node.js - fs.writeFile in a promise, asynchronous-synchronous stuff

Question

I need some help with my code. I'm new at Node.js and have a lot of trouble with it.

What I'm trying to do:

1) Fetch a .txt with Amazon products (ASINs) ;

2) Fetch all products using the amazon-product-api package;

3) Save each product in a .json file.

My code is not working. I think I messed up with this asynchronous-synchronous stuff - help me!

var amazon = require('amazon-product-api');
var fs = require('fs');

var client = amazon.createClient({
    awsId: "XXX",
    awsSecret: "XXX",
    awsTag: "888"
});

var array = fs.readFileSync('./test.txt').toString().split('
');
for (var i = 1; i < array.length; i++) {
     var ASIN = array[i];

    return client.itemLookup({
            domain: 'webservices.amazon.de',
            responseGroup: 'Large',
            idType: 'ASIN',
            itemId: ASIN
        })
        .then(function(results) {
            fs.writeFile(ASIN + '.json', JSON.stringify(results), function(err) {
                if (err) {
                    console.log(err);
                } else {
                    console.log("JSON saved");
                }
            })

            return results;

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

Answer 1

As of 2019...

...the correct answer is to use async/await with the native fs promises module included in node. Upgrade to Node.js 10 or 11 (already supported by major cloud providers) and do this:

const fs = require('fs').promises;

// This must run inside a function marked `async`:
const file = await fs.readFile('filename.txt', 'utf8');
await fs.writeFile('filename.txt', 'test');

Do not use third-party packages and do not write your own wrappers, that's not necessary anymore.

No longer experimental

Before Node 11.14.0, you would still get a warning that this feature is experimental, but it works just fine and it's the way to go in the future. Since 11.14.0, the feature is no longer experimental and is production-ready.

What if I prefer import instead of require?

It works, too - but only in Node.js versions where this feature is not marked as experimental.

import { promises as fs } from 'fs';

(async () => {
    await fs.writeFile('./test.txt', 'test', 'utf8');
})();