Journal tags: correction

It seems that some code that I wrote in Going Offline is haunted. It’s the trimCache function.

First, there was the issue of a typo. Or maybe it’s more of a brainfart than a typo, but either way, there’s a mistake in the syntax that was published in the book.

Now it turns out that there’s also a problem with my logic.

To recap, this is a function that takes two arguments: the name of a cache, and the maximum number of items that cache should hold.

function trimCache(cacheName, maxItems) {

First, we open up the cache:

caches.open(cacheName)
.then( cache => {

Then, we get the items (keys) in that cache:

cache.keys()
.then(keys => {

Now we compare the number of items (keys.length) to the maximum number of items allowed:

if (keys.length > maxItems) {

If there are too many items, delete the first item in the cache—that should be the oldest item:

cache.delete(keys[0])

And then run the function again:

.then(
    trimCache(cacheName, maxItems)
);

A-ha! See the problem?

Neither did I.

It turns out that, even though I’m using then, the function will be invoked immediately, instead of waiting until the first item has been deleted.

Trys helped me understand what was going on by making a useful analogy. You know when you use setTimeout, you can’t put a function—complete with parentheses—as the first argument?

window.setTimeout(doSomething(someValue), 1000);

In that example, doSomething(someValue) will be invoked immediately—not after 1000 milliseconds. Instead, you need to create an anonymous function like this:

window.setTimeout( function() {
    doSomething(someValue)
}, 1000);

Well, it’s the same in my trimCache function. Instead of this:

cache.delete(keys[0])
.then(
    trimCache(cacheName, maxItems)
);

I need to do this:

cache.delete(keys[0])
.then( function() {
    trimCache(cacheName, maxItems)
});

Or, if you prefer the more modern arrow function syntax:

cache.delete(keys[0])
.then( () => {
    trimCache(cacheName, maxItems)
});

Either way, I have to wrap the recursive function call in an anonymous function.

Here’s a gist with the updated trimCache function.

What’s annoying is that this mistake wasn’t throwing an error. Instead, it was causing a performance problem. I’m using this pattern right here on my own site, and whenever my cache of pages or images gets too big, the trimCaches function would get called …and then wouldn’t stop running.

I’m very glad that—witht the help of Trys at last week’s Homebrew Website Club Brighton—I was finally able to get to the bottom of this. If you’re using the trimCache function in your service worker, please update the code accordingly.

Management regrets the error.

Paul Yabsley wrote to let me know about an error in Going Offline. It’s rather embarrassing because it’s code that I’m using in the service worker for adactio.com but for some reason I messed it up in the book.

It’s the trimCache function in Chapter 7: Tidying Up. That’s the reusable piece of code that recursively reduces the number of items in a specified cache (cacheName) to a specified amount (maxItems). On page 95 and 96 I describe the process of creating the function which, in the book, ends up like this:

 function trimCache(cacheName, maxItems) {
   cacheName.open( cache => {
     cache.keys()
     .then( items => {
       if (items.length > maxItems) {
         cache.delete(items[0])
         .then(
           trimCache(cacheName, maxItems)
         ); // end delete then
       } // end if
     }); // end keys then
   }); // end open
 } // end function

See the problem? It’s right there at the start when I try to open the cache like this:

cacheName.open( cache => {

That won’t work. The open method only works on the caches object—I should be passing the name of the cache into the caches.open method. So the code should look like this:

caches.open( cacheName )
.then( cache => {

Everything else remains the same. The corrected trimCache function is here:

function trimCache(cacheName, maxItems) {
  caches.open(cacheName)
  .then( cache => {
    cache.keys()
    .then(items => {
      if (items.length > maxItems) {
        cache.delete(items[0])
        .then(
          trimCache(cacheName, maxItems)
        ); // end delete then
      } // end if
    }); // end keys then
  }); // end open then
} // end function

Sorry about that! I must’ve had some kind of brainfart when I was writing (and describing) that one line of code.

You may want to deface your copy of Going Offline by taking a pen to that code example. Normally I consider the practice of writing in books to be barbarism, but in this case …go for it.

Update: There was another error in the code for trimCache! Here’s the fix.

Yesterday I wrote about a tenuous serendipitous connection between Spacewar and the creation of the internet. In the appendix to Stewart Brand’s 1972 Rolling Stone article I spotted a reference to the one and only Bob Kahn.

Except it turns out there is more than one Bob Kahn. A kindly email from Jack Dietz set me straight: there’s Robert Kahn who demoed ARPANET and then there’s Robert Kahn who advocated public access to computers.

This has taught me two important lessons:

1. Names are not the best unique identifiers, and
2. The best way to get feedback is to publish.