In Meteor, how do I properly return a value from a property (in this case response) from a collection so that I can send it to a data propert? I have tried the following function:
Responses: function(answer) {
return Responses.findOne({answerId: answer.hash.answer});
}
Which I call in the spacebars template as:
data-selected="{{Responses answer=_id}}
When I look at the HTML it says that the data-selected="[object object]" which is not super surprising but I can't figure out how to return just the response value from the match. I can add .response onto the end and it works but gives an expected 'undefined' error I know that it is not reactive. I have seen people use wrapasync but that was for methods, not subscriptions. I should note that there are several responses, so the code would have to be suitable inside a #for loop of answers which the responses variable is keeping track of the input from each user separately.
Thanks!
I'm not sure about data-selected="{{Responses answer=_id}}". Since you're already inside a for loop your html code can simply look like this:
data-selected="{{Responses}}"
Inside your helper function you can then say:
var myResponse = Responses.findOne({answerId: this._id}).response;
if (myResponse != null){
return myResponse;
else {
return "";
}
When the page is still loading and the data is not yet available, myResponse is still null, so the helper returns the empty string "". Shortly thereafter the data becomes available and your data gets returned, without any error in your console.
Related
I am trying to grab information from my firebase database after a particular intent is invoked in my conversation flow.
I am trying to make a function which takes a parameter of user ID, which will then get the highscore for that user, and then say that users highscore back to them.
app.intent('get-highscore', (conv) => {
var thisUsersHighestscore = fetchHighscoreByUserId(conv.user.id);
conv.ask('your highest score is ${thisUsersHighestScore}, say continue to keep playing.');
});
function fetchHighscoreByUserId(userId){
var highscoresRef = database.ref("highscores");
var thisUsersHighscore;
highscoresRef.on('value',function(snap){
var allHighscores= snap.val();
thisUsersHighscore = allHighscores.users.userId.highscore;
});
return thisUsersHighscore;
}
An example of the data in the database:
"highscores" : {
"users" : {
"1539261356999999924819020" : {
"highscore" : 2,
"nickname" : "default"
},
"15393362381293223232222738" : {
"highscore" : 78,
"nickname" : "quiz master"
},
"15393365724084067696560" : {
"highscore" : "32",
"nickname" : "cutie pie"
},
"45343453535534534353" : {
"highscore" : 1,
"nickname" : "friendly man"
}
}
}
It seems like it is never setting any value to thisUsersHighScore in my function.
You have a number of issues going on here - both with how you're using Firebase, how you're using Actions on Google, and how you're using Javascript. Some of these issues are just that you could be doing things better and more efficiently, while others are causing actual problems.
Accessing values in a structure in JavaScript
The first problem is that allHighscores.users.userId.highscore means "In an object named 'allHighscores', get the property named 'users', from the result of that, get the property named 'userId'". But there is no property named "userId" - there are just a bunch of properties named after a number.
You probably wanted something more like allHighscores.users[userId].highscore, which means "In an object named 'allHighscores', get the property named 'users', fromt he result of that, get the property named by the value of 'userId'".
But if this has thousands or hundreds of thousands of records, this will take up a lot of memory. And will take a lot of time to fetch from Firebase. Wouldn't it be better if you just fetched that one record directly from Firebase?
Two Firebase Issues
From above, you should probably just be fetching one record from Firebase, rather than the whole table and then searching for the one record you want. In firebase, this means you get a reference to the path of the data you want, and then request the value.
To specify the path you want, you might do something like
var userRef = database.ref("highscores/users").child(userId);
var userScoreRef = userRef.child( "highscore" );
(You can, of course, put these in one statement. I broke them up like this for clarity.)
Once you have the reference, however, you want to read the data that is at that reference. You have two issues here.
You're using the on() method, which fetches the value once, but then also sets up a callback to be called every time the score updates. You probably don't need the latter, so you can use the once() method to get the value once.
You have a callback function setup to get the value (which is good, since this is an async operation, and this is the traditional way to handle async operations in Javascript), but you're returning a value outside of that callback. So you're always returning an empty value.
These suggest that you need to make fetchHighScoreByUserId() an asynchronous function as well, and the way we have to do this now is to return a Promise. This Promise will then resolve to an actual value when the async function completes. Fortunately, the Firebase library can return a Promise, and we can get its value as part of the .then() clause in the response, so we can simplify things a lot. (I strongly suggest you read up on Promises in Javascript and how to use them.) It might look something like this:
return userScoreRef.once("value")
.then( function(scoreSnapshot){
var score = scoreSnapshot.val();
return score;
} );
Async functions and Actions on Google
In the Intent Handler, you have a similar problem as above. The call to fetchHighScoreByUserId() is async, so it doesn't finish running (or returning a value) by the time you call conv.ask() or return from the function. AoG needs to know to wait for an async call to finish. How can it do that? Promises again!
AoG Intent Handlers must return a Promise if there is an asyc call involved.
Since the modified fetchHighScoreByUserId() returns a Promise, we will leverage that. We'll also set our response in the .then() part of the Promise chain. It might look something like this:
app.intent('get-highscore', (conv) => {
return fetchHighscoreByUserId(conv.user.id)
.then( function(highScore){
conv.ask(`Your highest score is ${highScore}. Do you want to play again?`);
} );
});
Two asides here:
You need to use backticks "`" to define the string if you're trying to use ${highScore} like that.
The phrase "Say continue if you want to play again." is a very poor Voice User Interface. Better is directly asking if they want to play again.
I've made a function that calls on the FireBase database and will return a MutableList. However, when I try to make it return on a specific line, it says it requires a Unit instead of the MutableList.
fun firebaseCollect(key: String): MutableList<CustomList> {
var ref = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().getReference(key)
var lessonList = mutableListOf<CustomList>()
ref.addValueEventListener(object: ValueEventListener{
override fun onCancelled(p0: DatabaseError?) {
}
override fun onDataChange(p0: DataSnapshot?) {
if (p0!!.exists()) {
lessonList.clear()
for (index in p0.children) {
val lesson = index.getValue(CustomList::class.java)
lessonList.add(lesson!!)
}
return lessonList
}
}
})
return lessonList
}
Type mismatch. Required: Unit, Found: MutableList< CustomList > is found at the first return lessonList since what I am asking for it to return is a MutableList not a Unit. I am confused as to why this happens. The last return would give an empty list. It is currently my first jab at FireBase and this is a practice I am doing. The rules for read and write have been set to public as well. How should I recode the function that I am able to return the data from FireBase into the function and passed back to the caller?
Firebase APIs are asynchronous. For your case, that means addValueEventListener returns immediately. Then, some time later, the listener you passed to it will be invoked with the data you're looking for. Your return statement in the callback doesn't actually return any data to the caller. In fact, you can't return anything from that callback. At the bottom of your function, when you return lessonList, you're actually returning an initially empty list to the caller, which may change later when the data finally arrives.
To get a better sense of how your code works, put log lines in various places, and see for yourself the order in which the code is invoked. You can read more about why Firebase APIs are asynchronous by reading this article. The bottom line is that you'll need to interact with the asynchronous APIs using asynchronous programming techniques. Don't try to make them synchronous.
Data is loaded asynchronously from Firebase. Once the data is fetched the method onDatachange() is invoked.
You are returning lessonList inside onDatachange(). Return type of onDatachange() is void(Unit in kotlin). This is the reason for the type mismatch error.
For returning the result from the method onDatachange() try this.
I have a Meteor Helper that does a GET request and am supposed to get response back and pass it back to the Template, but its now showing up the front end. When I log it to console, it shows the value corerctly, for the life of mine I can't get this to output to the actual template.
Here is my helper:
UI.registerHelper('getDistance', function(formatted_address) {
HTTP.call( 'GET', 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json? units=imperial&origins=Washington,DC&destinations='+formatted_address+'&key=MYKEY', {}, function( error, response ) {
if ( error ) {
console.log( error );
} else {
var distanceMiles = response.data.rows[0].elements[0].distance.text;
console.log(response.data.rows[0].elements[0].distance.text);
return distanceMiles;
}
});
});
In my template I pass have the following:
{{getDistance formatted_address}}
Again, this works fine and shows exactly what I need in the console, but not in the template.
Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
I posted an article on TMC recently that you may find useful for such a pattern. In that article the problem involves executing an expensive function for each item in a list. As others have pointed out, doing asynchronous calls in a helper is not good practice.
In your case, make a local collection called Distances. If you wish, you can use your document _id to align it with your collection.
const Distances = new Mongo.collection(); // only declare this on the client
Then setup a function that either lazily computes the distance or returns it immediately if it's already been computed:
function lazyDistance(formatted_address){
let doc = Distances.findOne({ formatted_address: formatted_address });
if ( doc ){
return doc.distanceMiles;
} else {
let url = 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json';
url += '?units=imperial&origins=Washington,DC&key=MYKEY&destinations=';
url += formatted_address;
HTTP.call('GET',url,{},(error,response )=>{
if ( error ) {
console.log( error );
} else {
Distances.insert({
formatted_address: formatted_address,
distanceMiles: response.data.rows[0].elements[0].distance.text
});
}
});
}
});
Now you can have a helper that just returns a cached value from that local collection:
UI.registerHelper('getDistance',formatted_address=>{
return lazyDistance(formatted_address);
});
You could also do this based on an _id instead of an address string of course. There's a tacit assumption above that formatted_address is unique.
It's Meteor's reactivity that really makes this work. The first time the helper is called the distance will be null but as it gets computed asynchronously the helper will automagically update the value.
best practice is not to do an async call in a helper. think of the #each and the helper as a way for the view to simply show the results of a prior calculation, not to get started on doing the calculation. remember that a helper might be called multiple times for a single item.
instead, in the onCreated() of your template, start the work of getting the data you need and doing your calculations. store those results in a reactive var, or reactive array. then your helper should do nothing more than look up the previously calculated results. further, should that helper be called more times than you expect, you don't have to worry about all those additional async calls being made.
The result does not show up because HTTP.call is an async function.
Use a reactiveVar in your case.
Depending on how is the formated_address param updated you can trigger the getDistance with a tracker autorun.
Regs
Yann
I've written an R function in my package which returns a data frame. I'd like to call my function from javascript and use it to populate a table. I am able to successfully call the function using the ocpu/test interface and get back JSON.
I'm looking for a minimal example of how to do it with ocpu.rpc. I was thinking it could be finding the leading rows of the faithful data set using head: e.g. head(faithful). However, I think that the ocpu.rpc request can't be used with data already in R.
Based on the documentation, I thought the code should be:
ocpu.seturl("http://public.opencpu.org/ocpu/library/mylib/R");
var req = ocpu.rpc("func", { x : "param" }, function(obj) { return obj });
But req is undefined when I inspect it. What am I missing?
I've got a Firebase with a simple bit of data:
There's a list of "players", each with a self-generated GUID, and each containing a value "Count". At my request (e.g. using once()), I want to be able to query the players sorted by the Count value. So, based on the Firebase documentation, I'm using orderByChild(), but it always comes up as undefined when I run the code:
var fb = new Firebase("https://morewhitepixels.firebaseio.com/");
fb.child("players").orderByChild("Count").once("value",function(data) {
// do something with data
});
But this code always returns Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function pointing to that second line of code.
What am I missing?
I'm not sure what you do inside the callback, but this works fine:
fb.child("players").orderByChild("Count").once("value",function(data) {
console.log(data.val());
});
Keep in mind that the data parameter is not the actual data yet. It's a DataSnapshot on which you have to call val() first.
You'll probably want to loop through the children, which you can do like this:
fb.child("players").orderByChild("Count").once("value",function(data) {
data.forEach(function(snapshot) {
console.log(snapshot.val().Count);
});
});
The above example prints out all your children in the order you requested:
120320
181425
185227
202488
202488
202488
202488
245197
245197
487320
Alternatively you can use on('child_added' instead:
fb.child("players").orderByChild("Count").on("child_added",function(snapshot) {
console.log(snapshot.val().Count);
});