FuturesJS v2.x

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Futures 2.x - A JavaScript flow-control library*

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FuturesJS is a JavaScript library which (when used as directed) simplifies the flow-control of asynchronous programming (aka Callbacks & Errbacks).

• Futures - aka Promises, Deferreds, Subscriptions
• Joins - Synchronization of multiple Futures and asynchronous / eventually consistent data
• Asynchronous ForEach - an ordered, asynchronous ForEachAsync implementation available as a prototype or standalone
• Events - (using Node.JS's EventEmitter, modified for browser use)
• Sequences - Chains of chronological callbacks
• Asynchronous Method Queues - Think Twitter Anywhere API
• Asynchronous Models

Weighs in at mere 3.5K when Uglified (minified) and gzipped.

Note: Using packer results in insignificantly smaller size, but results slower and more CPU-intensive page loads

*Futures one of the most-watched JavaScript flow-control library on Github (see 2.no.de. I'm shamelessly taking bragging rights for that. =8^D

• Stack Overflow
• InfoQ: How to Survive Asynchronous Programming in JavaScript
• JavaScript Jabber: Asynchronous Programming

Installation

As of 2.2.0 futures is a stub package which lists a number of submodules

Pakmanager (browser)

npm init
# list `futures` in `browserDependencies` 
# or individually list `join`, `forEachAsync`, etc in `browserDependencies`
pakmanager build

<script src='pakmanaged.js'></script>

NodeJS

npm install futures Array.prototype.forEachAsync

# or individually
npm install future join sequence chainify asyncify forEachAsync loop Array.prototype.forEachAsync

npm dependency package.json:

"dependencies"  : { "futures": ">=2.1.0" },

Browser (without Ender.JS)

Requires JSON and ES5 support (libraries provided for legacy browsers)

<script src='vendor/json2.js'></script>
<script src='vendor/persevere/global-es5.js'></script>
<script src='release/futures.ender.js'></script>
<script>
    var Futures = require('futures') // uses `ender.js` for SSJS / Browser compatibility layer
      , EventEmitter = require('events.node').EventEmitter // taken directly from Node.JS
      ;
</script>

Rhino / Ringo / etc

You'll probably need env.js. Shoot me a message and we'll figure it out.

How FutureJS will get you more dates

Futures isn't a framework perse, but it does make building a beautiful API dirt simple.

Think this is sexy?

Contacts.all({httpAuth: base64("coolaj86:secret"}).limit(30).render();
// all - makes request to two servers to get contacts
// limit - takes the first 30 contacts
// render - some function to render the contacts

So do the ladies. Now read up on the API.

API

asyncify, chainify, future, join, loop, sequence, forEachAsync

See the documentation for each in the individual folders.

join, forEachAsync, and sequence are probably what you're most interested in handling serial and parallel callbacks.

chainify is what you're interested in if you want to create a beautiful API.

EventEmitter

No event library is complete without an Event Emitter.

In conjunction with FuturesJS, I recommend using Node.JS#EventEmitter, which is available in npm as events.node for browser use.

Old Docs

Documentation for Futures v1.x