Fixed Event: Once and forever event emitter

Fixed Event is a Javascript and Node.js package for a common EventEmitter problem:

1. Run a start-up or initialization function, e.g. connect to the DB, load the configuration, etc.
2. Fire an event when it is done
3. Later, you have code that depends on the start-up routing finishing. Should you subscribe to the event? What you want is this:

• If it has not finished yet, just subscribe to it normally
• If it has finished, execute your callback immediately with the original result

Fixed Event is available as an NPM module.

$ npm install fixed-event

Example

var fixed = require('fixed-event')
var status = new fixed.EventEmitter

// Listening before the event fires
status.on('ready', function(result) {
  console.log('Ready first listener: ' + result)
})

// Like .emit() but fixes the result in place
status.fixed('ready', "Awesome!")

// Listening after the event fires
setTimeout(late_listener, 1000)

function late_listener() {
  status.on('ready', function(result) {
    console.log('Ready second listener: ' + result)
  })
}

Output

Ready first listener: Awesome!
Ready second listener: Awesome!

Details

A Fixed EventEmitter is a normal EventEmitter, with a few extra methods:

• fix("event_name") | Fix event_name. The next emit for "event_name" works normally; but all subsequently-added listeners will fire immediately
• fixed("event_name", [val1], [val2]) | Fix event_name and also emit the event, with val1, val2, etc. as parameters

Defaults

Fixed Event is defaultable. The default option fixed allows pre-setting event names.

var fixed = require('fixed-event')
  , done_is_fixed    = fixed.defaults({ events:"done" })
  , ducks_are_fixed  = fixed.defaults({ events:["Huey", "Dewey", "Louie"] })
  , values_are_fixed = fixed.defaults({ events:{ enter: "You entered!"
                                               , exit : ["You", "exited"]
                                               }})

The events default supports different data types

• string | Automatically runs .fix() for that name (no events fired yet)
• array | Automatically run .fix() for all those names (no events fired yet)
• object | Every key is both fixed, and emitted with the value indicated

Thus, the above code could be used like so

var state = new done_is_fixed.EventEmitter
state.emit('done', 'Hi, listener below me!')
state.on('done', function(hi) { console.log('Loud and clear.') }) // Fires

var bros = new ducks_are_fixed.EventEmitter
bros.emit('Dewey', 'Duck')
bros.on('Dewey', function() { 'Dewey event fired' }) // Fires
bros.on('Dewey', function() { 'Dewey fired again' }) // Also fires

// This will fire immediately
var room = new values_are_fixed.EventEmitter
room.on('enter', function(msg) { console.log(msg) }) // output: "You entered!"

Tests

Follow uses node-tap. If you clone this Git repository, tap is included.

$ ./node_modules/.bin/tap test
ok test/event.js ...................................... 19/19
ok test/once.js ................................... 5011/5011
total ............................................. 5032/5032

ok

License

Apache 2.0