Receiving Promise <Pending> instead of value

Question 1

I have a a object that when I'm printing that it's returning Promise <Pending> (I've checked the type of getRateable and it is object)

getRateable = getRateableEntitiesTx(tx, hashtagList);

I can't have access to the value by this :

getRateableEntitiesTx(tx, hashtagList).then((res) => {return res})

If it's a Promise why it's not returning the res properly?

Thanks in advance for help

Question 2

You can't return the value from an async function because the function returns before the value has been received. That's why we have promises. You need to use the value from within the then() callback:

getRateableEntitiesTx(tx, hashtagList)
.then((rateable) => {
  // use rateable here
  console.log(rateable)
 })

Question 3

The promise will always log pending as long as its results are not resolved yet. You must call .then on the promise to capture the results regardless of the promise state (resolved or still pending):

let AuthUser = function(data) {
  return google.login(data.username, data.password).then(token => { return token } )
}

let userToken = AuthUser(data)
console.log(userToken) // Promise { <pending> }

userToken.then(function(result) {
   console.log(result) // "Some User token"
})

Why is that?

Promises are forward direction only; You can only resolve them once. The resolved value of a Promise is passed to its .then or .catch methods.

Details

According to the Promises/A+ spec:

The promise resolution procedure is an abstract operation taking as input a promise and a value, which we denote as [[Resolve]](promise, x). If x is a thenable, it attempts to make promise adopt the state of x, under the assumption that x behaves at least somewhat like a promise. Otherwise, it fulfills promise with the value x.

This treatment of thenables allows promise implementations to interoperate, as long as they expose a Promises/A+-compliant then method. It also allows Promises/A+ implementations to “assimilate” nonconformant implementations with reasonable then methods.

This spec is a little hard to parse, so let's break it down. The rule is:

If the function in the .then handler returns a value, then the Promise resolves with that value. If the handler returns another Promise, then the original Promise resolves with the resolved value of the chained Promise. The next .then handler will always contain the resolved value of the chained promise returned in the preceding .then.

The way it actually works is described below in more detail:

1. The return of the .then function will be the resolved value of the promise.

function initPromise() {
  return new Promise(function(res, rej) {
    res("initResolve");
  })
}

initPromise()
  .then(function(result) {
    console.log(result); // "initResolve"
    return "normalReturn";
  })
  .then(function(result) {
    console.log(result); // "normalReturn"
  });

2. If the .then function returns a Promise, then the resolved value of that chained promise is passed to the following .then.

function initPromise() {
  return new Promise(function(res, rej) {
    res("initResolve");
  })
}

initPromise()
  .then(function(result) {
    console.log(result); // "initResolve"
    return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
       setTimeout(function() {
          resolve("secondPromise");
       }, 1000)
    })
  })
  .then(function(result) {
    console.log(result); // "secondPromise"
  });

Question 4

Wrap your Promise inside a function or it will start to do its job right away. Plus, you can pass parameters to the function:

var some_function = function(username, password)
{
 return new Promise(function(resolve, reject)
 {
  /*stuff using username, password*/
  if ( /* everything turned out fine */ )
  {
   resolve("Stuff worked!");
  }
  else
  {
   reject(Error("It broke"));
  }
 });
}

Then, use it:

some_module.some_function(username, password).then(function(uid)
{
 // stuff
})

ES6:

const some_function = (username, password) =>
{
 return new Promise((resolve, reject) =>
 {
  /*stuff using username, password*/

  if ( /* everything turned out fine */ )
  {
   resolve("Stuff worked!");
  }
  else
  {
   reject(Error("It broke"));
  }
 });
};

Use:

some_module.some_function(username, password).then(uid =>
{
 // stuff
});

Question 5

Alternatively, which is a good algorithm for me to try to implement?

create a new promise with an executor function
use a counter/result array in the scope of the executor
register a then() callback with each parent promise saving the results in the array
resolve/reject promise from step 1 when counter indicates that all parent promises are done

Question 6

You need to wait until your async call is resolved. You can do this by chaining on another then:

getGraphData(domain, userId, testId)
  .then((result) => {
    return result.attributes;
  })
  .then(steps => {
     // put the rest of your method here
  });

You can also look at async/await if your platform supports it which would allow code closer to your original

const steps = await getGraphData(domain, userId, testId)
  .then((result) => {
    return result.attributes;
  });

// can use steps here

Receiving Promise <Pending> instead of value

Answers

Details

node.js,object,promise,return,es6-promise