DeskSet

DeskSet - Yet Another Asynchronous JS Library

WHY?!?!?!?

I wanted something simple enough even I could use it =)

WHAAAAAT!?!?

Run some functions in parallel, storing their result in the properties of a single result object. When there is an error or everything is done running in parallel, invoke my callback.

Short Example

var DS = require("DeskSet");

var set = new DS(cb);

set.add(propertyName, asyncfn, [arg1, arg2... argN]);
set.add(propertyName2, asyncfn2, [arg1, arg2... argM]);

Example

var Set = require("DeskSet");

//Define some Async functions.

function getUser(id, cb){
  process.nextTick(function(){ //use redis or mongo or couch..
    cb(null, {name:"Aaron"});
  })
};

function getSomeData(filename, cb){
  fs.readFile("./"+filename, cb); //security hole!!
}

function render(name, data){
  console.log(sys.inspect(data));
}

routes.get("/home", function(req, res){
  var set = new Set(function(err, result){
    if(err){
      process.exit(); //oops!
    }
    res.end(render("home", result));
  });
  
  set.add("user", getUser, req.params.id);
  set.add("someData", getSomeData, "myfilename");
  set.add("someOtherData", getSomeData, "myOtherFilename");
});


// This will result in

{
  user: {
    name: "Aaron"
  },
  someData: "contents of myfilename",
  someOtherData: "contents of myOtherFilename"
}

Anyway, I have found that this is the easiest way for my feeble brain to do parallel tasks.

API for parallel execution in Node.js

var DS = require("DeskSet");

var set = new DS(cb);

set.add(propertyName, fn, [arg1, arg2... argN]);
set.add(propertyName2, fn2, [arg1, arg2... argM]);

var set = new DeskSet(cb)

Create a new DeskSet object by passing in a callback, that is a function that accepts err, result as its arguments.

Your callback

Your callback will be invoked once for each error and once when all functions have returned.

On error

The error passed to your callback is in the form of {property: propertyName, error: err}.

property is populated with the propertyName you passed to add when adding the function to the DeskSet.

error is the error that the function passed.

On completion

Your callback will be called when all of the other functions have completed, regardless of any errors.

err will be null.

result is a plain javascript object where each property is assigned the result of its corresponding functions.

set.add(propertyName, fn, [arg1, arg2... argN])

fn is a function in the form of function([arg1, arg2... argN], cb) where the cb is expected to be of the type: function(err, result){}

propertyName is the key that the result of this function invocation will be stored in.

Do you support ... ?

Probably not. DeskSet is super simple. There is no timeout, automatic try/catch wrapping, or cake.