Making thenOpen sync - PLEASE HELP, I REALLY NEED IT

[robin.o...@gmail.com]

My Program logic is becoming a mess as the code gets bigger and I refactor it to functions. I loosing control over all the steps that are async when in fact, in my case are needed to be depended on one another. A simple example is the following: 

Let's say I have a function in my code that contains the step thenOpen which determines the return value. How can I make the function wait for the thenOpen to complete and only then return the value?

What is the best workaround for this scenario? I really need an expect advise

[bruce]

Hey Robin.

Post your code, give us some things to look at

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[robin.o...@gmail.com]

Please find two examples: First, with refactoring code in functions and the second as a long function (In real life, it quickly becomes spaghetti code)

Example ONE

var casper = require('casper').create({
    verbose: true,
    logLevel: "debug"
});

function importantProcessing(){
    this.log("Entering importantProcessing");
    this.thenOpen("http://phantomjs.org/", function processPhantomjs(){
        return "Processed Data";
    });
    this.log("Exiting importantProcessing");
}

function insertToDB(processedData){
    this.log("Inserting the data "+processedData);
}

casper.start("http://casperjs.org/", function startStep(){
    var processedData = null;
    this.then(function importantProcessingStep() {
        processedData = importantProcessing();
    });
    this.then(function insertToDBStep() {
        insertToDB(processedData);
    });
});

casper.run();

Prints the following in console:

[info] [phantom] Starting...

[info] [phantom] Running suite: 2 steps

[debug] [phantom] opening url: http://casperjs.org/, HTTP GET

[debug] [phantom] Navigation requested: url=http://casperjs.org/, type=Other, willNavigate=true, isMainFrame=true

[debug] [phantom] url changed to "http://casperjs.org/"

[debug] [phantom] Successfully injected Casper client-side utilities

[info] [phantom] Step startStep 2/2 http://casperjs.org/ (HTTP 200)

[info] [phantom] Step startStep 2/2: done in 1835ms.

[info] [phantom] Step importantProcessingStep 3/4 http://casperjs.org/ (HTTP 200)

[debug] [phantom] Navigation requested: url=about:blank, type=Other, willNavigate=true, isMainFrame=true

[debug] [phantom] url changed to "about:blank"

Example TWO

var casper = require('casper').create({
    verbose: true,
    logLevel: "debug"
});

casper.start("http://casperjs.org/", function startStep(){
    var processedData = null;
    this.then(function importantProcessingStep() {
        this.log("Entering importantProcessing");
        this.thenOpen("http://phantomjs.org/", function processPhantomjs(){
            processedData = "Processed Data";
        });
        this.log("Exiting importantProcessing");
    });

    this.then(function insertToDBStep() {
        this.log("Inserting the data "+processedData);
    });
});

casper.run();

Prints the following in console:

[info] [phantom] Starting...

[info] [phantom] Running suite: 2 steps

[debug] [phantom] opening url: http://casperjs.org/, HTTP GET

[debug] [phantom] Navigation requested: url=http://casperjs.org/, type=Other, willNavigate=true, isMainFrame=true

[debug] [phantom] url changed to "http://casperjs.org/"

[debug] [phantom] Successfully injected Casper client-side utilities

[info] [phantom] Step startStep 2/2 http://casperjs.org/ (HTTP 200)

[info] [phantom] Step startStep 2/2: done in 2523ms.

[info] [phantom] Step importantProcessingStep 3/4 http://casperjs.org/ (HTTP 200)

[debug] [phantom] Entering importantProcessing

[debug] [phantom] Exiting importantProcessing

[info] [phantom] Step importantProcessingStep 3/4: done in 2543ms.

[debug] [phantom] opening url: http://phantomjs.org/, HTTP GET

[debug] [phantom] Navigation requested: url=http://phantomjs.org/, type=Other, willNavigate=true, isMainFrame=true

[debug] [phantom] url changed to "http://phantomjs.org/"

[debug] [phantom] Successfully injected Casper client-side utilities

[info] [phantom] Step processPhantomjs 5/6 http://phantomjs.org/ (HTTP 200)

[info] [phantom] Step processPhantomjs 5/6: done in 3647ms.

[info] [phantom] Step insertToDBStep 6/6 http://phantomjs.org/ (HTTP 200)

[debug] [phantom] Inserting the data Processed Data

[info] [phantom] Step insertToDBStep 6/6: done in 3670ms.

[info] [phantom] Done 6 steps in 3686ms

[debug] [phantom] Navigation requested: url=about:blank, type=Other, willNavigate=true, isMainFrame=true

[debug] [phantom] url changed to "about:blank"