Creating promises in loop - node.js

Question

I have to create promises in loop according to given config file and return response when all are resolved. Here goes the code-
{for(let type in spotlight){
switch (type){
case "outliers":{
let ops= spotlight[type];
for(let i=0;i<ops.length;i++){
(function(op){
let p= new Promise(function(resolve,reject){
let reqUrl= urlCreator(op.uri,op.query);
//console.log("--------------------"+reqUrl);
apiService.get(reqUrl,function(isSuccess,data){
if(!isSuccess){
return reject(data);
}
// console.log(isSuccess);
// console.log(data);
// console.log("trend is ------"+JSON.stringify(op));
// create objects array
// let temp= [];
// let overallScore= data.overall.score;
// for(let day in overallScore){
// temp.push({"key": day,"value": parseFloat(overallScore[day])});
// }
//let outliers= stats.outliers(temp,"key","value");
resolve({"type":type,"name": op.name,"data": outliers});
})
});
promiseArray.push(p);
}(ops[i]))
}
break;
}
case "filters":{
let ops= spotlight[type];
for(let i=0;i<ops.length;i++){
(function(op){
let p= new Promise(function(resolve,reject){
let reqUrl= urlCreator(op.uri,op.query);
apiService.get(reqUrl,function(isSuccess,data){
if(!isSuccess){
return reject(data);
}
// console.log(isSuccess);
// console.log(data);
// console.log("coc is ------"+JSON.stringify(op));
resolve({"type": type,"name": op.name,"data": data});
})
})
promiseArray.push(p);
}(ops[i]))
}
break;
}
}
}
Promise.all(promiseArray).then(values=>{
return res.json(values);
},
reason=>{
return res.json(reason);
}).catch(reason=>{
return res.json(reason);
})}
Problem is that promises never return, neither resolved, nor rejected. According to the config file, it has to hit two URLs, say u1 and u2. I tried to log the output to see which requests are returning. When the server is started and very first req is made, U1 returns and req hangs. on refresh I get response from U2,U2 and request hangs, then on refresh again U1,U1 and this continues. It seems to me that for some reason only one request is returned and other sits in buffer or something and come when next request is made. Both requests are being made to the local server only, I am routing it externally just to make use of cache as url is being used as key for cache.
I tried using dummy urls like facebook.com and google.com, and it works perfectly fine.Using one local url and another like facebook.com also works, but when both urls are of local server, it gets stuck.
Does it has any thing to do with single threaded nature of node or due to using same socket for making both requests.
PS- I am using npm-request to make URL calls.

Answer 1

Perhaps hesitating before making the second request would solve your problem.
I've made some tools that could help with that. See the MacroQTools.js file at
https://github.com/J-Adrian-Zimmer/JavascriptPromisesClarified.git

Answer 2

You're defining the request callback as function(success , data), while request consumes error-first callbacks, defined like function(error , response).
You're calling request like:
apiService.get(reqUrl,function(isSuccess,data){
if(!isSuccess){
return reject(data);
}
// console.log(isSuccess);
// console.log(data);
// console.log("coc is ------"+JSON.stringify(op));
resolve({"type": type,"name": op.name,"data": data});
});
Pretending that, if the first parameter misses, you have to reject it with the second parameter, data. While, really, it would something like:
apiService.get(reqUrl,function(err,data){
if(err){
reject(err);
}
else{
// console.log(isSuccess);
// console.log(data);
// console.log("coc is ------"+JSON.stringify(op));
resolve({"type": type,"name": op.name,"data": data});
}
});
Since request expects error-first callbacks (like almost anything in node that takes a callback).
So, when the requests actually work as expected, your code must be actually rejecting the promises with the actual real value, since when the request works, isSuccess is null and data has the real response value.
This surely is breaking something and is not good, while just fixing it maybe doesn't solve your issue completely: I believe your requests are acting weird because some configuration problem of your api, not just because you're rejecting promises when requests are successful (that would just send the data as the rejection reason).
Also you're handling the rejection of Promise.all() twice, passing a second handler to then and calling catch again. Only one is needed, and the .catch(handler) is probably better.
I made a small working example on how you can use Promise.all to collect async requests. I used imdb as the apiService, but any async http service would work too. I didn't reproduce totally from your code, but I'm sure you can adapt this to make your code work, at least the part of the code that is just consuming http services.
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var Promise = require('bluebird');
var imdb = require('imdb-api');
app.get('/', controllerHandler );
app.listen(3000, function () {
console.log('Example app listening on port 3000!')
});
var apiService = {}
apiService.get = imdb.getReq;
function controllerHandler(request , response){
//like iterating through spotlight.type and returning an array of promises from it.
//in this case the array is from films and Airbag is obviously the best of them
var promises = [{name : 'The Matrix'} , { name : 'Avatar'} , {name : 'Airbag'}].map( createPromise );
//use either .catch(errorHandler) or then( successHandler , errorHandler ). The former is the better:
Promise.all(promises).then( successHandler ).catch( errorHandler );
function successHandler(result){
return response.json(result);
}
function errorHandler(reason){
console.log('There was an error calling to the service:');
console.log(reason);
return response.send('there was an error');
}
}
function createPromise(film){
return new Promise( function(resolve , reject){
apiService.get(film , function(err , data){
if(err)
reject( new Error(err));
else
resolve( {title : data.title , year : data.year} );
});
});
};