dextrous

A tiny library with utilities for reducing Redux boilerplate and reusing reducer logic.

Contents

• Objectives
• Installation
• Usage
• Live Examples
• Support

Objectives

• Reduce the amount of boilerplate involved defining reducers and action creators in Redux(using makeReducer, makeObjectReducer, makeListReducer etc.).

• Reuse reducers to handle multiple parts of the state without defining a whole new set of action types and action creators. (using makeMultiReducer, nameReducer, nameAction, nameActionCreators, nameAndCombineReducers etc.)

Installation

Install using npm or yarn:

npm install dextrous --save

or

yarn add dextrous

Usage

Quick Links

• makeMultiReducer
• nameReducer
• nameAction
• nameActionCreator
• makeReducer
• makeObjectReducer
• objectReducer
• makeListReducer
• listReducer
• Other Functions

makeMultiReducer(reducer, [keyExtractor])

Creates a key-based reducer that can be used to manage different parts of the state using the same reducer. The key must be provided by setting the key property on actions. Alternatively, you can provide a custom keyExtractor function to extract the key from an action.

makeMultiReducer is ideal for cases where you want to use the same reducer to manage the state for multiple components, especially when the number of components is not known beforehand e.g. showing 5 independent counters on a page, with an 'Add Counter' button to add new counters.

Example (Try Online)

import { makeMultiReducer, makeMultiGetter } from 'dextrous';
 
// Reducer to manage state for one counter
const counter = (state = 10, { type }) => {
  switch (type) {
    case "INCREMENT":
      return state + 1;
    case "DECREMENT":
      return state - 1;
    default:
      return state;
  }
};
 
// Reducer to manage state for multiple counters.
const counters = makeMultiReducer(counter);
const getCounter = makeMultiGetter(counter);
 
let state = counters(undefined, { type: "@@INIT" });
console.log('State:', state); // {}
console.log('Counter a:', getCounter(state, 'a')); // 10
console.log('Counter b:', getCounter(state, 'b')); // 10
console.log('Counter c:', getCounter(state, 'c')); // 10
 
state = counters(state, { type: "INCREMENT", key: "a" });
console.log('State:', state); // {a: 11}
console.log('Counter a:', getCounter(state, 'a')); // 11
console.log('Counter b:', getCounter(state, 'b')); // 10
console.log('Counter c:', getCounter(state, 'c')); // 10
 
state = counters(state, { type: "DECREMENT", key: "c" });
console.log('State:', state); // {a: 11, c: 9}
console.log('Counter a:', getCounter(state, 'a')); // 11
console.log('Counter b:', getCounter(state, 'b')); // 10
console.log('Counter c:', getCounter(state, 'c')); // 9
 
// Using a custom key extractor
const counters2 = makeMultiReducer(counter, action => action.id);
let state2 = counters2(undefined, { type: '@@INIT'});
const action = { type: 'INCREMENT', id: 'd' }; // Providing 'id' instead of 'key'
 
console.log(getCounter(state2, 'd')); // 10
state2 = counters2(state2, action);
console.log(getCounter(state2, 'd')) // 11
 

NOTE: Always use makeMultiReducer in conjunction with makeMultiGetter to retrieve the state correctly (as shown in the example above). If you try to acess the state for a particular key directly, you may get undefined.

nameReducer(reducer, name, whitelist = [])

Wraps the given reducer and returns a new reducer that only responds to actions that actions that contain a name matching the given name.

Example (Try online)

import { nameReducer } from 'dextrous';
 
// A simple counter reducer supporting increment and decrement.
const counter = (state = 0, { type }) => {
  switch(type) {
    case 'INCREMENT':
      return state + 1;
    case 'DECREMENT':
      return state - 1;
    default:
      return state;
  }
};
 
// Create two named reducers using counter.
const counter1 = nameReducer(counter, 'counter1');
const counter2 = nameReducer(counter, 'counter2');
 
// Test behavior by passing named actions
console.log(counter1(0, { type: 'INCREMENT' })); // 0
console.log(counter1(0, { type: 'INCREMENT', name: 'counter2' })); // 0
console.log(counter1(0, { type: 'INCREMENT', name: 'counter1' })); // 1

Additionally, you can use the whitelist argument in nameReducer to provide a list of action types that should be handled even if they do not contain a name property.

nameAction(action, name)

Utility function to add a name property to an action.

Example

import { nameAction } from 'dextrous';
 
console.log(nameAction({ type: 'INCREMENT'}, 'counter2'));
// { type: 'INCREMENT', name: 'counter' }
 

nameActionCreator(actionCreator, name)

Given an actionCreator and a name, returns a new action creator which adds the name property to the resulting action.

Example

import { nameActionCreator } from 'dextrous';
 
const actionCreator = (email, password) => ({
  type: 'EDIT_LOGIN_DATA',
  payload: { email, password }
});
 
const namedCreator = nameActionCreator(actionCreator, 'loginForm');
 
console.log(namedCreator('[e-mail]', 'password123'));
/*
{
  type: 'EDIT_LOGIN_DATA',
  name: 'loginForm',
  payload: {
    email: '[e-mail]',
    password: 'password123'
  }
}
*/

makeReducer(initialState)

Creates a reducer with the given initial state, supporting two actions:

1. SET: Change the state to a new value provided with the action.
2. RESET: Reset the state back to initialState.

The action creators setValue and resetValue can be used to create SET and RESET actions respectively.

Example

import { makeReducer, setValue, resetValue } from 'dextrous';
 
const reducer = makeReducer('nothing');
 
console.log(reducer('Hello', setValue('world'))); // 'world'
console.log(reducer('Hello', resetValue())); // 'nothing'
 

Use makeReducer in conjuction with nameReducer and nameActionCreator to easily create multiple reducers for handling different parts of the state.

Example

import {
  makeReducer,
  setValue,
  resetValue,
  nameReducer,
  nameActionCreator
} from 'dextrous';
import { combineReducers } from 'redux';
 
const ReducerNames = {
  age: 'age',
  location: 'location'
};
 
// Reducer and action creators for managing state.age
const age = nameReducer(makeReducer(18), ReducerNames.age);
const setAge = nameActionCreator(setValue, ReducerNames.age);
const resetAge = nameActionCreator(resetValue, ReducerNames.age);
 
// Reducer and action creators for managing state.location
const location = nameReducer(makeReducer('London'), ReducerNames.location);
const setLocation = nameActionCreator(setValue, ReducerNames.location);
const resetLocation = nameActionCreator(resetValue, ReducerNames.location);
 
// Create a combined reducer
const rootReducer = combineReducers({
  age,
  location
});
 
// Check the initial state
const initialState = rootReducer(undefined, { type: 'IGNORED_ACTION'});
console.log(initialState);
// { age: 18, location: 'London' }
 
// Dispatch an action to change the age (but not location)
console.log(rootReducer(initialState, setAge(23)));
// { age: 23, location: 'London' }
 
// Dispatch an action to change the location (but not age)
console.log(rootReducer(initialState, setLocation('Paris')));
// { age: 18, location: 'Paris' }
 

NOTE: Never use makeReducer without nameReducer, otherwise every action with the type SET or RESET will change the state managed by the reducer.

For example, if we do not use nameReducer in the above example while defining age and location, then dispatching the action setAge will change both state.age and state.location to the given value, which is not the desired behavior.

makeObjectReducer(initialState = {})

Create a reducer that allows setting and removing entries in a plain Javascript object. It supports the following actions:

1. EDIT: Change the values of one or more keys in the state object.
2. REMOVE: Clear one or more keys in the state object.
3. SET: Change the state to a new value provided with the action.
4. RESET: Reset the state back to initialState.

The action creators editObject, removeKeys, setValue and resetValue can be used to create the above actions. makeObjectReducer is ideal for managing the state of HTML forms.

Example

import { 
  makeObjectReducer, 
  editObject, 
  removeKeys,
  resetValue,
  nameReducer,
  nameActionCreator
} from 'dextrous';
 
const reducerName = 'signupForm';
const initialState = { name: '', email: '', age: 18};
 
// Define a named reducer
const signupForm = nameReducer(makeObjectReducer(initialState), reducerName);
 
// Define some named action creators
const editSignupForm = nameActionCreator(editObject, reducerName);
const removeSignupFields = nameActionCreator(removeKeys, reducerName);
const clearSignupForm = nameActionCreator(resetValue, reducerName);
 
console.log(signupForm(undefined, { type: 'IGNORED_ACTION' }));
// { name: '', email: '', age: 18}
 
const editAction = editSignupForm({
  email: '[e-mail]',
  age: 23
});
const newState1 = signupForm(initialState, editAction)
console.log(newState1);
// {name: "", email: "[e-mail]", age: 23}
 
const removeAction = removeSignupFields(['age', 'name'])
const newState2 = signupForm(newState1, removeAction);
console.log(newState2);
// {email: "[e-mail]"}
 
const resetAction = clearSignupForm();
const newState3 = signupForm(newState2, resetAction);
console.log(newState3);
// { name: '', email: '', age: 18}

NOTE: As with makeReducer, never use makeObjectReducer without nameReducer.

objectReducer

If the initialState of your reducer is the empty object {}, you can use objectReducer instead of makeObjectReducer({}). It supports all the actions that makeObjectReducer supports.

Example

import { objectReducer, nameReducer } from 'dextrous';
 
const loginForm = nameReducer(objectReducer, 'loginForm');
/* Equivalent to:
const loginForm = nameReducer(makeObjectReducer({}), 'loginForm');
*/
 

makeListReducer(initialState = [])

Create a reducer that allows adding and removing items in a Javascript array. It supports the following actions:

1. ADD: Add one or more item at the end of the list.
2. REMOVE: Clear one or more items from the list.
3. SET: Change the state to a new value provided with the action.
4. RESET: Reset the state back to initialState.

The action creators addItem, addItems, removeItem, removeItems, setValue and resetValue can be used to create the above actions. makeListReducer is ideal for cases where the state is variable list of items.

Example

import { 
  makeListReducer, 
  addItem, 
  removeItem,
  resetValue,
  nameReducer,
  nameActionCreator
} from 'dextrous';
 
const reducerName = 'locations';
const defaultLocations = ['London', 'Paris'];
 
// Define the reducer and action creators
const locations = nameReducer(makeListReducer(defaultLocations), reducerName);
const addLocation = nameActionCreator(addItem, reducerName);
const removeLocation = nameActionCreator(removeItem, reducerName);
const resetLocations = nameActionCreator(resetValue, reducerName);
 
// Check the initial state
const initialState = locations(undefined, { type: 'IGNORED_ACTION' });
console.log(initialState);
// ["London", "Paris"]
 
// Add a location
const newState1 = locations(initialState, addLocation('San Francisco'));
console.log(newState1);
// ["London", "Paris", "San Francisco"]
 
// Remove a location
const newState2 = locations(newState1, removeLocation('Paris'));
console.log(newState2);
// ["London", "San Francisco"]
 
// Reset to the initial state
const newState3 = locations(newState2, resetLocations());
console.log(newState3);
// ["London", "Paris"]

NOTE: As with makeReducer, never use makeListReducer without nameReducer.

listReducer

If the initialState of your reducer is the empty list [], you can use listReducer instead of makeListReducer([]). It supports all the actions that makeListReducer supports.

Example

import { listReducer, nameReducer } from 'dextrous';
 
const locations = nameReducer(listReducer, 'locations');
/* Equivalent to:
const locations = nameReducer(makeListReducer([]), 'locations');
*/
 

Other Functions

There are many other utility functions that are currently not documented. You can go through their source code, comments and tests to see understand they do.

Here is a full list of exported functions:

• makeMultiReducer (source, tests)

• makeMultiGetter (source, tests)

• makeReducer (source, tests)

• setValue (source, tests)

• resetValue (source, tests)

• nameReducer (source, tests)

• nameAction (source, tests)

• nameActionCreator (source, tests)

• nameActionCreators (source, tests)

• makeNamedReducers (source, tests)

• nameReducers (source, tests)

• nameAndCombineReducers (source, tests)

• nameAndBindActionCreators (source, tests)

• makeObjectReducer (source, tests)

• editObject (source, tests)

• removeKeys (source, tests)

• objectReducer (source, tests)

• makeListReducer (source, tests)

• listReducer (source, tests)

• addItem (source, tests)

• addItems (source, tests)

• removeItem (source, tests)

• removeItems (source, tests)

• nameReducerAndCreators (source, tests)

• makeNamedReducer (source, tests)

• makeNamedObjectReducer (source, tests)

• makeNamedListReducer (source, tests)

• makeNamedMultiReducer (source, tests)

If you are using any of the above functions, please consider opening a pull request adding some documentation and examples.

Live Examples

Here are some live examples where edit you can edit the code online and play around with the APIs:

• Using makeMultiReducer to render several independent counters: https://stackblitz.com/edit/dextrous-example

• makeMultiReducer demo: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-gtd76c

• nameReducer demo: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-gdmtuu

These examples powered by the Stackblitz online IDE.

Support

I developed dextrous after facing the same problems (non-reusable reducer logic, too much boilerplate etc.) across several React + Redux projects. It's currently being used in over half a dozen projects running in production, so I fully intend to support, enhance, test and document the project for the forseeable future. This library has saved me from writing 1000s of lines of code, so I can't imagine not using for a future project.

dextrous is released under the MIT Licence, so feel free to do whatever you want with it! For feedback, comments and suggestions, open a pull request or just tweet to me (@aakashns).