redux-optimistic-ui

a reducer enhancer to enable type-agnostic optimistic updates

Installation

yarn add redux-optimistic-ui

A what-now?

A reducer enhance is a function you put around a reducer. It can be your rootReducer (the output from a combineReducers) or a nested one. Optimistic-UI means you update what the client sees before the result comes back from the server. This makes your app feel super fast, regardless of server location or internet connection speed.

How's it different from redux-optimist?

redux-optimistic-ui	redux-optimist
reducerEnhancer (wraps your state)	reducerExtender (adds an optimist to your state)
can use immutable.js or anything else	must use plain JS objects for your state
only uses 1 state copy	saves an extra copy of your state for every new optimistic action
FSA compliant	not FSA compliant
must wrap your state calls in ensureState	no change necessary to get your state

Usage

Feed it your reducer

import {optimistic} from 'redux-optimistic-ui';
return optimistic(reducer);

This will transform your state so it looks like this:

state = {
  history: [],
  beforeState: <YOUR PREVIOUS STATE HERE>
  current: <YOUR STATE HERE>
}

If the client is not waiting for a response from the server, the following are guaranteed to be true:

• state.history.length === 0
• state.beforeState === undefined

If you don't need to know if there is an outstanding fetch, you'll never need to use these.

Update your references to state

Since your state is now wrapped, you need state.current. But that sucks. What if you don't enhance the state until the user hits a certain route? Lucky you! There's a function for that. ensureState will give you your state whether it's enhanced or not. Just wrap all your references to state and getState with it & you're all set!

// Before
getState().counter
 
// After (whether you've enhanced your reducer or not)
import {ensureState} from 'redux-optimistic-ui'
ensureState(getState()).counter

Write some middleware

Now comes the fun! Not all of your actions should be optimistic. Just the ones that fetch something from a server and have a high probability of success. I like real-world examples, so this middleware is a little bit longer than the bare requirements:

import {BEGIN, COMMIT, REVERT} from 'redux-optimistic-ui';
 
//All my redux action types that are optimistic have the following suffixes, yours may vary
const _SUCCESS = '_SUCCESS';
const _ERROR = '_ERROR';
 
//Each optimistic item will need a transaction Id to internally match the BEGIN to the COMMIT/REVERT
let nextTransactionID = 0;
 
// That crazy redux middleware that's 3 functions deep!
export default store => next => action => {
  // FSA compliant
  const {type, meta, payload} = action;
 
  // For actions that have a high probability of failing, I don't set the flag
  if (!meta || !meta.isOptimistic) return next(action);
 
  // Now that we know we're optimistically updating the item, give it an ID
  let transactionID = nextTransactionID++;
 
  // Extend the action.meta to let it know we're beginning an optimistic update
  next(Object.assign({}, action, {meta: {optimistic: {type: BEGIN, id: transactionID}}}));
 
  // HTTP is boring, I like sending data over sockets, the 3rd arg is a callback
  socket.emit(type, payload, error => {
    // Create a redux action based on the result of the callback
    next({
      type: type + (error ? _ERROR : _SUCCESS),
      error,
      payload,
      meta: {
        //Here's the magic: if there was an error, revert the state, otherwise, commit it
        optimistic: error ? {type: REVERT, id: transactionID} : {type: COMMIT, id: transactionID}
      }
    });
  })
};

Pro tips

Not using an optimistic-ui until a certain route? Using something like redux-undo in other parts? Write a little something like this and call it on your asychronous route:

export default (newReducers, reducerEnhancers) => {
  Object.assign(currentReducers, newReducers);
  const reducer = combineReducers({...currentReducers})
  if (reducerEnhancers){
    return Array.isArray(reducerEnhancers) ? compose(...reducerEnhancers)(reducer) : reducerEnhancers(reducer);
  }
  return reducer;
}

Now you get an enhanced reducer only where you want it. Neat.

To see how it all comes together, check out https://github.com/mattkrick/meatier.