Adding a row to a google spreadsheet using google-spreadsheet node module and returning the status

Question

I am able to successfully add a row to a google spreadsheet using the google-spreadsheet node module as follows:

const logToGoogleSpreadsheet = (userName, description, link) => {
  const spreadsheetId = 'my-spreadsheet-id'
  const doc = new GoogleSpreadsheet(`${spreadsheetId}`)
  const clientEmail = 'my-client-email'
  const privateKey = 'my-private-key'
  const payload = {
    client_email: clientEmail,
    private_key: privateKey
  }
  let status = ''
  doc.useServiceAccountAuth(payload, function (err) {
    doc.addRow(1, { 'Reported By': userName, 'Description': description, 'Screenshot Link': link,  'Status': 'Open' }, function(err) {
      if(err) {

        console.log(err);
        status = 'some error'
      } else {
        console.log('It worked')
        status = 'success'
      }
    }); 
  })
  return status
}

const result = logToGoogleSpreadsheet('username', 'description', 'link')
console.log(`The value of result is ${result}`) //This always shows undefined as the value

The value of result always is 'undefined' . I know this is due to the asynchronous nature of javascript and being unable to modify anything in a callback function, but im not able to fix this issue. Can someone please show me an example of how i can return the status from the logToGoogleSpreadsheet function ?

Thank You

Answer 1

you could do this:

const logToGoogleSpreadsheet = *async* (userName, description, link) => {//add async keyword
  const spreadsheetId = 'my-spreadsheet-id'
  const doc = new GoogleSpreadsheet(`${spreadsheetId}`)
  const clientEmail = 'my-client-email'
  const privateKey = 'my-private-key'
  const payload = {
    client_email: clientEmail,
    private_key: privateKey
  }
  let status = ''
  doc.useServiceAccountAuth(payload, function (err) {
    doc.addRow(1, { 'Reported By': userName, 'Description': description, 'Screenshot Link': link,  'Status': 'Open' }, function(err) {
      if(err) {

        console.log(err);
        status = 'some error'
      } else {
        console.log('It worked')
        status = 'success'
      }
    }); 
  })
  return status
}

logToGoogleSpreadsheet('username', 'description', 'link').then(res => console.log(res));

adding the async keyword to logToGoogleSpreadsheet will make it return a Promise. Now it is a 'thenable' meaning the then method can be called with the resolved result, which here is your status. So in the then call we log it.