The Open Web Platform is moving faster than ever, with an ever evolving set of tools, features, and technologies. It is sometimes difficult to keep up with updated APIs, new constructs, and changes to existing workflows.
In this blog series, I’ll show you some new features of the web platform that you can start working with today. Over the course of several posts, you’ll learn better and easier ways to accomplish the same task.
We will be using an example using <vaadin-grid> to show the difference between the old method and the new features of ES6. In this example, we will cover Promises as a way to write asynchronous code in a top-down way.
I've divided this guide into the "old" way of using callbacks for asynchronous functions, and the ES6 way of using Promises. Skip ahead to learn just about Promises.
What is ES6?
First let’s quickly go over some basic terms and concepts. The latest version of Javascript is called ECMAScript2015, or ES2015, and more commonly known as ES6. ES6 brings a host of new updates to the language, some of which we’ll cover in this blog series.
ECMAScript (ES) is the standardized language that Javascript implements. The two are nearly synonymous today and the exact distinction is unimportant.
See this post by Ben McCormick for a brief explanation.
The “old” way
In this short example, we will populate a <vaadin-grid> with a set of random users with their nationalities written out in full.
You can view and play with the sample on jsbin here.
Note: I will skip the basics of imports, styles and <vaadin-grid> HTML setup. See our Vaadin Elements guide for an introduction to <vaadin-grid>.
[.. imports, styles, and HTML elided ..]
<script>
var grid = document.getElementById('grid');
// grid.items is called implicitly to fill in the grid
grid.items = function(params, callback) {
// First grab a list of users
var url = 'https://randomuser.me/api?index=' + params.index + '&results=' + params.count;
getJSON(url, function(users) {
// Then replace the short nationality code with the full country name
users.results.forEach(function(user) {
var url2 = 'https://restcountries.eu/rest/v1/alpha/' + user.nat;
getJSON(url2, function(natData) {
user.nat = natData.name;
accumulate(user);
})
});
// Gather final asynchronous results
var waiting = users.results.length;
var results = [];
var accumulate = function(entry) {
results.push(entry);
waiting--;
if (waiting == 0) {
// Call grid's callback to populate grid
callback(results);
}
};
});
};
// Send a request to url and call callback with the results
function getJSON(url, callback) {
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (xhr.readyState === XMLHttpRequest.DONE && xhr.status === 200) {
callback(JSON.parse(xhr.responseText));
}
};
xhr.open('GET', url, true);
xhr.send();
}
</script>
Getting the data
This guide is all about populating the grid with items, so our work will be in the grid.items function. grid.items is a function that is called implicitly by the grid element when it loads data from the server.
First we will request a list of users from http://randomusers.me with first name, last name, and a three letter nationality abbreviation.
We will then send requests to https://restcountries.eu/ to get the full nationality text for each user.
Lastly, we will compile the full list of users with long form nationalities and call the grid items callback with that list, which will populate our grid.
Here it is step by step:
First make a request for the users and pass in a callback function to the request.
// First grab a list of users
var url = 'https://randomuser.me/api?index=' + params.index + '&results=' + params.count;
getJSON(url, function(users) {
...
});
Then for each user in the retrieved data, we will run another request to get the full nationality name.
getJSON(url, function(users) {
users.results.forEach(function(user) {
var url2 = 'https://restcountries.eu/rest/v1/alpha/' + user.nat;
getJSON(url2, function(natData) {
user.nat = natData.name;
accumulate(user);
});
});
This calls the accumulate(entry) function, which gathers a new copy of the user, now with the full nationality.
Because our HTTP request are asynchronous, we have to wait until all of them are complete before we can finally run the grid items callback and populate the grid.
// Gather final asychronous results
var waiting = data.results.length;
var finalList = [];
var accumulate = function(user) {
finalList.push(entry);
waiting--;
if (waiting == 0) {
// Call grid's callback to populate grid
callback(finalList);
}
};
If you are confused by this example, don’t feel bad, I was, too. The problem with this kind of asynchronous code is the necessity of callbacks to signal when an async request has completed. This is sometimes known as “callback hell” and is what happens when you try to write top-down code where one function requires waiting for another function to complete. It’s messy, but there are ways to make more readable code.
The promise of Promises
What if you could write similar straightforward code without having to pass around a myriad callbacks? ES6 finally brings Promises to Javascript, which make writing asynchronous code much simpler. Promises have been around for awhile in other languages and libraries, but ES6 brings first class Promises directly to the language.
A Promise represent a value that will be available some time in the future. This means the Promises are a stand-in for the result of some asynchronous behaviour. You work with Promises as though data is already available and write code top down that consumes that data.
Quick introduction to Promises
You create a Promise by calling its constructor and passing in a function with two arguments, which themselves are functions, so:
var promise = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) { ... });
This sets up a Promise which resolves to a value when resolve is called. For example:
var x = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
// do some work
resolve(10);
});
Which will set the value of x to a Promise that resolves to 10 once it has finished its work. But we can’t actually use that value of 10 until the Promise is consumed. To consume this value, we need to use Promise.then().
Promise.then() takes a function for input with an argument representing the fulfilled value of the Promise. Inside the then function, we can actually use the resolved value of the Promise.
For example:
var y = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
// do some work
resolve(20);
}).then(function(value) {
var result = value + 5;
console.log(result);
});
This will create a Promise which will eventually resolve to 20 that will be consumed by the then function and print 25 to the console.
You can also chain then statements to do extended work with Promises. If you return a value inside a then function, then you will return a new Promise that will resolve to the returned value.
var z = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
// do some work
resolve(5);
}).then(function(value) {
var result = value + 20;
return result;
}).then(function(value) {
var finalresults = value + 30;
console.log(finalresults);
});
This will create a Promise that resolves to 5, which then is chained with that value to another Promise, which will eventually resolve to 25. Then we use that new value to log 55 to the console.
Now let’s return to our “callback hell” example and make it work in a more straightforward manner.
Note that I gloss over therejectaspect of Promises. In addition to resolving a Promise, you can reject if the Promise throws an error or for whatever reason cannot resolve to a value. We also ignored error checking in our first example for simplicity’s sake.You can read more about Promises and error checking at MDN here.
The ES6 way
We’re going to rewrite the logic in the example using Promises.
You can follow along and try out the new code at jsbin here.
[ ... HTML and imports elided ... ]
<script>
var grid = document.getElementById('grid');
grid.items = function(params, callback) {
var url = 'https://randomuser.me/api?index=' + params.index + '&results=' + params.count;
getJSONPromise(url).then(function(users) {
var promises = users.results.map(function(user) {
var url2 = 'https://restcountries.eu/rest/v1/alpha/' + user.nat;
return getJSONPromise(url2).then(function(natData) {
user.nat = natData.name;
return entry;
});
});
return Promise.all(promises);
}).then(function(results) {
callback(results);
});
};
function getJSONPromise(url) {
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (xhr.readyState === XMLHttpRequest.DONE && xhr.status === 200) {
resolve(JSON.parse(xhr.responseText));
}
};
xhr.open('GET', url, true);
xhr.send();
});
}
</script>
Setup
First, we rewrite the getJSON function to return a Promise that will resolve when the HTTP request return and call it getJSONPromise.
function getJSONPromise(url) {
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (xhr.readyState === XMLHttpRequest.DONE && xhr.status === 200) {
resolve(JSON.parse(xhr.responseText));
}
};
xhr.open('GET', url, true);
xhr.send();
});
}
This is exactly the same as before, but here we return a new Promise that resolves to the results when the request is complete. We can now rewrite our callback chain into a chain of Promises.
Promises, Promises
The first part of the code looks exactly the same, except now we call getJSONPromise and instead of passing in a callback to be called when the request is done, we instead just chain a then to the Promise.
var grid = document.getElementById('grid');
grid.items = function(params, callback) {
var url = 'https://randomuser.me/api?index=' + params.index + '&results=' + params.count;
getJSONPromise(url).then(...);
};
Next let’s look at the body of the then function, which requires a little bit of understanding.
getJSONPromise(url).then(function(users) {
var promises = users.results.map(function(user) { ... return a Promise ... });
...
});
What we are doing here is first creating an array of Promises by mapping a function onto the array of users. See this MDN entry to learn more about Array.map()
Let’s take a look at the function being mapped onto the list of users.
var promises = users.results.map(function(user) {
var url2 = 'https://restcountries.eu/rest/v1/alpha/' + user.nat;
return getJSONPromise(url2).then(function(natData) {
user.nat = natData.name;
return entry;
});
});
Here we send a new HTTP request for each user and when that request completes, we set its 3 letter nationality to the full nationality. We then return entry which implicitly creates a new Promise that resolves to the value of the update user. The new Promise for each user is then added to an array of Promises called promises.
And then finally we bring it all together.
getJSONPromise(url).then(function(users) {
var promises = ...
return Promise.all(promises);
}).then(function(results) {
callback(results);
});
We then return Promise.all(promises) which returns a new Promise that resolves when all of the Promises in the array promises themselves resolve. The returned Promise will resolve to an array of values: one for each entry in promises. The resolved array in turn is an array of our users with their nationality filled in.
From there, we just chain a function that will run the grid.items callback function callback, which will finally populate the grid just like in the first code sample.
Conclusion
Now you’ve seen the power of Promises to make writing asynchronous code a little easier. Promises are available in all modern browsers, with the exception of Internet Explorer and Opera Mini.
This is the first in a series of posts about ES6, so stay tuned for more. Next time, I’ll cover the new Fetch API, which makes writing HTTP Requests a breeze.