Event handling

Node.js uses an event-driven architecture, making it possible to execute code when a specific event occurs. The discord.js library takes full advantage of this. You can visit the discord.js documentation siteopen in new window to see the full list of Client events.

Here's the base code we'll be using:

const Discord = require('discord.js');
const { token } = require('./config.json');

const client = new Discord.Client();

client.once('ready', () => {
	console.log('Ready!');
});

client.on('message', message => {
	console.log(`${message.author.tag} in #${message.channel.name} sent: ${message.content}`);
});

client.login(token);

Currently, the event listeners are in the index.js file. The ready event emits once when the Client becomes ready for use, and the message event emits whenever a message is received. Moving the event listener code into individual files is simple, and we'll be taking a similar approach to the command handler.

Individual event files

Your folder structure should look something like this:

Create an events folder in the same directory. You can now take your existing events code in index.js and move them to individual files inside the events folders. Create a ready.js and a message.js file in the events folder and place in the code for the respective files:

module.exports = {
	name: 'ready',
	once: true,
	execute() {
		console.log('Ready!');
	},
};

module.exports = {
	name: 'message',
	execute(message) {
		console.log(`${message.author.tag} in #${message.channel.name} sent: ${message.content}`);
	},
};

The name property states which event this file is for, the once property is a boolean and specifies if the event should run only once, and the execute function is for your event logic. The event handler will call this function whenever the event emits.

Now, you'll write the code for dynamically retrieving all the event files in the events folder. Add this below the const client line in index.js:

const client = new Discord.Client();

const eventFiles = fs.readdirSync('./events').filter(file => file.endsWith('.js'));

This same method is used in our command handler section. The fs.readdirSync().filter() calls return an array of all the file names in the given directory and filter for only .js files, i.e. ['ready.js', 'message.js'].

const eventFiles = fs.readdirSync('./events').filter(file => file.endsWith('.js'));

for (const file of eventFiles) {
	const event = require(`./events/${file}`);
	if (event.once) {
		client.once(event.name, (...args) => event.execute(...args));
	} else {
		client.on(event.name, (...args) => event.execute(...args));
	}
}

To listen for events, you have to register an event listener. This is done using the on or once methods of an EventEmitter instance. The on method for events can emit multiple times, while once will run once and unregister the listener after a single emit.

TIP

You can learn more about EventEmitter hereopen in new window.

The Client class in discord.js extends the EventEmitter class. Therefore, the client object also has these on and once methods that you can use to register events. These methods take two arguments: the name of the event and a callback function.

The callback function passed takes argument(s) returned by its respective event, collects them in an args array using the ... rest parameter syntaxopen in new window, then calls event.execute function while passing in the args array using the ... spread syntaxopen in new window. They are used here because different events in discord.js have different numbers of arguments. The rest parameter collects these variable number of arguments into a single array, and the spread syntax then takes these elements and passes them to the execute function.

After this, listening for other events is as easy as creating a new file in the events folder. The event handler will automatically retrieve and register it whenever you restart your bot.

Passing Client to event files

You may have noticed how important the Client class is. You created a client instance of this class in the index.js file. Most of the time, you can use this client instance in other files by either obtaining it from one of the other discord.js structures or function parameters. In your message event, you can use message.client. When you don't have access to any of the structures with the client property, you'll have to use the latter method. A prime example of this is the ready event.

The ready event does not have arguments, meaning that args will be an empty array, thus nothing will be passed to the execute function in ready.js. To obtain the client instance, you'll have to pass it as an argument along with the args array in the event handler. Back in index.js, make the following changes:

for (const file of eventFiles) {
	const event = require(`./events/${file}`);
	if (event.once) {
		client.once(event.name, (...args) => event.execute(...args, client));
	} else {
		client.on(event.name, (...args) => event.execute(...args, client));
	}
}

This allows client to be available as the last argument to the execute function in each event file. You can make use of client in ready.js by logging your bot's tag in the console when it becomes ready:

module.exports = {
	name: 'ready',
	once: true,
	execute(client) {
		console.log(`Ready! Logged in as ${client.user.tag}`);
	},
};

TIP

You can omit the client argument from the execute function in files where you don't need it. For example, it isn't required in the message.js file because its first argument is a Message instance, meaning you can use message.client.

It is worth noting that the position of client argument matters. For example, the messageUpdate event has two arguments: oldMessage and newMessage. Events like this should be handled as:

module.exports = {
	name: 'messageUpdate',
	execute(oldMessage, newMessage, client) {
		// ...
	},
};

If you were to try execute(newMessage, client), this would mean that newMessage is an oldMessage object and client is a newMessage object.

Resulting code

If you want to compare your code to the code we've constructed so far, you can review it over on the GitHub repository here open in new window.