publicious

A replacement for Mediator-JS

API

Basic usage..

let pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("Hello World"));
pubsub.publish("foo");

Here the pubsub instance subscribed to the foo channel, then published on the foo channel.

Arguments

Subscribe

subscribe actually accepts 4 args. The channel you're subscribing to, the Function to be called, the priority at which you're subscribing, and the this context to be applied to the function. The last two arguments are optional.

A more complete example of subscribe would look like this..

function Counter() {
    this.value = 0;
}

Counter.prototype.increment = function() {
    return ++this.value;
}

let fooCount = new Counter();

let pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("Count:" + fooCount.value));

pubsub.subscribe("foo", fooCount.increment, {priority: 0}, fooCount);
pubsub.publish("foo");

In the above example we introduced two concepts, first is priority. Even though the subscriber that prints subscribes before the subscriber that increments, they are called in priority order. The default priority is 4, which is the lowest that can be assigned. Additional notes about priority and ordering subscribers is below.

This example also introduces the context argument which is the this argument that gets applied to the function when it gets called.

Thrown errors and interrupting subscribers

By default, a channel will not interrupt subscribers due to any subscriber throwing an error. It instead will throw the error after all subscribers are called.

var pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => throw new Error());
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("Hello World"));

This allows subscribers to not have to worry about other subscribers getting in the way accidentally. If a subscriber NEEDS to interrupt other subscribers, it should do so intentionally, by calling stopPropagation on the channel. The channel will be the last argument that is passed to the subscriber.

var pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", function() {
    var channel = arguments[arguments.length - 1];
    channel.stopPropagation();    
});
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("Hello World")); // subscriber function argument not called
pubsub.publish("foo");

In the example above Hello World will not print due to the first subscriber interrupting the channel prior to the second subscriber being called.

If the publisher of the channel wants to know that the error occurred, it needs to set the suppressErrors flag either globally on the pubsub instance, or on each individual publish call.

Globally set for all publish calls:

var pubsub = new PubSub({ suppressErrors: false });

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => throw new Error());

try {
    pubsub.publish("foo");
} catch (e) {
    console.log("error not suppressed");
}

Per single publish call:

var pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => throw new Error());

try {
    pubsub.publish("foo", { suppressErrors: false });
} catch (e) {
    console.log("error not suppressed");
}

pubsub.publish("foo");
console.log("code not reached, error was thrown");

You can also use this method above to reverse the global setting

var pubsub = new PubSub({ suppressErrors: false });

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => throw new Error());

pubsub.publish("foo", { suppressErrors: true });
console.log("code was reached & error was thrown");

This is commonly used in testing purposes where a test may throw an AssertionError or something similar, and the outer test function needs to catch that error to know if the test failed.

#Passed arguments You can publish any number of args and each subscriber will receive them

var pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", (n, b, s, o, a) => console.log(n, b, s, o, a));
pubsub.publish("foo", 1, false, "test", {}, ["apples", "oranges"]);

If you're using the suppress feature described above, that argument is removed before reaching the subscribers, and as always the channel will be added as the last argument.

var pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", (n, b, s, o, a, channel) => console.log(n, b, s, o, a, channel.namespace));
pubsub.publish("foo", 1, false, "test", {}, ["apples", "oranges"], { suppressErrors: false });

Sync or Async?

All publishing happens synchronously, with one exception. If a channel is already being published and a second publish is requested on the same channel.

Even though this is supported, it's discouraged. In future versions an error may be thrown instead.

var pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => pubsub.publish("foo")); // this inner publish happens asynchronously
pubsub.publish("foo"); // this publish happens synchronously

If you need errors, and you also need to re-publish a channel during it's current publish (forcing it to be async), we then return a Promise, so that the errors can be handled in the Promise's catch.

var pubsub = new PubSub();

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => {
    pubsub.publish("foo", { suppressErrors: false }).catch(() => {
        console.log("caught error in async publish");
    });
});
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => throw new Error());
pubsub.publish("foo");

Ordering of subscribers

No assumptions should be made on the ordering of subscribers.

Take the following example..

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("foo1"));
pubsub.subscribe("bar", () => console.log("bar1"));
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => pubsub.publish("bar"));
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("foo2"));

pubsub.publish("foo");

It could be assumed that you'd get..

foo1
foo2
bar1

Instead what happens is..

foo1
bar1
foo2

This behavior may be slightly unexpected, but it is by design. This is inline with how the DOM works also. Replace the above example with the following using the DOM.

let foo = document.createElement("a");
let bar = document.createElement("a");
foo.addEventListener("click", () => console.log("foo1"));
bar.addEventListener("click", () => console.log("bar1"));
foo.addEventListener("click", () => bar.click());
foo.addEventListener("click", () => console.log("foo2"));

foo.click();

Same as above, you'd get..

foo1
bar1
foo2

There are a few fixes to this problem that you can use as the client. Pick your poison..

1. Wrap your publish in a setTimeout

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("foo1"));
pubsub.subscribe("bar", () => console.log("bar1"));
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => setTimeout(() => pubsub.publish("bar"), 0));
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("foo2"));

pubsub.publish("foo");

2. Add your required subscribers at a higher priority

pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("foo1"), {priority: 3});
pubsub.subscribe("bar", () => console.log("bar1"));
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => pubsub.publish("bar"));
pubsub.subscribe("foo", () => console.log("foo2"), {priority: 3});

pubsub.publish("foo");

3. Swap out PubSub's prototype publish to setTimeout if currently publishing

PubSub.prototype.publishing = false;
PubSub.prototype.publish = () => {
    if (this.publishing) {
        setTimeout((argsCopy) => {
            this.publish.apply(this, argsCopy);
        }, 0, arguments);
        return;
    }
    this.prototype.publishing = true;
    this._channels[channelName].publish.apply(arguments);
    this.prototype.publishing = false;
}