My flux store gets re-instantiated on reload - reactjs

Okay. I'm kinda new to react and I'm having a #1 mayor issue. Can't really find any solution out there.
I've built an app that renders a list of objects. The list comes from my mock API for now. The list of objects is stored inside a store. The store action to fetch the objects is done by the components.
My issue is when showing these objects. When a user clicks show, it renders a page with details on the object. Store-wise this means firing a getSpecific function that retrieves the object, from the store, based on an ID.
This is all fine, the store still has the objects. Until I reload the page. That is when the store gets wiped, a new instance is created (this is my guess). The store is now empty, and getting that specific object is now impossible (in my current implementation).
So, I read somewhere that this is by design. Is the solutions to:
Save the store in local storage, to keep the data?
Make the API call again and get all the objects once again?
And in case 2, when/where is this supposed to happen?
How should a store make sure it always has the expected data?
Any hints?
Some if the implementation:
//List.js
componentDidMount() {
//The fetch offers function will trigger a change event
//which will trigger the listener in componentWillMount
OfferActions.fetchOffers();
}
componentWillMount() {
//Listen for changes in the store
offerStore.addChangeListener(this.retriveOffers);
}
retrieveOffers() {
this.setState({
offers: offerStore.getAll()
});
}
.
//OfferActions.js
fetchOffers(){
let url = 'http://localhost:3001/offers';
axios.get(url).then(function (data) {
dispatch({
actionType: OfferConstants.RECIVE_OFFERS,
payload: data.data
});
});
}
.
//OfferStore.js
var _offers = [];
receiveOffers(payload) {
_offers = payload || [];
this.emitChange();
}
handleActions(action) {
switch (action.actionType) {
case OfferConstants.RECIVE_OFFERS:
{
this.receiveOffers(action.payload);
}
}
}
getAll() {
return _offers;
}
getOffer(requested_id) {
var result = this.getAll().filter(function (offer) {
return offer.id == requested_id;
});
}
.
//Show.js
componentWillMount() {
this.state = {
offer: offerStore.getOffer(this.props.params.id)
};
}

That is correct, redux stores, like any other javascript objects, do not survive a refresh. During a refresh you are resetting the memory of the browser window.
Both of your approaches would work, however I would suggest the following:
Save to local storage only information that is semi persistent such as authentication token, user first name/last name, ui settings, etc.
During app start (or component load), load any auxiliary information such as sales figures, message feeds, and offers. This information generally changes quickly and it makes little sense to cache it in local storage.
For 1. you can utilize the redux-persist middleware. It let's you save to and retrieve from your browser's local storage during app start. (This is just one of many ways to accomplish this).
For 2. your approach makes sense. Load the required data on componentWillMount asynchronously.
Furthermore, regarding being "up-to-date" with data: this entirely depends on your application needs. A few ideas to help you get started exploring your problem domain:
With each request to get offers, also send or save a time stamp. Have the application decide when a time stamp is "too old" and request again.
Implement real time communication, for example socket.io which pushes the data to the client instead of the client requesting it.
Request the data at an interval suitable to your application. You could pass along the last time you requested the information and the server could decide if there is new data available or return an empty response in which case you display the existing data.

Related

Specifically, how does Reactjs retrieve data from firebase function triggers?

I am using express to create my firebase functions, and I understand how to create regular callable functions. I am lost however on the exact way to implement trigger functions for the background (i.e. onCreate, onDelete, onUpdate, onWrite), as well as how Reactjs in the frontend is supposed to receive the data.
The scenario I have is a generic chat system that uses react, firebase functions with express and realtime database. I am generally confused on the process of using triggers for when someone sends a message, to update another user's frontend data.
I have had a hard time finding a tutorial or documentation on the combination of these questions. Any links or a basic programmatic examples of the life cycle would be wonderful.
The parts I do understand is the way to write a trigger function:
exports.makeUppercase = functions.database.ref('/messages/{pushId}/original')
.onWrite((change, context) => {
// Only edit data when it is first created.
if (change.before.exists()) {
return null;
}
// Exit when the data is deleted.
if (!change.after.exists()) {
return null;
}
// Grab the current value of what was written to the Realtime Database.
const original = change.after.val();
console.log('Uppercasing', context.params.pushId, original);
const uppercase = original.toUpperCase();
// You must return a Promise when performing asynchronous tasks inside a Functions such as
// writing to the Firebase Realtime Database.
// Setting an "uppercase" sibling in the Realtime Database returns a Promise.
return change.after.ref.parent.child('uppercase').set(uppercase);
});
But I don't understand how this is being called or how the data from this reaches frontend code.
Background functions cannot return anything to client. They run after a certain event i.e. onWrite() in this case. If you want to update data at /messages/{pushId}/original to other users then you'll have to use Firebase Client SDK to listen to that path:
import { getDatabase, ref, onValue} from "firebase/database";
const db = getDatabase();
const msgRef = ref(db, `/messages/${pushId}/original`);
onValue(msgRef, (snapshot) => {
const data = snapshot.val();
console.log(data)
});
You can also listen to /messages/${pushId} with onChildAdded() to get notified about any new node under that path.

Stop api call when route changes in next js. Only call api once when page loades

I have a page in next js. I want to call the api in "getServerSideprops" only when the page is loaded first time. Example: You visited xyz page and i want to call api on that first visit. After that if you switched to any other page and came back to this xyz page.. I want to check in my redux if i already have data for this page.. i don't want to call the api again.
Here is the code image
Server-side rendering is great to fetch data that changes on every render. Here it seems to me like your data doesn't change that often. The best solution imo would be to use incremental static regeneration. Generating a static page with revalidate every minute for exemple.
Read more at: https://nextjs.org/docs/basic-features/data-fetching/incremental-static-regeneration
// This function gets called at build time on server-side.
// It may be called again, on a serverless function, if
// revalidation is enabled and a new request comes in
export async function getStaticProps() {
const response = await apiCall('route', 'get', null)
return {
props: {
data: response.data ?? null
},
// Next.js will attempt to re-generate the page:
// - When a request comes in
// - At most once every 10 seconds
revalidate: 10, // In seconds
}
}
You may also want to set caching headers. Example below. Read more at: https://nextjs.org/docs/going-to-production#caching
// This value is considered fresh for ten seconds (s-maxage=10).
// If a request is repeated within the next 10 seconds, the previously
// cached value will still be fresh. If the request is repeated before 59 seconds,
// the cached value will be stale but still render (stale-while-revalidate=59).
//
// In the background, a revalidation request will be made to populate the cache
// with a fresh value. If you refresh the page, you will see the new value.
export async function getServerSideProps({ req, res }) {
const response = await apiCall('route', 'get', null)
res.setHeader(
'Cache-Control',
'public, s-maxage=10, stale-while-revalidate=59'
)
return {
props: {
data: response.data ?? null
}
}
}
Since you are using redux, you will have to make use of a library called next-redux-wrapper. The way you will accomplish your goal is, once you fetch your data, you will store this data in the server instance of redux and from there on, you can check every time before this request is made, if that particular data already exists in the store. You can learn more about this in the ReadMe and this answer
You can set the shallow: true that will skip the getServerSideProp() call after the initial call. shallow-routing

How to force ngrx-data to clear cashed entities and reload data from db

I have a typical ngrx-data arrangement of 'User' entities linked to db.
I implement the standard service to handle the data:
#Injectable({providedIn: 'root'})
export class UserService extends EntityCollectionServiceBase<UserEntity> {
constructor(serviceElementsFactory: EntityCollectionServiceElementsFactory) {
super('User', serviceElementsFactory);
}
}
I read the data using:
this.data$ = this.userService.getAll();
this.data$.subscribe(d => { this.data = d; ... }
Data arrives fine. Now, I have a GUI / HTML form where user can make changes and update them. It also works fine. Any changes user makes in the form are updated via:
this.data[fieldName] = newValue;
This updates the data and ngrx-data automatically updates the entity cache.
I want to implement an option, where user can decide to cancel all changes before they are written to the db, and get the initial data before he made any adjustments. However, I am somehow unable to overwrite the cached changes.
I tried:
this.userService.clearCache();
this.userService.load();
also tried to re-call:
this.data$ = this.userService.getAll();
but I am constantly getting the data from the cache that has been changed by the user, not the data from the db. In the db I see the data not modified. No steps were taken to write the data to db.
I am not able to find the approach to discard my entity cache and reload the original db data to replace the cached values.
Any input is appreciated.
You will need to subscribe to the reassigned observable when you change this.data$, but it will be a bit messy.
First you bind this.data$ via this.data$ = this.userService.entities$, then no matter you use load() or getAll(), as long as the entities$ changed, it fire to this.data$.subscribe(). You can even skip the load and getAll if you already did that in other process.
You can then use the clearCache() then load() to reset the cache.
But I strongly recommand you to keep the entity data pure. If the user exit in the middle without save or reset, the data is changed everywhere you use this entity.
My recommand alternatives:
(1) Use angular FormGroup to set the form data with entity data value, then use this setting function to reset the form.
(2) Make a function to copy the data, then use this copy function as reset.
For example using _.cloneDeep.
(2.1) Using rxjs BehaviourSubject:
resetTrigger$ = new BehaviourSubject<boolean>(false);
ngOnInit(){
this.data$ = combineLastest([
this.resetTrigger$,
this.userService.entities$
]).subscribe([trigger, data])=>{
this.data = _.cloneDeep(data)
});
// can skip if already loaded before
this.userService.load();
}
When you want to reset the data, set a new value to the trigger
resetForm(){
this.resetTrigger$.next(!this.resetTrigger$.value)
}
(2.2) Using native function (need to store the original):
this.data$ = this.userService.entities$.pipe(
tap(d=>{
this.originData = d;
resetForm();
})
).subscribe()
resetForm:
resetForm:()=>{
this.data = _.cloneDeep(this.originData);
}

share() vs ReplaySubject: Which one, and neither works

I'm trying to implement short-term caching in my Angular service -- a bunch of sub-components get created in rapid succession, and each one has an HTTP call. I want to cache them while the page is loading, but not forever.
I've tried the following two methods, neither of which have worked. In both cases, the HTTP URL is hit once for each instance of the component that is created; I want to avoid that -- ideally, the URL would be hit once when the grid is created, then the cache expires and the next time I need to create the component it hits the URL all over again. I pulled both techniques from other threads on StackOverflow.
share() (in service)
getData(id: number): Observable<MyClass[]> {
return this._http.get(this.URL)
.map((response: Response) => <MyClass[]>response.json())
.share();
}
ReplaySubject (in service)
private replaySubject = new ReplaySubject(1, 10000);
getData(id: number): Observable<MyClass[]> {
if (this.replaySubject.observers.length) {
return this.replaySubject;
} else {
return this._http.get(this.URL)
.map((response: Response) => {
let data = <MyClass[]>response.json();
this.replaySubject.next(data);
return data;
});
}
}
Caller (in component)
ngOnInit() {
this.myService.getData(this.id)
.subscribe((resultData: MyClass[]) => {
this.data = resultData;
},
(error: any) => {
alert(error);
});
}
There's really no need to hit the URL each time the component is created -- they return the same data, and in a grid of rows that contain the component, the data will be the same. I could call it once when the grid itself is created, and pass that data into the component. But I want to avoid that, for two reasons: first, the component should be relatively self-sufficient. If I use the component elsewhere, I don't want to the parent component to have to cache data there, too. Second, I want to find a short-term caching pattern that can be applied elsewhere in the application. I'm not the only person working on this, and I want to keep the code clean.
Most importantly, if you want to make something persistent even when creating/destroying Angular components it can't be created in that component but in a service that is shared among your components.
Regarding RxJS, you usually don't have to use ReplaySubject directly and use just publishReplay(1, 10000)->refCount() instead.
The share() operator is just a shorthand for publish()->refCount() that uses Subject internally which means it doesn't replay cached values.

How to make initial authenticated request with token from local storage?

I'm using vanilla flux with some utils for communicating with my APIs.
On initial page load I'd like to read some token from local storage and then make a request to my API to get my data.
I've got a LocalStorageUtils.js library for interacting with window.localStorage. My container component handles all login/logout actions and reads the current user on page load.
App.js
componentWillMount() {
LocalStorageUtils.get('user');
}
LocalStorageUtils reads the value and brings it into Flux via ServerAction similar to the flux chat example.
get(key) {
var value = window.localStorage.getItem(key);
if (value) {
ServerActionCreators.receiveFromLocalStorage(key, value);
}
}
That puts the user into my UserStore and into my views where I can show the username and some logout link, etc.
I also have ApiUtils.js for requesting data from the server. So the question is: Where do I tell my ApiUtils that I have a logged-in user at initial page load?
I could call some method inside ApiUtils from my LocalStorageUtils but that does not feel right.
Or do I have to make another round trip whenever I get a change event inside my container component?
You should pass the user as data to your ApiUtils class and removing the need from being concerned about how your ApiUtils is used.
var ApiUtils = function () {
this.get = function (endpoint, data) {
return theWayYouSendAjaxRequests.get(endpoint).setData(data);
};
};
// Wherever your ApiUtils is used.
var api = new ApiUtils();
api.get('/me', {user: userFromStore});
I found a solution that works and feels right.
As getting data from local storage is synchronous there is no need to pipe it through Flux via ServerActionCreators. Simply use LocalStorageUtils to get the current user and call the login method with that user. The login Action is the same you would use when a user initially logs in. login triggers getting new data from server. The new data is saved in my DataStore and the user is saved to my UserStore.
Thanks for all hints at Twitter and at https://reactiflux.slack.com/.

Resources