Wait for validation (serverside) to complete befor insert into database - node.js

Question

I am pretty new to Node.js or Javascript in general when it comes to serverside stuff. Currently I am tring to validate some of the user input and set default values if something is wrong. Now if I run my validation the json object appears in the database befor my validation is completed.
The way I am doing the validation isnt maybe the best right now but if someone can explain me the behavior, I am pretty sure i can understand Javascript alot better in the future.
Is there a better way of doing validation (without mongoose or other ODM modules) with callbacks, middleware or should I use some async module?
Here is my code:
module.exports = function(app, express, todoDB, listDB, statusDB) {
var moment = require('moment');
var todoRouter = express.Router();
todoRouter.post('/', function(req, res, next) {
console.log('1');
if (!(moment(req.body.createDate).isValid())) {
req.body.createDate = moment().format("DD-MM-YYYY HH:mm:ss");
}
else {
req.body.createDate = moment(req.body.createDate).format("DD-MM-YYYY HH:mm:ss");
}
console.log('2');
if (req.body.list_id == '') {
listDB.findOne({list: 'Neu'}, function(reqdb, docs) {
if (docs == null) {
listDB.insert({list: 'Neu', index: 1});
listDB.findOne({list: 'Neu'}, function(reqdb, docs) {
console.log('AnlageListID');
console.log(docs._id);
req.body.list_id = docs._id;
});
}
else {
console.log('BestehendeListID');
console.log(docs._id);
req.body.list_id = docs._id;
}
});
}
console.log('3');
if (req.body.status_id == '') {
statusDB.findOne({status: 'offen'}, function(reqdb, docs) {
if (docs == null) {
statusDB.insert({status: 'offen', index: 1});
statusDB.findOne({status: 'offen'}, function(reqdb, docs) {
console.log('AnlageStatusID');
console.log(docs._id);
req.body.status_id = docs._id;
});
}
else {
console.log('BestehendeStatusID');
console.log(docs._id)
req.body.status_id = docs._id;
}
});
}
console.log('4');
console.log('StatusID');
console.log(req.body.status_id);
console.log('ListID');
console.log(req.body.list_id);
todoDB.insert({
todo: req.body.todo,
createDate: req.body.createDate,
endDate: req.body.endDate,
discription: req.body.discription,
comment: req.body.comment,
list_id: req.body.list_id,
priority_id: req.body.priority_id,
section_id: req.body.section_id,
user_id: req.body.user_id,
status_id: req.body.status_id,
company_id: req.body.company_id
});
res.json({message: 'TODO erfolgreich hinzugefügt!'});
});
return todoRouter;
};
... and this is the ouput:
1
2
3
4
StatusID
ListID
POST /api/todos 200 76.136 ms - 44
BestehendeListID
M3Xh46VjVjaTFoCM
BestehendeStatusID
48v80B4fbO87c8um
PS: Its a small "project" just for me learing the MEAN Stack so I am using neDB.

Answer 1

If I understand correctly you try to sequentially execute a number of asynchronous calls and introduce checks in the code to validate if previous asynchronous calls have completed. This is not going to work in a general case because your checks may be processed before the asynchronous call goes through. It might work now and then just by chance, but I would not expect even that.
There are standard mechanisms for that. One of them is using promises, another one using async and yet another one if stacking up all callbacks one into another. Below I will demonstrate how to address the problem using async, but the same general idea applies to using promises. Check the async project on Github then the following part-solution will become clear:
var async = require("async")
async.waterfall([
function(next) {
listDB.findOne({list: 'Neu'}, next); // quits on error
},
function(doc, next) {
if (doc) {
return next(null, doc._id);
}
statusDB.insert({status: 'offen', index: 1}, function(err) {
if (err) return next(err); // quit on error
statusDB.findOne({status: 'offen'}, function(err, doc) {
next(err, doc._id); // quits on error
});
});
},
function(id, next) {
// do next step and so on
next();
}
],
// this is the exit function: it will get called whenever an error
// is passed to any of the `next` callbacks or when the last
// function in the waterfall series calls its `next` callback (with
// or without an error)
function(err) {
console.error("Error processing:", err)
});