node.js request.get() can't figure out how to return response

Question

node.js request.get() can't figure out how to return response

I'm running the following within node.js:

function makeGetFunction(url) {
 url = url + '?' + authstring;
    console.log("get " + url);
    request.get(url, function(e, r, data) {
        var json = JSON.parse(data);
        var resp = json.entities;
    });
}

I would like to have makeGetFunction() return resp. I think the the answer lies somewhere with using a callback, but as I'm fairly new to asynchronous calls in javascript, I'm stumbling with how to properly pull it off. I haven't been able to find any examples or posts related to my question yet. Please excuse the newbie question.

javascript
node.js

Answer 1

Since the procedure involves asynchronous calls, the best choice is to follow the same pattern in makeGetFunction, by adding a callback argument:

function makeGetFunction(url, callback) {
 url = url + '?' + authstring;
    console.log("get " + url);
    request.get(url, function(e, r, data) {
        var json = JSON.parse(data);
        var resp = json.entities;
        callback(resp);
    });
}

When using makeGetFunction, pass it a handler function instead of retrieving the return value:

makeGetFunction('www.myurl.net/what', function(resp) {
    // do stuff with response
});