Cancellable Chain Of Promises

A library to write cancellable chain of promises.

This library is inspired by the This-Binding Syntax proposal. If you don't want to depend on this proposal, you can have a look at the like-bind-operator library.

Examples

import CancelToken, { Cancelled } from 'cancellable-chain-of-promises';
 
const token = new CancelToken((cancel) => {
    cancelButton.onclick = cancel;
});
 
// Write your asynchronous code:
const promise = token.resolve()
  ::token.then(doSomething)
  ::token.then(doSomethingElse)
  ::token.catch(handleError);
 
// If you cancel, the "promise" object will reject with an Cancelled error.

Using like-bind-operator

import CancelToken, { Cancelled } from 'cancellable-chain-of-promises';
import $ from 'like-bind-operator';
 
const token = new CancelToken((cancel) => {
    cancelButton.onclick = cancel;
});
 
// Write your asynchronous code:
const promise = token.resolve()
  [$](token.then)(doSomething)
  [$](token.then)(doSomethingElse)
  [$](token.catch)(handleError);
 
// If you cancel, the "promise" object will reject with an Cancelled error.

Documentation

This library is still experimental and may change in future releases.

CancelToken

The CancelToken object is used to represent a cancellable operation.

Constructor: new CancelToken([callback] [, ...parentTokens])

• callback: A function that get the cancel function as a parameter.
• parentTokens: Tokens that will propagate their cancelled state to this token.

token.chain:

An object providing several utility functions to chain promises in a cancellable way.

token.chain.then: (alias: token.then) promise::token.chain.then(onFulfilled[, onRejected])

Similar to Promise.prototype.then. If the token is in a cancelled state, onFulfilled and onRejected will not be called, and the returned promise will reject with the Cancelled error.

token.chain.catch: (alias: token.catch) promise::token.chain.catch(onRejected)

Similar to Promise.prototype.catch. If the token is in a cancelled state, onRejected will not be called, and the returned promise will reject with the Cancelled error.

token.newPromise: token.newPromise((resolve, reject) => {})

A Promise factory, that returns a rejected Promise if the token is cancelled, or construct a new Promise. The callback is not called is the token is cancelled.

token.resolve: token.resolve(value)

A function that returns a rejected Promise if the token is cancelled, or a Promise resolved with the given value.

token.reject: token.reject(value)

A function that returns a rejected Promise if the token is cancelled, or a Promise rejected with the given value.

Cancelled

An Cancelled is used to represent the cancellation of an operation. It is the rejected value to propagate the cancellation through a chain of promises.

Utility functions

always: (aliases: token.chain.always, token.always) promise::always(callback)

Use always to always call a callback in a chain of promises. The returned or thrown value

Other Examples

Cancellable Request

const request = (url, { method, body, cancelToken }) => {
  const token = new CancelToken(cancelToken);
  let cancelListener;
  return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
    const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
    cancelListener = (cancelError) => {
      xhr.abort();
      reject(cancelError);
    };
    token.addCancelListener(cancelListener);
    xhr.open(method, url);
    xhr.onload = function () {
      if (this.status >= 200 && this.status < 300) {
        resolve(xhr.response);
      } else {
        reject({
          status: this.status,
          statusText: xhr.statusText
        });
      }
    };
    xhr.onerror = function () {
      reject({
        status: this.status,
        statusText: xhr.statusText
      });
    };
    xhr.send(body);
  })::always(() => token.removeCancelListener(cancelListener))
};

Cancel Previous Operations

let previousCancel = null;
function example() {
  let clean = null;
  if (previousCancel) {
    previousCancel();
  }
 
  const token = new CancelToken((cancel) => {
    previousCancel = cancel;
    clean = () => {
      if (previousCancel === cancel) {
        previousCancel = null;
      }
    };
  });
 
  request('/example', {cancelToken: this.token})
    ::this.token.chain.then(response => processResponse(response))
    ::always(clean);
}

Cancel Operations When Removing a Widget

class Widget {
  constructor() {
    this.token = new CancelToken(cancel => {
      this.cancel = cancel;
    });
  }
 
  destroy() {
    this.cancel();
  }
 
  onclick() {
    request('/random', {cancelToken: this.token})
      ::this.token.chain.then(response => this.updateState(response));
  }
 
  // other methods ...
}

Cancellable setTimeout

const setCancellableTimeout = (fn, duration, token) => {
  if (!token.aborted) {
    let id = 0;
    const cancel = () => {
      cancelTimeout(id);
      token.removeCancelListener(cancel);
    };
    id = setTimeout(() => {
      token.removeCancelListener(cancel);
      fn();
    }, duration);
  }
};