react-event-observer

0.5.11 • Public • Published

react-event-observer

An event manager in ReactJs, to handle communication between components.
Using observers as a message-broker between components.

Or you can use it for a general purpose event system.

npm install --save react-event-observer

Full reference

Features

  • PubSub
  • request-response
  • namespacing

What is this:

  • General javascript Event System.
  • inter-component communication channel for ReactJs.

You can think of it as a network between components.

What This is not:

  • client-server communication library
  • client-client communication library

Why?
Because passing down methods to child components cluters your code.

and monolithic..

Initialize

import ReactObserver from 'react-event-observer';
var observer = ReactObserver();

Methods: PubSub

/*
    subscribe to event
    will return a 'Listener'
    Read about Listener below
*/
 
var listener = observer.subscribe('exampleEvent',(data)=>{
    console.log('data is: '+data);
});
 
/* publish event */
observer.publish('exampleEvent', 1+9);
// data is: 10
 
/* unsub */
observer.unsubscribe('exampleEvent');

Listener

A Listener is an object returned from subscribing to and event. It will notify succeed and errorof your function call. it alse has an unpublish method, so you can unpublish your function from the observer.

listener.on('error',(e)=>{
    console.log('Your function has error:')
    console.log(e);
})
 
listener.on('succeed',()=>{
    console.log('Your function was successfully executed')
})
 
// unsubscribe from event
// for this particular function
listener.unsubscribe()

Methods: request-response

/* prepare to respond to answer */
observer.respond('what is three',()=>{
    return 3;
});
 
/* ask the question */
observer.ask('what is three',(data,error)=>{
    if(error) console.log('a error: '+e.stoString());
    else console.log('Three is a ' + (typeof data));
});
// Three is a number
 
 
/* stop responding to questions */
observer.silence('what is three');
 

Usage Example

Include react-event-observer in your Parent Component

import ReactObserver from 'react-event-observer';

Initialize in parent

Initialize in Parent constructor, and pass down to child components

class App extends Component {
  constructor(props){
      super(props);
      this.observer = ReactObserver();
  }
  ...
 
  render(){
        <div>
            <AppChild observer={this.observer} />
            <AppChild observer={this.observer} />
            <AppChildCounter observer={this.observer} />
        </div>
    }
}

Subscribe / publish events

In Child Components, start listening to events on mount. Don't forget to unsubscribe on unmount.

AppChild

class AppChild extends Component{
    constructor(props){
        super(props);
        this.observer = props.observer;
    }
 
    componentDidMount(){
        this.observer.subscribe("hello",(data)=>{
            console.log('hello event data: ' + data);
        });
 
        this.observer.respond("attendanceRoll",()=>{
            return 1;
        });
 
        // you can return promise, for async calls
        // (everything with `.then` and `.catch`)
        this.observer.respond("attendanceRoll",()=>{
            return Promise.resolve(1);
        });
 
        // so, async is supported
        this.observer.respond("attendanceRoll",async ()=>{
            return await Promise.resolve(1);
        });
    }
 
    componentWillUnmount(){
        this.observer.silence("attendanceRoll");
    }
    ...
}

AppChildCounter is where we will publish event or ask questions.

AppChildCounter

class AppChildCounter extends Component{
    constructor(props){
        super(props);
        this.observer = props.observer;
        this.state = {attending : 0};
    }
 
    componentDidMount(){
        this.observer.publish("hello",'this is data');
        this.observer.ask("attendanceRoll",(data)=>{
            this.setState( (prev,props)=>({ attending: prev.attending + data }) );
            console.log('attending: '+this.state.attending);
        });
    }
    ...
}

Check the result in your console

Console
=======

hello event data: this is data
hello event data: this is data
...
attending: 1
attending: 2
attending: 3
attending: 4
...

Feature: event-namespace

The dot (.) is used as a namespace separator.

observer.subscribe('main',()=>{ console.log('main'); });
observer.subscribe('main.child',()=>{ console.log('main.child'); });
observer.subscribe('main.child.child',()=>{ console.log('main.child.child'); });
 
/* all child and grandchild will be called on parent invocation */
observer.publish('main');
// main
// main.child
// main.child.child
 
observer.publish('main.child');
// main.child
// main.child.child
 
/* the same goes for unsubscribe method */
observer.unsubscribe('main.child',()=>{ console.log('main'); });
observer.publish('main');
// main

Full Reference

Observer

Observer is a multipurpose event system.

constructor

var observer = Observer()

Methods

observer.subscribe( String: event, Function: callback )

Alias: observer.on

Return: Listener object

Subscribe to an event. The callback will receive data.

observer.unsubscribe( String: event, [Listener: listener] )

Alias: observer.off

Unsubscribe to an event. The absence of listener will delete all listener associated with the event.

observer.publish( String: event, [Mixed: data] )

Alias: observer.trigger observer.emit

Publish data on an event. Data will be passed to all listener's function as a parameter.

observer.request( String: event, [Function: callback] )

Alias: observer.ask

Ask for data. This is a one time event, so it will be unregistered upon callback succession. When no responder available, callback will never be called.

observer.respond( String: event, [Function: callback] )

Alias: observer.answer

Respond to a request. Unlike request, respond will always listen to event. You can think of it as a subscriber that gives data.

To respond to a request, you should return a value, or a promise.

observer.answer('question',function(){
    return 3;
})
 
observer.answer('question',function(){
    return Promise.resolve(3);
})
observer.silence( String: event )

Alias: observer.leave

Stop responding to requests.

observer.getEvents( String: event )

Get events. children will be included in the result

observer.getAllEvents( String: event )

Get All events.

observer.getListeners( String: event )

Get All listeners. Events will be evaluated with strict values. children will not be included.

Listener

Listener is on object returned from subscribing on an event. It is used to catch errors and successions of the callback function. It also used to unsubscribe by calling unsubscribe method, or passing it to the second parameter of observer.unsubscribe.

Methods

listener.on( String: event, Function: callback )

This will register callback to events such ass error and succeed.

listener.unsubscribe()

Alias: listener.off

Unsubscribe this listener from it's event. Other way to unsubscribe is by passing this listener to observer.unsubscribe

var listener1 = observer.on('event',()=>{ })
var listener2 = observer.on('event',()=>{ })
 
// unsubscribe
listener1.unsubscribe();
 
// also unsubscribe
observer.unsubscribe('event', listener2)

Events

Listener have events. You can register callback to listen to those using listener.on method.

Event Description
error Will be fired when the callback has errors. This is the only way we can catch errors, since the callback will be called asynchronously. The error object will be passed to function registered to this event
succeed Will be called upon sucessfull callback execution. It carries no data

That's it.

cheers, him@jujiyangasli.com

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    npm i react-event-observer

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    204

    Version

    0.5.11

    License

    ISC

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