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How to refactor deskStructure with async/await for better readability?

7 replies
Last updated: Nov 29, 2025
I am setting up the 
deskStructure
 based on user role administrator and editors. But I am wondering is there a cleaner and more readable way to write the function like using 
async
 and 
await
?
This is not so readable, wondering if there is a better way doing this?

return userStore
    .getCurrentUser()
    .then(({ roles, name }) => {
      const roleNames = roles.map((r) => r.name);

      if (roleNames.includes("administrator")) {
        return S.list()
          .title(`${name} — Website Admin Menu`)
          .items([...deskItems, settingsMenu]);
      }

      if (roleNames.includes("editors")) {
        editors.push(...deskItems);
      }

      return S.list().title("Website Menu").items(deskItems);
    })
    .catch((error) => {
      console.error(error);
      return S.list().title("Empty or Faulty structure").items([]);
    });

AI Update

Yes! You can absolutely use async/await to make your deskStructure function more readable. The Structure Builder accepts functions that return promises, so you can use modern async/await syntax instead of chaining .then() calls.

Here's how you can refactor your code:

export default defineConfig({
  // ... other config
  plugins: [
    structureTool({
      structure: async (S) => {
        try {
          const { roles, name } = await userStore.getCurrentUser();
          const roleNames = roles.map((r) => r.name);

          if (roleNames.includes("administrator")) {
            return S.list()
              .title(`${name} — Website Admin Menu`)
              .items([...deskItems, settingsMenu]);
          }

          if (roleNames.includes("editors")) {
            editors.push(...deskItems);
          }

          return S.list().title("Website Menu").items(deskItems);
        } catch (error) {
          console.error(error);
          return S.list().title("Empty or Faulty structure").items([]);
        }
      }
    })
  ]
})

The key changes:

  1. Make the structure function async by adding the async keyword
  2. Use await instead of .then() to unwrap the promise from getCurrentUser()
  3. Replace .catch() with a try/catch block for error handling

This approach is much more readable and follows modern JavaScript patterns. The Structure Builder API supports both promise chains and async/await since it just expects a function that returns a promise or a synchronous return value.

You could also extract this into a separate function if you want to keep your config file cleaner:

async function createStructureForUser(S) {
  try {
    const { roles, name } = await userStore.getCurrentUser();
    const roleNames = roles.map((r) => r.name);

    if (roleNames.includes("administrator")) {
      return S.list()
        .title(`${name} — Website Admin Menu`)
        .items([...deskItems, settingsMenu]);
    }

    if (roleNames.includes("editors")) {
      editors.push(...deskItems);
    }

    return S.list().title("Website Menu").items(deskItems);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
    return S.list().title("Empty or Faulty structure").items([]);
  }
}

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    structureTool({
      structure: createStructureForUser
    })
  ]
})

Both approaches work equally well – choose whichever fits your code organization preferences better!

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