you like) one way is to define routines on the server module that takes as arguments whichever state data your client keeps on the 'global' scope, completes its tasks and reports back to the client with results.
This way, it is perfectly decoupled and you have a strict control of what data goes where.
Hope this helps :)
One way to do this is in an anonymous function - i.e. instead of returning an object with module.exports, return a function that returns an appropriate value.
So, let's say we want to pass var1 down to our two modules, ./module1.js and ./module2.js. This is how the module code would look:
module.exports = function(var1) {
return {
doSomething: function() { return var1; }
};
}
Then, we can call it like so:
var downstream = require('./module1')('This is var1');
Giving you exactly what you want.
I just created an empty module and installed it under node_modules as appglobals.js
// index.js
module.exports = {};
// package.json too is barebones
{ "name": "appGlobals" }
And then strut it around as without fearing refactoring in future:
var g = require("appglobals");
g.foo = "bar";
I wish it came built in as setter/getter, but the flexibility has to be admired.
(Now I only need to figure out how to package it for production)

testing a function from node jasmin

I'm still fairly new to testing, and am trying to figure out how to test a function in jasmine, node. Up to now I've only tested methods on my object.
I have a node.js module which only exports two of my functions, but I need to be able to test the other functions without exporting them, as I don't want them to be public.
This is some example code, as the real code isn't important
function initialize(item){
//do some initializing
return item;
}
function update(x){
if(!this.initialized){
initialize(this);
}
this.value = x;
return this;
}
module.exports.update = update;
How would I write a test for the initialize function, without using the update method?
Is there a way to do this? Or does everything have to be a part of an object, and then I only export the parts that I need?
By design, functions you don't export are not accessible from outside. Your tests that require your module only see the exports. So you can test the initialize function only through calling the update function. Since the module just initializes once you may clear the require cache before each test to require the module again with a fresh / uninitialized state. Clearing the require cache is officially allowed / not a hack.

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