thenable-events v2

Powerful event-based system that introduces thenable objects to enable promise-like event handling

Version 2 is here!

• Improved compatibility with thenable definition in Promises/A+ spec
• Introduction of Namespaced events
• Contributors: Introduction of proper mocha and chai tests

Powerful Features

• Dispatch events
• Handle success and error events using promise-like syntax
• Implements thenables compatible with Promises/A+ spec
• Namespaced events work out of the box

Quick Start

Install:

$ yarn add thenable-events

Use:

import Dispatcher from 'thenable-events';
const EventDispatcher = new Dispatcher();
EventDispatcher.when('eventName').then(val => console.log(val));
EventDispatcher.resolve('eventName', 'Foobar!');
// Console> 'Foobar!'

Usage Examples

Dispatching Events

Traditional event-based systems combine the antiquated callback structure in order to handle events:

myObservable.on('eventName', () => console.log('Foobar!'));

While thenable-events employs a promise-like structure that is compatible with Promises/A+ implementations:

import Dispatcher from 'thenable-events';
const EventDispatcher = new Dispatcher();
EventDispatcher.when('eventName').then(() => console.log('Foobar!'));

Handling API Responses

Because of these improvements, we can use the power of chaining in a promise-like structure with event-based syntax where the chain is resolved every time an event is fired.

Here's an example using axios for an API call:

import axios from 'axios';
import Dispatcher from 'thenable-events';

const EventDispatcher = new Dispatcher();

const getData = () =>
	axios.get('/svcs/myendpoint').then(
		(res) => {
			EventDispatcher.resolve('api.myendpoint', res.body);
			return res;
		},
		(err) => {
			EventDispatcher.reject('api.myendpoint', err);
			throw err;
		}
	);

// ...

EventDispatcher.when('api.myendpoint')
	.then(body => JSON.parse(body))
	.then(json => console.log({ json }))
	.catch(err => console.error(err));

Support for Namespaced Event-Names

Support for namespaced event-names works out of the box, enabling handling of a wide-range of events within a single line:

const getData = () =>
	// ...
		EventDispatcher.reject('api.myendpoint', err);
	// ...

// Catches all rejected events under 'api.myendpoint.*'
EventDispatcher.when('api.*')
	.catch(err => {
		console.error('Catch-all for All API Errors', err);
	});

Concepts

With the promises becoming more ubiquitous due to their powerful structure, thenable-events employs thenable objects (as defined in Promises/A+) with interfaces very similar to Promises.

Promises/A+ Compatibility

The power of thenable-events is the similarity in the way that the then interface is implemented. The interface is entirely compatible with traditional Promise/A+ implementations. However, the real power comes from the ability to use promise-like syntax (thenable) within an event-based structure.

So what are the true differences?

It's quite simple, really:

• thenable-events resolves each then chain every time an event is resolved or rejected

This is the only limitation with Promises being assimilated in a proper event-based architecture without the need for callbacks.

This issue is solved with thenable-events:

Old versus New

Old

myObservable.on('api.myendpoint', (data) => {
	let json;
	try {
		json = JSON.parse(data);
	} catch(e) {
		console.error(err);
		return;
	}
	console.log({ json });
});

New

EventDispatcher.when('api.myendpoint')
    .then(body => JSON.parse(body))
    .then(json => console.log({ json }))
    .catch(err => console.error(err));