How to getTopics on JavaScript.

edit

First of all, I would like to point that calling this function getTopics could be a little confusing due to the fact that this is not a topic subscrition (here you can see a real topic subscription) this is a Client service call (and for what i see, I imagine that this service has an empty request message). If you need further information on what i say, just ask :)

Second, i am not quite sure which is the object you try to return and in which scope, so, if you could give us an example of the code, I think we could give you better feedback! Meanwhile, if you create a variable inside getTopics, let's say, before TopicsClient creation (var return_var;) the you assign the result value inside callService (return_var = result;) and returning the value JUST after closing the call service (return return_var;) theoretically, this should work.

And btw, if your main goal is to put the result into a global variable, you do not need write a return! just create return_var outside getTopics (and outside of its class, it it is part of a class) and it should work

that is my point, that doesn't work. If i do this

    var ros = new ROSLIB.Ros({
    url : 'ws://localhost:9090'
});
var out;
ros.getTopics(function(topics) {
    out=topics;
    console.log(topics.topics);     
});
console.log(out);

The output of the last print is undefined. i think its because of sync and unsynced stuff of javascript.

How you return the value from the topic? you are not explaining it yet. Locally my idea is like:

Lest gonna create first the ros variable in the global scope:

var ros = new ROSLIB.Ros({
url : 'ws://localhost:9090'
});

Then we define the function

function getTopics() {
var return_var;
var topicsClient = new ROSLIB.Service({
   ros : ros,
   name : '/rosapi/topics',
   serviceType : 'rosapi/Topics'
});

var request = new ROSLIB.ServiceRequest();

topicsClient.callService(request, function(result) {
   console.log("Getting topics...");
   console.log(result.topics);
   return_var = result.topics;
});
return return_var;
};

Then in the global scope again

var out;
out = getTopics();
console.log(out);

Directly in global you do the following way:

First create the global variable and ros variable:

var our;
var ros = new ROSLIB.Ros({
   url : 'ws://localhost:9090'
});

Then you define the function without return and you assign the result into the global variable:

function getTopics() {

var topicsClient = new ROSLIB.Service({
   ros : ros,
   name : '/rosapi/topics',
   serviceType : 'rosapi/Topics'
});

var request = new ROSLIB.ServiceRequest();

topicsClient.callService(request, function(result) {
   console.log("Getting topics...");
   console.log(result.topics);
   out = result.topics;
});

};

finally you just ask the function:

getTopics();
console.log(out);