Callback hell

So, one of the biggest rants people have about JS, node specifically, is the so denominated callback hell. You know where code marches to the right faster than it moves forward. The Piramid of Doom? Common, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. In JavaScript's defense, I will show you this...

It goes a little bit like this:

User.create = function (data, callback) {
    var node = db.createNode(data);
    var user = new User(node);
    node.save(function (err) {
        if (err) return callback(err);
        node.index(INDEX_NAME, INDEX_KEY, data.email, function (err) {
            if (err) return callback(err);
            callback(null, user);
        });
    });
};

Some might argue that is basically an stylistic or design choice. I agree. There are different approaches to tackle this differently.

You can go the promise route.

User.create = function (data) {
    var node = db.createNode(data);
    var user = new User(node);
    var savedPromise = node.save();
    var responsePromise = savedPromise.then(onSavedResponse, onSavedError);
    responsePromise.then(onUpdateIndex, onUpdateError);
    return new Promise(user);
};

Or you could chain them:

User.create = function (data) {
    var node = db.createNode(data);
    var user = new User(node);
    node.save()
        .then(onSavedResponse, onSavedError)
        .then(onUpdateIndex, onUpdateError);

    return new Promise(user);
};

You can also go the event driven route, and do something like this:

User.create = function (data) {
    var node = db.createNode(data);
    var user = new User(node);
    node.save(User._onCreated.bind(this, user, node));
};
User._onCreated = function(user, node, err, res /*ignored*/){
    node.index(INDEX_NAME, INDEX_KEY, data.email,
               User._onIndexed.bind(this, user));
};

User._onIndexed = function(user, err, res /*ignored*/) {
    if (err) return this.dispatcher.emmit('create:error', err);
    this.dispatcher.emmit('create:result', user);
};

http://blog.caplin.com/2013/03/13/callback-hell-is-a-design-choice/

Resources about promises and node: