Mitigating Event Loss Risk During NestJS Application Initialization

[mdwekat]

Is there an existing issue that is already proposing this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe it

Problem Description:

In NestJS applications using the @OnEvent decorator, there's a risk of losing events emitted before the full completion of the application's bootstrap process. Specifically:

• Early Emission: Events emitted before or during the onApplicationBootstrap lifecycle hook, including those from module constructors or onModuleInit, may go unnoticed because EventSubscribersLoader might not have completed setting up the listeners.
• Post-Bootstrap Uncertainty: Even events fired immediately after the onApplicationBootstrap hook isn't guaranteed to be caught, as there's no assurance that all listeners are ready at this point.

This early emission problem threatens the reliability of applications relying on events for tasks like state initialization, startup procedures, or module communication. Ensuring all events are captured is crucial for maintaining consistent application behavior and avoiding missed operations or errors.

App Start
├─ Module Initialization
│  └─ 🚨 Potential Early Event Emission (Risk)
│  
├─ Application Bootstrap
│  ├─ 🚨 Another Potential Early Event Emission (Risk)
│  └─ EventSubscribersLoader (onApplicationBootstrap)
│     └─ Event Listeners Setup (👂 Listening Starts)

Describe the solution you'd like

The solution involves several potential strategies:

1. Deferred Event Emission: Implement a mechanism to defer the emission of events until it's guaranteed that all listeners are set up. This could involve queuing events emitted early and then releasing them once the application is fully bootstrapped.
2. Lifecycle Hooks Enhancement: Enhance the order and timing of lifecycle hooks or the event listener setup process to ensure listeners are ready before any module emits an event.
3. Documentation and Guidelines: Provide clear guidelines and best practices in the documentation to prevent early emission, possibly by outlining safe lifecycle phases for emitting events.

Teachability, documentation, adoption, migration strategy

• Teachability: Update the NestJS official documentation to include guidelines and best practices for event handling, especially concerning the timing of event emissions and listener setup.
• Documentation: Document the changes and new features in the NestJS release notes and update the API documentation to reflect any new methods or parameters.
• Adoption: Encourage adoption by demonstrating the benefits of the new event handling strategies through examples and highlighting the potential pitfalls of early event emission.
• Migration Strategy: Provide a clear and straightforward migration path for users to transition from the current event handling to the new method. Include any necessary code changes or steps to update their applications.

What is the motivation / use case for changing the behavior?

The motivation is to ensure reliable and consistent event handling in NestJS applications. Events are crucial for asynchronous tasks and inter-service communication. By ensuring that no events are lost due to timing issues related to application initialization, we improve the robustness, predictability, and reliability of applications. This change will benefit all NestJS users who rely on event-driven architecture, especially those building complex or modular applications where timing and order of initialization are critical.

[sashahohloma]

I ran into the same problem when using lifecycle hooks

[kamilmysliwiec]

Deferred Event Emission: Implement a mechanism to defer the emission of events until it's guaranteed that all listeners are set up. This could involve queuing events emitted early and then releasing them once the application is fully bootstrapped.

Would you like to create a PR for this issue?