How to propagate a promise error to a higher promise level after loading a file?

Question

I'm working on an async script loader using bluebird and I'm struggling to pass an error up to where I can catch it.

When a file is loaded I'm calling my method named declare like this:

  declare("storage", [
    {"name": 'util', "src": '../src/util.js'}
  ], function (util) {
    var storage = {};
    //...stuff with util
    return storage;
  });

With declare being:

declare = function (name, dependency_list, callback) {
   var resolver;

   // digest promises returned for each module
   function digestDependencyArray(my_dependency_array) {
     var i, len, response_array;

     len = my_dependency_array.length;
     for (i = 0, response_array = []; i < len; i += 1) {
       response_array[i] = my_dependency_array[i];
     }

     return Promise.all(response_array);
   }

   // resolve request promise
   function resolveDependencyArray(my_fullfillment_array) {
      var return_value = callback.apply(window, my_fullfillment_array);

      // window.exports must be used when integrating commonjs modules
      if (!return_value) {
        return_value = window.exports;
      }

      resolver(return_value);
   }

   // START: set callback to (resolved) callback or new promise
   my_lib.callback_dict[name] = my_lib.callback_dict[name] ||
      new Promise(function (resolve) {
        resolver = resolve;
        if (dependency_list.length === 0) {
          return resolver(callback.apply(window));
        }

        return request(dependency_list)
          .then(digestDependencyArray)
          .then(resolveDependencyArray)
          // DON'T CATCH HERE...
          .catch(console.log);
      });
  };

This all works fine except I would like to not have the catch statement at this point, because the error handling should be done in a different module (the console.log is just a flag).

Question:
How would I propagate an error occuring in my declare method to a higher promise chain? I had hoped adding a catch handler on my declare calls would help, but this breaks the whole script - I assume because I'm returning the module from my declare call vs a valid promise response.

Thanks for any tips!

EDIT:
I'm calling declare from this:

 request([{"name": "foo", "src": "path/to/foo.js"}])
   .spread(foo) {

 })
 .catch(function (e) {
   console.log(e);
 })

request will load the file inside a promise which gets resolved when the file is loaded and run the file content as callback, which then calls the above declare method. Somehow my error is lost on the way (code here). Let's see if I can catch it somewhere...

Edit 2:
Changing to this inside declare:

function resolveDependencyArray(my_fullfillment_array) {
  var return_value = callback.apply(window, my_fullfillment_array);

  if (!return_value) {
    return_value = window.exports;
  }
  return return_value;
}

function handler() {
  if (dependency_list.length === 0) {
    Promise.resolve(callback.apply(window));
  } else {
    return request(dependency_list)
      .then(digestDependencyArray)
      .then(resolveDependencyArray)
      .catch(function (e) {
        reject(e);
      });
  }
}

clappjs.callback_dict[name] = clappjs.callback_dict[name] || handler();

While I get no errors, requesting multiple modules does not work because modules are returned undefined, so:

request(["foo", "bar", "baz"]).spread(function (foo, bar, baz) {
 console.log(foo);  // undefined
 console.log(bar);  // {} OK
 console.log(baz);  // undefined
});

versus a new Promise properly returning the file once it's loaded.

Answer 1

You need to rethrow the error!

.catch(function(e) {
  console.log(e); // calling it as a method, btw
  throw e;
})

You also might try to use tap, or return the promise that you have in the chain before adding .catch(console.log).

---

Also, you are using the manually-construct-promise antipattern, while you actually should never need to call the Promise constructor. Just use the promise that you already have! It seems that you want to do this:

my_lib.callback_dict[name] = my_lib.callback_dict[name] || (
  dependency_list.length === 0
  ? Promise.resolve()
  : request(dependency_list)
      .then(digestDependencyArray)
      .then(resolveDependencyArray) // don't call a global `resolver()`
                                    // just `return` the value!
);