Asynchronous nodejs module exports

Your export can't work because it is outside the function while the foodeclaration is inside. But if you put the export inside, when you use your module you can't be sure the export was defined.

The best way to work with an ansync system is to use callback. You need to export a callback assignation method to get the callback, and call it on the async execution.

Example:

var foo, callback;
async.function(function(response) {
    foo = "foobar";

    if( typeof callback == 'function' ){
        callback(foo);
    }
});

module.exports = function(cb){
    if(typeof foo != 'undefined'){
        cb(foo); // If foo is already define, I don't wait.
    } else {
        callback = cb;
    }
}

Here async.function is just a placeholder to symbolise an async call.

In main

var fooMod = require('./foo.js');
fooMod(function(foo){
    //Here code using foo;
});

Multiple callback way

If your module need to be called more than once you need to manage an array of callback:

var foo, callbackList = [];
async.function(function(response) {
    foo = "foobar";

    // You can use all other form of array walk.
    for(var i = 0; i < callbackList.length; i++){
        callbackList[i](foo)
    }
});

module.exports = function(cb){
    if(typeof foo != 'undefined'){
        cb(foo); // If foo is already define, I don't wait.
    } else {
        callback.push(cb);
    }
}

Here async.function is just a placeholder to symbolise an async call.

In main

var fooMod = require('./foo.js');
fooMod(function(foo){
    //Here code using foo;
});

Promise way

You can also use Promise to solve that. This method support multiple call by the design of the Promise:

var foo, callback;
module.exports = new Promise(function(resolve, reject){
    async.function(function(response) {
        foo = "foobar"

        resolve(foo);
    });
});

Here async.function is just a placeholder to symbolise an async call.

In main

var fooMod = require('./foo.js').then(function(foo){
    //Here code using foo;
});

See Promise documentation

An ES7 approach would be an immediatly invoked async function in module.exports :

module.exports = (async function(){
 //some async initiallizers
 //e.g. await the db module that has the same structure like this
  var db = await require("./db");
  var foo = "bar";

  //resolve the export promise
  return {
    foo
  };
})()

This can be required with await later:

(async function(){

  var foo = await require("./theuppercode");
  console.log(foo);
})();

ES6 answer using promises:

const asyncFunc = () => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        // Where someAsyncFunction takes a callback, i.e. api call
        someAsyncFunction(data => {
            resolve(data)
        })
    })
}

export default asyncFunc

...
import asyncFunc from './asyncFunc'
asyncFunc().then(data => { console.log(data) })

Or you could return the Promise itself directly:

const p = new Promise(...)
export default p
...
import p from './asyncModule'
p.then(...)

Another approach would be wrapping the variable inside an object.

var Wrapper = function(){
  this.foo = "bar";
  this.init();
};
Wrapper.prototype.init = function(){
  var wrapper = this;  
  async.function(function(response) {
    wrapper.foo = "foobar";
  });
}
module.exports = new Wrapper();

If the initializer has error, at least you still get the uninitialized value instead of hanging callback.