Is there a blocking middleware implemented?

[gabzim]

Botkit has middleware that allows you to call next() when you're done, allowing you to block the execution of future handlers until an async task is done. I need this but once the apiai request has completed, so I can look at the resp.result obj. Is there any such functionality available?

I need something like:

apiai
    .middleware(function(bot, resp, message, next) {
        // do async task
        next()
    })

[xVir]

Hi @arg20
Did you mean that you want to do some actions after apiai.process(message, bot);

controller.hears('.*', ['direct_message', 'direct_mention', 'mention'], function (bot, message) {
    apiai.process(message, bot);
});

something like

controller.hears('.*', ['direct_message', 'direct_mention', 'mention'], function (bot, message) {
    apiai.process(message, bot, function() {
       // make some actions...
   });
});

What about returning a Promise from apiai.process(message, bot);?
It will looks like:

controller.hears('.*', ['direct_message', 'direct_mention', 'mention'], function (bot, message) {
    apiai.process(message, bot)
      .then(() => {
         // make some actions...
      });
});

What do you think?

Thanks!

[gabzim]

@xVir I meant more like I need to load something from the database. So after apiai.process finishes I need to load something from a database asynchronously but I don't want the apiai.action handlers to execute.

For instance, botkit has middleware that works like this:

controller.middleware.heard.use(async(bot, message, next) => {
  // do async stuff and call next when you are done. The handlers for "hears" won't execute until next() is called
  next()
});

Basically I don't want all the .action() functions to execute until I do something first.

To be more concrete. Imagine this example:

apiai.all(function(message, resp, bot) {
  let environment = resp.result.parameters.environment;
  // Go to Db to fetch environment data.
  
  message.ctx = environmentDataFromDb
});

apiai.action('create.environment', function(message, resp, bot) {
  // do not execute until above function finishes, so I can access message.ctx
})

[xVir]

@arg20
Ok, thanks!

So, do you want to add next() function only to apiai.all or to other functions too?

[xVir]

Hi @arg20
It seems to make it work we have to change this part of code:

worker.allCallback.forEach((callback) => {
    callback(message, response, bot);
});

in way like this (using async lib):

async.eachSeries(worker.allCallback, (item, next) => {
    item(message, response, bot, next);    
},
(err) => {
  if (!err) {
    // continue processing..,
  } else {
    // error...
  }
});

But it will be a problem for those, who will update the lib and will not update sources with the next function call. In other words it will break backward compatibility.

So, any thoughts how to get around this?
Thanks!