nor-extend

Extend Q promises with methods from another object prototype.

Installation

The lib can be installed from the NPM by npm install nor-extend.

Projects using nor-extend

• nor-fs
• nor-db

Example usage

Let's say you have a Foobar constructor which has methods that are returning promises and you want to extend these promises so that you can chain your own asynchronous methods directly.

Normally you would need to use it like this:

var p = Foobar.start().then(function(foobar) {
	return foobar.insert({id:100});
}).then(function(foobar) {
	return foobar.commit();
});

With extended promises you can use it like this:

var p = Foobar.start().insert({id:100}).commit();

Please note, this is not the simplest example but it shows most features. Check our tests for all supported features.

Here is how you implement your custom Foobar:

function Foobar(conn) {
	this._conn = conn;
}

Foobar.start = function() {
	var p = DB.start().then(function(conn) {
		return new Foobar(conn);
	});
	return extend.promise( [Foobar, Array], p);
};

Foobar.commit = function() {
	return extend.promise( [Foobar, Array], this._conn.commit() );
};
	
Foobar.rollback = function() {
	return extend.promise( [Foobar, Array], this._conn.rollback() );
};

Foobar.prototype.getByID = function(id) {
	return extend.promise( Array, this._conn.query("SELECT * FROM foobar WHERE id=?", [id]));
};

Foobar.prototype.insert = function(obj) {
	var self = this;
	return extend.promise( [Foobar, Array], this._conn.query("INSERT INTO foobar SET ?", [obj]).then(function() { return self; }) );
};

Here is how you can use Foobar now:

var p = Foobar.start();
p.$getByID(100).$shift().then(function(row) {
	if(row) {
		console.log( row );
		return p.$rollback();
	} else {
		return p.$insert({id:100}).$commit();
	}
}).fail(function(err) {
	console.error('Error: ' + err);
	p.$rollback();
}).done();

You don't actually need to use $-prefixes in methods unless they overlap with methods from Object.prototype or Q.makePromise.prototype. The library will create aliases for both styles, so p.getById(100).shift() probably works, too.

TODO

• Support for passing on reference to this like db.query('...').then(function(rows) { return this.query('...', rows[0].id); }

Non-supported method names when using without $ prefix

Please note that some method names in your own objects cannot be supported and will be ignored when merged with Q promises.

These method names from Object.prototype will not work:

[ 'constructor',
  'toString',
  'toLocaleString',
  'valueOf',
  'hasOwnProperty',
  'isPrototypeOf',
  'propertyIsEnumerable',
  '__defineGetter__',
  '__lookupGetter__',
  '__defineSetter__',
  '__lookupSetter__' ]

Also these following method names from Q.makePromise.prototype are obviously not supported in your extended promise object since these are used by Q promises:

[ 'constructor',
  'then',
  'thenResolve',
  'thenReject',
  'isFulfilled',
  'isRejected',
  'isPending',
  'dispatch',
  'when',
  'spread',
  'get',
  'set',
  'del',
  'delete',
  'post',
  'send',
  'mapply',
  'invoke',
  'mcall',
  'keys',
  'fapply',
  'fcall',
  'fbind',
  'all',
  'allResolved',
  'timeout',
  'delay',
  'catch',
  'finally',
  'fail',
  'fin',
  'progress',
  'done',
  'nfcall',
  'nfapply',
  'nfbind',
  'denodeify',
  'nbind',
  'npost',
  'nsend',
  'nmapply',
  'ninvoke',
  'nmcall',
  'nodeify',
  'toSource',
  'toString' ]

Of course you can still call these methods with your extended promises but they will not call the merged object methods, instead they will do the same action as normal Q promises would do.

However Q promise methods will be extended to support your methods, so you can chain like obj.foo(1).bar(2).then(function(x) { x.something(); return x; }).x(). Please remember to return the instance which you will be calling, obviously otherwise it will not work.

Commercial Support

You can buy commercial support from Sendanor.