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Promises

This guide provides an overview of Promises framework for Swift and Objective-C.

Introduction

The problem with async code

Typically, async operations take a completion handler in a form of a block, which is called to provide either a result or an error. To perform more than one async operation, you have to nest the second one inside the completion block of the first one, and also handle an error gracefully. Often such nesting becomes painful to follow or modify:

Objective-C:

- (void)getCurrentUserContactsAvatars:(void (^)(NSArray<UIImage *> *, NSError *))completion {
  [MyClient getCurrentUserWithCompletion:^(MyUser *currentUser, NSError *error) {
    if (error) {
      completion(nil, error);
      return;
    }
    [MyClient getContactsForUser:currentUser
                      completion:^(NSArray<MyContact *> *contacts, NSError *error) {
      if (error) {
        completion(nil, error);
        return;
      }
      if (contacts.count == 0) {
        completion(@[], nil);
        return;
      }
      NSMutableArray<UIImage *> *avatars = [NSMutableArray array];
      NSUInteger __block count = contacts.count;
      BOOL __block errorReported = NO;
      for (NSUInteger index = 0; index < count; ++index) {
        [avatars addObject:[NSNull null]];
      }
      [contacts enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(MyContact *contact, NSUInteger index, BOOL __unused *_) {
        [MyClient getAvatarForContact:contact completion:^(UIImage *avatar, NSError *error) {
          if (errorReported) {
            return;
          }
          if (error) {
            completion(nil, error);
            errorReported = YES;
            return;
          }
          if (avatar) {
            avatars[index] = avatar;
          }
          if (--count == 0) {
            completion(avatars, nil);
          }
        }];
      }];
    }];
  }];
}

Swift:

func getCurrentUserContactsAvatars(_ completion: ([UIImage]?, Error?) -> Void) {
  MyClient.getCurrentUser() { currentUser, error in
    guard error == nil else {
      completion(nil, error)
      return
    }
    MyClient.getContacts(currentUser) { contacts, error in
      guard error == nil else {
        completion(nil, error)
        return
      }
      guard let contacts = contacts, !contacts.isEmpty() else {
        completion([UIImage](), nil)
        return
      }
      var count = contacts.count
      var avatars = [UIImage](repeating: nil, count: count)
      var errorReported = false
      for (index, contact) in contacts.enumerated() {
        MyClient.getAvatar(contact) { avatar, error in
          if (errorReported) {
            return
          }
          guard error == nil {
            completion(nil, error)
            errorReported = true
            return
          }
          if let avatar = avatar {
            avatars[index] = avatar
          }
          count -= 1
          if count == 0 {
            completion(avatars.flatMap { $0 }, nil)
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Which could be used as:

Objective-C:

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
  [super viewDidAppear:animated];

  [self getCurrentUserContactsAvatars:^(NSArray<UIImage *> *avatars, NSError *error) {
    if (error) {
      [self showErrorAlert:error];
    } else {
      [self updateAvatars:avatars];
    }
  }];
}

Swift:

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
  super.viewDidAppear(animated)

  getCurrentUserContactsAvatars() { avatars, error in
    if (error) {
      showErrorAlert(error)
    } else {
      updateAvatars(avatars)
    }
  }
}

Promises to the rescue

The code sample above, when converted into promises, could look like the following (assuming you've got -fbl_map method on NSArray):

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSArray<UIImage *> *> *)getCurrentUserContactsAvatars {
  return [[[MyClient getCurrentUser] then:^id(MyUser *currentUser) {
    return [MyClient getContactsForUser:currentUser];
  }] then:^id(NSArray<MyContact *> *contacts) {
    return [FBLPromise all:[contacts fbl_map:^id(MyContact *contact) {
      return [MyClient getAvatarForContact:contact];
    }]];
  }];

Swift:

func getCurrentUserContactsAvatars() -> Promise<[UIImage]> {
  return MyClient.getCurrentUser().then(MyClient.getContacts).then { contacts in
    all(contacts.map(MyClient.getAvatar))
  }
}

That's all!

Now use it like:

Objective-C:

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
  [super viewDidAppear:animated];

  [[[self getCurrentUserContactsAvatars] then:^id(NSArray<UIImage *> *avatars) {
    [self updateAvatars:avatars];
    return avatars;
  }] catch:^(NSError *error) {
    [self showErrorAlert:error];
  }];
}

Swift:

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
  super.viewDidAppear(animated)

  getCurrentUserContactsAvatars().then(updateAvatars).catch(showErrorAlert)
}

What is a promise?

In general, a promise represents the eventual result of an asynchronous task, respectively the error reason when the task fails. Similar concepts are also called futures (see also wiki article: Futures and promises).

A promise can be in one of three states:

  • pending - the promise is unresolved and the result is not yet available
  • fulfilled - the promise is resolved with some value
  • rejected - the promise is resolved with some error

Once fulfilled or rejected, a promise can never change its state in the future. Also, it can have an infinite number of observers waiting for it to be resolved. Once resolved, either a value or an error is broadcasted to all observers. Each observer, returns a new promise on subscribe, which, in turn, will be resolved with another value or error the observer provides. This enables chaining promises together to create a pipeline into a pipeline of transforming values which are computed asynchronously on different threads.

Thus, promises are a way of formalizing completion handlers to make chaining async tasks much easier. For example, it becomes trivial to write reusable code that can:

  • perform a chain of dependent asynchronous operations with one completion block at the end
  • have a fall-through behavior for errors to the nearest error handler
  • perform many independent asynchronous operations simultaneously with one completion block
  • race many asynchronous operations and return the value of the first to complete
  • retry asynchronous operations
  • and much more

Framework

Promises is a modern framework that implements the aforementioned synchronization construct in Swift and Objective-C.

Features

  • Simple: The framework has intuitive APIs that are well documented making it painless to integrate into new or existing code.
  • Interoperable: Supports both Objective-C and Swift. Promises that are created in Objective-C can be used in Swift and vice versa.
  • Lightweight: Has minimum overhead that achieves similar performance to GCD and completion handlers.
  • Flexible: Observer blocks can be dispatched on any thread or custom queue.
  • Safe: All promises and observer blocks are captured by GCD which helps avoid potential retain cycles.
  • Tested: The framework has 100% test coverage.

Benchmark

One of the biggest concerns for all frameworks is the overhead they add on top of the standard library (GCD in this case).

The data below was collected by running performance tests for Objective-C and Swift on an iPhone 6s iOS 11.2.1 for the popular frameworks: PromiseKit, BrightFutures, Hydra, RxSwift and plain GCD for comparison.

  • Sizes in bytes added to a binary linked with each library in release mode:

    Framework Objective-C Swift
    Promises 74160 79280
    PromiseKit 393036 309248
    BrightFutures N/A 83424
    Hydra N/A 111600
    RxSwift N/A 191680

  • Average time in seconds needed to create a resolved promise and get into a chained block on a serial queue (measured with 10,000 tries):

    Framework Objective-C Swift
    GCD 0.000022744 0.000021246
    Promises 0.000028293 0.000038103
    PromiseKit 0.000047047 0.000038818
    BrightFutures N/A 0.000038729
    Hydra N/A 0.000061406
    RxSwift N/A 0.000053124

  • Average time in seconds needed to create a resolved promise, chain 2 blocks and get into the last chained block on a serial queue (measured with 10,000 tries):

    Framework Objective-C Swift
    GCD 0.000023336 0.000024622
    Promises 0.000035536 0.000048412
    PromiseKit 0.000071271 0.000061765
    BrightFutures N/A 0.000044416
    Hydra N/A 0.000086497
    RxSwift N/A 0.000060675

  • Average time in seconds needed to create a resolved promise, chain 3 blocks and get into the last chained block on a serial queue (measured with 10,000 tries):

    Framework Objective-C Swift
    GCD 0.000024501 0.000025683
    Promises 0.000039605 0.000053961
    PromiseKit 0.000088739 0.000079487
    BrightFutures N/A 0.000049025
    Hydra N/A 0.000108063
    RxSwift N/A 0.00006914

  • Total time in seconds needed to resolve 10,000 pending promises with chained blocks and wait for control to get into each block on a concurrent queue:

    Framework Objective-C Swift
    GCD 0.004818658 0.014513761
    Promises 0.020536681 0.041234746
    PromiseKit 0.074951688 0.067808994
    BrightFutures N/A 0.083329189
    RxSwift N/A 0.160872425

Getting started

Add dependency

Bazel

In your BUILD file, add Promises deps to corresponding targets:

objc_library(
  # ...
  deps = [
    "//path/to/Promises:FBLPromises",
  ],
  # ...
)
swift_library(
  # ...
  deps = [
    "//path/to/Promises",
  ],
  # ...
)

For Swift, import the module:

import Promises

For Objective-C, import the umbrella header:

#import "path/to/Promises/FBLPromises.h"

Or, the module, if enable_modules = True:

@import FBLPromises;

Swift Package Manager

In your Package.swift file, add Promises dependency to corresponding targets:

let package = Package(
  // ...
  dependencies: [
    .package(url: "https://github.com/google/promises.git", from: "2.4.0"),
  ],
  // ...
)

For Swift, import the module:

import Promises

For Objective-C, import the umbrella header:

#import "FBLPromises.h"

Or, the module, if CLANG_ENABLE_MODULES = YES:

@import FBLPromises;

CocoaPods

To use Promises for both Swift and Objective-C, add the following to your Podfile:

pod 'PromisesSwift'

To use Promises for Objective-C only, add the following to your Podfile:

pod 'PromisesObjC'

Also, don't forget to add use_frameworks! to your target. Then, run pod install if installing Promises for the first time or pod update to update to the latest version.

For Swift, import the module:

import Promises

For Objective-C, import the module:

@import FBLPromises;

Or, the umbrella header:

#import <FBLPromises/FBLPromises.h>

Carthage

Add the following to your Cartfile:

github "google/promises"

Then, run carthage update and follow the rest of instructions.

Adopt

Instead of taking a completion block as the last argument:

Swift:

func data(at url: URL, completion: @escaping (Data?, Error?) -> Void)

Objective-C:

- (void)getDataAtURL:(NSURL *)anURL completion:^(NSData *data, NSError *error)completion;

Promises based async routines return a promise object:

Swift:

func data(at url: URL) -> Promise<Data>

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSData *> *)getDataAtURL:(NSURL *)anURL;

Some legacy code that cannot be modified directly, can be wrapped with wrap operator to return a promise.

Also, read more on Objective-C and Swift interoperability specifics.

Basics

Creating promises

There are two ways to create a promise depending on whether you need a pending promise that you plan to resolve after some asynchronous work is finished (usual case), or you need an already resolved promise to wrap a value or an error (rare case).

Create a pending promise

Imagine we have a complex routine which produces a string after lots of computations. It would be nice to run that asynchronously and provide a promise of that string that the clients can observe to get the value or error eventually when completed.

Async

Pass a work block to be called asynchronously in the async operator and invoke fulfill() with a value or reject() with an error inside that work block when ready:

Swift:

let promise = Promise<String>(on: .main) { fulfill, reject in
  // Called asynchronously on the dispatch queue specified.
  if success {
    // Resolve with a value.
    fulfill("Hello world.")
  } else {
    // Resolve with an error.
    reject(someError)
  }
}

Objective-C:

FBLPromise<NSString *> *promise = [FBLPromise onQueue:dispatch_get_main_queue()
                                                async:^(FBLPromiseFulfillBlock fulfill,
                                                        FBLPromiseRejectBlock reject) {
  // Called asynchronously on the dispatch queue specified.
  if (success) {
    // Resolve with a value.
    fulfill(@"Hello world.");
  } else {
    // Resolve with an error.
    reject(someError);
  }
}];

Promises use the main dispatch queue by default, so the above code is actually equivalent to:

Swift:

let promise = Promise<String> { fulfill, reject in
  // Called asynchronously on the default queue.
  if success {
    fulfill("Hello world.")
  } else {
    reject(someError)
  }
}

Objective-C:

FBLPromise<NSString *> *promise = [FBLPromise async:^(FBLPromiseFulfillBlock fulfill,
                                                      FBLPromiseRejectBlock reject) {
  // Called asynchronously on the default queue.
  if (success) {
    fulfill(@"Hello world.");
  } else {
    reject(someError);
  }
}];
Do

We can make the above examples even more concise with the do operator (which is implemented as a convenience constructor in Swift) if the promise work block doesn't require async fulfillment:

Swift:

let promise = Promise { () -> String in
  // Called asynchronously on the default queue.
  guard success else { throw someError }
  return "Hello world"
}

Objective-C:

FBLPromise<NSString *> *promise = [FBLPromise do:^id {
  // Called asynchronously on the default queue.
  return success ? @"Hello world" : someError;
}];

Note: In Swift, the convenience constructor accepting a work block is overloaded and can return either a value or another promise, which is eventually used to resolve the newly created promise. In Objective-C, the do operator return value is not strongly typed, so you can return a value, another promise or an error and expect the correct behavior:

Swift:

let promise = Promise { () -> Promise<String> in
  // Called asynchronously on the default queue.
  guard success else { throw someError }
  return someOtherOperation()
}

Objective-C:

FBLPromise<NSString *> *promise = [FBLPromise do:^id {
  // Called asynchronously on the default queue.
  return success ? [self someOtherOperation] : someError;
}];
Pending

And in case you need a pending promise without any async block of work associated with it, you can use pending() static func in Swift or pendingPromise class method in Objective-C, and resolve the promise manually later on:

Swift:

let promise = Promise<String>.pending()
// ...
if success {
  promise.fulfill("Hello world")
} else {
  promise.reject(someError)
}

Objective-C:

FBLPromise<NSString *> *promise = [FBLPromise pendingPromise];
// ...
if (success) {
  [promise fulfill:@"Hello world"];
} else {
  [promise reject:someError];
}

Beware, though, that creating such an untethered promise may potentially lead to tricky retain cycles.

Create a resolved promise

Sometimes it's convenient to create an already fulfilled or rejected promise. Pass an initial value or error to the promise's constructor for that:

Swift:

func data(at url: URL) -> Promise<Data?> {
  if url.absoluteString.isEmpty {
    return Promise(nil)
  }
  return load(url)
}

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSData *> *)getDataAtURL:(NSURL *)anURL {
  if (anURL.absoluteString.length == 0) {
    return [FBLPromise resolvedWith:nil];
  }
  return [self loadURL:anURL];
}

In the examples above a promise resolved with value nil is returned if the given URL is empty. Othwerise, we call another routine which returns a promise.

Observing fulfillment

To get notified when a promise is resolved with a value (i.e. is fulfilled) we need to use the then operator.

You can fulfill a pending promise in many ways:

  • call fulfill method on a promise
  • call fulfill() in an async block or return a value (not an error) from the do block
  • return a value from the then block

Or, just create a resolved promise with a non-error value.

Then

The then operator expects one argument - a block, which has the value that the promise before it was fulfilled with as an argument, and also expects another promise, a value, or an error to be returned. The operator itself returns another promise that will be resolved with the same resolution that the promise returned from the block. Any value or error returned from the block is considered a resolved promise initialized with that value or error. For example:

Swift:

let numberPromise = Promise(42)

// Return another promise.
let chainedStringPromise = numberPromise.then { number in
  return self.string(from: number)
}

// Return any value.
let chainedStringPromise = numberPromise.then { number in
  return String(number)
}

// Throw an error.
let chainedStringPromise = numberPromise.then { number in
  throw NSError(domain: "", code: 0, userInfo: nil)
}

// Void return.
let chainedStringPromise = numberPromise.then { number in
  print(number)
  // Implicit 'return number' here.
}

Note: chainedStringPromise is an example of a Void return that is effectively similar to returning the incoming value, i.e. return number.

Objective-C:

FBLPromise<NSNumber *> *numberPromise = [FBLPromise resolvedWith:@42];

// Return another promise.
FBLPromise<NSString *> *chainedStringPromise = [numberPromise then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  return [self stringFromNumber:number];
}];

// Return any value.
FBLPromise<NSString *> *chainedStringPromise = [numberPromise then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  return [number stringValue];
}];

// Return an error.
FBLPromise<NSString *> *chainedStringPromise = [numberPromise then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  return [NSError errorWithDomain:@"" code:0 userInfo:nil];
}];

// Fake void return.
FBLPromise<NSString *> *chainedStringPromise = [numberPromise then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  NSLog(@"%@", number);
  return nil;
  // OR
  return number;
}];

Note: Since Objective-C doesn't support method overloading, we cannot provide a version of the then operator with void return type. Thus, if you don't have a value to return from the then block, you can always just return nil or, even better, the same value as you received. Returning an actual value makes it easier to chain on this promise in the future.

By default, the then blocks are dispatched on the main thread, but they can be easily configured to be dispatched on a custom queue:

Swift:

numberPromise.then(on: backgroundQueue) { number in
  return String(number)
}

Objective-C:

[numberPromise onQueue:backgroundQueue then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  return number.stringValue;
}];

then pipeline

But the most important thing, of course, is the ability to chain any number of promises together into a pipeline to simulate synchronous execution:

Swift:

func work1(_ string: String) -> Promise<String> {
  return Promise {
    return string
  }
}

func work2(_ string: String) -> Promise<Int> {
  return Promise {
    return Int(string) ?? 0
  }
}

func work3(_ number: Int) -> Int {
  return number * number
}

work1("10").then { string in
  return work2(string)
}.then { number in
  return work3(number)
}.then { number in
  print(number)  // 100
}

Since functions in Swift are first-class citizens, we can actually simplify the previous example to:

work1("10").then(work2).then(work3).then { number in
  print(number)  // 100
}

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSString *> *)work1:(NSString *)string {
  return [FBLPromise do:^id {
    return string;
  }];
}

- (FBLPromise<NSNumber *> *)work2:(NSString *)string {
  return [FBLPromise do:^id {
    return @(string.integerValue);
  }];
}

- (NSNumber *)work3:(NSNumber *)number {
  return @(number.integerValue * number.integerValue);
}

[[[[self work1:@"10"] then:^id(NSString *string) {
  return [self work2:string];
}] then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  return [self work3:number];
}] then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  NSLog(@"%@", number);  // 100
  return number;
}];

Observing rejection

To get notified when a promise is resolved with an error (i.e. is rejected), use the catch operator.

You can reject a promise in many ways:

  • call reject method on a promise
  • call reject() in an async block or return an error from the do block
  • return or throw an error from the then block

Or, just create a resolved promise with an error.

Catch

catch operator expects one argument - a block, which has the error that the promise was rejected with as an argument. The operator itself implicitly returns another promise, that is rejected with the same error.

Swift:

number(from: "abc").catch { error in
  print("Cannot convert string to number: \(error)")
}

Objective-C:

[[self numberFromString:@"abc"] catch:^(NSError *error) {
  NSLog(@"Cannot convert string to number: %@", error);
}];

catch pipeline

One of the pains of nested completion handlers is the need to branch each time the previous async task returns an error. With promises, rejection of one promise is propagated down the pipeline automatically, ignoring any remaining then blocks in the pipeline. Instead, the catch operator can be placed anywhere in the chain to handle errors. For example, consider the code from then pipeline:

Swift:

struct CustomError: Error {}

func work1(_ string: String) -> Promise<String> {
  return Promise {
    return string
  }
}

func work2(_ string: String) -> Promise<Int> {
  return Promise { () -> Int in
    guard let number = Int(string), number > 0 else { throw CustomError() }
    return number
  }
}

func work3(_ number: Int) -> Int {
  return number * number
}

work1("abc").then { string in
  return work2(string)
}.then { number in
  return work3(number)  // Never executed.
}.then { number in
  print(number)  // Never executed.
}.catch { error in
  print("Cannot convert string to number: \(error)")
}

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSString *> *)work1:(NSString *)string {
  return [FBLPromise do:^id {
    return string;
  }];
}

- (FBLPromise<NSNumber *> *)work2:(NSString *)string {
  return [FBLPromise do:^id {
    NSInteger number = string.integerValue;
    return number > 0 ? @(number) : [NSError errorWithDomain:@"" code:0 userInfo:nil];
  }];
}

- (NSNumber *)work3:(NSNumber *)number {
  return @(number.integerValue * number.integerValue);
}

[[[[[self work1:@"abc"] then:^id(NSString *string) {
  return [self work2:string];
}] then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  return [self work3:number];  // Never executed.
}] then:^id(NSNumber *number) {
  NSLog(@"%@", number);  // Never executed.
  return number;
}] catch:^(NSError *error) {
  NSLog(@"Cannot convert string to number: %@", error);
}];

Note: When chaining promises in Objective-C, you can end up having a lot of square brackets. One way to solve that is with dot-syntax.

Extensions

Having basic operators like async, do, then and catch, is normally sufficient to implement most sequences of async calls with promises. Nevertheless, there're some common high-level patterns that would also be great to provide out of the box.

All

all class method waits for all the provided promises to be fulfilled. Once they've been fulfilled, the promise returned from all is fulfilled with an array of all fulfilled values. If one of the given promises is rejected, then the returned promise is rejected with the same error.

Note that all does not control when each contained promise task starts (a promise task starts when that promise is created), nor when each promise is resolved (this depends on the length of the task). However, it does guarantee that the order of promises in the output array is identical to the order of promises passed to it in the input array.

In Swift, the all operator also allows passing promises of heterogeneous types. For this case, the returned promise will be resolved with a tuple containing the values of the input promises in the same order they were provided.

Swift:

// Promises of same type:
all(contacts.map { MyClient.getAvatarFor(contact: $0) }).then(updateAvatars)

// Promises of different types:
all(
  MyClient.getLocationFor(contact: contact),
  MyClient.getAvatarFor(contact: contact)
).then { location, avatar in
  self.updateContact(location, avatar)
}

Objective-C:

// Promises of same type:
[[FBLPromise all:[contacts fbl_map:^id(MyContact *contact) {
  return [MyClient getAvatarForContact:contact];
}]] then:^id(NSArray<UIImage *> *avatars) {
  [self updateAvatars:avatars];
  return nil;
}];

// Promises of different types:
[[FBLPromise
    all:@[ [MyClient getLocationForContact:contact], [MyClient getAvatarForContact:contact] ]]
    then:^id(NSArray *locationAndAvatar) {
      [self updateContactLocation:locationAndAvatar.firstObject
                        andAvatar:locationAndAvatar.lastObject];
      return nil;
    }];

Note: The Objective-C example above used -fbl_map method on NSArray, which often comes handy, along with other similar functional operators that Objective-C lacks.

Note: In Swift, the number of promises of heterogeneous types that all can handle is 4. If you need more than 4, you can break the promises down into separate all and then group them together. For example:

Swift:

all(all(p1, p2, p3), all(p4, p5, p6)).then { results in
  let ((a1, a2, a3), (a4, a5, a6)) = results
  print(a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6)
}

Also, see how all helps to avoid nested promises.

Always

always is handy when we want some piece of code to execute always down the promises pipeline, regardless of whether or not the previous promise was fulfilled or rejected.

Swift:

getCurrentUserContactsAvatars().then { avatars in
  self.update(avatars)
}.catch { error in
  self.showErrorAlert(error)
}.always {
  self.label.text = "All done."
}

Objective-C:

[[[[self getCurrentUserContactsAvatars] then:^id(NSArray<UIImage *> *avatars) {
  [self updateAvatars:avatars];
  return avatars;
}] catch:^(NSError *error) {
  [self showErrorAlert:error];
}] always:^{
  self.label.text = @"All done.";
}];

Any

any is similar to all, but it fulfills even if some of the promises in the provided array are rejected. If all promises in the input array are rejected, the returned promise rejects with the same error as the last one that was rejected.

In Swift the resulting array will contain Maybe enums that have two cases .value and .error with associated data of either values or errors corresponding to the resolved promises in same order as they appear in the input array. In Objective-C the resulting heterogeneous NSArray will contain values and errors of resolved input promises as is. In Swift the any operator also allows passing promises of heterogeneous types, in which case the resulting promise will be resolved with a tuple containing the Maybe enums wrapping values or errors of the input promises in the same order.

Swift:

// Promises of same type:
any(contacts.map { MyClient.getAvatarFor(contact: $0) }).then { avatarsOrErrors in
  self.updateAvatars(avatarsOrErrors.flatMap { $0.value })
}

// Promises of different types:
any(
  MyClient.getLocationFor(contact: contact),
  MyClient.getAvatarFor(contact: contact)
).then { location, avatar in
  if let location = location.value, let avatar = avatar.value {
    self.updateContact(location, avatar)
  } else {  // Optionally handle errors if needed.
    if let locationError = location.error {
      self.showErrorAlert(locationError)
    }
    if let avatarError = avatar.error {
      self.showErrorAlert(avatarError)
    }
  }
}

Objective-C:

// Promises of same type:
[[FBLPromise any:[contacts fbl_map:^id(MyContact *contact) {
  return [MyClient getAvatarForContact:contact];
}]] then:^id(NSArray *avatarsOrErrors) {
  [self updateAvatars:[avatarsOrErrors fbl_filter:^BOOL(id avatar) {
    return [avatar isKindOfClass:[UIImage class]];
  }]];
  return nil;
}];

// Promises of different types:
[[FBLPromise
    any:@[ [MyClient getLocationForContact:contact], [MyClient getAvatarForContact:contact] ]]
    then:^id(NSArray *locationAndAvatarOrErrors) {
      id location = locationAndAvatarOrErrors.firstObject;
      id avatar = locationAndAvatarOrErrors.lastObject;
      if ([location isKindOfClass:[CLLocation class]] && [avatar isKindOfClass:[UIImage class]]) {
        [self updateContactLocation:location andAvatar:avatar];
      } else {  // Optionally handle errors if needed.
        if ([location isKindOfClass:[NSError class]]) {
          [self showErrorAlert:location];
        }
        if ([avatar isKindOfClass:[NSError class]]) {
          [self showErrorAlert:avatar];
        }
      }
      return nil;
    }];

Note: The Objective-C example above used -fbl_map and -fbl_filter methods on NSArray, which often comes handy, along with other similar functional operators that Objective-C lacks.

Note: In Swift, the number of promises of heterogeneous types that any can handle is 3. If you need more than 3, you can break the promises down into separate any and then group them together. It is similar to what you can do with all.

For example:

any( any(p1, p2), any(p3, p4)).then { results in
  dump(results) // a tuple containing two MayBe's. each contains their respective MayBe values
}

AwaitPromise

Using awaitPromise you can synchronously wait for a promise to get resolved on a different thread. That can be useful for situations when you need to mix several results from multiple async routines differently, i.e. cannot chain them in a clear pipeline using then, all, etc., or just want to write async code in a sync style.

Swift:

Promise<Int> {
  let minusFive = try awaitPromise(calculator.negate(5))
  let twentyFive = try awaitPromise(calculator.multiply(minusFive, minusFive))
  let twenty = try awaitPromise(calculator.add(twentyFive, minusFive))
  let five = try awaitPromise(calculator.subtract(twentyFive, twenty))
  let zero = try awaitPromise(calculator.add(minusFive, five))
  return try awaitPromise(calculator.multiply(zero, five))
}.then { result in
  // ...
}.catch { error in
  // ...
}

Objective-C

[[[FBLPromise do:^id {
  NSError *error;
  NSNumber *minusFive = FBLPromiseAwait([calculator negate:@5], &error);
  if (error) return error;
  NSNumber *twentyFive = FBLPromiseAwait([calculator multiply:minusFive by:minusFive], &error);
  if (error) return error;
  NSNumber *twenty = FBLPromiseAwait([calculator add:twentyFive to:minusFive], &error);
  if (error) return error;
  NSNumber *five = FBLPromiseAwait([calculator subtract:twentyFive from:twenty], &error);
  if (error) return error;
  NSNumber *zero = FBLPromiseAwait([calculator add:minusFive to:five], &error);
  if (error) return error;
  NSNumber *result = FBLPromiseAwait([calculator multiply:zero by:five], &error);
  if (error) return error;
  return result;
}] then:^id(NSNumber *result) {
  // ...
}] catch:^(NSError *error) {
  // ...
}];

Note: In the above examples it's assumed that all calculator routines are executed asynchronously on a background thread, because the promise work block is dispatched on a default queue since no other is specified, and so any blocking awaitPromise would cause a deadlock if it waited for a promise that was going to be resolved on the default queue as well. Generally, it's usually safer to use awaitPromise from a global concurrent queue only to avoid any potential deadlocks. Like so:

Promise<Int>(on: .global()) {
  try awaitPromise(object.someAsyncRoutine())
}

Objective-C

[FBLPromise onQueue:dispatch_queue_create(NULL, DISPATCH_QUEUE_CONCURRENT)
                 do:^id {
  NSError *error;
  id result = FBLPromiseAwait([object someAsyncRoutine], &error);
  return error ?: result;
}];

Delay

delay returns a new pending promise that fulfills with the same value as self after the given delay, or rejects with the same error immediately. It may come in handy if you want to add an artificial pause to your promises chain.

Race

race class method is similar to all, but the promise that it returns fulfills or rejects with the same resolution as the first promise that resolves among the given.

Recover

recover lets us catch an error and easily recover from it without breaking the rest of the promise chain.

Swift:

getCurrentUserContactsAvatars().recover { error in
  print("Fallback to default avatars due to error: \(error)")
  return self.getDefaultsAvatars()
}.then { avatars in
  self.update(avatars)
}

Objective-C:

[[[self getCurrentUserContactsAvatars] recover:^id(NSError *error) {
  NSLog(@"Fallback to default avatars due to error: %@", error);
  return [self getDefaultsAvatars];
}] then:^id(NSArray<UIImage *> *avatars) {
  [self updateAvatars:avatars];
  return avatars;
}];

Reduce

reduce makes it easy to produce a single value from a collection of promises using a given closure or block. A benefit of using Promise.reduce over the Swift library's reduce(_:_:), is that Promise.reduce resolves the promise with the partial value for you so you don't have to chain on that promise inside the closure in order to get its value. Here's a simple example of how to reduce an array of numbers to a single string:

Swift:

let numbers = [1, 2, 3]
Promise("0").reduce(numbers) { partialString, nextNumber in
  Promise(partialString + ", " + String(nextNumber))
}.then { string in
  // Final result = 0, 1, 2, 3
  print("Final result = \(string)")
}

Objective-C:

NSArray<NSNumber *> *numbers = @[ @1, @2, @3 ];
[[[FBLPromise resolvedWith:@"0"] reduce:numbers
                                combine:^id(NSString *partialString, NSNumber *nextNumber) {
  return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@, %@", partialString, nextNumber.stringValue];
}] then:^id(NSString *string) {
  // Final result = 0, 1, 2, 3
  NSLog(@"Final result = %@", string);
  return nil;
}];

Retry

retry provides the flexibility to reattempt a task if the promise associated with that task is initially rejected. By default, the operator makes a single retry attempt after the initial rejection with a one second delay before the reattempt is made. If the default values do not suffice for your use case, the retry operator also supports specifying a custom queue to dispatch the work block to, the max number of retry attempts, a delay time interval, and an optional predicate for bailing early if the given condition is not met.

Swift:

func fetch(_ url: URL) -> Promise<(Data?, URLResponse?)> {
  return wrap { URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url, completionHandler: $0).resume() }
}

let url = URL(string: "https://myurl.com")!

// Defaults to one retry attempt after a one second delay.
retry { fetch(url) }.then { print($0) }.catch { print($0) }

// Specifies a custom queue, 5 retry attempts, 2 second delay, and a predicate.
let customQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "CustomQueue", qos: .userInitiated)
retry(
  on: customQueue
  attempts: 5,
  delay: 2,
  condition: { remainingAttempts, error in
    (error as NSError).code == URLError.notConnectedToInternet.rawValue
  }
) {
  fetch(url)
}.then { values in
  // Will enter `then` block if one of the retry attempts succeeds.
  print(values)
}.catch { error in
  // Will enter `catch` block if all retry attempts have been exhausted or the
  // given condition was not met.
  print(error)
}

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSData *, NSURLResponse *> *)fetchWithURL:(NSURL *)url {
  return [FBLPromise wrap2ObjectsOrErrorCompletion:^(FBLPromise2ObjectsOrErrorCompletion handler) {
    [NSURLSession.sharedSession dataTaskWithURL:url completionHandler:handler];
  }];
}

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"https://myurl.com"];

// Defaults to one retry attempt after a one second delay.
[[[FBLPromise retry:^id {
  return [self fetchWithURL:url];
}] then:^id(NSArray *values) {
  NSLog(@"%@", values);
  return nil;
}] catch:^(NSError *error) {
  NSLog(@"%@", error);
}];

// Specifies a custom queue, 5 retry attempts, 2 second delay, and a predicate.
dispatch_queue_t customQueue = dispatch_get_global_queue(QOS_CLASS_USER_INITIATED, 0);
[[[FBLPromise onQueue:customQueue
    attempts:5
    delay:2.0
    condition:^BOOL(NSInteger remainingAttempts, NSError *error) {
      return error.code == NSURLErrorNotConnectedToInternet;
    }
    retry:^id {
      return [self fetchWithURL:url];
}] then:^id(NSArray *values) {
  // Will enter `then` block if one of the retry attempts succeeds.
  NSLog(@"%@", values);
  return nil;
}] catch:^(NSError *error) {
  // Will enter `catch` block if all retry attempts have been exhausted or the
  // given condition was not met.
  NSLog(@"%@", error);
}];

Timeout

timeout allows us to wait for a promise for a time interval or reject it, if it doesn't resolve within the given time. A timed out promise rejects with NSError in FBLPromiseErrorDomain domain with code FBLPromiseErrorCodeTimedOut.

Validate

validate makes value checks trivial without breaking the promise chain. It receives a value similar to then, but returns a boolean indicating if the value is acceptable. If validate returns true, the promise is fulfilled with the value. If it's false, the promise is rejected with NSError in FBLPromiseErrorDomain domain with code FBLPromiseErrorCodeValidationFailure.

Swift:

getAuthToken().validate { !$0.isEmpty }.then(getData).catch { error in
  print("Failed to get auth token: \(error))
}

Objective-C:

[[[[self getAuthToken] validate:^BOOL(NSString *authToken) {
  return authToken.length > 0;
}] then:^id(NSString *authToken) {
  return [self getDataWithToken:authToken];
}] catch:^(NSError *error) {
  NSLog(@"Failed to get auth token: %@", error);
}];

Wrap

wrap class method provides a convenient way to convert other methods that use common callback patterns (like ^(id, NSError *), etc.) into promises.

Swift:

func newAsyncMethodReturningAPromise() -> Promise<Data> {
  return wrap { handler in
    MyClient.wrappedAsyncMethodWithTypical(completion: handler)
  }
}

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSData*> *)newAsyncMethodReturningAPromise {
  return [FBLPromise wrapObjectOrErrorCompletion:^(FBLPromiseObjectOrErrorCompletion handler) {
    [MyClient wrappedAsyncMethodWithTypicalCompletion:handler];
  }];
}

Advanced topics

Default dispatch queue

Promises use GCD internally and make all APIs provide a way to specify which dispatch queue each block of work should be dispatched on. Main queue is the default, if one isn't specified. Setting the default dispatch queue to any other than the main is normally needed when the main one is busy serving some custom event run loop, but not the standard for Apple platforms CFRunLoop. That situation is pretty common for different server-side frameworks, that similarly to AppKit/UIKit, also implement the inversion of control design principle and park the main thread in a custom run loop. To specify the default dispatch queue, add the following line to the beginning of your program:

Swift:

DispatchQueue.promises = .global()

Objective-C:

FBLPromise.defaultDispatchQueue = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0);

Ownership and retain cycles

You rarely need to care about retain cycles with Promises. When chaining fulfillment or rejection observers, or any other convenience extensions, the returned promise has a strong reference to the chained work block. But once the promise gets resolved it removes any references to observer blocks that were chained on it and schedules them on GCD. Thus, GCD is the one which owns all blocks and everything captured in them until those blocks are eventually executed.

Nevertheless, beware that you can create a retain cycle if you use a promise object inside a block chained on it. That's possible if you've stored the promise in a local var or ivar, especially if you've created a pending promise without any work block associated with it. That cycle won't be broken until the promise gets resolved. Consider the following example:

Swift:

class MyClass {
  var promise: Promise<Int>?

  func doSomething() -> Promise<String> {
    if promise == nil {
      promise = Promise<Int>.pending()
    }
    return promise?.then(doSomethingElse)
  }

  func doSomethingElse(number: Int) -> String {
    return String(number)
  }
}

Objective-C:

@implementation MyClass {
  FBLPromise<NSNumber *> *_promise;
}

- (FBLPromise<NSString *> *)doSomething {
  if (_promise == nil) {
    _promise = [FBLPromise pendingPromise];
  }
  return [_promise then:^id(id number) {
    return [self doSomethingElse:number];
  }];
}

- (NSString *)doSomethingElse:(NSNumber *)number {
  return number.stringValue;
}

@end

self owns the promise, and promise in turn captures self in then block until it gets eventually resolved, if ever. So we get a retain cycle. We could resolve it with a weak reference, of course, since we're aware of code specifics in MyClass. But that situation can become even more subtle:

Swift:

myClass.doSomething().then { string in
  myClass.doSomeOtherThing()
}

Objective-C:

[[myClass doSomething] then:^id(NSString *string) {
  [myClass doSomeOtherThing];
}];

Here we get a promise from one of MyClass methods and use it to chain an observer block which in turn captures that MyClass instance inside. Therefore, myClass owns the promise, which owns the block, which captures myClass to invoke some other method. The tricky part is that the code which uses MyClass may never know it has a strong reference to the promise returned from doSomething method and, moreover, there's no code that's dedicated to resolve that promise soon, because we've used pending constructor rather than async or do.

There's probably no silver bullet to avoid retain cycles like those and each case should be considered individually. Just try to avoid pending promises where possible and always resolve your promises as soon as possible, so that the ownership of your observer blocks and everything they may have captured can be handled by GCD.

Testing

Unit tests are typically run in a single thread of execution. So waiting for a bunch of async tasks to finish in a test can be tricky. To facilitate that, all promises are dispatched in a common dispatch group (DispatchGroup.promises in Swift or FBLPromise.dispatchGroup in Objective-C) that you can wait on with a helper function (waitForPromises() in Swift or FBLWaitForPromisesWithTimeout() in Objective-C):

Swift:

@testable import Promises

// ...
func testExample() {
  // Arrange & Act.
  let promise = Promise<Int> { 42 }

  // Assert.
  XCTAssert(waitForPromises(timeout: 1))
  XCTAssertEqual(promise.value, 42)
  XCTAssertNil(promise.error)
}
// ...

Objective-C:

#import "path/to/Promises/FBLPromise+Testing.h"

// ...
- (void)testExample {
  // Arrange & Act.
  FBLPromise<NSNumber *> *promise = [FBLPromise do:^id {
    return @42;
  }];

  // Assert.
  XCTAssert(FBLWaitForPromisesWithTimeout(1));
  XCTAssertEqualObjects(promise.value, @42);
  XCTAssertNil(promise.error);
}
// ...

Those functions take a timeout arg and return true if all promise blocks have completed before the timeout; otherwise, they return false.

To run the test suite for the Promises framework itself it's recommended to use the Xcode project: select FBLPromises or Promises target and hit ⌘+U.

To test with Bazel, cd to the project directory and run:

bazel test Tests

A bit limited set of tests can also be run with Swift Package Manager:

swift test

Objective-C <-> Swift interoperability

The class Promise in Swift is essentially a wrapper over the Objective-C FBLPromise class. Thus, as an addition to standard ways of creating promises, in Swift you can pass FBLPromise object into Promise constructor and also access an underlying FBLPromise instance with asObjCPromise() method:

@interface ObjCTest : NSObject

- (FBLPromise<NSString *> *)getString;
- (FBLPromise<NSNumber *> *)getNumber:(NSString *)string;
- (void)asyncWith:(NSString *)string and:(NSInteger)integer completion:(void(^)())handler;
- (void)needsAPromise:(FBLPromise<NSString *> *)promise;

@end

Here's how we could use ObjCTest in Swift:

let objc = ObjCTest()

Promise<String>(objc.getString()).then { string in
  return Promise<Int>(objc.getNumber(string))
}.then { number in
  print(number)
}

wrap { handler in
  objc.async(with: "hello", and: 42, completion: handler)
}.then { _ in
  print("Success.")
}.catch { error in
  print(error)
}

let stringPromise = Promise<String> {
  return "Hello world!"
}

objc.needsAPromise(stringPromise.asObjCPromise())

@objc(providesAPromiseFromNumber:)
func providesAPromise(from number: Int) -> Promise<String>.ObjCPromise<NSString> {
  return Promise<String> {
    "The number is \(number)"
  }.asObjCPromise()
}

objc.needsAPromise(providesAPromise(42))

Dot-syntax in Objective-C

When chaining promises in Objective-C, you can end up having a lot of square brackets and other formatting concerns. To help with that, we used a trick which lets us pass args into a method via its return value of block type. For example, the code in catch pipeline written using the dot-syntax would look like:

[self work1:@"abc"]
    .then(^id(NSString *string) {
      return [self work2:string];
    })
    .then(^id(NSNumber *number) {
      return [self work3:number];
    })
    .then(^id(NSNumber *number) {
      NSLog(@"%@", number);
      return nil;
    })
    .catch(^(NSError *error) {
      NSLog(@"Cannot convert string to number: %@", error);
    });

All Objective-C Promises APIs provide convenience methods for using dot-syntax.

Anti-patterns

Promises are very simple once you grok some basics, but there are a few gotchas to avoid.

Broken chain

You have code like:

Swift:

func asyncCall() -> Promise<Data> {
  let promise = doSomethingAsync()
  promise.then(processData)
  return promise
}

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSData *> *)asyncCall {
  FBLPromise<NSData *> *promise = [self doSomethingAsync];
  [promise then:^id(NSData *result) {
    return [self processData:result];
  }];
  return promise;
}

The problem here is that if the promise returned from processData method is rejected, there's no way to catch it. Promises are meant to be chained. To fix, always return the result of the final then:

Swift:

func asyncCall() -> Promise<Data> {
  let promise = doSomethingAsync()
  return promise.then(processData)
}

Objective-C:

- (FBLPromise<NSData *> *)asyncCall {
  FBLPromise<NSData *> *promise = [self doSomethingAsync];
  return [promise then:^id(NSData *result) {
    return [self processData:result];
  }];
}

Nested promises

Avoid nesting promises, as this is the issue that promises are designed to solve:

Swift:

loadSomething().then { something in
  self.loadAnother().then { another in
    self.doSomething(with: something, and: another)
  }
}

Objective-C:

[[self loadSomething] then:^id(NSData *something) {
  return [[self loadAnother] then:^id(NSData *another) {
    return [self doSomethingWith:something andAnother:another];
  }];
}];

The reason why this issue even appeared is because we need to do something with the results of both promises, so we can’t chain them, since the then is only passed the result of the previous return. Thankfully, there's all operator:

Swift:

all([loadSomething(), loadAnother()]).then { result in
  self.doSomething(with: result.first, and: result.last)
}

Objective-C:

[[FBLPromise all:@[ [self loadSomething], [self loadAnother] ]] then:^id(NSArray<NSData *> *result) {
  return [self doSomethingWith:result.firstObject andAnother:result.lastObject];
}];

And if you don't like all (an array of heterogeneous values doesn't always read well), just move the nested part into a separate method:

Swift:

loadSomething().then { something in
  self.loadAnother(with: something)
}

func loadAnother(with something: Data) -> Promise<MyResult> {
  loadAnother().then { another in
    self.doSomething(with: something, and: another)
  }
}

Objective-C:

[[self loadSomething] then:^id(NSData *something) {
  return [self loadAnotherWithSomething:something];
}];

- (FBLPromise<MyResult *> *)loadAnotherWithSomething:(NSData *)something {
  return [[self loadAnother] then:^id(NSData *another) {
    return [self doSomethingWith:something andAnother:another];
  }];
}

Troubleshooting

"Unexpected non-void return value in void function" error

Swift is able to infer the return type for enclosures with just one expression.

.then { number in
  return 5
}

If the closure contains more than a single expression, and the return type was not expected, the compiler will throw the error "Unexpected non-void return value in void function". In this case the return type must be explicitly stated:

.then { number -> String in
  print("five")
  return "five"
}