Is it possible to create chained methods that are asynchronous like this in node.js

File.create('file.jpg').rename('renamed.jpg').append('Hello World')

That is to say non-blocking.

Is it possible to create chained methods that are asynchronous like this in node.js

File.create('file.jpg').rename('renamed.jpg').append('Hello World')

That is to say non-blocking.

• javascript
• node.js
• chaining

• If it's non-blocking, shouldn't there be a callback function passed in somewhere? – Matthew Flaschen Commented Nov 8, 2010 at 6:31
• @Matthew: Yeah it should. So I wonder if there is some way to create a method chaining that is asynch. Maybe with a library that could handle it automatically somehow. – ajsie Commented Nov 8, 2010 at 6:48

2 Answers 2

You basically want to abstract the asynchronous nature of the file-handling operations on your API.

It can be done, I would remend you to give a look to the following article:

• Asynchronous method queue chaining in JavaScript

The article was written by Dustin Diaz, who currently works on the @anywhere JavaScript API, and he does exactly what you want, using a using a simple Queue implementation, a fluent interface can be created, being independent of any callback.

The asynchronicity is hidden and it is handled internally by your API, it's a nice and simple technique.

Sure, like any JavaScript, you just return an object that has that method.

One possible layout (among many).

var File = new (function() 
{ 
  this.create = function(str) 
  { 
    return this; 
  } 
  this.rename = function(str) 
  { 
    return this; 
  } 
})();