Question

How can I best handle a situation like the following?

I have a constructor that takes a while to complete.

var Element = function Element(name){
   this.name = name;
   this.nucleus = {};

   this.load_nucleus(name); // This might take a second.
}

var oxygen = new Element('oxygen');
console.log(oxygen.nucleus); // Returns {}, because load_nucleus hasn't finished.

I see three options, each of which seem out of the ordinary.

One, add a callback to the constructor.

var Element = function Element(name, fn){
   this.name = name;
   this.nucleus = {};

   this.load_nucleus(name, function(){
      fn(); // Now continue.
   });
}

Element.prototype.load_nucleus(name, fn){
   fs.readFile(name+'.json', function(err, data) {
      this.nucleus = JSON.parse(data); 
      fn();
   });
}

var oxygen = new Element('oxygen', function(){  
   console.log(oxygen.nucleus);
});

Two, use EventEmitter to emit a ‘loaded’ event.

var Element = function Element(name){
   this.name = name;
   this.nucleus = {};

   this.load_nucleus(name); // This might take a second.
}

Element.prototype.load_nucleus(name){
   var self = this;
   fs.readFile(name+'.json', function(err, data) {
      self.nucleus = JSON.parse(data); 
      self.emit('loaded');
   });
}

util.inherits(Element, events.EventEmitter);

var oxygen = new Element('oxygen');
oxygen.once('loaded', function(){
   console.log(this.nucleus);
});

Or three, block the constructor.

var Element = function Element(name){
   this.name = name;
   this.nucleus = {};

   this.load_nucleus(name); // This might take a second.
}

Element.prototype.load_nucleus(name, fn){
   this.nucleus = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(name+'.json'));
}

var oxygen = new Element('oxygen');
console.log(oxygen.nucleus)

But I haven’t seen any of this done before.

What other options do I have?

Answer 1

Given the necessity to avoid blocking in Node, the use of events or callbacks isn’t so strange⁽¹⁾.

With a slight edit of Two, you could merge it with One:

var Element = function Element(name, fn){
    this.name = name;
    this.nucleus = {};

    if (fn) this.on('loaded', fn);

    this.load_nucleus(name); // This might take a second.
}

...

Though, like the fs.readFile in your example, the core Node APIs (at least) often follow the pattern of static functions that expose the instance when the data is ready:

var Element = function Element(name, nucleus) {
    this.name = name;
    this.nucleus = nucleus;
};

Element.create = function (name, fn) {
    fs.readFile(name+'.json', function(err, data) {
        var nucleus = err ? null : JSON.parse(data);
        fn(err, new Element(name, nucleus));
    });
};

Element.create('oxygen', function (err, elem) {
    if (!err) {
        console.log(elem.name, elem.nucleus);
    }
});

---

(1) It shouldn’t take very long to read a JSON file. If it is, perhaps a change in storage system is in order for the data.