Async, chained!

Async.js async is a great shortcut for restraining deeply nested functions and callbacks. This module adds a chainable API to:

1. enable easy switching between series, waterfall and parallel async flows
2. reduce callbacks within a flow

(This is particularly useful in single-file executable scripts.)

Example

Note: It is important to understand how Async.js works to appreciate this example.

  var async = require('async-chained');
 
  async.chain()
    // Waterfall – expect a returned value from callback
    .first(function(next){
      fetchSomething('id', next);
    })
    .return(function(returnedObj, next){
      if (!returnedObj) return next();
 
  	  returnedObj.markRead(next);
    })
    // Series
    .then(function(next){
      persistChanges(5000, next);
    })
    // Switch to parallel
    .and(fetchRandom)
    .and(function(done){
      fetchRelated('id', done);
    })
    // Finish
    .finish(function(err, results){
      if (err) return cb(err);
 
      cb(null, results[0], results[1]);
    });
 

API

• chain() start a chain
• chain. first (fn) / chain.then(fn) function(cb) run in series
• chain. return (fn) function(arg1…n, cb) where arg1…n is the expected arguments to be returned from the previous callback, this signature will always be matched so that the last argument is the callback
• chain. and (fn) function(cb) run in parallel
• chain. catch (err, results, cb) enable error handling before continuing with cb OR chain. catch (err, waterfallResult1…n, cb) to return all arguments as per waterfall
• chain. finish (err, results) errors from previous callbacks from the start, or if there was a catch after the last one

Compatibility

This module will attempt to extend a shallow clone of whatever version async you already have. The module therefore makes available all the methods already available on standard async. Perhaps, if we can establish that the 'chain' method name wouldn't clash with standard async, we could just extend without cloning.

License

(See LICENSE)