Redux Deep Diff

deep-diff for tracking structural differences between objects in redux state containers

Also with undo/redo functionality!

Installation

$ yarn add redux-deep-diff

API

redux-deep-diff is a reducer enhancer (higher-order reducer), it provides the diff function, which takes an existing reducer and a configuration object and enhances your existing reducer with deep-diff functionality.

Note: the deep-diff library calculates structural changes between two javascript objects. As such, your state must be a diffable object.

To use redux-deep-diff, first import it, then add the diff enhancer to your reducer(s) like so:

import { combineReducers } from 'redux';
 
// redux-deep-diff higher-order reducer
import diff from 'redux-deep-diff';
 
// `counter` state must be a diffable object
// e.i. state.counter = { count: 1 }
export default combineReducers({
  counter: diff(counter, /* [config] */)
})

To configure how diff enchances your reducers, see the possible configuration options below.

Diff API

Wrapping your reducer with diff adds a diff leaf to your state:

{
  diff: {
    prev: [...previousDiffs],
    next: [...futureDiffs]
  }
}

Each diff in the history is an array of changes. See deep-diff's differences documentation for more info on change records.

Dispatching undo & redo actions

Since redux-deep-diff tracks changes to your state, you can undo & redo the diffs in your history.

import { undo, redo, jump } from 'redux-deep-diff';
 
store.dispatch(undo()); // revert the previous diff
store.dispatch(redo()); // apply the next diff
 
store.dispatch(jump(-3)); // revert the previous three diffs
store.dispatch(jump(2)); // apply the next two diffs

Dispatching clear action

import { clear } from 'redux-deep-diff';
 
store.dispatch(clear()); // clear the history

Deducing state history

To access previous values of the state, redux-deep-diff has a concept of deducers which are similar to selectors in that you create a deducer and use it to calculate ("deduce") part of your state's history.

import { createDeducer } from 'redux-deep-diff';
 
const countSelector = (counter) => counter.count;
const getCountHistory = createDeducer(countSelector, /* [config] */);
 
// `state.counter` must countain a diff history leaf
getCountHistory(state.counter); //=> [0, 1, 2, 3, 2, ...]

To configure how a deducer determines which diffs to deduce, see the possible configuration options below.

Similarly to selectors, deducers are also memoized and not only memoize their return value, but the return value of the selector for each set of changes in the diff history. When the diff history changes, deducers will only call the selector with states it hasn't yet deduced.

store.dispatch(increment());
let a = getCountHistory(store.getState());
//=> [0, 1] `countSelector` was called twice
 
store.dispatch(increment());
store.dispatch(increment());
store.dispatch(decrement());
 
let b = getCountHistory(store.getState());
//=> [0, 1, 2, 3, 2] `countSelector` was called three more times
 
// true even for values of objects/arrays
expect(a[0]).to.equal(b[0]);
expect(a[1]).to.equal(b[1]);
 
let c = getCountHistory(store.getState());
//=> [0, 1, 2, 3, 2] `countSelector` was not called
 
// when no changes are made, the same results are returned
expect(b).to.equal(c);
// ...but a new array is returned when values do change
expect(a).to.not.equal(b);

Configuration options

Default values for the supported options are listed below

Reducer options

{
  key: 'diff',                          // key to store the state diffs
  limit: 0,                             // diff history limit
  undoType: '@@redux-deep-diff/UNDO',   // custom undo action type
  redoType: '@@redux-deep-diff/REDO',   // custom redo action type
  jumpType: '@@redux-deep-diff/JUMP',   // custom jump action type
  clearType: '@@redux-deep-diff/CLEAR',   // custom clear action type
  skipAction: (action) => false,        // return true to skip diffing the state for this action
  initialState: { prev: [], next: [] }, // initial diff history state
  ignoreInit: true,                     // includes the first state when `false`
  prefilter: (path, key) => false,      // (see below)
  flatten: (path, key) => false         // (see below)
}

prefilter(path, key)

See deep-diff's prefilter argument.

flatten(path, key)

Similar to prefilter, flatten should return a truthy value for any path-key combination that should be flattened. That is: deep-diff will not do any further analysis on the object-property path, but the resulting value of the change will be the value located at the flattened path.

let flatten = (path, key) => key === 'nested';
 
/* ...reducer setup... */
 
expect(state.nested).to.deep.equal({ some: 'property' })
expect(change.path).to.deep.equal(['nested']);
expect(change.lhs).to.deep.equal({ some: 'prev-property' });
expect(change.rhs).to.deep.equal({ some: 'property' });

Deducer options

{
  key: 'diff',   // key to retrieve the state diffs
  next: false,   // deduce from `diff.next` when `true` (future history)
  unique: false, // skip equal results that immediately follow each other
  index: false,  // the index of a single state in the history to deduce
  range: false,  // a range of history states to deduce - `[lower, upper]`
  limit: false   // limit the deducer to a specified length
}

Important: index, range, and limit may not be used in conjuction. If they are used together, precedence will be taken in that order and a warning will be logged.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.md for more info.