Listen to global events Elm Style.
npm i -S redux-elm-subscriptions
When creating components you most likely wanna keep your components dumb and not use lifecycle hooks which couples rendering to functionality. This package revolves around the idea that some of the events you listen to are global and come from a world "outside" of your application like:
- global mouse events
- timers and animation frame callbacks
- window focus and blur etc.
- listening to websocket messages
So instead of this in a component file ...
componentDidMount() {
document.addEventListener('keydown', handlekeyDown);
}
componentWillUnmount() {
document.removeEventListener('keydown', handlekeyDown);
}
you can do this in a central place in your code ...
import { createSubsriptions, subNone } from 'redux-elm-subscriptions';
...
// will be called every time the state changes
const mapStateToSubs = (state, dispatch) => {
// each subscription function needs to set up the subscription and return
// a function to unsubscribe
const arrowKeysSub = () => {
const handler = e => {
if (e.keyCode === 32) {
dispatch({ action: 'SPACE_PRESS' });
}
};
document.addEventListener('keydown', handler);
return () => {
document.removeEventListener('keydown', handler);
};
};
const listenToClicks = () => {
const handler = () => { dispatch({ type: 'DOCUMENT_CLICK' }); };
document.addEventListener('click', handler);
return () => { document.removeEventListener('click', handler); };
};
// return an object of subscriptions
return {
arrowKeys: arrowKeysSub,
anotherSubscriptions: () => {
// subscribe here
return () => {
// unsubscribe here
};
},
// only listen to clicks when the modal is open
documentClick: state.modalOpen ? listenToClicks : subNone,
};
};
// add them to the store
store.subscribe(createSubscriptions(store)(mapStateToSubs));
Also check out the example.
The API is designed so you can control listening behavior based on your state
.
Your subscription function receives the state
and dispatch
as parameters and
should start listening to some event in the world. After that it needs to return
a function to unsubscribe from the event you just started listening to. The
function will be called every time the state changes. If a subscription is no
longer present in the returned object, the unsubscribe function will be called
automatically.
As long as yo make sure that your functions return functions to unsubscribe, everything should be handled automatically for you.
This lib was build to listen events which happen outside the scope of your app. Don't use it for one-time things are things that involve performing other work. Those will be better served by a library like redux-loop. Examples that are not subscriptions but effects include:
- making http requests
- reading from the localStorage
Also, of course the subscriptions are only for global events. DOM Events that happen within the virtual DOM that is managed by your app, should be handled directly in your components.
Check out the source. It's very simple, less than 30 LOC and needs no dependencies.