I suppose that the answer will be very obvious, but still it evades me. I'm new on working with observables, and now I'm facing issues assigning a value from one. I had success if I define it (this._apps) as an Observable and asking from the view to the service using subscribe (But for my taste is was way convoluted (three levels inside a map just to return another observable with the array and then another function to subscribe the previous to assign the variable and another subscription in the view to finally show the information), inefficient and on top of that I could not get it "right" again). The task is very simple. Given the class Application
export class Application {
name: string;
baseUrl: string;
deprecated: boolean;
}
And the service (just the relevant code)
private _apps: Application[] = [];
constructor(private _http: HttpClient) {
this.getAllApplications().subscribe(apps => {
console.log('Apps subscriber');
this._apps = apps;
console.log('Apps subscriber Ends ' + apps);
},
err => {
console.log(err.status); // 401
console.log(err.error.error); // undefined
console.log(JSON.parse(err.error).error); // unauthorized
});
}
private getAllApplications() {
return this._http.get<Application[]>('http://development:4300/api/v1/apps');
}
From the constructor the function which gets the information from WebAPI is triggered, and the remote call is successful, but the variable this._apps is an empty array if I try to call it from anywhere in the code. I could not determine the type of the parameter "apps" in the subscribe function, but for some reason it cannot be assigned and the best answer given is that it is a function (See my first update) in one of my tries. Currently it returns in the console "[object Object]", but apps[0] gives undefined, so it is an empty Array.
This is the console output, just starting the application:
Angular is running in the development mode. Call enableProdMode() to enable the production mode.
Refreshing apps cache calling http://development:4300/api/v1/atbc-apps
Apps subscriber
Apps subscriber Ends [object Object]
I was trying this solution among many others that I forget (to use the more modern HttpClient instead the Http I used before), so what I'm doing wrong?
Update 1
I changed the constructor to this:
constructor(private _http: HttpClient) {
this.getAllApplications().subscribe(apps => {
console.log('apps length ' + apps.length);
this._apps = apps; // Remember private _apps: Application[] = [];
console.log('Apps subscriber Ends ' + apps.toString);
},
err => {
console.log(err.status); // 401
console.log(err.error.error); // undefined
console.log(JSON.parse(err.error).error); // unauthorized
});
}
and the declaration of the function called into this:
private getAllApplications(): Observable<Application[]> {
// the exactly the same as before
}
And now I got from the console this:
apps length undefined
Apps subscriber Ends
function () {
if (this instanceof Promise) {
return PROMISE_OBJECT_TO_STRING;
}
return originalObjectToString.apply(this, arguments);
}
That is the function I was talking about. Any ideas about why even though there is no errors (nor at compile time, neither at runtime), the returning object is not a real Application array?
Change this line:
private _apps: Application[] = [];
to:
_apps: Application[] = [];
Which will default to making it public. Then this line will see it:
this._apps = apps;
At the end I suppose is a mindset to work with Observables, and I tried to build a kind of cache, so the only way I could do it (let me know if there is a better way) was using the view to fill-out the cache. I could not do it from the service itself because the calling the function from the view is synchronous and to fill out the array is async. So I had to create a public setApplicationCache procedure which is filled out after calling the service from the view, it call the setApplicationCache( Application[] ) function and the rest works because it takes just the cache to do filtering and other operations or use it from other pages w/o calling the database again and again.
This is the code from the first view called (main page)
ngOnInit() {
this._myService.getAllApplications().subscribe(arrObjApps => {
this._myService.setApplicationsCache(arrObjApps)
this.listApps = this._myService.getApplications(true);
});
And the service has this functions:
private _apps: Application[] = [];
getAllApplications(): Observable<Application[]> {
return this._http.get('http://development:4300/api/v1/atbc-apps').pipe(
map( (response: Response) => {
let results = response.json().data.map( app => {
return new Application(app.name, app.baseUrl, app.deprecated);
});
return results;
})
);
}
getApplication(appName: string): Application {
return this._apps.find(app => app.name == appName);
}
getApplications(onlyActives: boolean): Application[] {
if (onlyActives) {
return this._apps.filter(app => app.deprecated == false);
} else {
return this._apps;
}
}
And as I stated the solution should be obvious. Just again the async mindset required to work with observables.
I have a problem concating 2 json objects together. Basicly my app is doing a get on my rest server every second and i'm only sending the newest data back so as angular is refreshing the whole object i found on google that i can concat the 2 jsons together (old and new) so i can keep everything. But the problem is that none of the concat/merge/extend functions work and i don't know what i'm missing.
data: any = null;
constructor(private _http: Http) {
setInterval(() => this.getLogs(), 1000)
}
public getLogs() {
return this._http.get('http://localhost')
.map((res: Response) => res)
.subscribe(data => {
if data._body != ''{
//this.data = data.json()
if this.data == null
this.data = data.json();
else
extend(this.data,data.json()); // PROBLEM HERE
}
console.log(this.data);
});
}
So far i tried this.data.concat(data.json()); if i try extend(this.data, data.json()) or merge(this.data, data.json()); I get errors saying that it's not defined. The concat function doesn't do anything. Doesn't trigger errors neither concat so i don't know what it is doing.
I'm logging the object everytme and i can see the object always stays at the first ever response i get (meaning it only does the if this.data == null).
https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_concat_array.asp states
The concat() method is used to join two or more arrays.
This method does not change the existing arrays, but returns a new
array, containing the values of the joined arrays.
So you need to concat the two arrays into the data variable
data: any = null;
constructor(private _http: Http) {
setInterval(() => this.getLogs(), 1000)
}
public getLogs() {
return this._http.get('http://localhost')
.map((res: Response) => res)
.subscribe(data => {
if data._body != ''{
//this.data = data.json()
if this.data == null
this.data = data.json();
else
this.data = this.data.concat(data.json());
}
console.log(this.data);
});
}
You can use spread operator to generate new object:
this.data = {...this.data, ...data.json()};
What this does is create a new object and then first migrates all the fields and values from this.data and then same thing from data.json() while overriding any existing fields that were already in this.data.
Not sure where you're getting extend from. That's not a function.
You can't concat two objects together. You're calling res.json(), so the return is no longer JSON. Even if you were, you can't just concat JSON strings together and expect the result to be valid.
You'd want to merge the objects together, which can be done with Object.assign(this.data, data.json() or a spread: this.data = {...this.data, ...data.json()}.
On top of that, you'd want to try/catch your JSON parsing before assigning. Plus, your map function is doing literally nothing. You can parse it there instead.
You can also streamline this by just initializing data to an empty object.
public data: any = {}
public getLogs() {
return this._http.get('http://localhost')
.map(res => res.json())
.filter(res => !!res) // ensure data exists
.subscribe(data => {
Object.assign(this.data, data);
});
}
Having said that, making a REST call every second seems like an egregious waste of resources and will put strain on Angular's change detection, with performance degrading as data increases. If the objects don't need to be merged, i.e. each call is segmented data, consider pushing new data to an array instead of an object. Plus, you might want to consider doing something a little more sane, like implementing an event stream like SSE (server sent events) on the backend.
I developped an Angular2 service to retrieve a list a categories from a backend server and count how many 'links' exist per category.
Once I have the number of links for each category, I add a property to the Json object to 'store' the value.
Here is the code:
nbLinks = '';
...
getCategories() {
return this.category.find({where: {clientId: this.userApi.getCurrentId()}}).map((data) => {
this.categoriesList = data;
for (var i = 0; i < this.categoriesList.length; i++) {
var obj = this.categoriesList[i].id;
this.category.countLinks(obj).subscribe((linksCount) => {
this.nbLinks = linksCount;
}, err => {
console.log(err);
});
}
return data;
},
err => {
console.log(err);
}
);
I am getting the categories in a json object with the correct 'where' clause.
I am looping on the Json to 'count' the number of link in this category.
My problem is that outside the for loop (getting out) the variable i is bigger than my Json length so the app is crashing.
My second problem is that I do not have the visiblity of this.nbLinks outside the for ... loop.
Thanks an Regards
I'm not sure I understand your code, but two things stand out:
1) It looks like you're mixing synchronous and asynchronous code. It cannot work.
Sync code: the for loop. Async code: the observable.
Instead, could you refactor your code to ONLY work with observables and chain all the operations? You can wrap any piece of data in an observable with Observable.from() or Observable.of().
For instance:
getCategories() {
const categories = this.category.find({where: {clientId: this.userApi.getCurrentId()}});
return Observable.from(categories)
.map(category => countLinksInCategory(category));
}
If countLinksInCategory() is an async operation, then have that function return an Observable, and use .mergeMap() instead of .map() in the code above.
2) Try avoiding setting an outside variable from within your observable
// This part is not ideal
Obs.subscribe(linksCount => {
this.nbLinks = linksCount;
});
I would suggest renaming getCategories() to getNumLinks() to reflect the role of the function. The only job of the Observable inside this function is to produce a value. Then, the consumer of the Observable can use that value (i.e. assign it, display it...).
In terms of code:
getNumLinks(): Observable<number> {
// Here, count the number of links - See example code above.
// Eventually, return an observable wrapping the final value.
}
Then, elsewhere in your code:
// This is where you assign the value returned by the Observable.
// Note that we are OUTSIDE the Observable now.
getNumLinks().subscribe(numLinks => this.nbLinks = numLinks);
I'm new to Angular2 and somehow it's really hard to me to understand how http works in Angular2. I made a simple component which should display a json response. It doesn't work and I have no idea why. I checked many tutorials and tried it with promises as well as observables. Doesn't work. I just can't get the data of the response.
My code:
private doAction() {
this.doHttpRequest().subscribe(
data => this.content = data
);
this.content = JSON.stringify(this.content);
}
private doHttpRequest() {
return this.http.get('http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1')
.catch(this.handleError);
}
this.content is bind to my template. When I click a button to start doAction() for a second I see "" in the template, after another second [object Object]
What is the problem here?
That's the expected behavior
private doAction() {
// schedule HTTP call to server and subscribe to get notified when data arrives
this.doHttpRequest().subscribe(
// gets called by the observable when the response from the server aarives
data => this.content = data
);
// execute immediately before the call to the server was even sent
this.content = JSON.stringify(this.content);
}
To fix it change it to
private doAction() {
this.doHttpRequest().subscribe(
data => {
//this.content = data;
this.content = data.json());
});
);
}
If you want code to be executed after data arrived, then you need to move it inside the subscribe(...) callback.
Since http requests are asynchron you have to put all your logic depending on the results of the http call in the subscribe() callback like this:
private doAction() {
this.doHttpRequest().subscribe(
data => {
this.content = data;
// any more logic must sit in here
}
);
}
private doHttpRequest() {
return this.http.get('http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1')
.map(res => res.json());
.catch(this.handleError);
}
Http call is returning data since it shows "[object Object]" in template. If you want to see the json data in template you can use the json pipe as below.
{{content | json}}
PS: No need of "this.content = JSON.stringify(this.content);" in your code.
I have some setup I want during a constructor, but it seems that is not allowed
Which means I can't use:
How else should I do this?
Currently I have something outside like this, but this is not guaranteed to run in the order I want?
async function run() {
let topic;
debug("new TopicsModel");
try {
topic = new TopicsModel();
} catch (err) {
debug("err", err);
}
await topic.setup();
A constructor must return an instance of the class it 'constructs'. Therefore, it's not possible to return Promise<...> and await for it.
You can:
Make your public setup async.
Do not call it from the constructor.
Call it whenever you want to 'finalize' object construction.
async function run()
{
let topic;
debug("new TopicsModel");
try
{
topic = new TopicsModel();
await topic.setup();
}
catch (err)
{
debug("err", err);
}
}
Readiness design pattern
Don't put the object in a promise, put a promise in the object.
Readiness is a property of the object. So make it a property of the object.
The awaitable initialise method described in the accepted answer has a serious limitation. Using await like this means only one block of code can be implicitly contingent on the object being ready. This is fine for code with guaranteed linear execution but in multi-threaded or event driven code it's untenable.
You could capture the task/promise and await that, but how do you manage making this available to every context that depends on it?
The problem is more tractable when correctly framed. The objective is not to wait on construction but to wait on readiness of the constructed object. These are two completely different things. It is even possible for something like a database connection object to be in a ready state, go back to a non-ready state, then become ready again.
How can we determine readiness if it depends on activities that may not be complete when the constructor returns? Quite obviously readiness is a property of the object. Many frameworks directly express the notion of readiness. In JavaScript we have the Promise, and in C# we have the Task. Both have direct language support for object properties.
Expose the construction completion promise as a property of the constructed object. When the asynchronous part of your construction finishes it should resolve the promise.
It doesn't matter whether .then(...) executes before or after the promise resolves. The promise specification states that invoking then on an already resolved promised simply executes the handler immediately.
class Foo {
public Ready: Promise.IThenable<any>;
constructor() {
...
this.Ready = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
$.ajax(...).then(result => {
// use result
resolve(undefined);
}).fail(reject);
});
}
}
var foo = new Foo();
foo.Ready.then(() => {
// do stuff that needs foo to be ready, eg apply bindings
});
// keep going with other stuff that doesn't need to wait for foo
// using await
// code that doesn't need foo to be ready
await foo.Ready;
// code that needs foo to be ready
Why resolve(undefined); instead of resolve();? Because ES6. Adjust as required to suit your target.
Using await
In a comment it has been suggested that I should have framed this solution with await to more directly address the question as asked.
You can use await with the Ready property as shown in the example above. I'm not a big fan of await because it requires you to partition your code by dependency. You have to put all the dependent code after await and all the independent code before it. This can obscure the intent of the code.
I encourage people to think in terms of call-backs. Mentally framing the problem like this is more compatible with languages like C. Promises are arguably descended from the pattern used for IO completion.
Lack of enforcement as compared to factory pattern
One punter thinks this pattern "is a bad idea because without a factory function, there's nothing to enforce the invariant of checking the readiness. It's left to the clients, which you can practically guarantee will mess up from time to time."
If you take this position then how will you stop people from building factory methods that don't enforce the check? Where do you draw the line? For example, would you forbid the division operator because there's nothing stopping people from passing a zero divisor? The hard truth is you have to learn the difference between domain specific code and framework code and apply different standards, seasoned with some common sense.
Antecedents
This is original work by me. I devised this design pattern because I was unsatisfied with external factories and other such workarounds. Despite searching for some time, I found no prior art for my solution, so I'm claiming credit as the originator of this pattern until disputed.
Nevertheless, in 2020 I discovered that in 2013 Stephen Cleary posted a very similar solution to the problem. Looking back through my own work the first vestiges of this approach appear in code I worked on around the same time. I suspect Cleary put it all together first but he didn't formalise it as a design pattern or publish it where it would be easily found by others with the problem. Moreover, Cleary deals only with construction which is only one application of the Readiness pattern (see below).
Summary
The pattern is
put a promise in the object it describes
expose it as a property named Ready
always reference the promise via the Ready property (don't capture it in a client code variable)
This establishes clear simple semantics and guarantees that
the promise will be created and managed
the promise has identical scope to the object it describes
the semantics of readiness dependence are conspicuous and clear in client code
if the promise is replaced (eg a connection goes unready then ready again due to network conditions) client code referring to it via thing.Ready will always use the current promise
This last one is a nightmare until you use the pattern and let the object manage its own promise. It's also a very good reason to refrain from capturing the promise into a variable.
Some objects have methods that temporarily put them in an invalid condition, and the pattern can serve in that scenario without modification. Code of the form obj.Ready.then(...) will always use whatever promise property is returned by the Ready property, so whenever some action is about to invalidate object state, a fresh promise can be created.
Closing notes
The Readiness pattern isn't specific to construction. It is easily applied to construction but it's really about ensuring that state dependencies are met. In these days of asynchronous code you need a system, and the simple declarative semantics of a promise make it straightforward to express the idea that an action should be taken ASAP, with emphasis on possible. Once you start framing things in these terms, arguments about long running methods or constructors become moot.
Deferred initialisation still has its place; as I mentioned you can combine Readiness with lazy load. But if chances are that you won't use the object, then why create it early? It might be better to create on demand. Or it might not; sometimes you can't tolerate delay between the recognition of need and fulfilment.
There's more than one way to skin a cat. When I write embedded software I create everything up front including resource pools. This makes leaks impossible and memory demands are known at compile time. But that's only a solution for a small closed problem space.
Use an asynchronous factory method instead.
class MyClass {
private mMember: Something;
constructor() {
this.mMember = await SomeFunctionAsync(); // error
}
}
Becomes:
class MyClass {
private mMember: Something;
// make private if possible; I can't in TS 1.8
constructor() {
}
public static CreateAsync = async () => {
const me = new MyClass();
me.mMember = await SomeFunctionAsync();
return me;
};
}
This will mean that you will have to await the construction of these kinds of objects, but that should already be implied by the fact that you are in the situation where you have to await something to construct them anyway.
There's another thing you can do but I suspect it's not a good idea:
// probably BAD
class MyClass {
private mMember: Something;
constructor() {
this.LoadAsync();
}
private LoadAsync = async () => {
this.mMember = await SomeFunctionAsync();
};
}
This can work and I've never had an actual problem from it before, but it seems to be dangerous to me, since your object will not actually be fully initialized when you start using it.
Another way to do it, which might be better than the first option in some ways, is to await the parts, and then construct your object after:
export class MyClass {
private constructor(
private readonly mSomething: Something,
private readonly mSomethingElse: SomethingElse
) {
}
public static CreateAsync = async () => {
const something = await SomeFunctionAsync();
const somethingElse = await SomeOtherFunctionAsync();
return new MyClass(something, somethingElse);
};
}
I've found a solution that looks like
export class SomeClass {
private initialization;
// Implement async constructor
constructor() {
this.initialization = this.init();
}
async init() {
await someAsyncCall();
}
async fooMethod() {
await this.initialization();
// ...some other stuff
}
async barMethod() {
await this.initialization();
// ...some other stuff
}
It works because Promises that powers async/await, can be resolved multiple times with the same value.
I know it's quite old but another option is to have a factory that will create the object and wait for its initialization:
// Declare the class
class A {
// Declare class constructor
constructor() {
// We didn't finish the async job yet
this.initialized = false;
// Simulates async job, it takes 5 seconds to have it done
setTimeout(() => {
this.initialized = true;
}, 5000);
}
// do something usefull here - thats a normal method
useful() {
// but only if initialization was OK
if (this.initialized) {
console.log("I am doing something useful here")
// otherwise throw an error which will be caught by the promise catch
} else {
throw new Error("I am not initialized!");
}
}
}
// factory for common, extensible class - that's the reason for the constructor parameter
// it can be more sophisticated and accept also params for constructor and pass them there
// also, the timeout is just an example, it will wait for about 10s (1000 x 10ms iterations
function factory(construct) {
// create a promise
var aPromise = new Promise(
function(resolve, reject) {
// construct the object here
var a = new construct();
// setup simple timeout
var timeout = 1000;
// called in 10ms intervals to check if the object is initialized
function waiter() {
if (a.initialized) {
// if initialized, resolve the promise
resolve(a);
} else {
// check for timeout - do another iteration after 10ms or throw exception
if (timeout > 0) {
timeout--;
setTimeout(waiter, 10);
} else {
throw new Error("Timeout!");
}
}
}
// call the waiter, it will return almost immediately
waiter();
}
);
// return promise of the object being created and initialized
return a Promise;
}
// this is some async function to create object of A class and do something with it
async function createObjectAndDoSomethingUseful() {
// try/catch to capture exceptions during async execution
try {
// create object and wait until its initialized (promise resolved)
var a = await factory(A);
// then do something usefull
a.useful();
} catch(e) {
// if class instantiation failed from whatever reason, timeout occured or useful was called before the object finished its initialization
console.error(e);
}
}
// now, perform the action we want
createObjectAndDoSomethingUsefull();
// spaghetti code is done here, but async probably still runs
Use a private constructor and a static factory method FTW. It is the best way to enforce any validation logic or data enrichment, encapsulated away from a client.
class Topic {
public static async create(id: string): Promise<Topic> {
const topic = new Topic(id);
await topic.populate();
return topic;
}
private constructor(private id: string) {
// ...
}
private async populate(): Promise<void> {
// Do something async. Access `this.id` and any other instance fields
}
}
// To instantiate a Topic
const topic = await Topic.create();
Use a factory. That's the best practice for these cases.
The problem is that is tricky to define Typescript types for the factory pattern, especially with inheritance.
Let's see how to properly implement it in Typescript.
No inheritance
If you don't need class inheritance, the pattern is this:
class Person {
constructor(public name: string) {}
static async Create(name: string): Promise<Person> {
const instance = new Person(name);
/** Your async code here! **/
return instance;
}
}
const person = await Person.Create('John');
Class inheritance
If you need to extend the class, you will run into a problem. The Create method always returns the base class.
In Typescript, you can fix this with Generic Classes.
type PersonConstructor<T = {}> = new (...args: any[]) => T;
class Person {
constructor(public name: string) {}
static async Create<T extends Person>(
this: PersonConstructor<T>,
name: string,
...args: any[]
): Promise<T> {
const instance = new this(name, ...args);
/** Your async code here! **/
return instance;
}
}
class MyPerson extends Person {
constructor(name: string, public lastName: string) {
super(name);
}
}
const myPerson = await MyPerson.Create('John', 'Snow');
Extending the factory
You can extend the Create method too.
class MyPerson extends Person {
constructor(name: string, public lastName: string) {
super(name);
}
static async Create<T extends Person>(
this: PersonConstructor<T>,
name: string,
lastName: string,
...args: any[]
): Promise<T> {
const instance = await super.Create(name, lastName, ...args);
/** Your async code here! **/
return instance as T;
}
}
const myPerson = await MyPerson.Create('John', 'Snow');
Less verbose alternative
We can reduce the code verbosity by leveraging the async code to a non-static method, which won't require a Generic Class definition when extending the Create method.
type PersonConstructor<T = {}> = new (...args: any[]) => T;
class Person {
constructor(public name: string) {}
protected async init(): Promise<void> {
/** Your async code here! **/
// this.name = await ...
}
static async Create<T extends Person>(
this: PersonConstructor<T>,
name: string,
...args: any[]
): Promise<T> {
const instance = new this(name, ...args);
await instance.init();
return instance;
}
}
class MyPerson extends Person {
constructor(name: string, public lastName: string) {
super(name);
}
override async init(): Promise<void> {
await super.init();
/** Your async code here! **/
// this.lastName = await ...
}
}
const myPerson = await MyPerson.Create('John', 'Snow');
Aren't static methods bad practice?
Yes, with one exception: factories.
Why not return a promise in the constructor?
You can do that, but many will consider your code a bad pattern, because a constructor:
Should always return the class type (Promise<Person> is not Person);
Should never run async code;
You may elect to leave the await out of the equation altogether. You can call it from the constructor if you need to. The caveat being that you need to deal with any return values in the setup/initialise function, not in the constructor.
this works for me, using angular 1.6.3.
import { module } from "angular";
import * as R from "ramda";
import cs = require("./checkListService");
export class CheckListController {
static $inject = ["$log", "$location", "ICheckListService"];
checkListId: string;
constructor(
public $log: ng.ILogService,
public $loc: ng.ILocationService,
public checkListService: cs.ICheckListService) {
this.initialise();
}
/**
* initialise the controller component.
*/
async initialise() {
try {
var list = await this.checkListService.loadCheckLists();
this.checkListId = R.head(list).id.toString();
this.$log.info(`set check list id to ${this.checkListId}`);
} catch (error) {
// deal with problems here.
}
}
}
module("app").controller("checkListController", CheckListController)
Use a setup async method that returns the instance
I had a similar problem in the following case: how to instanciate a 'Foo' class either with an instance of a 'FooSession' class or with a 'fooSessionParams' object, knowing that creating a fooSession from a fooSessionParams object is an async function?
I wanted to instanciate either by doing:
let foo = new Foo(fooSession);
or
let foo = await new Foo(fooSessionParams);
and did'nt want a factory because the two usages would have been too different. But as we know, we can not return a promise from a constructor (and the return signature is different). I solved it this way:
class Foo {
private fooSession: FooSession;
constructor(fooSession?: FooSession) {
if (fooSession) {
this.fooSession = fooSession;
}
}
async setup(fooSessionParams: FooSessionParams): Promise<Foo> {
this.fooSession = await getAFooSession(fooSessionParams);
return this;
}
}
The interesting part is where the setup async method returns the instance itself.
Then if I have a 'FooSession' instance I can use it this way:
let foo = new Foo(fooSession);
And if I have no 'FooSession' instance I can setup 'foo' in one of these ways:
let foo = await new Foo().setup(fooSessionParams);
(witch is my prefered way because it is close to what I wanted first)
or
let foo = new Foo();
await foo.setup(fooSessionParams);
As an alternative I could also add the static method:
static async getASession(fooSessionParams: FooSessionParams): FooSession {
let fooSession: FooSession = await getAFooSession(fooSessionParams);
return fooSession;
}
and instanciate this way:
let foo = new Foo(await Foo.getASession(fooSessionParams));
It is mainly a question of style…
Create holder for promise status:
class MyClass {
constructor(){
this.#fetchResolved = this.fetch()
}
#fetchResolved: Promise<void>;
fetch = async (): Promise<void> => {
return new Promise(resolve => resolve()) // save data to class property or simply add it by resolve() to #fetchResolved reference
}
isConstructorDone = async (): boolean => {
await this.#fetchResolved;
return true; // or any other data depending on constructor finish the job
}
}
To use:
const data = new MyClass();
const field = await data.isConstructorDone();
Or you can just stick to the true ASYNC model and not overcomplicate the setup. 9 out of 10 times this comes down to asynchronous versus synchronous design. For example I have a React component that needed this very same thing were I was initializing the state variables in a promise callback in the constructor. Turns out that all I needed to do to get around the null data exception was just setup an empty state object then set it in the async callback. For example here's a Firebase read with a returned promise and callback:
this._firebaseService = new FirebaseService();
this.state = {data: [], latestAuthor: '', latestComment: ''};
this._firebaseService.read("/comments")
.then((data) => {
const dataObj = data.val();
const fetchedComments = dataObj.map((e: any) => {
return {author: e.author, text: e.text}
});
this.state = {data: fetchedComments, latestAuthor: '', latestComment: ''};
});
By taking this approach my code maintains it's AJAX behavior without compromising the component with a null exception because the state is setup with defaults (empty object and empty strings) prior to the callback. The user may see an empty list for a second but then it's quickly populated. Better yet would be to apply a spinner while the data loads up. Oftentimes I hear of individuals suggesting overly complicated work arounds as is the case in this post but the original flow should be re-examined.