Storing the return value of node.js setTimeout in redis

Question

I\'m using setTimeout in Node.js and it seems to behave differently from client-side setTimeout in that it returns an object instead of a number. I wan

Answer 1

This code is used when the timeouts need not be persistent across server restarts

var timeouts = {};

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
  var index = timeouts.length;
  timeouts[index] = setTimeout(console.log, 1000000, req.user.name);

  redis.set('timeout:' + req.user.name, index, function (err, reply) {
    res.end();
  });
});

app.get('/clear', function (req, res) {
  redis.get('timeout:' + req.user.name, function (err, index) {
   clearTimeout(timeouts[index]);
   delete timeouts[index];
   redis.delete('timeout:' + req.user.name);
   res.end();
  });
});

If you need timeouts to be persistent across server restarts, then you might need to store _idleStart and _idleTimeout values for every timer in the redis, and load them up everytime you server restarts

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
  var timeout = setTimeout(console.log, 1000000, req.user.name);
  var time = timeout._idleStart.getTime() + timeout._idleTimeout;

  redis.set('timeout:' + req.user.name, time, function (err, reply) {
    res.end();
  });
});

app.get('/clear', function (req, res) {
  redis.delete('timeout:' + req.user.name);
  res.end();
});

// Load timeouts on server start
// *I know this is not the correct redis command*
// *It's not accurate, only approx*
redis.get('timeout:*', function (err, vals) {
  vals.forEach(function (val) {
    var time = val - new Date().getTime();
    setTimeout(console.log, time, username)
  });
});

Answer 2

You cannot store the object in Redis. The setTimeout method returns a Handler (object reference).

One idea would be to create your own associative array in memory, and store the index in Redis. For example:

var nextTimerIndex = 0;
var timerMap = {};

var timer = setTimeout(function(timerIndex) {
    console.log('Ding!');

    // Free timer reference!
    delete timerMap[timerIndex];
}, 5 * 1000, nextTimerIndex);

// Store index in Redis...

// Then, store the timer object for later reference
timerMap[nextTimerIndex++] = timer;

// ...
// To clear the timeout
clearTimeout(timerMap[myTimerIndex]);

Answer 3

I was attempting to do the same thing as the OP. My solution was to set the timeout with a conditional check on a new key inside the timeout in my disconnect handler:

redis.hset("userDisconnecting:" + userId, "disconnect", 1);

setTimeout(function() {
    redis.hget("userDisconnecting:" + userId, "disconnect",
     function(err, result) {
        if (result.toString() === "1") {
           //do stuff, like notify other clients of the disconnect.
        }
    });
}, 10000);

Then, when the client connects again, I set that key to 0, so the stuff that needs to fire on true disconnect doesn't happen:

redis.hset("userDisconnecting:" + userId, "disconnect", 0);

The timeouts themselves aren't persistent across server restarts, but you could solve that by kicking off a sweeper method on startup. Connected clients would come back "online" pretty quickly.