The Problem: Your Discord bot’s awaitMessages calls are executing concurrently, causing both responses to be sent immediately instead of waiting for user input. The embed displays correctly, but the bot doesn’t wait for the user to select an option before sending the corresponding data. Additionally, your current code uses multiple awaitMessages collectors which compete with each other, leading to the unintended behavior.
Understanding the “Why” (The Root Cause):
The core issue lies in how your code handles asynchronous operations. awaitMessages in Discord.js is an asynchronous function; it returns a Promise. Your code initiates both awaitMessages calls, but it doesn’t wait for either one to resolve before sending the subsequent messages. JavaScript’s event loop doesn’t pause execution while awaiting Promises unless you explicitly use await. Since both awaitMessages calls are initiated almost simultaneously, both Promises resolve (or timeout), and the bot sends both gameData.BattleStats and gameData.ArenaStats regardless of the user’s input. The use of separate collectors further exacerbates the issue; they are competing for the same responses, leading to unpredictable behavior.
Step-by-Step Guide:
Step 1: Implement a Single awaitMessages Collector with a Combined Filter:
Replace your current code with a single awaitMessages collector that uses a filter to accept either ‘A’ or ‘B’ responses from the user who initiated the command. This ensures only one collector is active, preventing the race condition you’re experiencing. Crucially, we also add a check to make sure only the original user can respond.
if (message.content.startsWith(prefix + 'stats')) {
const statsEmbed = new Discord.MessageEmbed()
.setTitle('Team Statistics')
.setAuthor('PHOENIX GUILD')
.setColor('#FF5733')
.setDescription('Choose a category below:')
.setTimestamp()
.addField('A. Battle Victories', 'Type "A" to view battle stats')
.addField('B. Arena Points', 'Type "B" to view arena records')
message.channel.send({ embeds: [statsEmbed] });
const filter = m => m.author.id === message.author.id && ['A', 'B'].includes(m.content);
message.channel.awaitMessages({ filter, max: 1, time: 15000, errors: ['time'] })
.then(collected => {
const response = collected.first().content;
if (response === 'A') {
message.channel.send(gameData.BattleStats);
} else if (response === 'B') {
message.channel.send(gameData.ArenaStats);
}
})
.catch(err => {
if (err.message === 'time') {
message.channel.send('Time ran out, please try again.');
} else {
console.error('Error collecting messages:', err);
message.channel.send('An unexpected error occurred.');
}
});
}
Step 2: Handle Errors and Timeouts:
The .catch block handles potential errors, specifically timeouts. This improves the user experience by providing informative messages if the user doesn’t respond within the allotted time or if an unexpected error occurs. It also logs errors for debugging purposes. You may want to add more robust error handling (e.g. logging to a file) for a production environment.
Step 3: Consider Asynchronous/Await for Improved Readability (Optional):
While the above code uses .then() and .catch(), you could rewrite it using async/await for potentially improved readability if you prefer that style:
async function handleStatsCommand(message) {
// ... (Embed creation remains the same) ...
const filter = m => m.author.id === message.author.id && ['A', 'B'].includes(m.content);
try {
const collected = await message.channel.awaitMessages({ filter, max: 1, time: 15000, errors: ['time'] });
const response = collected.first().content;
if (response === 'A') {
await message.channel.send(gameData.BattleStats);
} else if (response === 'B') {
await message.channel.send(gameData.ArenaStats);
}
} catch (error) {
if (error.message === 'time') {
await message.channel.send('Time ran out, please try again.');
} else {
console.error('Error collecting messages:', error);
await message.channel.send('An unexpected error occurred.');
}
}
}
if (message.content.startsWith(prefix + 'stats')) {
handleStatsCommand(message);
}
Common Pitfalls & What to Check Next:
- Incorrect User ID: Double-check that
message.author.id is correctly retrieving the ID of the user who sent the initial command.
- Case Sensitivity: The filter is case-sensitive. If you want to accept both uppercase and lowercase input, convert the user’s response and your accepted values to lowercase for comparison:
m.content.toLowerCase() === 'a' and m.content.toLowerCase() === 'b'.
- Rate Limits: Be mindful of Discord’s rate limits. If you add more functionality, ensure your bot doesn’t exceed these limits.
- Error Handling: The added error handling is basic. For production bots, implement more detailed error logging and potentially more sophisticated error recovery mechanisms.
Still running into issues? Share your (sanitized) config files, the exact command you ran, and any other relevant details. The community is here to help!