At times, we might have the need to run stages asynchronously. This can have various uses. One of the most common uses is when a script needs to hit an external API and the response is awaited, the script needs to be executed asynchronously.

This is possible in ReactiveSearch pipelines. It is very easy to implement an async stage using the flag async while defining the pipeline.

What is the async field

The async field, as explained above, allows users to define stages that are supposed to run asyncrhonously. Let's say we have a stage that defines a custom JavaScript script that is supposed to hit an external API, fetch a field from the response and update it to the context.

Now, hitting an external API and awaiting the response means the script will have to run asynchronously. This can be achieved in the following way:

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- id: async stage
  scriptRef: 'asyncCall.js'
  async: true

In the above stage definition, we are refering to a script reference with the name asyncCall.js. We can define that file in the following way:

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async function hitExternal() {
    const response = await fetch("http://mockbin.com/request", {
            "method": "POST",
            "headers": {
                "Content-Type": "application/json"
            },
            "body": {
                "foo": "bar"
            }
        });
    responseJSON = JSON.parse(response);
    return {
        customResponse: responseJSON
    }
}

The above script will run fine and it will add a new field to the context. Read more about context modifications here.

When to use it?

This field should not be used all the time since it can impact the performace of the request. It is advisable that this field is used when there is a call that needs to be awaited and the response from this call is necessary for the functioning of another stage.

Also, note that in order to make another stage wait till the stage has executed, the needs field should be used.