node-stack-cls

Node.js Continuation Local Storage (CLS) based on call-stack

Continuation Local Storage(CLS) works like thread-local storage in threaded programming,
but is based on chains of Node-style callbacks instead of threads.
CLS is very useful to share contexts across async calls in Node.js.

Most CLS modules are implemented based on async_hooks. It is a good feature for CLS.
But it is still experimental feature and seems to have performance issues.
So we made a simple CLS module using call-stack, not async_hooks.
The main concept is to mark the unique context key on the call-stack
and using this key, share the same context across the functions on call-stack.

Attention:
This module is implemented on call-stack basis. so, context cannot be shared in callback function.
Because, callback function is performed with a separated call-stack.
To expand the context to callback function, you need to wrap the callback function once more.
Therefore, this module is recommended for async/await based processing.

Installation

This is a Node.js module available through the npm registry.
Before installing, download and install Node.js. node.js v7.6.0 or higher for ES2015 and async function support.

$ npm install node-stack-cls

Example

By wrapping your event handler function, the wrapped subcalls can share the same context storage.
Under wrapped function, can set/get context anywhere.

import nscls from 'node-stack-cls';

async function handler(event) {
  // set context
  nscls.setContext('foo', 1);
  nscls.setContext('bar', 2);

  await process1();
  await process2();
  return 'ok'
}

async function process1() {
  // get context
  console.log(nscls.getContext('foo'));
  // console out: 1
}

async function process2() {
  // get context
  console.log(nscls.getContext('bar'));
  // console out: 2
}

// wrap user handler function
export default nscls.wrapper(handler);

Expand context to callback function

To expand context to callback function, wrap your callback function once more.

async function handler(event) {
  nscls.setContext('foo', 1);

  asyncProcess().then(nscls.wrapper(result => {
    nscls.getContext('foo');
    // do asynchronous process
  }));

  setTimeout(nscls.wrapper(() => {
    nscls.getContext('foo');
    // do asynchronous process
  }), 10000);

  return 'ok';
}

Note:
The context storage is allocated at the time the wrapper is created (not invoke time)
and released at the time the wrapper is completed.
If the wrapper is not invoked within a certain time, release the context storage.
This is to prevent memory leaks, you can change this timer with config api. (default: 60sec)

Apply to middleware

If use Koa, you can apply wrapper to middleware.

import Koa from 'koa';
import nscls from 'node-stack-cls';

const app = new Koa();

app.use(async (ctx, next) => {
  await nscls.wrapper(next)();
});

If use express, you can also apply wrapper to middleware.

import express from 'express';
import nscls from 'node-stack-cls';

const app = new express();

app.use(async (req, res, next) => {
  await nscls.wrapper(next)();
});

API

Wrap top function for context sharing

wrapper(func)

• func: target function to wrap
• return: wrapper function

await nscls.wrapper(async () => {
  // do something
})();

// can invoke wrapper with wrapped function args
await nscls.wrapper(async (arg1, arg2) => {
  // do something
})(arg1, arg2);

Access context

setContext(key, value)

• key: context key to set
• value: context value to set
• return: none

getContext(key)

• key: context key to get
• return: context value (if not found, return undefined)

nscls.setContext('foo', 1);

nscls.getContext('foo'); // return 1
nscls.getContext('bar'); // return undefined

Change config

config(option)

• option: option object
  • wrapperPrefix: wrapper function name prefix (default: nscls-wrapper)
  • wrapperWaitTime: wait msec for wrapper invocation (default: 60000)
• return: none

// if you want to change config, please set before start to handle events.
nscls.config({
  wrapperPrefix: 'myprefix', // default: 'nscls-wrapper'
  wrapperWaitTime: 120000    // default: 60000
});