How do I save the axios response to variable, to be used outside axios?

Question

I'm building a chat bot, which takes a message from chat, and sends it to an api which generates a random gif based on the message.

The axios request/response works correctly, but I need it to store a URL value from the response as an external variable.

The variable/URL will then be sent in chat using another function. This function cant be run inside the axios request/then statement, and I cant seem to get the variable to update from inside either.

I'm a bit stuck on this, and have yet to find a method which will do what I need it to. Any advice is appreciated.

How do I return the response from an asynchronous call? doesn't address how I can get this externally, as again I can't run the message function from inside the then statement.

const sentence = context.activity.text.replace('!guggy ', '');

//theoretically this would hold the api response, but this wont update as intended
//var apiResponse;

//api call function
   function postRequest(x) {
    return axios.post('http://exampleurl.here.com/helpapi', {
        "sentence" : x,
        "lang": "ru"
    },{
        headers: {
            "Content-Type":"application/json",
            "apiKey":"example-key-2020202"
                        }
                });
        }

//initiates api call, then logs response or error
postRequest(sentence).then(function(response) {                  
                   console.log(response.data.animated[0].gif.original.url); //this works, returns URL

//attempting to store the same value as external variable doesnt work
apiResponse = response.data.animated[0].gif.original.url; //the variable remains blank when called later

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


//this has to be run outside of axios/then statement, or it will not work.
//this should take the url passed from the response, and send it as a chat message                     
await context.sendActivity(apiResponse);

This doesnt actually return any errors, and runs on the server. It just doesn't return the variable when I need it - its blank. I'm assuming this means I'm just overlooking or misunderstanding something crucial.

You can't synchronously work with a value that's retrieved asynchronously. You must call `.then` on the Promise to consume it (or use `await`), and then do everything that depends on it inside the `.then` — CertainPerformance, Jun 22 '19 at 23:09
I'm not sure what you mean by the other question isn't a dupe--it's *precisely* the issue you're having. This is the nature of async programming. It even gives you multiple solutions, like await. What about that doesn't work for you? — Dave Newton, Jun 22 '19 at 23:24

root · Answer 1 · 2019-07-01T04:40:09.287

The order of execution in the code snippet is:

Call axios
axios sends the message over the network.
context.sendActivity() is called with a blank apiResponse.
exampleurl.here.com returns an answer to axios.
axios calls the "then" clause.
apiResponse gets assigned.

you need to properly wait for the server to return an error, as follows:

const sentence = context.activity.text.replace('!guggy ', '');

async function postRequest(x) {
    return await axios.post('http://exampleurl.here.com/helpapi', {
            "sentence" : x,
            "lang": "ru"
            },{
                headers: {
                    "Content-Type":"application/json",
                    "apiKey":"example-key-2020202"
                }
            });
}

try {
    const response = await postRequest(sentence);
} catch (error) {
    console.log(error);
}

console.log(response.data.animated[0].gif.original.url);
apiResponse = response.data.animated[0].gif.original.url;
await context.sendActivity(apiResponse);

How do I save the axios response to variable, to be used outside axios?

1 Answers1

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