How to invoke openwhisk action within openwhisk platform on bluemix?

Question

I have created two actions on OpenWhisk on Bluemix. Both independently work fine when I can call them from outside the OpenWhisk platform. But I want to call action1 from within action2, and am using the following syntax:

var openwhisk = require('openwhisk');
function main(args){
  const name = 'action2';
  const blocking = true;
  const params = { param1: 'sthing'};
  var ow = openwhisk();
  ow.actions.invoke({name, blocking, params})
  .then(result => {
    console.log('result: ', result);
    return result; // ?
  }).catch(err => {
    console.error('failed to invoke actions', err);
  });
}

But I get an empty result and no console messages. Some help would be great.

Update1:

When adding as suggested the return option, to return the Promise of OpenWhisk, as follows:

return ow.actions.invoke({name, blocking, params})
.then(result => {
  console.log('result: ', result);
  return result;
}).catch(err => {
  console.error('failed to invoke actions', err);
  throw err;
});

the response value of action2 is not as expected but contains:

{ "isFulfilled": false, "isRejected": false }

where I expect the return message of action2 (which reads a Google Sheets API) and parses the result:

{
  "duration": 139,
  "name": "getEventCfps",
  "subject": "[email protected]",
  ...
  "response": {
    "result": {
      "message": [
        {
          "location": "Atlanta, GA",
          "url": "https://werise.tech/",
          "event": "We RISE Women in Tech Conference",
          "cfp-deadline": "3/31/2017",
          ...
        }
      ]
    },
    "success": true,
    "status": "success"
  },
  ...
}

So I am expecting I am not parsing the '.then(result' variable in action1 correctly? cause when I test action2 separately, from outside OpenWhisk via Postman or API Connect, or directly by 'Run this action' in OpenWhisk/Bluemix it returns the correct values.

Update2:

Alright solved. I was calling the ow.actions.invoke to action2 in a function that was called within the action1, this nesting of returns, caused the issue. When I moved the invoke code directly in the main function, all resolved as expected. Double trouble when nesting promises and returns. Mea culpa. Thanks everyone

Answer 1

You need to return a Promise in your function try this

var openwhisk = require('openwhisk');
function main(args){
  const name = '/whisk.system/utils/echo';
  const blocking = true;
  const params = { param1: 'sthing'};
  var ow = openwhisk();

  return ow.actions.invoke({name, blocking, params})
  .then(result => {
    console.log('result: ', result);
    return result;
  }).catch(err => {
    console.error('failed to invoke actions', err);
    throw err;
  });
}