Cannot get promise/ajax data to return to parent function
<p>I searched for a long time and although there are many questions with similar keywords, none of them share the same intricacies, so let me explain my problem:</p>

<p>I have a function (getProjectData), that <em>has</em> to be called (it is a system wide thing) to get all data from a particular admin section of a cms. My problem comes from a conditional check, where if A one object is blank, where if B, it needs to contain the result of more than 1 ajax calls. The whole data object gets retuned in this function. Code so far:</p>

<pre><code>function getProjectData() {
    var code = "some id";
    var frozen = true;

    var obj = {
        code: code,
        frozen: true,
        localData: "",
    };

    // here is the point where the object gets returned with a black localData 
    // or splits to get a few ajax calls
    if ( !obj.frozen ) return obj;
    else {
        getLocalData ( code ).then( function ( data ) {
            // ideally, here i would make the parent return obj, but this time with added localData data
            obj.localData = data;
            parent.return obj;
        } );
    }
}

function getLocalData ( code ) {
    var promise = new Promise ( function ( resolve, reject ) {
        var apiReq = "apiUrl";
        var chartsReq = "anotherApiUrl";
        var res;

        $.when(
            // api response
            $.ajax({
                url: apiReq + code,
                type: "get",
                success: function ( data ) {
                    return data;
                },
                error: function ( error ) {
                    return error;
                }
            }),
            // another ajax call..
            $.ajax({ ... }),
            // another ajax call..
            $.ajax({ ... })
        ).then(
            function ( a, b, c ) {
                data = {
                    response: a
                    ...... for b and c
                };
                resolve ( data );
            },
            function ( error ) {
                reject ( error );
            }
        );
    } );
    return promise.then(
        function (data) {
            return data;
        },
        function ( error ) {
            console.log ( error );
        }
    );
}
</code></pre>

<p>My problem is that since (and i tried with other ways as well..) all the returns are in a function within other functions, there is no way to return the Obj object after the localData has been added.</p>

<p>I might have over-engineered it but i tried many different ways and since the getProjectData is called by a save button and values need to be returned rather than say, appended to the DOM, i am not sure what to do!</p>

<p>I know that in asynchronous requests, the function has to return before the result is available, where we would usually use callbacks, but a callback will not be able to <em>return</em> something. I could use synchronous requests but i know they are going to be deprecated..</p>

<p>Any ideas?</p>