Store settimeout id from nodejs in mongodb - node.js

Question

I am running a web application using express and nodejs. I have a request to a particular endpoint in which I use settimeout to call a particular function repeatedly after varying time intervals.
For example
router.get ("/playback", function(req, res) {
// Define callback here ...
....
var timeoutone = settimeout(callback, 1000);
var timeouttwo = settimeout(callback, 2000);
var timeoutthree = settimeout(callback, 3000);
});
The settimeout function returns an object with a circular reference. When trying to save this into mongodb i get a stack_overflow error. My aim is to be able to save these objects returned by settimeout into the database.
I have another endpoint called cancel playback which when called, will retrieve these timeout objects and call cleartimeout passing them in as an argument. How do I go about saving these timeout objects to the database ? Or is there a better way of clearing the timeouts than having to save them to the database. Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Answer 1

You cannot save live JavaScript objects in the database! Maybe you can store a string or JSON or similar reference to them, but not the actual object, and you cannot reload them later.
Edit: Also, I've just noticed you're using setTimeout for repeating stuff. If you need to repeat it on regular intervals, why not use setInterval instead?
Here is a simple solution, that would keep indexes in memory:
var timeouts = {};
var index = 0;
// route to set the timeout somewhere
router.get('/playback', function(req, res) {
timeouts['timeout-' + index] = setTimeout(ccb, 1000);
storeIndexValueSomewhere(index)
.then(function(){
res.json({timeoutIndex: index});
index++;
});
}
// another route that gets timeout indexes from that mongodb somehow
req.get('/playback/indexes', handler);
// finally a delete route
router.delete('/playback/:index', function(req, res) {
var index = 'timeout-' + req.params.index;
if (!timeouts[index]) {
return res.status(404).json({message: 'No job with that index'});
} else {
timeouts[index].cancelTimeout();
timeouts[index] = undefined;
return res.json({message: 'Removed job'});
}
});
But this probably would not scale to many millions of jobs.
A more complex solution, and perhaps more appropriate to your needs (depends on your playback job type) could involve job brokers or message queues, clusters and workers that subscribe to something they can listen to for their own job cancel signals etc.
I hope this helps you a little to clear up your requirements.