Fix: flickery frames due to leaky event handling

packages/scatterbrain/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
     "name": "@alleninstitute/vis-scatterbrain",
-    "version": "0.0.4",
+    "version": "0.0.5",
     "contributors": [
         {
             "name": "Lane Sawyer",
@@ -58,4 +58,4 @@
         "lodash": "^4.17.21",
         "regl": "^2.1.0"
     }
-}
+}

packages/scatterbrain/src/abstract/async-frame.ts

@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ export function beginFrame<
             renderItem(itemToRender, dataset, settings, maybe);
         }
     };
-    const reportStatus = (event: AsyncFrameEvent<Dataset, Item>, synchronous: boolean = false) => {
+    const reportStatus = (event: AsyncFrameEvent<Dataset, Item>, synchronous: boolean) => {
         // we want to report our status, however the flow of events can be confusing -
         // our callers anticipate an asynchronous (long running) frame to be started,
         // but there are scenarios in which the whole thing is completely synchronous
@@ -102,11 +102,11 @@ export function beginFrame<
         if (synchronous) {
             lifecycleCallback(event);
         } else {
-            Promise.resolve().then(() => lifecycleCallback(event));
+            Promise.resolve().then(() => lifecycleCallback(event))
         }
     };
 
-    const doWorkOnQueue = (intervalId: number) => {
+    const doWorkOnQueue = (intervalId: number, synchronous: boolean = false) => {
         // try our best to cleanup if something goes awry
         const startWorkTime = performance.now();
         const cleanupOnError = (err: unknown) => {
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ export function beginFrame<
             abort.abort(err);
             clearInterval(intervalId);
             // pass the error somewhere better:
-            reportStatus({ status: 'error', error: err }, true);
+            reportStatus({ status: 'error', error: err }, synchronous);
         };
         while (mutableCache.getNumPendingTasks() < Math.max(maximumInflightAsyncTasks, 1)) {
             // We know there are items in the queue because of the check above, so we assert the type exist
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ export function beginFrame<
                     requestsForItem(itemToRender, dataset, settings, abort.signal),
                     partial(fancy, itemToRender),
                     toCacheKey,
-                    () => reportStatus({ status: 'progress', dataset, renderedItems: [itemToRender] }, true)
+                    () => reportStatus({ status: 'progress', dataset, renderedItems: [itemToRender] }, synchronous)
                 );
                 if (result !== undefined) {
                     // put this cancel callback in a list where we can invoke if something goes wrong
@@ -152,30 +152,24 @@ export function beginFrame<
             if (mutableCache.getNumPendingTasks() < 1) {
                 // we do want to wait for that last in-flight task to actually finish though:
                 clearInterval(intervalId);
-                reportStatus({ status: 'finished' });
+                reportStatus({ status: 'finished' }, synchronous);
             }
             return;
         }
     };
-    const interval = setInterval(() => doWorkOnQueue(interval), queueProcessingIntervalMS);
 
-    // do some work right now...
+    reportStatus({ status: 'begin' }, true)
+    const interval = setInterval(() => doWorkOnQueue(interval), queueProcessingIntervalMS);
     if (queue.length > 0) {
-        reportStatus({ status: 'begin' }, true);
-        doWorkOnQueue(interval);
-        // return a function to allow our caller to cancel the frame - guaranteed that no settings/data will be
-        // touched/referenced after cancellation, unless the author of render() did some super weird bad things
-        return {
-            cancelFrame: (reason?: string) => {
-                taskCancelCallbacks.forEach((cancelMe) => cancelMe());
-                abort.abort(new DOMException(reason, 'AbortError'));
-                clearInterval(interval);
-                reportStatus({ status: 'cancelled' });
-            },
-        };
+        doWorkOnQueue(interval, false)
     }
     return {
-        cancelFrame: () => {},
+        cancelFrame: (reason?: string) => {
+            taskCancelCallbacks.forEach((cancelMe) => cancelMe());
+            abort.abort(new DOMException(reason, 'AbortError'));
+            clearInterval(interval);
+            reportStatus({ status: 'cancelled' }, true);
+        }
     };
 }
 

packages/scatterbrain/src/abstract/render-server.ts

@@ -168,12 +168,19 @@ export class RenderServer {
                 }
             };
             this.clients.set(client, {
-                frame: renderFn(image, this.cache, hijack),
+                frame: null,
                 image,
                 copyBuffer,
                 resolution,
                 updateRequested: null,
             });
+            // this is worded rather awkwardly, because sometimes the frameLifecycle object returned by renderFn() represents
+            // a frame that is already finished!
+            // this is a good thing for performance, but potentially confusing - so we do our book-keeping before we actually start rendering:
+            const aboutToStart = this.clients.get(client); // this is the record we just put into the clients map - TS just wants to be sure it really exists:
+            if (aboutToStart) {
+                aboutToStart.frame = renderFn(image, this.cache, hijack)
+            }
         }
     }
 }

packages/scatterbrain/src/dataset-cache.ts

@@ -225,6 +225,7 @@ export class AsyncDataCache<SemanticKey extends RecordKey, CacheKey extends Reco
         workingSet: Record<SemanticKey, () => Promise<D>>,
         use: (items: Record<SemanticKey, D>) => void,
         toCacheKey: (semanticKey: SemanticKey) => CacheKey,
+        // TODO: consider removing taskFinished - it would be more simple to let the caller handle this in their use() function
         taskFinished?: () => void
     ): cancelFn | undefined {
         const keys: SemanticKey[] = Object.keys(workingSet) as SemanticKey[];