I have a gulp task that downloads a few JSON files from GitHub, then prompts the user for values to replace in those files. For example, I have an .ftpconfig that gets download, and then the user is asked to enter hostname, username, password, and path.
Because the file first needs to be downloaded before it can be configured, and each file needs to be configured sequentially, I'm using quite a few nested callbacks. I'd like to change this "callback hell" system so that it utilizes async/await and/or promises instead, but I'm having a lot of difficulty understanding exactly why my code isn't working; it seems that promises fire their .then() functions asynchronously, which doesn't make sense to me.
My goals are as follows:
I've tried a number of approaches, none of which worked. I discarded the code I've used, but here's a rough recreation of the things I've tried:
Attempt #1:
return new Promise((resolve) => {
// download files...
}).then((resolve) => {
// configure first file...
}).then((resolve) => {
// configure second file...
}).then((resolve) => {
// configure thrid file...
});
Attempt #2:
const CONFIG_FILES = async () => {
const bs_download = await generate_config("browsersync");
const ftp_download = await generate_config("ftp");
const rsync_download = await generate_config("rsync");
return new Promise(() => {
configure_json("browsersync");
}).then(() => {
configure_json("ftp");
}).then(() => {
configure_json("rsync");
});
};
I'm sure I'm doing something very obviously wrong, but I'm not adapt enough at JavaScript to see the problem. Any help would be great appreciated.
My gulp task can be found here:
Thanks to @EricB, I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong. It was mostly a matter of making my functions return promises as well.