Safe Function Calls with attempt

By  on  

As browser implement new APIs, the truth is that though the APIs provide more power, I'd argue they bring about more volatility.  Whether it's the API that's the issue or us trying to use it, you're bound to run into errors which may break parts of your app.  Crap.  And a try/catch blocks everywhere?  Bleh.  That's why I use an attempt function in such cases:  it keeps the code cleaner and with less side effects.

The JavaScript

What we'll do is essentially call the function for the user, catching any crap that comes along:

function attempt(fn, args, binding) {
	try {
		return fn.apply(binding, args);
	} catch(e) {
		console.log('Exception, fix me please', e);
	}
}

// Use it!
attempt(function() {
	/* volatile stuff */
}, ['argOne', someVar], this);

Provide the function, args, and binding and you're all set.  You can use anonymous functions, named functions, whatever.  And you don't need to add your own try/catch blocks everywhere.  Nothing groundbreaking in the code above but it's safe and easy!

Recent Features

  • By
    I’m an Impostor

    This is the hardest thing I've ever had to write, much less admit to myself.  I've written resignation letters from jobs I've loved, I've ended relationships, I've failed at a host of tasks, and let myself down in my life.  All of those feelings were very...

  • By
    7 Essential JavaScript Functions

    I remember the early days of JavaScript where you needed a simple function for just about everything because the browser vendors implemented features differently, and not just edge features, basic features, like addEventListener and attachEvent.  Times have changed but there are still a few functions each developer should...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    HTML5’s window.postMessage API

    One of the little known HTML5 APIs is the window.postMessage API.  window.postMessage allows for sending data messages between two windows/frames across domains.  Essentially window.postMessage acts as cross-domain AJAX without the server shims. Let's take a look at how window.postMessage works and how you...

  • By
    Create an Animated Sliding Button Using MooTools

    Buttons (or links) are usually the elements on our sites that we want to draw a lot of attention to. Unfortunately many times they end up looking the most boring. You don't have to let that happen though! I recently found a...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!