Async Exception Handling Tutorial

Introduction

Async exception handling refers to the strategy of handling exceptions in a non-blocking manner. It avoids pausing the main thread while dealing with errors, maintaining responsiveness for the user.

The Problem

Traditional error handling often involves waiting for an exception to occur before continuing, potentially causing a UI freeze. Async handling minimizes this delay.

Key Techniques

Throw Exceptions with Async-Friendly Classes: Utilize classes designed for asynchronous behavior.
Async Functions: Wrap core logic with asynchronous functions.
Promise-Based Error Handling: Use `async/await` or `async/await` to manage asynchronous operations gracefully.
Event Handling: Signal events for events that fail or are interrupted.

Example (Simplified)

Consider a function that reads data from a file. In a synchronous version, the browser would freeze while waiting for the file to be read.


                async function readData() {
                    try {
                        const data = await fs.readFile('data.txt', 'utf8');
                        console.log(data);
                    } catch (error) {
                        console.error(error);
                    }
                }

Benefits

Improved Responsiveness: The UI remains responsive even during errors. Avoids UI freezes.

Scalability: More easily scales with increased requests.

Further Resources

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Async/await

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Promise/resolve