Related
Given the following examples, why is outerScopeVar undefined in all cases?
var outerScopeVar;
var img = document.createElement('img');
img.onload = function() {
outerScopeVar = this.width;
};
img.src = 'lolcat.png';
alert(outerScopeVar);
var outerScopeVar;
setTimeout(function() {
outerScopeVar = 'Hello Asynchronous World!';
}, 0);
alert(outerScopeVar);
// Example using some jQuery
var outerScopeVar;
$.post('loldog', function(response) {
outerScopeVar = response;
});
alert(outerScopeVar);
// Node.js example
var outerScopeVar;
fs.readFile('./catdog.html', function(err, data) {
outerScopeVar = data;
});
console.log(outerScopeVar);
// with promises
var outerScopeVar;
myPromise.then(function (response) {
outerScopeVar = response;
});
console.log(outerScopeVar);
// with observables
var outerScopeVar;
myObservable.subscribe(function (value) {
outerScopeVar = value;
});
console.log(outerScopeVar);
// geolocation API
var outerScopeVar;
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function (pos) {
outerScopeVar = pos;
});
console.log(outerScopeVar);
Why does it output undefined in all of these examples? I don't want workarounds, I want to know why this is happening.
Note: This is a canonical question for JavaScript asynchronicity. Feel free to improve this question and add more simplified examples which the community can identify with.
One word answer: asynchronicity.
Forewords
This topic has been iterated at least a couple of thousands of times here in Stack Overflow. Hence, first off I'd like to point out some extremely useful resources:
#Felix Kling's answer to "How do I return the response from an asynchronous call?". See his excellent answer explaining synchronous and asynchronous flows, as well as the "Restructure code" section.
#Benjamin Gruenbaum has also put a lot of effort into explaining asynchronicity in the same thread.
#Matt Esch's answer to "Get data from fs.readFile" also explains asynchronicity extremely well in a simple manner.
The answer to the question at hand
Let's trace the common behavior first. In all examples, the outerScopeVar is modified inside of a function. That function is clearly not executed immediately; it is being assigned or passed as an argument. That is what we call a callback.
Now the question is, when is that callback called?
It depends on the case. Let's try to trace some common behavior again:
img.onload may be called sometime in the future when (and if) the image has successfully loaded.
setTimeout may be called sometime in the future after the delay has expired and the timeout hasn't been canceled by clearTimeout. Note: even when using 0 as delay, all browsers have a minimum timeout delay cap (specified to be 4ms in the HTML5 spec).
jQuery $.post's callback may be called sometime in the future when (and if) the Ajax request has been completed successfully.
Node.js's fs.readFile may be called sometime in the future when the file has been read successfully or thrown an error.
In all cases, we have a callback that may run sometime in the future. This "sometime in the future" is what we refer to as asynchronous flow.
Asynchronous execution is pushed out of the synchronous flow. That is, the asynchronous code will never execute while the synchronous code stack is executing. This is the meaning of JavaScript being single-threaded.
More specifically, when the JS engine is idle -- not executing a stack of (a)synchronous code -- it will poll for events that may have triggered asynchronous callbacks (e.g. expired timeout, received network response) and execute them one after another. This is regarded as Event Loop.
That is, the asynchronous code highlighted in the hand-drawn red shapes may execute only after all the remaining synchronous code in their respective code blocks have executed:
In short, the callback functions are created synchronously but executed asynchronously. You can't rely on the execution of an asynchronous function until you know it has been executed, and how to do that?
It is simple, really. The logic that depends on the asynchronous function execution should be started/called from inside this asynchronous function. For example, moving the alerts and console.logs inside the callback function would output the expected result because the result is available at that point.
Implementing your own callback logic
Often you need to do more things with the result from an asynchronous function or do different things with the result depending on where the asynchronous function has been called. Let's tackle a bit more complex example:
var outerScopeVar;
helloCatAsync();
alert(outerScopeVar);
function helloCatAsync() {
setTimeout(function() {
outerScopeVar = 'Nya';
}, Math.random() * 2000);
}
Note: I'm using setTimeout with a random delay as a generic asynchronous function; the same example applies to Ajax, readFile, onload, and any other asynchronous flow.
This example clearly suffers from the same issue as the other examples; it is not waiting until the asynchronous function executes.
Let's tackle it by implementing a callback system of our own. First off, we get rid of that ugly outerScopeVar which is completely useless in this case. Then we add a parameter that accepts a function argument, our callback. When the asynchronous operation finishes, we call this callback, passing the result. The implementation (please read the comments in order):
// 1. Call helloCatAsync passing a callback function,
// which will be called receiving the result from the async operation
helloCatAsync(function(result) {
// 5. Received the result from the async function,
// now do whatever you want with it:
alert(result);
});
// 2. The "callback" parameter is a reference to the function which
// was passed as an argument from the helloCatAsync call
function helloCatAsync(callback) {
// 3. Start async operation:
setTimeout(function() {
// 4. Finished async operation,
// call the callback, passing the result as an argument
callback('Nya');
}, Math.random() * 2000);
}
Code snippet of the above example:
// 1. Call helloCatAsync passing a callback function,
// which will be called receiving the result from the async operation
console.log("1. function called...")
helloCatAsync(function(result) {
// 5. Received the result from the async function,
// now do whatever you want with it:
console.log("5. result is: ", result);
});
// 2. The "callback" parameter is a reference to the function which
// was passed as an argument from the helloCatAsync call
function helloCatAsync(callback) {
console.log("2. callback here is the function passed as argument above...")
// 3. Start async operation:
setTimeout(function() {
console.log("3. start async operation...")
console.log("4. finished async operation, calling the callback, passing the result...")
// 4. Finished async operation,
// call the callback passing the result as argument
callback('Nya');
}, Math.random() * 2000);
}
Most often in real use cases, the DOM API and most libraries already provide the callback functionality (the helloCatAsync implementation in this demonstrative example). You only need to pass the callback function and understand that it will execute out of the synchronous flow and restructure your code to accommodate for that.
You will also notice that due to the asynchronous nature, it is impossible to return a value from an asynchronous flow back to the synchronous flow where the callback was defined, as the asynchronous callbacks are executed long after the synchronous code has already finished executing.
Instead of returning a value from an asynchronous callback, you will have to make use of the callback pattern, or... Promises.
Promises
Although there are ways to keep the callback hell at bay with vanilla JS, promises are growing in popularity and are currently being standardized in ES6 (see Promise - MDN).
Promises (a.k.a. Futures) provide a more linear, and thus pleasant, reading of the asynchronous code, but explaining their entire functionality is out of the scope of this question. Instead, I'll leave these excellent resources for the interested:
JavaScript Promises - HTML5 Rocks
You're Missing the Point of Promises - domenic.me
More reading material about JavaScript asynchronicity
The Art of Node - Callbacks explains asynchronous code and callbacks very well with vanilla JS examples and Node.js code as well.
Note: I've marked this answer as Community Wiki. Hence anyone with at least 100 reputations can edit and improve it! Please feel free to improve this answer or submit a completely new answer if you'd like as well.
I want to turn this question into a canonical topic to answer asynchronicity issues that are unrelated to Ajax (there is How to return the response from an AJAX call? for that), hence this topic needs your help to be as good and helpful as possible!
FabrÃcio's answer is spot on; but I wanted to complement his answer with something less technical, which focusses on an analogy to help explain the concept of asynchronicity.
An Analogy...
Yesterday, the work I was doing required some information from a colleague. I rang him up; here's how the conversation went:
Me: Hi Bob, I need to know how we foo'd the bar'd last week. Jim wants a report on it, and you're the only one who knows the details about it.
Bob: Sure thing, but it'll take me around 30 minutes?
Me: That's great Bob. Give me a ring back when you've got the information!
At this point, I hung up the phone. Since I needed information from Bob to complete my report, I left the report and went for a coffee instead, then I caught up on some email. 40 minutes later (Bob is slow), Bob called back and gave me the information I needed. At this point, I resumed my work with my report, as I had all the information I needed.
Imagine if the conversation had gone like this instead;
Me: Hi Bob, I need to know how we foo'd the bar'd last week. Jim want's a report on it, and you're the only one who knows the details about it.
Bob: Sure thing, but it'll take me around 30 minutes?
Me: That's great Bob. I'll wait.
And I sat there and waited. And waited. And waited. For 40 minutes. Doing nothing but waiting. Eventually, Bob gave me the information, we hung up, and I completed my report. But I'd lost 40 minutes of productivity.
This is asynchronous vs. synchronous behavior
This is exactly what is happening in all the examples in our question. Loading an image, loading a file off disk, and requesting a page via AJAX are all slow operations (in the context of modern computing).
Rather than waiting for these slow operations to complete, JavaScript lets you register a callback function which will be executed when the slow operation has completed. In the meantime, however, JavaScript will continue to execute other code. The fact that JavaScript executes other code whilst waiting for the slow operation to complete makes the behaviorasynchronous. Had JavaScript waited around for the operation to complete before executing any other code, this would have been synchronous behavior.
var outerScopeVar;
var img = document.createElement('img');
// Here we register the callback function.
img.onload = function() {
// Code within this function will be executed once the image has loaded.
outerScopeVar = this.width;
};
// But, while the image is loading, JavaScript continues executing, and
// processes the following lines of JavaScript.
img.src = 'lolcat.png';
alert(outerScopeVar);
In the code above, we're asking JavaScript to load lolcat.png, which is a sloooow operation. The callback function will be executed once this slow operation has done, but in the meantime, JavaScript will keep processing the next lines of code; i.e. alert(outerScopeVar).
This is why we see the alert showing undefined; since the alert() is processed immediately, rather than after the image has been loaded.
In order to fix our code, all we have to do is move the alert(outerScopeVar) code into the callback function. As a consequence of this, we no longer need the outerScopeVar variable declared as a global variable.
var img = document.createElement('img');
img.onload = function() {
var localScopeVar = this.width;
alert(localScopeVar);
};
img.src = 'lolcat.png';
You'll always see a callback is specified as a function, because that's the only* way in JavaScript to define some code, but not execute it until later.
Therefore, in all of our examples, the function() { /* Do something */ } is the callback; to fix all the examples, all we have to do is move the code which needs the response of the operation into there!
* Technically you can use eval() as well, but eval() is evil for this purpose
How do I keep my caller waiting?
You might currently have some code similar to this;
function getWidthOfImage(src) {
var outerScopeVar;
var img = document.createElement('img');
img.onload = function() {
outerScopeVar = this.width;
};
img.src = src;
return outerScopeVar;
}
var width = getWidthOfImage('lolcat.png');
alert(width);
However, we now know that the return outerScopeVar happens immediately; before the onload callback function has updated the variable. This leads to getWidthOfImage() returning undefined, and undefined being alerted.
To fix this, we need to allow the function calling getWidthOfImage() to register a callback, then move the alert'ing of the width to be within that callback;
function getWidthOfImage(src, cb) {
var img = document.createElement('img');
img.onload = function() {
cb(this.width);
};
img.src = src;
}
getWidthOfImage('lolcat.png', function (width) {
alert(width);
});
... as before, note that we've been able to remove the global variables (in this case width).
Here's a more concise answer for people that are looking for a quick reference as well as some examples using promises and async/await.
Start with the naive approach (that doesn't work) for a function that calls an asynchronous method (in this case setTimeout) and returns a message:
function getMessage() {
var outerScopeVar;
setTimeout(function() {
outerScopeVar = 'Hello asynchronous world!';
}, 0);
return outerScopeVar;
}
console.log(getMessage());
undefined gets logged in this case because getMessage returns before the setTimeout callback is called and updates outerScopeVar.
The two main ways to solve it are using callbacks and promises:
Callbacks
The change here is that getMessage accepts a callback parameter that will be called to deliver the results back to the calling code once available.
function getMessage(callback) {
setTimeout(function() {
callback('Hello asynchronous world!');
}, 0);
}
getMessage(function(message) {
console.log(message);
});
Promises
Promises provide an alternative which is more flexible than callbacks because they can be naturally combined to coordinate multiple async operations. A Promises/A+ standard implementation is natively provided in node.js (0.12+) and many current browsers, but is also implemented in libraries like Bluebird and Q.
function getMessage() {
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
setTimeout(function() {
resolve('Hello asynchronous world!');
}, 0);
});
}
getMessage().then(function(message) {
console.log(message);
});
jQuery Deferreds
jQuery provides functionality that's similar to promises with its Deferreds.
function getMessage() {
var deferred = $.Deferred();
setTimeout(function() {
deferred.resolve('Hello asynchronous world!');
}, 0);
return deferred.promise();
}
getMessage().done(function(message) {
console.log(message);
});
async/await
If your JavaScript environment includes support for async and await (like Node.js 7.6+), then you can use promises synchronously within async functions:
function getMessage () {
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
setTimeout(function() {
resolve('Hello asynchronous world!');
}, 0);
});
}
async function main() {
let message = await getMessage();
console.log(message);
}
main();
To state the obvious, the cup represents outerScopeVar.
Asynchronous functions be like...
The other answers are excellent and I just want to provide a straight forward answer to this. Just limiting to jQuery asynchronous calls
All ajax calls (including the $.get or $.post or $.ajax) are asynchronous.
Considering your example
var outerScopeVar; //line 1
$.post('loldog', function(response) { //line 2
outerScopeVar = response;
});
alert(outerScopeVar); //line 3
The code execution starts from line 1, declares the variable and triggers and asynchronous call on line 2, (i.e., the post request) and it continues its execution from line 3, without waiting for the post request to complete its execution.
Lets say that the post request takes 10 seconds to complete, the value of outerScopeVar will only be set after those 10 seconds.
To try out,
var outerScopeVar; //line 1
$.post('loldog', function(response) { //line 2, takes 10 seconds to complete
outerScopeVar = response;
});
alert("Lets wait for some time here! Waiting is fun"); //line 3
alert(outerScopeVar); //line 4
Now when you execute this, you would get an alert on line 3. Now wait for some time until you are sure the post request has returned some value. Then when you click OK, on the alert box, next alert would print the expected value, because you waited for it.
In real life scenario, the code becomes,
var outerScopeVar;
$.post('loldog', function(response) {
outerScopeVar = response;
alert(outerScopeVar);
});
All the code that depends on the asynchronous calls, is moved inside the asynchronous block, or by waiting on the asynchronous calls.
In all these scenarios outerScopeVar is modified or assigned a value asynchronously or happening in a later time(waiting or listening for some event to occur),for which the current execution will not wait.So all these cases current execution flow results in outerScopeVar = undefined
Let's discuss each examples(I marked the portion which is called asynchronously or delayed for some events to occur):
1.
Here we register an eventlistner which will be executed upon that particular event.Here loading of image.Then the current execution continuous with next lines img.src = 'lolcat.png'; and alert(outerScopeVar); meanwhile the event may not occur. i.e, funtion img.onload wait for the referred image to load, asynchrously. This will happen all the folowing example- the event may differ.
2.
Here the timeout event plays the role, which will invoke the handler after the specified time. Here it is 0, but still it registers an asynchronous event it will be added to the last position of the Event Queue for execution, which makes the guaranteed delay.
3.
This time ajax callback.
4.
Node can be consider as a king of asynchronous coding.Here the marked function is registered as a callback handler which will be executed after reading the specified file.
5.
Obvious promise (something will be done in future) is asynchronous. see What are the differences between Deferred, Promise and Future in JavaScript?
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-a-promise-and-a-callback-in-Javascript
The short answer is : asynchronicity.
Why asynchronous is needed?
JavaScript is single-threaded, meaning that two bits of the script cannot run at the same time; they have to run one after another. In browsers, JavaScript shares a thread with a load of other stuff that differs from browser to browser. But typically JavaScript is in the same queue as painting, updating styles, and handling user actions (such as highlighting text and interacting with form controls). Activity in one of these things delays the others.
You've probably used events and callbacks to get around this. Here are events:
var img1 = document.querySelector('.img-1');
img1.addEventListener('load', function() {
// image loaded
console.log("Loaded");
});
img1.addEventListener('error', function() {
// error caught
console.log("Error printed");
});
<img class="img-1" src="#" alt="img">
This isn't sneezy at all. We get the image, add a couple of listeners, then JavaScript can stop executing until one of those listeners is called.
Unfortunately, in the example above, it's possible that the events happened before we started listening for them, so we need to work around that using the "complete" property of images:
var img1 = document.querySelector('.img-1');
function loaded() {
// image loaded
console.log("Loaded");
}
if (img1.complete) {
loaded();
} else {
img1.addEventListener('load', loaded);
}
img1.addEventListener('error', function() {
// error caught
console.log("Error printed");
});
<img class="img-1" src="#" alt="img">
This doesn't catch images that errored before we got a chance to listen for them; unfortunately, the DOM doesn't give us a way to do that. Also, this is loading one image. Things get even more complex if we want to know when a set of images have loaded.
Events aren't always the best way
Events are great for things that can happen multiple times on the same object— keyup, touchstart etc. With those events, you don't really care about what happened before you attached the listener.
The two main ways to do it correctly: are callbacks and promises.
Callbacks
Callbacks are functions that are passed inside the arguments of other functions, this procedure is valid in JavaScript because functions are objects and objects can be passed as arguments to functions. The basic structure of the callback function looks something like this:
function getMessage(callback) {
callback();
}
function showMessage() {
console.log("Hello world! I am a callback");
}
getMessage(showMessage);
Promise
Although there are ways to keep the callback hell at bay with vanilla JS, promises are growing in popularity and are currently being standardized in ES6 (see Promise).
A promise is a placeholder representing the eventual result (value) of an asynchronous operation
the promise placeholder will be replaced by the result value (if successful) or reason for failure (if unsuccessful)
If you don't need to know when something happened, but just whether it happened or not, then a promise is what you are looking for.
A promise is a bit like an event listener, except that:
a promise can only succeed or fail once
a promise can't switch from fail to success, or vice versa
once you have a result, the promise is immutable
if a promise has succeeded or failed, and you later add a success/failure callback, the correct callback will be called
it doesn't matter that the event occurred before you added the callback
Note: Always return a result from a function inside a Promise, otherwise there's nothing for the subsequent function to act on.
Promise Terminology
A promise can be:
fulfilled: The action relating to the promise succeeded
the asynchronous operation has completed
the promise has a value
the promise will not change again
rejected: The action relating to the promise failed
the asynchronous operation failed
the promise will never be fulfilled
the promise has a reason indicating why the operation failed
the promise will not change again
pending: Hasn't fulfilled or rejected yet
the asynchronous operation hasn't been completed yet
can transition to fulfilled or rejected
settled: Has been fulfilled or rejected and is thus immutable
How to Create a Promise
function getMessage() {
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
setTimeout(function() {
resolve('Hello world! I am a promise');
}, 0);
});
}
getMessage().then(function(message) {
console.log(message);
});
I am attempting to get the address out of the callback function. I have been reading the documentation for CallBacks and some posts but still don't get why this is not working, as at the moment of returning the 'address' variable the callback has already finished.
private fun getAddressForCoordinates(geoCoordinates: GeoCoordinates):String {
address = "unchanged"
val maxItems = 1
val reverseGeocodingOptions = SearchOptions(LanguageCode.EN_GB, maxItems)
searchEngine.search(geoCoordinates, reverseGeocodingOptions, addressSearchCallback)
return address
}
private val addressSearchCallback =
SearchCallback { searchError, list ->
if (searchError != null) {
//showDialog("Reverse geocoding", "Error: $searchError")
Toast.makeText(context, "Error: $searchError", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()
return#SearchCallback
}
Toast.makeText(
context,
"Reverse geocoded address:" + list!![0].address.addressText,
Toast.LENGTH_LONG
).show()
address = list[0].address.addressText
}
From your code and comment I assume you are not familiar with the concept of asynchronous execution. That concept was well described here. I'll quote the main point:
When you execute something synchronously, you wait for it to finish
before moving on to another task. When you execute something
asynchronously, you can move on to another task before it finishes.
The fact that search() requires providing a callback and it doesn't simply return search results, is a good indication that it is most probably asynchronous. Invoking it is like saying: "Search for the data in the background and let me know when you have it. This is my email address - please send me my results there". Where email address is your callback. Invoking search() method does not block execution of your code, it does not wait for results - it only schedules searching and returns almost immediately.
Asynchronous processing is usually more tricky than a regular, synchronous code, but in many cases it is more efficient. In your case you can either try to "convert" original async API of the library to sync API that your code expects - but this is not recommended approach. Or you can redesign your code, so it will work asynchronously. For example, instead of doing this:
fun yourMethodThatNeedsAddress() {
val address = getAddressForCoordinates()
doSomethingWithAddress(address)
}
You need to do this:
fun yourMethodThatNeedsAddress() {
scheduleGetAddressForCoordinates() // renamed getAddressForCoordinates()
}
fun addressSearchCallback() {
...
doSomethingWithAddress(address)
}
So, whatever you planned to do with the acquired address, you can't do this straight after you started searching. You need to wait for a callback and then continue with processing of your address from there.
The SearchEngine from the 4.x HERE SDK needs an online connection as it is fetching results from a remote backend. This may take a few milliseconds, depending on your network connection. So, whenever you perform a search request, you need to wait until the callback is called:
searchEngine.search(geoCoordinates, reverseGeocodingOptions, addressSearchCallback)
When you call this, you pass addressSearchCallback as parameter. The implementation for addressSearchCallback can look like in your example. It will be called whenever the operation has finished. If the device is offline, then an error will be shown.
Note that the search() method is not returning any results immediately. These are passed to the callback, which happens asynchronously on a background thread. Thus, your application can continue to work without blocking any UI.
Once results are retrieved, the callback will be executed by the HERE SDK on the main thread.
So, if your code needs to do something with the address result, you have to do it inside the onSearchCompleted() method defined by the SearchCallback. If you write it in plain Java without lambda notation, it is more visible: You create a new SearchCallback object and pass it as parameter to the SearchEngine. The SearchEngine stores the object and executes the object's onSearchCompleted() whenever it thinks it's the right time:
private SearchCallback addressSearchCallback = new SearchCallback() {
#Override
public void onSearchCompleted(#Nullable SearchError searchError, #Nullable List<Place> list) {
if (searchError != null) {
showDialog("Reverse geocoding", "Error: " + searchError.toString());
return;
}
// If error is null, list is guaranteed to be not empty.
showDialog("Reverse geocoded address:", list.get(0).getAddress().addressText);
// Here is the place to do something more useful with the Address object ...!
}
};
I took this from this GitHub code snippet. Note that there is also an OfflineSearchEngine, that works without an internet connection, but for some reason it follows the same pattern and executes the task asynchronously.
private void getAddressForCoordinates(GeoCoordinates geoCoordinates) {
int maxItems = 1;
SearchOptions reverseGeocodingOptions = new SearchOptions(LanguageCode.EN_GB, maxItems);
searchEngine.search(geoCoordinates, reverseGeocodingOptions, new SearchCallback() {
#Override
public void onSearchCompleted(#Nullable SearchError searchError, #Nullable List<Place> list) {
if (searchError != null) {
showDialog("Reverse geocoding", "Error: " + searchError.toString());
return;
}
// If error is null, list is guaranteed to be not empty.
showDialog("Reverse geocoded address:", list.get(0).getAddress().addressText);
}
});
}
SearchEngine, a SearchOptions instance needs to be provided to set the desired LanguageCode. It determines the language of the resulting address. Then we can make a call to the engine's search()-method to search online for the address of the passed coordinates. In case of errors, such as when the device is offline, SearchError holds the error cause.
The reverse geocoding response contains either an error or a result: SearchError and the result list can never be null at the same time - or non-null at the same time.
The Address object contained inside each Place instance is a data class that contains multiple String fields describing the address of the raw location, such as country, city, street name, and many more. Consult the API Reference for more details. If you are only interested in receiving a readable address representation, you can access addressText, as shown in the above example. This is a String containing the most relevant address details, including the place's title.
Please refer to following link for detailed documentation on search() function and parameters associated with it.
https://developer.here.com/documentation/android-sdk-explore/4.4.0.2/dev_guide/topics/search.html
I have below code to create column:
DTColumnBuilder.newColumn(null).withTitle('Validation').renderWith(validationRenderer)
and render function:
function validationRenderer(data, type, full, meta) {
.......
}
Now, I want to pass custom parameters to validationRenderer so that I can access it inside the function, like below:
DTColumnBuilder.newColumn(null).withTitle('Validation').renderWith(validationRenderer('abc'))
function validationRenderer(data, type, full, meta, additionalParam) {
// do something with additionalParam
}
I could not find it in the documentation but there must be something to pass additional parameters in meta as per the reference from here
Yes, you can. Or, better, you technically can, but you may use a clever workaround to handle your issue.
I had this issue today, and found a pretty sad (but working) solution.
Basically, the big problem is that the render function is a parameter passed to the datatable handler, which is (of course) isolated.
In my case, to make a pratical example, I had to add several dynamic buttons, each with a different action, to a dynamic datatable.
Apparently, there was no solution, until I thought the following: the problem seems to be that the renderer function scope is somewhat isolated and unaccessible. However, since the "return" of the function is called only when the datatable effectively renders the field, you may wrap the render function in a custom self-invoking-anonymous-function, providing arguments there to use them once the cell is being rendered.
Here is what I did with my practical example, considering the following points:
The goal was to pass the ID field of each row to several different custom functions, so the problem was passing the ID of the button to call when the button is effectively clicked (since you can't get any external reference of it when it is rendered).
I'm using a custom class, which is the following:
hxDatatableDynamicButton = function(label, onClick, classNames) {
this.label = label;
this.onClick = onClick;
this.classNames = this.classNames || 'col5p text-center';
}
Basically, it just creates an instance that I'm later using.
In this case, consider having an array of 2 different instances of these, one having a "test" label, and the other one having a "test2" label.
I'm injecting these instances through a for loop, hence I need to pass the "i" to my datatable to know which of the buttons is being pressed.
Since the code is actually quite big (the codebase is huge), here is the relevant snippet that you need to accomplish the trick:
scope.datatableAdditionalActionButtons.reverse();
scope._abstractDynamicClick = function(id, localReferenceID) {
scope.datatableAdditionalActionButtons[localReferenceID].onClick.call(null, id);
};
for (var i = 0; i < scope.datatableAdditionalActionButtons.length; i++) {
var _localReference = scope.datatableAdditionalActionButtons[i];
var hax = (function(i){
var _tmp = function (data, type, full, meta) {
var _label = scope.datatableAdditionalActionButtons[i].label;
return '<button class="btn btn-default" ng-click="_abstractDynamicClick('+full.id+', '+i+')">'+_label+'</button>';
}
return _tmp;
})(i);
dtColumns.unshift(DTColumnBuilder.newColumn(null).notSortable().renderWith(hax).withClass(_localReference.classNames));
}
So, where is the trick? the trick is entirely in the hax function, and here is why it works: instead of passing the regular renderWith function prototype, we are using a "custom" render, which has the same arguments (hence same parameters) as the default one. However, it is isolated in a self invoking anonymous function, which allows us to arbitrarely inject a parameter inside it and, so, allows us to distinguish, when rendering, which "i" it effectively is, since the isolated scope of the function is never lost in this case.
Basically, the output is as follow:
And the inspection actually shows that elements are effectively rendered differently, hence each "i" is being rendered properly, while it wouldn't have if the function wouldn't have been wrapped in a self invoking anonymous function:
So, basically, in your case, you would do something like this:
var _myValidator = (function(myAbcParam){
var _validate = function (data, type, full, meta) {
console.log("additional param is: ", myAbcParam); // logs "abc"
return '<button id="'+myAbcParam+'">Hello!</button>'; // <-- renders id ="abc"
}
return _validate ;
})('abc');
DTColumnBuilder.newColumn(null).withTitle('Validation').renderWith(_myValidator);
// <-- note that _myValidator is passed instead of "_myValidator()", since it is already executed and already returns a function.
I know this is not exactly the answer someone may be expecting, but if you need to accomplish something that complex in datatable it really looks like the only possible way to do this is using a self invoking anonymous function.
Hope this helps someone who is still having issues with this.
I have a (rather philosophical) question which refers to cyclejs components : Is isolate() referentially transparent?.
Looking at the simplified code, reproduced thereafter, I could not discriminate any source of 'impurity'. Is that because the not simplified code introduces it, or because the function would return two different objects with two different references?
In that case, would not those two objects have the same behaviour (i.e. listening and reacting to the same events on the same targets, and producing different vTree$ but which encapsulate exactly the same sequence?). And if that is so, aren't those two objects essentially the same, i.e. replacing one by the other anywhere in the program should not change anything? Which means isolate is referentially transparent? Where did I go wrong?
Actually if both calls returns different objects which cannot be substituted, how do those objects differ?
function isolate(Component, scope) {
return function IsolatedComponent(sources) {
const {isolateSource, isolateSink} = sources.DOM;
const isolatedDOMSource = isolateSource(sources.DOM, scope);
const sinks = Component({DOM: isolatedDOMSource});
const isolatedDOMSink = isolateSink(sinks.DOM, scope);
return {
DOM: isolatedDOMSink
};
};
}
I could not discriminate any source of 'impurity'. Is that because the not simplified code introduces it, or because the function would return two different objects with two different references?
The simplified code does not introduce impurity. The impurity comes from the fact that the parameter scope defaults to newScope() if it is not specified. The actual implementation of isolate() has:
function isolate(dataflowComponent, scope = newScope()) {
// ...
}
Where newScope() is:
let counter = 0
function newScope() {
return `cycle${++counter}`
}
Meaning, if the scope is not given as argument, it defaults to the next value of a hidden global counter which is incremented every time isolate() is called.
In conclusion, isolate(component, scope) is referentially transparent because we give the scope, but isolate(component) is not.
I've tried to use Task.Factory.ContinueWhenAll() a few times now with the intent of invoking a continuation only when all the antecedents run to completion without any errors or cancellations. Doing so causes an ArgumentOutOfRangeException to be thrown with the message,
It is invalid to exclude specific continuation kinds for continuations off of multiple tasks. Parameter name: continuationOptions
For example, the code
var first = Task.Factory.StartNew<MyResult>(
DoSomething,
firstInfo,
tokenSource.Token);
var second = Task.Factory.StartNew<MyResult>(
DoSomethingElse,
mystate,
tokenSource.Token);
var third = Task.Factory.ContinueWhenAll(
new[] { first, second },
DoSomethingNowThatFirstAndSecondAreDone,
tokenSource.Token,
TaskContinuationOptions.OnlyOnRanToCompletion, // not allowed!
TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext());
is not acceptable to the TPL. Is there a way to do something like this using some other TPL method?
There doesn't appear to be a direct way to do this. I've gotten around this by changing OnlyOnRanToCompletion to None and checking to see if Exception is non-null for each task passed into the continuation. Something like
private void DoSomethingNowThatFirstAndSecondAreDone(Task<MyResult>[] requestTasks)
{
if (requestTasks.Any(t => t.Exception != null))
return;
// otherwise proceed...
}
works, but this doesn't seem to be a very satisfying way to handle the case with multiple antecedents and breaks with the pattern the single-case Task.Factory.ContinueWith uses.