CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptasync-awaites6-promise
Nathan Dunn
Nathan Dunn

Reputation: 346

Call JavaScript class method synchronously

I'm building a package with JavaScript which has two functions: init and sendData.

class Client {
   init() {
     return axios.post(this.baseUrl).then((response) => {
       this.token = response.data.token
     })
   }

   sendData() {
     return axios.post(this.baseUrl, {token: this.token})
   }
}

The init method needs to be called before the sendData method as this returns a token. Is there a way to wait for the init method to be called before calling the sendData method?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1173

Answers (2)

nem035
nem035

Reputation: 35491

Do you need the consumer of your API to do this?

// within an async function
const client = new Client();
await client.init();
await client.sendDate();

// or anywhere just using promises
const client = new Client();
client.init().then(() => client.sendDate());

or the API itself?

// definition
class Client {
   async init() {
     const response = await axios.post(this.baseUrl);
     this.token = response.data.token;
   }

   async sendData() {
     await this.init(); // call init before sending data
     return axios.post(this.baseUrl, {token: this.token})
   }
}

// usage somewhere in an async function
const client = new Client();
client.sendDate() // calls init, then sends the data

Maybe remove the redundant calls if the token doesn't change?

class Client {
   async init() {
     const response = await axios.post(this.baseUrl);
     this.token = response.data.token;
   }

   async sendData() {
     if (!this.token) { // now you'll only call init for missing token
       await this.init();
     }
     return axios.post(this.baseUrl, {token: this.token})
   }
}

// usage somewhere in an async function
const client = new Client();
await client.sendDate(); // calls init (only the first time), then sends the data

Do note that promise returning functions are inherently asynchronous so there isn't a way of obtaining their result in a synchronous manner. However, we can write the asynchronous code using async/await to make it syntactically look (almost) identical to a synchronous version.

Upvotes: 4

Jake Holzinger
Jake Holzinger

Reputation: 6063

Asynchronous initialization is a good use case for the factory pattern. Instead of doing the asynchronous work after constructing the class, do it before and keep the constructor synchronous. In my opinion a synchronous constructor that does simple assignment has the least "smell" and is the easiest to test.

class Client {

   constructor(baseUrl, token) {
      this.baseUrl = baseUrl;
      this.token = token;
   }

   async create(baseUrl) {
     const response = await axios.post(baseUrl);
     return new Client(baseUrl, response.data.token);
   }

   async sendData() {
     return axios.post(this.baseUrl, {token: this.token})
   }
}

...

const client = await Client.create('http://foo.com');
const response = await client.sendData();

Upvotes: 0

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