Azure Node.js Table Entity Update - node.js

Question

I'm trying to update a table entity during data insertion using server Node script. Here is what I'm trying to do. I have a Address table which has a column named geolocation of type "geography". When a user updates the Address, I'm using npm-geocoder to get the latitude and longitude to update the geolocation column.
Here is the code snippet.
var table = module.exports = require('azure-mobile-apps').table();
table.dynamicSchema = true;
table.insert(function (context) {
var address = context.item.lines1 + ' ' + context.item.lines2 + ' ' + context.item.city + ' ' + context.item.state + ' ' + context.item.zip;
var geocoderProvider = 'google';
var httpAdapter = 'https';
var extra = {
apiKey: '',
formatter: null
};
var geocoder = require('node-geocoder')(geocoderProvider, httpAdapter, extra);
geocoder.geocode(address)
.then(function(res) {
var geolocation = "POINT("+ res[0].longitude + " " + res[0].latitude +")";
console.log("Value of Geolocation is ", geolocation);
context.item.geolocation = geolocation;
})
.catch(function(err) {
console.log("Error ", err);
});
return context.execute();
});
However, i don't see the table being updated with the geolocation. Any pointers?
I looked at few samples available online but they are mostly based on previous mobile services where the insert method signature is different for ex:-
function insert(item, user, request) {
var queryString = "INSERT INTO Place (title, description, location) VALUES (?, ?, geography::STPointFromText('POINT(' + ? + ' '
+ ? + ')', 4326))";
mssql.query(queryString, [item.title, item.description, item.longitude.toString(), item.latitude.toString()], {
success: function() {
request.respond(statusCodes.OK, {});
}
});
}

Answer 1

context.execute() is being called before the geocode() promise is resolved. Move context.execute() inside the callback and return the promise from the function...
table.insert(function (context) {
// ...
var geocoder = require('node-geocoder')(geocoderProvider, httpAdapter, extra);
return geocoder.geocode(address)
.then(function(res) {
var geolocation = "POINT("+ res[0].longitude + " " + res[0].latitude +")";
console.log("Value of Geolocation is ", geolocation);
context.item.geolocation = geolocation;
return context.execute();
})
.catch(function(err) {
console.log("Error ", err);
});
});

Answer 2

Per my experience, I think you can try to use the update operation instead of the insert operation for the table to update an existed object. And if the table had the column named geolocation, the dynamicSchema property enabled seems to be not necessary for the table.
Meanwhile, you can try to check the table access property for the update operation, please see the setions How to: Require Authentication for access to tables & How to: Disable access to specific table operations of the doc https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/app-service-mobile-node-backend-how-to-use-server-sdk/.