Passing an async object to dustjs template - node.js

I have a hard time understanding how to pass an object fetched from a database to a dust.js template.
Let's say I have a template:
{#person}
{name} - {title}
{/person}
I try to setup a context something like this:
var ctx = {
person: return chunk.map(function(chunk) {
database.person(12345, function(data) {
dust.nextTick(function() {
chunk.end(data); // What to really do here?
});
});
});
}
Where database.person fetches the object from a database and passes it to a callback.
And then I would run the render function:
res.render('person', ctx);

The correct form was:
var ctx = {
person: function(chunk, context, bodies) {
return chunk.map(function(chunk) {
database.person(1234, function(data) {
return chunk.render(bodies.block, context.push(data)).end();
});
});
}
}
Instead of write I had to call render as in Alan's answer.
The whole db call had to be enclosed in the return chunk.map call to work. I also had to chain an end command to send the results back to the stream.
Why these calls are needed is told in the dust.js guide (http://akdubya.github.io/dustjs/#guide):
chunk.map tells Dust to manufacture a new chunk, reserving a slot in
the output stream before continuing on to render the rest of the
template. You must (eventually) call chunk.end() on a mapped chunk to
weave its content back into the stream.
This is something that isn't addressed in the LinkedIn guide pages.

I'm assuming your db call will return something along the lines of a json object such as the "data" below.
The async code looks ok. chunk.write will just write out whatever you give it so you need to pass your data in on the context so it can be accessed in the template. Use chunk.render instead of write. A non-async example would be :
{
"person": function(chunk, context, bodies) {
var data = {name:"Smith", title:"Mr"};
return chunk.render(bodies.block, context.push(data));
}
}
Running that through linkedin dust tests seems to get the right answer.
Hope that helps,
Alan

Related

Meteor Client calling findOne in Server Method

I have a client-side form that can create a document upon submission. I want to see if one of the input fields already exists on a Document in the DB though. This would then alert the user and ask them if they want to continue creating the record.
Client-side event
Template.createDoc.events({
'click button[type=submit]'(e, template) {
//This particular example is checking to see if a Doc with its `name` property set to `value` already exists
const value = $('#name');
const fieldName = 'name';
const exists = Meteor.call('checkIfFieldExistsOnDoc', fieldName, value);
if (exists) {
if (confirm(`Doc with ${value} as its ${fieldName} already exists. Are you sure you want to continue creating Doc?`) {
//db.Docs.insert....
}
}
}
});
Server-side Meteor Method
'checkIfFieldExistsOnDoc'(field, val) {
if (this.isServer) {
this.unblock();
check(field, String);
check(val, String);
if (!this.userId) {
throw new Meteor.Error('not-authorized', 'You are not authorized.');
}
const findObj = {};
findObj[field] = val;
const fieldsObj = {};
fieldsObj[fieldsObj] = 1;
const doc = Docs.findOne(findObj, {fields: fieldsObj});
return doc;
}
},
My issue is that the client-side code always gets undefined back when calling the Server method. I now understand why, however, I'm not keen on wrapping all of my subsequent client-code into a callback yet.
So - any other ideas on how I can attempt to do this simple feature?
Also - I was thinking of having the client-side page's onCreated do a 1-time server call to get ALL names for all Docs, storing this in memory, and then doing the check upon form submission using this. Obviously, this is inefficient and not-scalable, although it would work
Meteor.call in the client side is always an async call. Then you need implement a callback.
See docs: https://docs.meteor.com/api/methods.html#Meteor-call
Meteor.call('checkIfFieldExistsOnDoc', fieldName, value, function(error, result) {
if (result) {
if (confirm(`Doc with ${value} as its ${fieldName} already exists. Are you sure you want to continue creating Doc?`) {
//db.Docs.insert....
}
}
});
On the client, you can wrap any Meteor.call with a Promise and then use it with async/await. There are some packages on Atmosphere that do this for you to.
I've used this package for years: https://atmospherejs.com/deanius/promise
On the client I often just use await Meteor.callPromise() which returns a response nicely.
Here are a couple of the best write-ups on the many options available to you:
https://blog.meteor.com/using-promises-on-the-client-in-meteor-fb4f1c155f84
https://forums.meteor.com/t/meteor-methods-return-values-via-promise-async/42060
https://dev.to/jankapunkt/async-meteor-method-calls-24f9

How to create some kind of context in a NodeJS application, I can access in all functions I call from there?

In Meteor (a NodeJS Framework), there is a function called Meteor.userId() that always returns the userId that belongs to the current session as long as I am in a function that was original called from a Meteor Method.
The Meteor.userId() function utilizes meteors DDP?._CurrentInvocation?.get()?.connection. So somehow this "Magic line" gets my current DDP connection. This also works when burried deep inside of callbacks.
So somehow meteor sets a context that it refers to. I also want to do this kind of trick for another API that doesn't utilize meteors DDP but is a plain HTTP Api.
What I want to do:
doActualStuff = function(param1, param2, param3) {
// here, i am burried deep inside of calls to functions
// but the function at the top of the stack trace was
// `answerRequest`.
// I want to access its `context` here but without
// passing it through all the function calls.
// What I want is something like this:
context = Framework.getRequestContext()
}
answerRequest = function(context) {
//do some stuff
someFancyFunctionWithCallback(someArray, function(arrayPosition) {
aFuncCallingDoActualStuff(arrayPosition);
})
}
I can wrap the call to answerRequest if this is necessary.
I don't know how Meteor does it, but it doesn't look like magic. It looks like Meteor is a global object (window.Meteor in the browser or global.Meteor in Node.js) that has some functions that refer to some stateful object that exists in the context where they were defined.
Your example could be achieved by having answerRequest (or whatever function calls answerRequest, or whatever you want) call a setRequestContext function that sets the state that will be returned by getRequestContext. If you wanted, you could have an additional function, clearRequestContext, that cleans up after request is over. (Of course, if you have async code you'll need to take care that the latter isn't called until any code that needs that data has finished running.)
This is rudimentary, but it might look something like the below snippet. window.Framework does not need to be defined in the same file as the rest of the code; it just needs to be initialized before answerRequest is called.
let _requestContext = null;
window.Framework = {
setRequestContext(obj) {
_requestContext = obj;
},
getRequestContext() {
return _requestContext;
},
clearRequestContext() {
_requestContext = null;
},
};
const doActualStuff = function(param1, param2, param3) {
const context = Framework.getRequestContext()
console.log('Request context is', context);
}
const answerRequest = function(context) {
Framework.setRequestContext(context);
setTimeout(() => {
try {
doActualStuff();
} finally {
Framework.clearRequestContext();
}
}, 100);
}
answerRequest({ hello: 'context' });
.as-console-wrapper{min-height:100%}

Express middleware to wrap response

I'm implementing an API where the result needs to be return wrapped by a result key, as such
{
result: [
{
id: 1,
name: "Bob"
}
]
}
What I'd like to do is add a piece of middleware (if possible) that does this wrapping to every response without having to think about it every time. What would be the best way to accomplish this? I could see modifying response.body and then calling next() instead of doing res.send(obj) (what I'm doing now).
Thanks!
I ended up extending the response object to add a new function (used like res.sendWrapped(data)) per In Express and Node.js, is it possible to extend or override methods of the response object?
as such:
express.response.sendWrapped = function(obj) {
return this.send({ result: obj });
};

Synchroneous call with mongodbnative

I have the following problem with mongodb-native. I have a function whose purpose is to return some element from db.
function get(){
db.collection('test').findOne({...},{...},function(err, doc){
// my doc is here
});
// but here my doc is undefined
// so I can not return it
return doc;
}
So due to asynchroneous nature of node, I can not get my doc back. So how can I make it synchroneous (or is there any other way)?
I need for my single page app. So when my client does some action, ajax request is sent which is handled by get function. This function has to send back JSON.
The answer is to have your code work asynchroneous, that is the whole concept of JavaScript.
Thus if you have something like this in your synchroneous program:
function get() {
db.collection('test').findOne({...},{...},function(err,doc) {
});
return doc;
}
var doc = get();
console.log(doc);
You can refactor it into:
function printToConsole(err, doc) {
console.log(doc);
}
function get(callback) {
db.collection('test').findOne({...},{...},callback);
}
get(printToConsole);
It is not a unique solution, there are other workflows. Some like promises will make your code flatter.
But my personal suggestion, is to initially learn how to code asynchroneous code without supporting libraries. Initially it feels like a pain, just give it some time and you will start enjoying the idea.

RequireJS module for SignalR

Rather than copy and pasting my code onto here, I have uploaded it to github. The RequireJS module does have a dependency on jquery.signalr and in tern has a dependency on jquery but also have a dependency on the javascript held in /signalr/hubs. There is a bit of config to do with Require.Config.
Basically what is happening is on the first time you load the page the connection is made to the hubs within signalr and the "server side" code is executed and does the desired thing. When you refresh the page it does not. All client side code is called, so for example:
var myViewModel = new MyViewMode();
myViewModel.init();
and within your init method you have
var connection = $.connection.myHub;
this.init = function() {
connection.server.myMethod();
}
this would then go off to
public MyHub : Hub
{
public void MyMethod()
{
Client.Request.populateSomeInformation() // I think it's request but I'm doing this from memory!
}
}
and then call
connection.client.populateSomeInformation = function () { .. )
but doesn't call this :(
It looks like a connection has been made (using the good old console.log() to see what it outputs) and indeed debugging the project it executes the code within the hub but there is no response made back to the javascript.
So wonderful people of the internet, where am I going wrong? Do I need to check the state of $.connection.hub.start(); before attempting to start it again?
Time for beer :)
I believe it should be
connection.client.populateSomeInformation = function () { .. )
(not connection.server)
http://www.asp.net/signalr/overview/hubs-api/hubs-api-guide-javascript-client#callclient
(observations on the code you have on github right now)
var isLoaded = false;
// ... some code that doesn't change isLoaded ...
if (isLoaded == false) {
scrollIntervalId = window.setInterval(function () {
signalRLoaded();
}, 30);
}
I think isLoaded will always be false at this point. Not sure what you intended this to accomplish.
var connection = $.connection.hub.start();
I don't think you're supposed to open the connection before defining any client functions. I don't see any client functions being defined here, so maybe you're doing that somewhere else? I don't know if it really matters other than if the server attempts to call a client function that hasn't yet been defined...
function SignalRReady(callback) {
if (isLoaded) {
callback(connection);
} else {
readyCalls = callback;
}
return SignalRReady;
}
SignalRReady.version = "1.0.0";
SignalRReady.load = function(name, request, onLoad, config) {
if (config.isBuild) {
onLoad();
} else {
SignalRReady(onLoad);
}
};
return SignalRReady;
I'm confused by this bit of code, probably because I don't see how it's being used. Is this an attempt at a kind of singleton? I see that SignalRReady is the "class" being returned for the module. You're not really returning an object, you're returning a constructor which implies that you're instantiating it in other places, something like
define(['SignalRReady'], function(sigR)
{
var srr = new sigR();
});
But then you have that load function defined that calls the constructor and makes this look all weird. How are you using this?
Anyways, I'm thinking you might be hitting some kind of race condition where the client function may not always be available at the time the server is trying to call it.
(additional comments/code 2013-09-06)
Your connection object is actually a jQuery promise ( http://api.jquery.com/category/deferred-object/ ).
If you're unfamiliar with promises, think of them generically as a queue of callbacks to be executed later. In this case, when connected, all the callbacks will be executed (in the order they were added). If a callback is added after being connected, it will get executed immediately. This is how your code is working now. You add the callback to the .done queue after the connection is made and is executed immediately.
If you insist on creating the connection object yourself, then you do not need to use the stateChanged event. You just add the callback to the .done queue:
define(function()
{
function signalRReady(callback)
{
if (window.connection == undefined) {
window.connection = $.connection.hub.start();
}
window.connection.done(callback);
}
signalRReady.version = "1.0.0";
return signalRReady;
});
However, I believe it's not a good idea to initiate the connection yourself. Because your module isn't a complete wrapper around SignalR such that people would only use your module to do SignalR stuff, you are not guaranteed (and cannot expect) other code will not initiate the connection. Especially if someone is adding your module to an existing codebase.
Your module is simply adding a new event, so keep it simple. Take the callback and execute it yourself when appropriate:
define(function()
{
function signalRReady(callback)
{
$.connection.hub.stateChanged(function (state)
{
if(state.newState === $.signalR.connectionState.connected)
{
callback();
}
});
}
signalRReady.version = "1.0.0";
return signalRReady;
});
Nowadays, promises are pretty popular. You might want to implement a promise-based module like:
define(function()
{
var deferred = $.Deferred();
$.connection.hub.stateChanged(function (state)
{
if(state.newState === $.signalR.connectionState.connected)
{
// executes all callbacks attached by the "ready" function below
deferred.resolve();
}
});
return {
ready: function(callback)
{
deferred.done(callback);
},
version: "1.0.0"
};
});
If callbacks are attached after the connection has been made, they are executed immediately.
Also, notice this example module's init function returns an object instead of a function. Since RequireJS will pass the same instance around to any module that requires it, state is maintained - we can use local variables instead of global.

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