Experiments with WebR + XHR

webr-xhr.R

# This function successfully runs the XHR request
# No response in the browser console because it is
# running in a web worker
webr::eval_js("
  async function run() {
       let response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/json');
       let data = await response.json();
       return data;
  }
  run().then(data => console.log(data));
        ")

# I can create an item inside the R session
# The WebR worker is 'self' in this case
webr::eval_js("self.objs.globalEnv.bind('new_obj', 'hello there')")

new_obj # Success! Prints [1] "hello there"

# Is the function persistent?
webr::eval_js("run()")   #Yes! another XHR request

# OK, so how can I get the data from the request into the session?
webr::eval_js("run().then(data => self.objs.globalEnv.bind('jsondata', JSON.stringify(data)))")
jsondata # Error:: object 'jsondata' not found.  BUT the XHR request did happen.

# What about doing it inside the function?
webr::eval_js("
     async function run() {
       let response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/json');
       let data = await response.json();
       self.objs.globalEnv.bind('jsondata', JSON.stringify(data))
  }
  run()
")
jsondata # still fails. Error: object 'jsondata' not found, XHR request still hapenning

# Drop the web call, just try in async. Is this about the async environment
webr::eval_js("
       async function run() {
       self.objs.globalEnv.bind('new_obj2', 'Hmmmm')
  }
  run()
  ")
new_obj2 # Binding succeeds, prints [1] 'Hmmmm'. Hmmm.