collect

Collect waits for a bunch of streams to end and then calls back, like some kind of magical stream catcher. You can also await a bunch of functions to call back.

install

npm install collect

modules

• collect — require('collect') wait for a bunch of streams to finish
• awaiter — require('collect').awaiter waiter for a bunch of functions to call back

## usage - collect (streams)

var fs = require('fs');
var potatoStream = fs.createWriteStream('potato.txt');
var carrotStream = fs.createWriteStream('carrot.txt');
var bananaStream = fs.createWriteStream('banana.txt');
 
var collect = require('collect');
 
collect([potatoStream, carrotStream, bananaStream], function() {
  // All streams have finished writing! yay!
});

or alternatively with a staggered syntax so you can add streams over time and collect them whenever you want:

var fs = require('fs');
var potatoStream = fs.createWriteStream('potato.txt');
var carrotStream = fs.createWriteStream('carrot.txt');
var bananaStream = fs.createWriteStream('banana.txt');
 
var collection = require('collect').collection;
 
var magicalStreamCatcher = collection();
 
magicalStreamCatcher.push(potatoStream);
 
process.nextTick(function() {
  // later on
  magicalStreamCatcher.push(carrotStream);
  magicalStreamCatcher.push(bananaStream);
 
  magicalStreamCatcher.collect(function() {
    // called when all the streams have closed
  });
});

## usage - awaiter (callbacks)

Stuff you need to know: results is an object containing the returned value(s) from the callback. If the callback returned nothing, the value will be an empty array. If one of the callback returns an error, the await callback is called immediately, without the results, and only once. This is in line with how async works.

var await = awaiter('data', 'stuff', function(err, results) {
  assert(results.data == 'potato');
  assert(results.stuff[0] == 'cabbage');
});
 
longRunningFunction(await('data')); //await('data') returns a callback for you to pass
otherLongRunningFunctionThatReturnsMoreThanOneArg(await('stuff'));

alternatively there's a more staggered syntax that can make sense if you want your callback to be below the function calls, by using await.then. like this:

var await = awaiter('data', 'stuff');
 
longRunningFunction(await('data')); 
otherLongRunningFunctionThatReturnsMoreThanOneArg(await('stuff'));
 
await.then(function(err, results) {
  assert(results.data == 'potato');
  assert(results.stuff[0] == 'cabbage');
});

If don't know exactly what you want at the time of awaiter creation, you can add dependencies later on.

var awaiter = awaiter('potato');

//later on

awaiter.alsoAwait('peas');

awaiter.then(function(err, results) { 
  // results now has potato AND peas! sweet!
});

awaiter.num(number, cb)

This version of awaiter does not require you to name your callbacks, just tell it how many of them you need and it will provide them.

Example:

var collect = require('collect');

var numAwaiter = collect.awaiter.num(3);

fs.readFile('chapter-1.md', 'utf8', numAwaiter());
fs.readFile('chapter-2.md', 'utf8', numAwaiter());
fs.readFile('chapter-3.md', 'utf8', numAwaiter());

numAwaiter.then(function(err, results) {
  // `results` is an array
  var chapters = results.join('\n\n');
});

You can also use an arbitrary number of callbacks like so:

var waiter = awaiter.num();

waiter()(null, 'potato')
waiter()(null, 'peas')
waiter()(null, 'pie')

waiter.then(function(err, res) {
});

---

Development of Collect is lovingly sponsored by BRIK Tekonologier AS in Bergen, Norway.