Redux-Bundler Async Resources

A bundle factory for redux-bundler that clearly manages remote resources.

Motivation

It is questionable that createAsyncResourceBundle should be a native part of redux-bundler in the first place. Either way, it's missing some features that are usually needed and usually re-implemented as extensions.

This package:

• re-implements createAsyncResourceBundle with a bit clearer semantics and few additional missing features
• adds a new concept: createAsyncResourcesBundle (note plural form). Instead of a single resource instance, it manages a collection of async resource instances referenced by ID. Each managed instance has it's own lifecycle in terms of loading, expiration etc.

Installation

npm install --save redux-bundler-async-resources

Usage

If you use React, take a look at redux-bundler-async-resources-hooks

createAsyncResourceBundle

bundles/hotCarDeals.js

import { createSelector } from 'redux-bundler'
import { createAsyncResourceBundle } from 'redux-bundler-async-resources'
 
export default {
  ...createAsyncResourceBundle({
    name: 'hotCarDeals',
    staleAfter: 180000, // refresh every 3 minutes
    expireAfter: 60 * 60000, // delete if not refreshed in an hour
    getPromise: ({ shopApi }) => shopApi.fetchHotCarDeals(),
  }),
 
  reactShouldFetchHotCarDeals: createSelector(
    'selectHotCarDealsIsPendingForFetch',
    shouldFetch => {
      if (shouldFetch) {
        return { actionCreator: 'doFetchHotCarDeals' }
      }
    }
  ),
}

HotCarDeals.js

import React from 'react'
import { useConnect } from 'redux-bundler-hook'
 
// ... other imports
 
export default function HotCarDeals() {
  const { hotCarDeals, hotCarDealsError } = useConnect('selectHotCarDeals', 'selectHotCarDealsError')
 
  if (!hotCarDeals && hotCarDealsError) {
    return <ErrorMessage error={hotCarDealsError} />
  }
 
  if (!hotCarDeals) {
    return <Spinner />
  }
 
  return <CarDealsList deals={hotCarDeals} />
}

Options

• name (required): bundle name as usual
• getPromise (required): a function to get usual action creator context parameters; should return a promise that would either resolved with item data or rejected with an error.
• actionBaseType (toUnderscoreNotation(name)): a prefix to be used with internal action types
• retryAfter (60000 i.e. one minute): an interval after which an select${Name}IsPendingForFetch for a failed request will turn back on. Falsie value or Infinity will disable retries.
• staleAfter (900000 i.e. 15 minutes): an interval of time after which a successfully fetched item will try to refresh itself (e.g. turn select${Name}IsPendingForFetch back on). Falsie value or Infinity will disable staling mechanism.
• expireAfter (Infinity): similar to staleAfter but will hard-remove the item from the store, resetting it to pristine state. Useful with caching to to prevent app user to see really old data when re-opening the page.
• persist (true): will instruct cacheBundle to cache on meaningful updates.
• dependencyKey (null): when given, will listen for values of related selectors:
  • as an example, dependency key userId will listen to selector selectUserId
  • when dependency selector resolves with null or undefined, it will prevent resource from fetching
  • when dependency selector resolves to a value, this value will be mixed-in into getPromise parameters
  • when resolved value changes, bundle will force-clear itself
  • example values used in most cases: currentUserId or ['myResourceListPage', 'myResourceListPageSize']'
  • as shown above, to listen to several selectors, pass an array
  • rather than a simple string, each selector can be represented as an object with additional parameters (i.e. { key: 'userId', staleOnChange: true '}):
    • staleOnChange: (false) - if true, will stale a resource when dependency changes, rather than clearing the store
    • allowBlank: (false) – if true, will not lock resource from fetching when resolved value is null or undefined
    • equality: (===) - for rare cases when it is needed to override equality check which decides whether dependency value changed or not

Selectors

• select${Name}Raw – just get raw bundle state, to be used internally
• select${Name} – returns item data or undefined if there's nothing there
• select${Name}IsPresent – returns true if there is something to be returned by select${Name} (i.e. there was at least one successful load before)
• select${Name}IsLoading – returns true if item is currently loading (irrelevant of whether there is some data or not in select${Name})
• select${Name}IsPendingForFetch – returns true if resource thinks it should load now (i.e. pristine or stale or there was an error and retryAfter has passed or dependencies were specified and changed)
• select${Name}Error – returns whatever gerPromise rejected with previously; reset to null or new error value after next load is finished
• select${Name}IsReadyForRetry – returns true if previous fetch resulted in error and retryAfter has passed
• select${Name}RetryAt – returns null or a timestamp at which item fetch will be retried
• select${Name}ErrorIsPermanent – returns true if previous fetch resulted in error and error object had permanent field on
• select${Name}IsStale – returns true if item is stale (manually or respective interval has passed)

Action Creators

• doFetch${Name} – trigger a fetch
• doClear${Name} – force-clear a bundle and reset it to pristine state
• doMark${Name}AsStale – force-mark resource as outdated. Will not remove item from the bundle, but will turn "refetch me!" flag on.
• doAdjust${Name}(payload) – if there is some data present, replace item data with specified payload. If payload is a function, call it a with single parameter (current data value), and replace data with that it returns. Primary use case is when you have some mutation API calls to your resource that always render a predictable change of your resource properties – so you want to save up on re-fetching it and just update in place.

... some other selectors and action creators are present, though mostly technical and are needed for bundle functioning

createAsyncResourcesBundle

createStore.js

import { composeBundles, createSelector } from 'redux-bundler'
import { createAsyncResourcesBundle } from 'redux-bundler-async-resources'
 
export default composeBundles(
  createAsyncResourcesBundle({
    name: 'carReviews',
    staleAfter: 60000, // refresh every a minute
    expireAfter: 60 * 60000, // delete if not refreshed in an hour
    getPromise: (carId, { shopApi }) => shopApi.fetchCarReviews(carId),
  }),
 
  {
    name: 'currentCarReviews',
    reducer: (state = null, action) => {
      if (action.type === 'currentCarReviews.CHANGED') {
        return action.payload
      }
      return state
    },
 
    selectCurrentCarReviewsRaw: state => state.currentCarReviews,
 
    selectCurrentCarReviews: createSelector(
      'selectCurrentCarReviewsRaw',
      reviewsItem => asyncResources.getItemData(reviewsItem)
    ),
 
    selectCurrentCarReviewsError: createSelector(
      'selectCurrentCarReviewsRaw',
      reviewsItem => asyncResources.getItemError(reviewsItem)
    ),
 
    selectCurrentCarReviewsLoading: createSelector(
      'selectCurrentCarReviewsRaw',
      reviewsItem => asyncResources.itemIsLoading(reviewsItem)
    ),
 
    reactCurrentCarReviewsChanged: createSelector(
      'selectCurrentCarReviewsRaw',
      'selectCurrentCarId',
      'selectItemsOfCarReviews',
      (prevReviewsItem, carId, carReviews) => {
        const reviewsItem = carReviews[carId]
        if (prevReviewsItem !== reviewsItem) {
          return { type: 'currentCarReviews.CHANGED', payload: reviewsItem }
        }
      }
    ),
 
    reactShouldFetchCurrentCarReviews: createSelector(
      'selectCurrentCarId',
      'selectItemsOfCarReviews',
      'selectIsOnline',
      (carId, carReviews, isOnline) => {
        if (carId && asyncResources.itemIsPendingForFetch(carReviews[carId], { isOnline })) {
          return { actionCreator: 'doFetchItemOfCarReviews', args: [carId] }
        }
      }
    ),
  }
  // ... other bundles of your application
)

CurrentCarReviews.js

import React from 'react'
import { useConnect } from 'redux-bundler-hook'
import { asyncResources } from 'redux-bundler-async-resources'
 
// ... other imports
 
export default function CurrentCarReviews() {
  const { currentCarReviews, currentCarReviewsError, currentCarReviewsLoading } = useConnect(
    'selectCurrentCarReviews',
    'selectCurrentCarReviewsError',
    'selectCurrentCarReviewsLoading'
  )
 
  if (currentCarReviewsLoading) {
    return <Spinner />
  }
 
  if (currentCarReviewsError) {
    return <ErrorMessage error={currentCarReviewsError} />
  }
 
  return <ReviewList reviews={currentCarReviews} />
}

Options

• name (required): bundle name as usual
• getPromise (required): a function to get item id as first parameter, and usual action creator context parameters as a second; should return a promise that would either resolved with item data or rejected with an error. In both cases result will appear as asyncResources.getItemData(itemId) or asyncResources.getItemError(itemId)
• actionBaseType (toUnderscoreNotation(name)): a prefix to be used with internal action types
• retryAfter (60000 i.e. one minute): an interval after which an asyncResources.itemIsPendingForFetch for an item that has failed to fetch will turn back on. Falsie value or Infinity will disable retries.
• staleAfter (900000 i.e. 15 minutes): an interval of time after which a successfully fetched item will try to refresh itself (e.g. turn asyncResources.itemIsPendingForFetch back on). Falsie value or Infinity will disable staling mechanism.
• expireAfter (Infinity): similar to staleAfter but will hard-remove the item from the store. Useful with caching to to prevent app user to see really old data when re-opening the page.
• persist (true): same behavior as for createAsyncResource – will instruct cacheBundle to cache on meaningful updates.

Selectors

• select${Name}Raw – as usual, just get raw bundle state
• selectItemsOf${Name} – returns a hash of { [itemId]: item }; item to be used with asyncResources helpers to get meaningful information from it.

Action Creators

• doFetchItemOf${Name}(itemId) – trigger a fetch of a specific item
• doClearItemOf${Name}(itemId) – force-remove a certain item from the bundle, resetting it to pristine state
• doMarkItemOf${Name}AsStale(itemId) – force-mark certain item as outdated. Will not remove item from the bundle, but will turn "refetch me!" flag on.
• doAdjustItemOf${Name}(itemId, payload) – if there is some data present, replace item data with specified payload. If payload is a function, call it a with single parameter (current data value), and replace data with that it returns. Primary use case is when you have some mutation API calls to your resource that always render a predictable change of your resource properties – so you want to save up on re-fetching it and just update in place.

asyncResources helpers

• getItemData(item) – will return anything that getPromise previously resolved with or undefined if it didn't happen before
• itemIsPresent(item) – true if getItemData is currently able to return some data to show
• itemIsLoading(item) – true if item is currently loading (irrelevant of whether it has some data or not, i.e. of itemIsPresent / getItemData result)
• itemIsPendingForFetch(item, [{ isOnline = undefined }]) – true if there are any of mentioned conditions are present that result in necessity to trigger doFetchItemOf${Name}:
  • either this item is in pristine state
  • or it failed, retry is enabled and retryAfter has passed (and error is not permanent)
  • or it fetched and is stale (either manually or because staleAfter has passed)
  • isOnline is an optional check to not even try loading anything if device is offline; may omit if online check is not needed
• getItemError(item) – something that getPromise previously rejected with. Will reset on when next fetch will finish (or fail).
• itemIsReadyForRetry(item) – true if this item contains an error, and retryAfter has passed.
• itemRetryAt(item) – returns a timestamp at which item fetch will be retried (if it will be, otherwise null)
• itemErrorIsPermanent(item) – true if getPromise has rejected with something that had persistent: true property in it. Retry behavior will be disabled in this case.
• itemIsStale(item) – true if this item is stale (manually or because staleAfter has passed since last successful fetch)

Naming helpers

In (rare) cases when you need to async resources in a resource-agnostic manner, there are two helpers available: makeAsyncResourceBundleKeys and makeAsyncResourcesBundleKeys for it's multi-item counterpart.

Calling this with a resource name will return you an object of the following shape (assuming resource name "myResource"):

(similar to)

{
  "selectors": {
    "raw": "selectMyResourceRaw",
    "data": "selectMyResource",
    "isLoading": "selectMyResourceIsLoading",
    "isPresent": "selectMyResourceIsPresent",
    "error": "selectMyResourceError",
    "isReadyForRetry": "selectMyResourceIsReadyForRetry",
    "errorIsPermanent": "selectMyResourceErrorIsPermanent",
    "isStale": "selectMyResourceIsStale",
    "isPendingForFetch": "selectMyResourceIsPendingForFetch"
  },
  "keys": {
    "raw": "myResourceRaw",
    "data": "myResource",
    "isLoading": "myResourceIsLoading",
    "isPresent": "myResourceIsPresent",
    "error": "myResourceError",
    "isReadyForRetry": "myResourceIsReadyForRetry",
    "errorIsPermanent": "myResourceErrorIsPermanent",
    "isStale": "myResourceIsStale",
    "isPendingForFetch": "myResourceIsPendingForFetch"
  },
  "actionCreators": {
    "doFetch": "doFetchMyResource",
    "doClear": "doClearMyResource",
    "doMarkAsStale": "doMarkMyResourceAsStale",
    "doAdjust": "doAdjustMyResource"
  },
  "reactors": {
    "shouldExpire": "reactMyResourceShouldExpire",
    "shouldRetry": "reactMyResourceShouldRetry",
    "shouldBecomeStale": "reactMyResourceShouldBecomeStale"
  }
}

... and for makeAsyncResourcesBundleKeys it will be similar to:

{
  "selectors": {
    "raw": "selectMyResourcesRaw",
    "items": "selectItemsOfMyResources",
    "nextExpiringItem": "selectNextExpiringItemOfMyResources",
    "nextRetryingItem": "selectNextRetryingItemOfMyResources",
    "nextStaleItem": "selectNextStaleItemOfMyResources"
  },
  "keys": {
    "raw": "myResourcesRaw",
    "items": "itemsOfMyResources",
    "nextExpiringItem": "nextExpiringItemOfMyResources",
    "nextRetryingItem": "nextRetryingItemOfMyResources",
    "nextStaleItem": "nextStaleItemOfMyResources"
  },
  "actionCreators": {
    "doFetch": "doFetchItemOfMyResources",
    "doClear": "doClearItemOfMyResources",
    "doMarkAsStale": "doMarkItemOfMyResourcesAsStale",
    "doAdjust": "doAdjustItemOfMyResources"
  },
  "reactors": {
    "shouldExpire": "reactItemOfMyResourcesShouldExpire",
    "shouldRetry": "reactItemOfMyResourcesShouldRetry",
    "shouldBecomeStale": "reactItemOfMyResourcesShouldBecomeStale"
  }
}