2

I have a http server setup which basically needs to look up stuff in the database.

Here is the code snippet :

var sys = require('sys');
var Client = require('mysql').Client;
var client = new Client();

client.host = '_';
client.user = '_';
client.password = '_';
client.database = '_';
var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function(req, res) {
    req.on('end', function() {
        client.connect(function(error, results) {
            if (error) {
                console.log('Connection Error:');
                return;
            }
            ClientConnectionReady(client);
        });
        ClientConnectionReady = function(client) {
            var final = '';
            client.query('select * from table', function selectCb(error, result, fields) {
                if (error) {
                    console.log('ERROR');
                    client.end();
                    return;
                }
                final += "{" + JSON.stringify(result);

            });
            client.query("SELECT    COUNT(*) from table", function selectCb(error, result, fields) {
                if (error) {
                    console.log('ERROR');
                    client.end();
                    return;
                }
                final += "," + JSON.stringify(result) + "}";
            });
            res.writeHead(200, {
                'Content-Type': 'text/plain'
            });
            res.write(final);
            res.end();
            client.end();
        };
    });
}).listen(8007, "127.0.0.1");
  

If I print the values of the variable 'final' at the places where I assign them, I see valid values, but at the lines when I do 'res.write(final)', final is still blank.

How do I make this work and why is this failing?? Thanks for the help, I am new to node.js

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2
  • final += "{" + JSON.stringify(result); is a horrible way of building a data structure. Use objects. You may also want to consider NoSQL databases instead of MySQL. Couch, Mongo and Redis are popular. Commented Jun 27, 2011 at 13:07
  • Yes I do agree it is a horrible way. I was initially using objects. But I wasn't sure if my problem was caused by them or by my inherent process. So I decided to stringify everything. Commented Jun 27, 2011 at 13:12

2 Answers 2

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3

The Node.js environment is asynchronous. Those statements that modify "final" are inside callbacks that are executed only when the database operations finish. The code immediately after the initiation of the database operations, where you write the result, are executed long before those callbacks run.

You've almost stumbled upon the answer to the problem already: you must not write the result until the operations are finished, which you know will be the case inside the callbacks. If you must wait for both to finish (seems like you do), then you can do something like keep a counter in the outer scope. Each callback can increment the counter, and call the same result-writer function only when the counter indicates that both callbacks are complete. (I have the idea that the Node runtime has a fancier way of doing that sort of thing, but I'm not that familiar with it. In a simple case like this, keeping something like a counter is easy enough to do.)

Also, an unrelated note: that "ClientConnectionReady" variable should probably either be written as a function definition:

function ClientConnectionReady(client) {
  // ...
}

or else it should be declared with var. (I'm a little surprised in fact that it's not throwing an error, but again I'm not that familiar with Node.js.)

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9 Comments

There's also the problem of him his database data in "order" he may be suprised when the count is appended first and the results later. Node.js doesn't really have any kind of flow control build into it, we use libraries.
@Raynos yes that's quite true. It might be possible in fact to run both "select" operations in the same query, but I don't know enough about the Node.js database API to say how easy/possible it'd be to deal with the results in that case.
Ah yes, my bad. I forgot about that. I will make some changes and see if it works. thank you.
@pointy It would be great if both the selects can be run in in the same query. But I didn't find docs to suggest so. Would be great if anyone does.
@ryan most stable and complete mysql driver ;) there are other databases.
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2

By the looks of it, you are trying to write final before it is ever assigned a value.

I'm assuming that client.query is asynchronous. Given that, the callback function is most likely being called after the res.writeHead and res.write lines. What you need to do is put other calls and the client.write* lines within the first callback.

This should give you an idea (didn't check if it compiles)

ClientConnectionReady = function(client)
{
    var final = '';

    //Get the rows
    client.query('select * from table',
        function selectCb(error, result, fields) 
        {
            if (error) 
            {
                console.log('ERROR');
                client.end();
                return;
            }
            final+="{"+JSON.stringify(result);

            //Get the count query
            client.query("SELECT COUNT(*) from table",
                function selectCb(error, result, fields) 
                {
                    if (error) 
                    {
                        console.log('ERROR');
                        client.end();
                        return;
                    }

                    final+=","+JSON.stringify(result)+"}";

                    //Return the final results to the client now
                    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
                    res.write(final);
                    res.end(); 
                    client.end();
                });
        });                    
};

What this does is first gets the rows. In that callback, it then gets the count. Finally, when that works, it sends the data to the client within the count callback.

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4 Comments

Such nesting does work but quickly leads to callback hell as your not structuring your code with any kind of flowcontrol.
Agreed, it does. I would have written this code differently so that there was either chaining or separation of calls, but wanted to maintain the original code as much as possible for the poster to be able to follow.
It may be worthwhile to give an example using flow control (I personally recommend Futures)
Thanks to you as well. Actually I restructured my code now and it has better flow. I have also removed the stringify crap I previously tried and use objects instead. Thanks for the help. @Raynos, as for Futures, thanks for the link.

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