Is it safe to resolve a promise multiple times?

Question

I have an i18n service in my application which contains the following code:

var i18nService = function() {
  this.ensureLocaleIsLoaded = function() {
    if( !this.existingPromise ) {
      this.existingPromise = $q.defer();

      var deferred = this.existingPromise;
      var userLanguage = $( "body" ).data( "language" );
      this.userLanguage = userLanguage;

      console.log( "Loading locale '" + userLanguage + "' from server..." );
      $http( { method:"get", url:"/i18n/" + userLanguage, cache:true } ).success( function( translations ) {
        $rootScope.i18n = translations;
        deferred.resolve( $rootScope.i18n );
      } );
    }

    if( $rootScope.i18n ) {
      this.existingPromise.resolve( $rootScope.i18n );
    }

    return this.existingPromise.promise;
  };

The idea is that the user would call ensureLocaleIsLoaded and wait for the promise to be resolved. But given that the purpose of the function is to only ensure that the locale is loaded, it would be perfectly fine for the user to invoke it several times.

I'm currently just storing a single promise and resolve it if the user calls the function again after the locale has been successfully retrieved from the server.

From what I can tell, this is working as intended, but I'm wondering if this is a proper approach.

Answer 1

Technically it is ok, but it is not a good pattern, it could be even considered as a nasty bug, that is hard to catch.

There is pattern that can be used to trace such issues in debug time. Great lecture on this topic: Ruben Bridgewater — Error handling: doing it right! (the part related to the question is around 40 min)

Answer 2

see github gist: reuse_promise.js

/*
reuse a promise for multiple resolve()s since promises only resolve once and then never again
*/

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react'

export default () => {
    
    const [somePromise, setSomePromise] = useState(promiseCreator())
        
    useEffect(() => {
        
        somePromise.then(data => {
            
            // do things here
            
            setSomePromise(promiseCreator())
        })
        
    }, [somePromise])
}

const promiseCreator = () => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        // do things
        resolve(/*data*/)
    })
}

Answer 3

As I understand promises at present, this should be 100% fine. The only thing to understand is that once resolved (or rejected), that is it for a defered object - it is done.

If you call then(...) on its promise again, you immediately get the (first) resolved/rejected result.

Additional calls to resolve() will not have any effect.

Below is an executable snippet that covers those use cases:

var p = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
  resolve(1);
  reject(2);
  resolve(3);
});

p.then(x => console.log('resolved to ' + x))
 .catch(x => console.log('never called ' + x));

p.then(x => console.log('one more ' + x));
p.then(x => console.log('two more ' + x));
p.then(x => console.log('three more ' + x));

Answer 4

You can write tests to confirm the behavior.

By running the following test you can conclude that

The resolve()/reject() call never throw error.

Once settled (rejected), the resolved value (rejected error) will be preserved regardless of following resolve() or reject() calls.

You can also check my blog post for details.

/* eslint-disable prefer-promise-reject-errors */
const flipPromise = require('flip-promise').default

describe('promise', () => {
    test('error catch with resolve', () => new Promise(async (rs, rj) => {
        const getPromise = () => new Promise(resolve => {
            try {
                resolve()
            } catch (err) {
                rj('error caught in unexpected location')
            }
        })
        try {
            await getPromise()
            throw new Error('error thrown out side')
        } catch (e) {
            rs('error caught in expected location')
        }
    }))
    test('error catch with reject', () => new Promise(async (rs, rj) => {
        const getPromise = () => new Promise((_resolve, reject) => {
            try {
                reject()
            } catch (err) {
                rj('error caught in unexpected location')
            }
        })
        try {
            await getPromise()
        } catch (e) {
            try {
                throw new Error('error thrown out side')
            } catch (e){
                rs('error caught in expected location')
            }
        }
    }))
    test('await multiple times resolved promise', async () => {
        const pr = Promise.resolve(1)
        expect(await pr).toBe(1)
        expect(await pr).toBe(1)
    })
    test('await multiple times rejected promise', async () => {
        const pr = Promise.reject(1)
        expect(await flipPromise(pr)).toBe(1)
        expect(await flipPromise(pr)).toBe(1)
    })
    test('resolve multiple times', async () => {
        const pr = new Promise(resolve => {
            resolve(1)
            resolve(2)
            resolve(3)
        })
        expect(await pr).toBe(1)
    })
    test('resolve then reject', async () => {
        const pr = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
            resolve(1)
            resolve(2)
            resolve(3)
            reject(4)
        })
        expect(await pr).toBe(1)
    })
    test('reject multiple times', async () => {
        const pr = new Promise((_resolve, reject) => {
            reject(1)
            reject(2)
            reject(3)
        })
        expect(await flipPromise(pr)).toBe(1)
    })

    test('reject then resolve', async () => {
        const pr = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
            reject(1)
            reject(2)
            reject(3)
            resolve(4)
        })
        expect(await flipPromise(pr)).toBe(1)
    })
test('constructor is not async', async () => {
    let val
    let val1
    const pr = new Promise(resolve => {
        val = 1
        setTimeout(() => {
            resolve()
            val1 = 2
        })
    })
    expect(val).toBe(1)
    expect(val1).toBeUndefined()
    await pr
    expect(val).toBe(1)
    expect(val1).toBe(2)
})

})

Answer 5

There s no clear way to resolve promises multiple times because since it's resolved it's done. The better approach here is to use observer-observable pattern for example i wrote following code that observes socket client event. You can extend this code to met your need

const evokeObjectMethodWithArgs = (methodName, args) => (src) => src[methodName].apply(null, args);
    const hasMethodName = (name) => (target = {}) => typeof target[name] === 'function';
    const Observable = function (fn) {
        const subscribers = [];
        this.subscribe = subscribers.push.bind(subscribers);
        const observer = {
            next: (...args) => subscribers.filter(hasMethodName('next')).forEach(evokeObjectMethodWithArgs('next', args))
        };
        setTimeout(() => {
            try {
                fn(observer);
            } catch (e) {
                subscribers.filter(hasMethodName('error')).forEach(evokeObjectMethodWithArgs('error', e));
            }
        });

    };

    const fromEvent = (target, eventName) => new Observable((obs) => target.on(eventName, obs.next));

    fromEvent(client, 'document:save').subscribe({
        async next(document, docName) {
            await writeFilePromise(resolve(dataDir, `${docName}`), document);
            client.emit('document:save', document);
        }
    });

Answer 6

If you need to change the return value of promise, simply return new value in then and chain next then/catch on it

var p1 = new Promise((resolve, reject) => { resolve(1) });
    
var p2 = p1.then(v => {
  console.log("First then, value is", v);
  return 2;
});
    
p2.then(v => {
  console.log("Second then, value is", v);
});

Answer 7

What you should do is put an ng-if on your main ng-outlet and show a loading spinner instead. Once your locale is loaded the you show the outlet and let the component hierarchy render. This way all of your application can assume that the locale is loaded and no checks are necessary.

Answer 8

I faced the same thing a while ago, indeed a promise can be only resolved once, another tries will do nothing (no error, no warning, no then invocation).

I decided to work it around like this:

getUsers(users => showThem(users));

getUsers(callback){
    callback(getCachedUsers())
    api.getUsers().then(users => callback(users))
}

just pass your function as a callback and invoke it as many times you wish! Hope that makes sense.