Node.js mysql error handling in promise - mysql

Question

I'm using node.js and express, also mysql.
I use a connection pool to request connections and create a promise on it, to limit callback nightmare, the following snippet is set in a file that I import later, note that that I set an handler on error to not terminate the application in case of anything going really wrong
exports.getConnection = () => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
pool.getConnection((err, connection) => {
if (err) {
reject(`Could not obtain the connection from the pool: ${err}`);
}
connection.on('error', err => {
console.log(`SQL error (code: ${err.code}, message: ${err.sqlMessage}) while executing query: ${err.sql}`);
});
resolve(connection);
});
});
};
And here is an example of usecase (the idea is to get the connection, chain the query in the then, and if a non fatal error happen I will throw it and handle the connection release in the catch handler
// Exception handler that release the connection then call the callback
function releaseConnectionHandler(err, connection, callback) {
connection.release();
callback(err, null);
}
exports.someRequest = function(ID, callback) {
sqlPool.getConnection().then(connection => {
connection.query("SELECT * from tableNotExists",
(err, result) => {
if (err) {
throw ({ err, connection, callback });
}
connection.release();
callback(null, result);
});
}).catch(({ err, connection, callback}) => releaseConnectionHandler(err, connection, callback));
};
The query will fail, but I see that the handler is not even called (I put some trace in it...) and the application terminates on
node_modules/mysql/lib/protocol/Parser.js:80
throw err; // Rethrow non-MySQL errors
Correct querie yoeld no troubles...Any ideas what I did wrong on the error handling ?

Answer 1

You're re-throwing the error passed to the callback of your query, which the library you're using then re-throws as well, and finally isn't properly caught and handled anywhere and results in a failure. You're not in the context of the Promise when you throw, but the context of the callback function called from the mysql module.
You're also unnecessarily mixing promises and callbacks, in particular the function you're exporting. Your question indicates that you want to move away from callbacks, so I'm going to base this answer on that indication.
To solve the main issue, don't throw the error. Instead, pass it up to the callee:
const promisify = require("util").promisify;
exports.someRequest = function (ID) {
return sqlPool.getConnection().then(connection => {
return promisify(connection.query)("select * from tableNotExist")
.finally(connection.release);
});
};
The connection will always be released back to the pool, whether successful or on error. You can then call the method with:
yourModule.someRequest(id).then((results) => {
// Do something with the result set
}).catch((e) => {
// Handle error. Can be either a pool connection error or a query error.
});
If you have the possibility to use async/await, the code can be rewritten:
const promisify = require("util").promisify;
exports.someRequest = async function (ID) {
let connection = await sqlPool.getConnection();
try {
return await promisify(connection.query)("select * from tableNotExist");
} finally {
connection.release();
}
};
I also recommend using node-mysql2 since they have a Promise-based API in addition to their callback-style API and in my experience better performance as well. Then you don't have to write these tedious wrappers and instead just require('mysql2/promise') and be good to go.