A promise is a future value. An observable is a flow of past and future values. So it makes sense to convert a list of promises into an observable. Then we can do nice things on it, like .every(...), which will result in a single boolean observable according to whether all the promises satisfy a given condition or not.
Understanding observables requires some time, plus the latest RxJs library, plus an interactive dev tool like JS Bin.
I’m now going to share what I just learned. But first, let me introduce some snippets I’ll be using later on.
Creating promises that resolve.
Subscribing to a source.
Getting to the right observable
Starting with no promises at all
Let’s see how the source and subscription work for the simplest case, when no promises at all are involved.
Notice that above and in the next snippets I’m going to show the console output corresponding to the subscription defined earlier and using the last source.
Passing from values to promises of values
With a simple .map(...) we can convert our booleans to promises.
Notice that we are now getting reversed logs because, to get a better sense of promises, we are creating them so that they will resolve in reversed order.
Passing from promises to observable: 1/3
Unfortunately the .from(...) applied to a list of promises doesn’t really do much:
Notice that the subscription is notified all at once with the pending promises, without waiting for them to (slowly) resolve.
Passing from promises to observable: 2/3
We could transform each to an observable, applying.from(...) to each.
Notice that the only difference is that now the subscription is notified with the pending observables, still without waiting.
Passing from promises to observable: 3/3
Wait a moment… that is an observable of observables… a higher-order observable then (by definition)!
Yes, and there are many ways to bring a higher order back to the first one.
combineAll
Converts a higher-order Observable into a first-order Observable by waiting for the outer Observable to complete, then applying combineLatest.
Notice how the subscription is notified only once, after all the promises have resolved, with a combination that respects the order of the booleans.
concatAll
Converts a higher-order Observable into a first-order Observable by concatenating the inner Observables in order.
Notice how the subscription is notified once per resolved promise, but only after all the promises have resolved. Also notice that the notification order respects the order of the booleans.
exhaust
Converts a higher-order Observable into a first-order Observable by dropping inner Observables while the previous inner Observable has not yet completed.
Notice how the subscription is notified only once, with the resolved value of the first promise (i.e. the first boolean here, not the first promise to resolve, which would be the last boolean). That’s because the first boolean is associated to the longer running promise, which exhausts the processing capacity of the resulting observable until it gets resolved (and completed). Also notice that the fact that the notification happens only after all the promises have resolved, is coincidental (because we made it happen by forcing each promise to complete sooner than the previous one).
mergeAll
Converts a higher-order Observable into a first-order Observable which concurrently delivers all values that are emitted on the inner Observables.
Notice how the subscription is notified once per resolved promise, as soon as each promise is resolved.
switch
Converts a higher-order Observable into a first-order Observable by subscribing to only the most recently emitted of those inner Observables.
Notice how the subscription is notified only once, as soon as the first promise is resolved.
References
