Problems with asynchronous(?) function call before return statement

Question

I have a function as following inside a class deriving from CustomNode:
override protected function create () : Node {
                parseContent();
                return group;
        }parseContent() executes a HttpRequest and then a PullParser. At least that's what it should do. But actually, it doesn't. Is this because the HttpRequest is asynchronous and is "cancelled" because of the return statement? Or can't this be the problem?

Answer 1

You would have to update or create the view in the finally block of the onOutput: or onInput methods within the request.
You could also try
var viewContent: Node;
override protected function create () : Node {
                parseContent();
                FX.deferAction(function():Void{
                       viewContent = group;
                return Group{ content: bind viewContent }
        }I never tried that, but it might work.
Another option is to bind the parsed content to whatever view you are pushing it to. Then whenever the request is done, the view will populate its content on the change of the variable where the content is stored.
Example:
var allTables: TableModel[];      
//***************start of table list decleration****************************\\
public var list: SwingJList = SwingJList {
    var shortcutKey: Boolean = false;
    focusTraversable: true
    selectedIndex: 0
    action: function(){
        FX.deferAction(function():Void{
            openButton.fire();
    items: bind for( table in allTables ){
        table.name
var searchDataXml = xmlGenerator.generateSearchXMLString(searchData);
var contentLength: Integer = searchDataXml.getBytes().length;
def postRequest: HttpRequest = HttpRequest {
    location: "{WEB_APPLICATION_REQUEST_URL}searchData/?database={DATABASE_KEY}";
    method: HttpRequest.POST;
    headers: [
            HttpHeader {
                name: HttpHeader.CONTENT_TYPE;
                value: "application/xml";
            HttpHeader {
                name: HttpHeader.CONTENT_LENGTH;
                value: "{contentLength}";
    onStarted: function() {
        println("onStarted - started performing method: {postRequest.method} on location: {postRequest.location}");
    onConnecting: function() { println("onConnecting") }
    onDoneConnect: function() { println("onDoneConnect") }
    onWriting: function() { println("onWriting") }
    onOutput: function(os: java.io.OutputStream) {
        try {
            os.write(searchDataXml.getBytes());
        } finally {
            println("onOutput - about to close output stream.");
            os.close();
            os.flush();
    onToWrite: function(bytes: Long) { println("onToWrite - entire content to be written: {bytes} bytes") }
    onWritten: function(bytes: Long) { println("onWritten - {bytes} bytes has now been written") }
    onDoneWrite: function() { println("doneWrite") }
    onReadingHeaders: function() { println("onReadingHeaders") }
    onResponseCode: function(code:Integer) { println("onResponseCode - responseCode: {code}") }
    onResponseMessage: function(msg:String) { println("onResponseMessage - responseMessage: {msg}") }
    onResponseHeaders: function(headerNames: String[]) {
        println("onResponseHeaders - there are {headerNames.size()} response headers:");
        for (name in headerNames) {
            println("    {name}: {postRequest.getResponseHeaderValue(name)}");
    onReading: function() { println("onReading") }
    onToRead: function(bytes: Long) {
        if (bytes < 0) {
            println("onToRead - Content length not specified by server; bytes: {bytes}");
        } else {
            println("onToRead - total number of content bytes to read: {bytes}");
    onRead: function(bytes: Long) {
        // The toread variable is non negative only if the server provides the content length
        def progress =
        if (postRequest.toread > 0) "({(bytes * 100 / postRequest.toread)}%)" else "";
        println("onRead - bytes read: {bytes} {progress}");
    var parser = new XmlPullParser();
    onInput: function(is: java.io.InputStream) {
        // use input stream to access content here.
        // can use input.available() to see how many bytes are available.
        try {
            allTables = parser.processResults(is);
        } finally {
            is.close();
    onException: function(ex: java.lang.Exception) {
        println("onException - exception: {ex.getClass()} {ex.getMessage()}");
    onDoneRead: function() { println("onDoneRead") }
    onDone: function() { println("onDone") }
postRequest.start();
} In this case an array of tableModel names are bound to the list view.
When the httprequest ends, it sets the parsed tableModel array to the array declared in this class.
The list view will populate the table names from the array when the request finishes.