Convert Promise to Observable

I am trying to wrap my head around observables. I love the way observables solve development and readability issues. As I read, benefits are immense.

Observables on HTTP and collections seem to be straight forward. How can I convert something like this to observable pattern.

This is from my service component, to provide authentication. I'd prefer this to work like other HTTP services in Angular2 - with support for data, error and completion handlers.

firebase.auth().createUserWithEmailAndPassword(email, password)
  .then(function(firebaseUser) {
    // do something to update your UI component
    // pass user object to UI component
  })
  .catch(function(error) {
    // Handle Errors here.
    var errorCode = error.code;
    var errorMessage = error.message;
    // ...
  });

Any help here would be much appreciated. The only alternative solution I had was to create EventEmitters. But I guess that's a terrible way to do things in services section

9 Answers

If you are using RxJS 6.0.0:

import { from } from 'rxjs';
const observable = from(promise);
3

try this:

import 'rxjs/add/observable/fromPromise';
import { Observable } from "rxjs/Observable";

const subscription = Observable.fromPromise(
    firebase.auth().createUserWithEmailAndPassword(email, password)
);
subscription.subscribe(firebaseUser => /* Do anything with data received */,
                       error => /* Handle error here */);

you can find complete reference to fromPromise operator here.

1 Direct Execution / Conversion

Use from to directly convert a previously created Promise to an Observable.

import { from } from 'rxjs';

// getPromise() is called once, the promise is passed to the Observable
const observable$ = from(getPromise());

observable$ will be a hot Observable that effectively replays the Promises value to Subscribers.

It's a hot Observable because the producer (in this case the Promise) is created outside of the Observable. Multiple subscribers will share the same Promise. If the inner Promise has been resolved a new subscriber to the Observable will get its value immediately.

Elena Rostova

Elena Rostova

Lead Health, Wellness & Medical Journalist

Elena Rostova holds a Master's degree in Public Health Journalism. She covers groundbreaking medical research, holistic wellness trends, mental health awareness, and nutritional science.