Trying to make my own RxJs observable - node.js

Question

I'm trying to convert an existing API to work with RxJS... fairly new to node, and very new to RxJs, so please bear with me.
I have an existing API (getNextMessage), that either blocks (asynchronously), or returns a new item or error via a node-style (err, val) callback, when the something becomes available.
so it looks something like:
getNextMessage(nodeStyleCompletionCallback);
You could think of getNextMessage like an http request, that completes in the future, when the server responds, but you do need to call getNextMessage again, once a message is received, to keep getting new items from the server.
So, in order to make it into an observable collection, I have to get RxJs to keep calling my getNextMessage function until the subscriber is disposed();
Basically, I'm trying to create my own RxJs observable collection.
The problems are:
I don't know how to make subscriber.dispose() kill the async.forever
I probably shouldn't be using async.forever in the first place
I'm not sure I should be even getting 'completed' for each message - shouldn't that be at the end of a sequence
I'd like to eventually remove the need for using fromNodeCallback, to have a first class RxJS observable
Clearly I'm a little confused.
Would love a bit of help, thanks!
Here is my existing code:
var Rx = require('rx');
var port = require('../lib/port');
var async = require('async');
function observableReceive(portName)
{
var observerCallback;
var listenPort = new port(portName);
var disposed = false;
var asyncReceive = function(asyncCallback)
{
listenPort.getNextMessage(
function(error, json)
{
observerCallback(error, json);
if (!disposed)
setImmediate(asyncCallback);
}
);
}
return function(outerCallback)
{
observerCallback = outerCallback;
async.forever(asyncReceive);
}
}
var receive = Rx.Observable.fromNodeCallback(observableReceive('rxtest'));
var source = receive();
var subscription = source.forEach(
function (json)
{
console.log('receive completed: ' + JSON.stringify(json));
},
function (error) {
console.log("receive failed: " + error.toString());
},
function () {
console.log('Completed');
subscription.dispose();
}
);

Answer 1

So here's probably what I would do.
var Rx = require('Rx');
// This is just for kicks. You have your own getNextMessage to use. ;)
var getNextMessage = (function(){
var i = 1;
return function (callback) {
setTimeout(function () {
if (i > 10) {
callback("lawdy lawd it's ova' ten, ya'll.");
} else {
callback(undefined, i++);
}
}, 5);
};
}());
// This just makes an observable version of getNextMessage.
var nextMessageAsObservable = Rx.Observable.create(function (o) {
getNextMessage(function (err, val) {
if (err) {
o.onError(err);
} else {
o.onNext(val);
o.onCompleted();
}
});
});
// This repeats the call to getNextMessage as many times (11) as you want.
// "take" will cancel the subscription after receiving 11 items.
nextMessageAsObservable
.repeat()
.take(11)
.subscribe(
function (x) { console.log('next', x); },
function (err) { console.log('error', err); },
function () { console.log('done'); }
);

Answer 2

I realize this is over a year old, but I think a better solution for this would be to make use of recursive scheduling instead:
Rx.Observable.forever = function(next, scheduler) {
scheduler = scheduler || Rx.Scheduler.default,
//Internally wrap the the callback into an observable
next = Rx.Observable.fromNodeCallback(next);
return Rx.Observable.create(function(observer) {
var disposable = new Rx.SingleAssignmentDisposable(),
hasState = false;
disposable.setDisposable(scheduler.scheduleRecursiveWithState(null,
function(state, self) {
hasState && observer.onNext(state);
hasState = false;
next().subscribe(function(x){
hasState = true;
self(x);
}, observer.onError.bind(observer));
}));
return disposable;
});
};
The idea here is that you can schedule new items once the previous one has completed. You call next() which invokes the passed in method and when it returns a value, you schedule the next item for invocation.
You can then use it like so:
Rx.Observable.forever(getNextMessage)
.take(11)
.subscribe(function(message) {
console.log(message);
});
See a working example here