I'm writing a script to batch process some text documents and insert them into a mysql database. I'm trying to use the async library because using a standard while loop blocks the event queue and prevents the insert queries from getting run until all are generated. Since that may take 10 minutes or more, I get a timeout. So, I am trying to use async to avoid blocking the main thread. However, it's not working as expected. When I run the simplest form of the code below, using node test.js, in the command line, it only executes once, instead of infinitely. It seems like the computer is terminating the node process early since it is non-blocking. This, of course, is not what I want. Why is this, and how can I get it to work correctly?
//this code should run forever, constantly printing "working". However it only runs once.
var async = require('async')
async.whilst(function(){return true},function(){console.log("working")})
The second parameter for whilst() is a function that takes in a callback that needs to be called when the current iteration is "done."
So if you modify the code this way, you'll get what you're expecting:
var async = require('async');
async.whilst(function() {
return true
}, function(cb) {
console.log("working");
cb();
});
Related
I have been trying to do some changes regarding the code below. At first I discovered that a function that returns a promise and in which a query is sent to db to be executed was being run twice instead of once. I have checked the query and the function itself just to make sure. Then I removed all code from inside io.of() except socket.on() functions which didn't seem to be involved in this matter. I have put a simple console.log() statement inside after removing the code I mentioned and it also produced the 'being executed twice' problem.
io.of('....').on('connection', socket => {
console.log("hello");
//...
//......
// below are socket.on('...')... and nothing more
})
Adding this to html and moving the code to socket.on('load') in io.of() fixed it for me.
$(document).ready(function () {
socket.emit('load');
});
I am still quite new to Node.js and can't seem to find anything to help me around this.
I am having an issue of getting the query from my last record and adding it to my variable.
If I do it like below: -
let lastRecord = Application.find().sort({$natural:-1}).limit(1).then((result) => { result });
Then I get the value of the variable showing in console.log as : -
Promise { <pending> }
What would I need to do to output this correctly to my full data?
Here is it fixed:
Application.findOne().sort({$natural:-1}).exec().then((lastRecord) => {
console.log(lastRecord); // "lastRecord" is the result. You must use it here.
}, (err) => {
console.log(err); // This only runs if there was an error. "err" contains the data about the error.
});
Several things:
You are only getting one record, not many records, so you just use findOne instead of find. As a result you also don't need limit(1) anymore.
You need to call .exec() to actually run the query.
The result is returned to you inside the callback function, it must be used here.
exec() returns a Promise. A promise in JavaScript is basically just a container that holds a task that will be completed at some point in the future. It has the method then, which allows you to bind functions for it to call when it is complete.
Any time you go out to another server to get some data using JavaScript, the code does not stop and wait for the data. It actually continues executing onward without waiting. This is called "asynchronisity". Then it comes back to run the functions given by then when the data comes back.
Asynchronous is simply a word used to describe a function that will BEGIN executing when you call it, but the code will continue running onward without waiting for it to complete. This is why we need to provide some kind of function for it to come back and execute later when the data is back. This is called a "callback function".
This is a lot to explain from here, but please go do some research on JavaScript Promises and asynchronisity and this will make a lot more sense.
Edit:
If this is inside a function you can do this:
async function someFunc() {
let lastRecord = await Application.findOne().sort({$natural:-1}).exec();
}
Note the word async before the function. This must me there in order for await to work. However this method is a bit tricky to understand if you don't understand promises already. I'd recommend you start with my first suggestion and work your way up to the async/await syntax once you fully understand promises.
Instead of using .then(), you'll want to await the record. For example:
let lastRecord = await Application.find().sort({$natural:-1}).limit(1);
You can learn more about awaiting promises in the MDN entry for await, but the basics are that to use a response from a promise, you either use await or you put your logic into the .then statement.
I am developing Chatbot using Azure functions. I want to load the some of the conversations for Chatbot from a file. I am looking for a way to load these conversation data before the function app starts with some function callback. Is there a way load the conversation data only once when the function app is started?
This question is actually a duplicate of Azure Function run code on startup. But this question is asked for C# and I wanted a way to do the same thing in NodeJS
After like a week of messing around I got a working solution.
First some context:
The question at hand, running custom code # App Start for Node JS Azure Functions.
The issue is currently being discussed here and has been open for almost 5 years, and doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
As of now there is an Azure Functions "warmup" trigger feature, found here AZ Funcs Warm Up Trigger. However this trigger only runs on-scale. So the first, initial instance of your App won't run the "warmup" code.
Solution:
I created a start.js file and put the following code in there
const ErrorHandler = require('./Classes/ErrorHandler');
const Validator = require('./Classes/Validator');
const delay = require('delay');
let flag = false;
module.exports = async () =>
{
console.log('Initializing Globals')
global.ErrorHandler = ErrorHandler;
global.Validator = Validator;
//this is just to test if it will work with async funcs
const wait = await delay(5000)
//add additional logic...
//await db.connect(); etc // initialize a db connection
console.log('Done Waiting')
}
To run this code I just have to do
require('../start')();
in any of my functions. Just one function is fine. Since all of the function dependencies are loaded when you deploy your code, as long as this line is in one of the functions, start.js will run and initialize all of your global/singleton variables or whatever else you want it to do on func start. I made a literal function called "startWarmUp" and it is just a timer triggered function that runs once a day.
My use case is that almost every function relies on ErrorHandler and Validator class. And though generally making something a global variable is bad practice, in this case I didn't see any harm in making these 2 classes global so they're available in all of the functions.
Side Note: when developing locally you will have to include that function in your func start --functions <function requiring start.js> <other funcs> in order to have that startup code actually run.
Additionally there is a feature request for this functionality that can voted on open here: Azure Feedback
I have a similar use case that I am also stuck on.
Based on this resource I have found a good way to approach the structure of my code. It is simple enough: you just need to run your initialization code before you declare your module.exports.
https://github.com/rcarmo/azure-functions-bot/blob/master/bot/index.js
I also read this thread, but it does not look like there is a recommended solution.
https://github.com/Azure/azure-functions-host/issues/586
However, in my case I have an additional complication in that I need to use promises as I am waiting on external services to come back. These promises run within bot.initialise(). Initialise() only seems to run when the first call to the bot occurs. Which would be fine, but as it is running a promise, my code doesn't block - which means that when it calls 'listener(req, context.res)' it doesn't yet exist.
The next thing I will try is to restructure my code so that bot.initialise returns a promise, but the code would be much simpler if there was a initialisation webhook that guaranteed that the code within it was executed at startup before everything else.
Has anyone found a good workaround?
My code looks something like this:
var listener = null;
if (process.env.FUNCTIONS_EXTENSION_VERSION) {
// If we are inside Azure Functions, export the standard handler.
listener = bot.initialise(true);
module.exports = function (context, req) {
context.log("Passing body", req.body);
listener(req, context.res);
}
} else {
// Local server for testing
listener = bot.initialise(false);
}
You can use global variable to load data before function execution.
var data = [1, 2, 3];
module.exports = function (context, req) {
context.log(data[0]);
context.done();
};
data variable initialized only once and will be used within function calls.
From within node.js I use the oriento module to access a OrientDB. In principle everything works fine, the only thing is the program dos not exit as it should. Here is the example:
const oriento = require("oriento");
const server = oriento({});
const db = server.use(dbname);
db.select("#rid").from("codelists").limit(1).scalar().then(function (result) {
console.dir(result);
}).finally(function () {
db.close();
server.close();
console.info("finished");
});
The programm executes the select, then the "then" and finally the "finally" clauses. All fine. But it does not exit. There seems to be something hanging on the event loop. But what? And how can I get rid of it? The problem actually is worse then just "press Ctrl-C" or have a process.exit() when everything is done, because the code is supposed to run within a unit test, where I cannot call exit. Any suggestions?
The problem is solved in the current master version of oriento. https://github.com/codemix/oriento/issues/170
You can use process._getActiveRequests() and process._getActiveHandles() to see what's holding the app open. They are undocumented but commonly used in this scenario.
Consider:
node -e "setTimeout(function() {console.log('abc'); }, 2000);"
This will actually wait for the timeout to fire before the program exits.
I am basically wondering if this means that node is intended to wait for all timeouts to complete before quitting.
Here is my situation. My client has a node.js server he's gonna run from Windows with a Shortcut icon. If the node app encounters an exceptional condition, it will typically instantly exit, not leaving enough time to see in the console what the error was, and this is bad.
My approach is to wrap the entire program with a try catch, so now it looks like this: try { (function () { ... })(); } catch (e) { console.log("EXCEPTION CAUGHT:", e); }, but of course this will also cause the program to immediately exit.
So at this point I want to leave about 10 seconds for the user to take a peek or screenshot of the exception before it quits.
I figure I should just use blocking sleep() through the npm module, but I discovered in testing that setting a timeout also seems to work. (i.e. why bother with a module if something builtin works?) I guess the significance of this isn't big, but I'm just curious about whether it is specified somewhere that node will actually wait for all timeouts to complete before quitting, so that I can feel safe doing this.
In general, node will wait for all timeouts to fire before quitting normally. Calling process.exit() will exit before the timeouts.
The details are part of libuv, but the documentation makes a vague comment about it:
http://nodejs.org/api/all.html#all_ref
you can call ref() to explicitly request the timer hold the program open
Putting all of the facts together, setTimeout by default is designed to hold the event loop open (so if that's the only thing pending, the program will wait). You can programmatically disable or re-enable the behavior.
Late answer, but a definite yes - Nodejs will wait around for setTimeout to finish - see this documentation. Coincidentally, there is also a way to not wait around for setTimeout, and that is by calling unref on the object returned from setTimeout or setInterval.
To summarize: if you want Nodejs to wait until the timeout has been called, there's nothing you need to do. If you want Nodejs to not wait for a particular timeout, call unref on it.
If node didn't wait for all setTimeout or setInterval calls to complete, you wouldn't be able to use them in simple scripts.
Once you tell node to listen for an event, as with the setTimeout or some async I/O call, the event loop will loop until it is told to exit.
Rather than wrap everything in a try/catch you can bind an event listener to process just as the example in the docs:
process.on('uncaughtException', function(err) {
console.log('Caught exception: ' + err);
});
setTimeout(function() {
console.log('This will still run.');
}, 500);
// Intentionally cause an exception, but don't catch it.
nonexistentFunc();
console.log('This will not run.');
In the uncaughtException event, you can then add a setTimeout to exit after 10 seconds:
process.on('uncaughtException', function(err) {
console.log('Caught exception: ' + err);
setTimeout(function(){ process.exit(1); }, 10000);
});
If this exception is something you can recover from, you may want to look at domains: http://nodejs.org/api/domain.html
edit:
There may actually be another issue at hand: your client application doesn't do enough (or any?) logging. You can use log4js-node to write to a temp file or some application-specific location.
Easy way Solution:
Make a batch (.bat) file that starts nodejs
make a shortcut out of it
Why this is best. This way you client would run nodejs in command line. And even if nodejs program returns nothing would happen to command line.
Making bat file:
Make a text file
put START cmd.exe /k "node abc.js"
Save it
Rename It to abc.bat
make a shortcut or whatever.
Opening it will Open CommandLine and run nodejs file.
using settimeout for this is a bad idea.
The odd ones out are when you call process.exit() or there's an uncaught exception, as pointed out by Jim Schubert. Other than that, node will wait for the timeout to complete.
Node does remember timers, but only if it can keep track of them. At least that is my experience.
If you use setTimeout in an arrow / anonymous function I would recommend to keep track of your timers in an array, like:
=> {
timers.push(setTimeout(doThisLater, 2000));
}
and make sure let timers = []; isn't set in a method that will vanish, so i.e. globally.