I'll play the necromancer here, as I still see another, better way to do it.
Using wonderful promise library Bluebird and its promisifyAll()
method:
var Promise = require('bluebird');
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
Promise.promisifyAll(mongoose); // key part - promisification
var users, articles; // load mongoose models "users" and "articles" here
Promise.props({
users: users.find().execAsync(),
articles: articles.find().execAsync()
})
.then(function(results) {
res.render('profile/profile', results);
})
.catch(function(err) {
res.send(500); // oops - we're even handling errors!
});
Key parts are as follows:
Promise.promisifyAll(mongoose);
Makes all mongoose (and its models) methods available as functions returning promises, with Async
suffix (.exec()
becomes .execAsync()
, and so on). .promisifyAll()
method is nearly-universal in Node.JS world - you can use it on anything providing asynchronous functions taking in callback as their last argument.
Promise.props({
users: users.find().execAsync(),
articles: articles.find().execAsync()
})
.props()
bluebird method takes in object with promises as its properties, and returns collective promise that gets resolved when both database queries (here - promises) return their results. Resolved value is our results
object in the final function:
results.users
- users found in the database by mongoose
results.articles
- articles found in the database by mongoose (d'uh)
As you can see, we are not even getting near to the indentation callback hell. Both database queries are executed in parallel - no need for one of them to wait for the other. Code is short and readable - practically corresponding in length and complexity (or rather lack of it) to wishful "non-working example" posted in the question itself.
Promises are cool. Use them.