RefluxJS
A simple library for unidirectional dataflow architecture inspired by ReactJS Flux.
Installation
You can currently install the package as a npm package, a bower component, or import it from a CDN.
NPM
The following command installs RefluxJS as a npm package:
npm install reflux
Then, in your script, you can gain a reference to RefluxJS like so: var Reflux = require('reflux');
Bower
The following command installs reflux as a bower component that can be used in the browser:
bower install reflux
Then the files may be imported into your html file via bower_components/reflux/dist/reflux.js
or bower_components/reflux/dist/reflux.min.js
. At that point a Reflux
variable will be globally available to you. It is suggested that you import RefluxJS after React.
CDN
RefluxJS is available at jsdelivr.
You may import the CDN files directly through a script tag. At that point a Reflux
variable will be globally available to you. It is suggested that you import RefluxJS after React.
Overview
The main function of Reflux is to introduce a more functional programming style architecture by eschewing MVC like pattern and adopting a single data flow pattern.
+---------+ +--------+ +-----------------+
¦ Actions ¦------>¦ Stores ¦------>¦ View Components ¦
+---------+ +--------+ +-----------------+
^ ¦
+--------------------------------------+
The pattern is composed of actions and data stores, where actions initiate new data to pass through data stores before coming back to the view components again. If a view component has an event that needs to make a change in the application's data stores, they need to do so by signaling to the stores through the actions available.
Usage
For usage, you need to create actions which can be called from React components. Those actions are listened to by stores which hold and update data. In turn those stores are hooked up to React components and set state within them as it is updated within the store.
Therefore the 3 main concepts to know are:
Creating Actions
Create an action by calling Reflux.createAction
with an optional options object.
var statusUpdate = Reflux;
An action is a function object that can be invoked like any other function.
; // Invokes the action statusUpdate
There is also a convenience function for creating multiple actions.
var Actions = Reflux; // Actions object now contains the actions// with the names given in the array above// that may be invoked as usual Actions;
More on Actions:
Actions can also:
- load files asynchronously with child actions
- do preEmit and shouldEmit checking
- have many shortcuts for easy usage
See Reflux Action Documentation for more.
Creating Stores
Create a data store much like ReactJS's own React.Component
by creating a class extending Reflux.Store
. The store has a state
property much like a component, and uses setState
like a component as well. You may set up all action listeners in the constructor
and register them by calling the store's own listenTo
function.
Store { super; thisstate = flag:'OFFLINE'; // <- set store's default state much like in React this; // listen to the statusUpdate action } var newFlag = status ? 'ONLINE' : 'OFFLINE'; this;
In the above example, whenever the action statusUpdate
is called, the store's onStatusUpdate
callback will be called with whatever parameters were sent in the action. E.g. if the action is called as statusUpdate(true)
then the status
argument in the onStatusUpdate
function is true
.
Stores also integrate easily with sets of actions via things like this.listenables
. When an actions object (or an Array of multiple actions objects) is applied to this.listenables
you may automatically add listeners simply by naming convention. Just name the functions either after the action name (such as actionName
, or the camelcased action name preceded with "on", (such as onActionName
).
var Actions = Reflux; Store { super; thislistenables = Actions; } // calls on Actions.firstAction(); // calls on Actions.secondAction();
More on Stores:
Reflux stores are very powerful. They can even do things like contribute to a global state that can be read and set for partial or full-state time-travel, debugging, etc.
See Reflux Store Documentation to learn more about stores.
Hooking Stores to Components
Once you've created actions and stores, now the last step in working RefluxJS is to hook those stores to a React component.
This is done as simply as extending Reflux.Component
instead of React.Component
and setting the store(s) to use. Reflux.Component
itself extends React.Component
, so you use them the exact same. The only difference is that Reflux.Component
allows you to set stores for the component to get state from:
Component { superprops; thisstate = {}; // our store will add its own state to the component's thisstore = StatusStore; // <- just assign the store class itself } var flag = thisstateflag; // <- flag is mixed in from the StatusStore return <div>User is flag</div>
When the component mounts it will either create a singleton instance of StatusStore
(if one isn't already made) or use an already made singleton (if it was already created by another component that uses the store).
Of important note is that you can:
- Set multiple stores by setting
this.stores
(the plural) and setting it to an Array of store classes. - Set a
this.storeKeys
Array to restrict only certain parts of the store being mixed into the component state.
There is also a mapStoreToState
method in the documentation for those that want absolute control over how a store's state is mapped to a component.
Component { superprops; thisstate = type:'admin'; // <- note that we can still use normal state thisstores = StatusStore AnotherStore; thisstoreKeys = 'flag' 'info'; } var flag = thisstateflag; var info = thisstateinfo; var type = thisstatetype; return <div>User is flag info: info type: type</div>
The above will mix in properties from the state of both StatusStore
and AnotherStore
. However, because of this.storeKeys
it will only mix in the properties flag
and info
from them. So any other properties within those stores will not get mixed in. So even if a store contained a type
property in its state it would not get mixed in, and the type
value we set as a normal part of the component state is safe.
More on using Reflux style components:
Reflux's simple and intuitive way of integrating stores into components is easy and powerful. You can aggregate stores together on a component-by-component basis, filter which parts of the stores come through and which don't, or even do a detailed manual mapping of exactly how you want the state from stores to map to the state in a particular component.
See Reflux Style Component Documentation to learn more.
Documentation
What you've just read is a "view from 10,000 feet" type overview of getting started with RefluxJS. For serious learning see the documentation.