standard-redux-shape

standard-redux-shape is a tiny utility library to help you manage an optimized redux store shape.

Background

In many applications, developers tends to consider redux store as a simple data structure represnting their views, for example, in a simple todo application, the store may look like:

store: {
    todoList: {
        pageNumber: 0,
        pageSize: 10,
        filters: {
            keyword: 'buy',
            startDate: '2017-01-01',
            endDate: '2017-06-30',
            status: 'pending'
        },
        todos: [/* todo objects */]
    }
}

This is OK, by listening events and dispatching actions to update filters or todos, with a mapStateToProps function you can receive an array of todo objects and display them on screen:

const TodoList = ({todos}) => (
    <ul>
        {todos.map(todo => <li>...</li>)}
    </ul>
);

const mapStateToProps = state => state.todoList.todos;

export default connect(mapStateToProps)(TodoList);

This is how many application implements their react-redux application, however it can still introduce issues when filters are changed, since TodoList only knows todoList.todos property, it can receive a wrong list before actions updating filters are dispatched and new todo objects are loaded from remote.

In order to prevent wrong data to be displayed, a simple solution is to also receive all current parameters and compare them with those corresponding to the list, so we have to change our store to contain the current and corresponding parameters:

store: {
    todoList: {
        currentParams: {
            pageNumber: 0,
            pageSize: 10,
            filters: {
                keyword: 'buy',
                startDate: '2017-01-01',
                endDate: '2017-06-30',
                status: 'pending'
            }
        },
        response: {
            params: {
                pageNumber: 0,
                pageSize: 10,
                filters: {
                    keyword: 'buy',
                    startDate: '2017-01-01',
                    endDate: '2017-06-30',
                    status: 'pending'
                }
            },
            todos: [/* todo obejcts */]
        }
    }
}

Then we receive all these properties and compare them to ensure the todos property is udpate to date:

const mapStateToProps = state => {
    const {currentParams, response: {params, todos}} = state;

    if (shallowEquals(currentParams, params)) {
        return todos;
    }

    return null; // To indicate current response is not returned from remote
};

This solves the wrong data issue “perfectly” with some shortcomings:

• We have to manage a more complex store structure case by case.
• The todos list is overridden each time pageNumber, pageSize or filters are changed, instant undo is missing on same view.

Having our purpose to solve above issues along with receiving the correct and update to date data each time, the final approach comes with a standardized store shape with three layers.

Standard shape of store

The standard-redux-shape recommends a standard store shape which combines with three concepts:

1. The entities is for store normalization, standard-redux-shape helps you to create and manage entity tables.
2. The queries is an area to store and retrieve query responses with certain params, consider a query response as a special kind of entity, the query params is the key of such entity, standard-redux-shape provides functions to serialize params and store responses.
3. The rest of the store should be a minimum state containing current params, standard-redux-shape also provides function to retrive responses with params.

Store normalization

Considering that in most applications entities come from the remote server, standard-redux-shape decided to simply binding remote API calls to entity tables, this is archived with 2 functions.

First or all, the createTableUpdater creates a function usually called withTableUpdate (of type TableUpdater), this is a higher order function which has the signature of:

type StoreResolver = () => Store;
type TableUpdaterCreator = ({StoreResolver} resolveStore) => TableUpdater;
type EntitySelector = ({Object} response) => Obejct;
type TableUpdater = ({string} tableName, {EntitySelector} selectEntites) => APIWrapper;
type APIWrapper = ({Function} api) => Function;

Next, the createTableUpdateReducer is a function creating a reducer to update the table entities, simply use combineReducers to assign a property of store (entities recommended) to its return value so that withTableUpdate functions can work as expected.

To have a real world example, suppose we have a API called getTodos returning a response as:

{
    pageNumber: 1,
    pageSize: 10,
    data: [/* todo objects */]
}

First we need to create our store, here we need createTableUpdateReducer as a sub reducer, and to create and export our withTableUpdate function:

// store.js

import {createStore, combineReducers} from 'redux';
import {createTableUpdateReducer} from 'standard-redux-shape';
import reducers from 'reducers'

export const store = createStore(
    combineReducers({...reducers, entities: createTableUpdateReducer()}),
    null
);

// fetch.js
export const withTableUpdate = createTableUpdater(() => import('store'));

Then we can wrap our getTodos API function:

// api.js

import {withTableUpdate} from 'fetch';

const getTodos = params => {
    // ...
};

const selectTodos = ({data}) => data.reduce((todos, todo) => ({...todos, [todo.id]: todo}), {});

export const fetchTodos = withTableUpdate(selectTodos, 'todosByID')(getTodos);

Every thing is done, every time when you call fetchTodos, a todo list is fetched from remote and the entities.todosByID table is automatically updated.

In order to enjoy the benefits of store normalization, it is highly recommended to map todos array to an array of their id in action creator:

// actions.js

import {fetchTodos} from 'api';

export const requestTodos = params => async dispatch => {
    const response = fetchTodos(params);
    const todos = response.data.map(todo => todo.id);

    dispatch({type: 'LOAD_TODOS', todos: todos});
};

withTableUpdate can also be nested to update multiple entity tables on one API call:

const selectTodos = ({todos}) => todos.reduce((todos, todo) => ({...todos, [todo.id]: todo}), {});
const withTodosUpdate = withTableUpdate(selectTodos, 'todosByID');

const selectMemos = ({memos}) => memos.reduce((memos, memo) => ({...memos, [memo.id]: memo}), {});
const withMemosUpdate = withTableUpdate(selectMemos, 'memosByID');

export const initializeApplication = selectMemos(selectTodos(loadIntiialData));

Also you can simple make selectEntities function return multiple table patch:

const selectEntities = ({todos, memos}) => {
    return {
        todosByID: todos.reduce((todos, todo) => ({...todos, [todo.id]: todo}), {}),
        memosByID: memos.reduce((memos, memo) => ({...memos, [memo.id]: memo}), {})
    };
};

export const initializeApplication = selectEntities(loadIntiialData);

These code are equivelent.

Query storage

standard-redux-shape provides action creator and reducer helpers. In our standardized shape, any query consists of three stages:

1. The fetch stage is when a request is sent but the response is not returned, in this stage we usually recording all pending requests so that we can show a loading indicator or to decide which response is the most fresh one.
2. The receive stage is when response is returned, in this stage we can simply put response to store and display it on screen via mapStateToProps mappings.
3. The accept stage is a special stage when you refuses to immediately accept and display the response, it will be stored temporarily and can be accepted later.

In order to have enough information of the stage of a query and its possible responses (either accepted and pending), we designed a standard shape of query:

query: {
    params: {any}, // The params corresponding to this query, can be any type
    pendingMutex: {number}, // A number indicating the count of pending requests
    response: {
        data: {any?}, // A possible object representing the latest success response
        error: {Object?}, // Possible error information for failed request
    },
    nextResponse: { // The latest unaccepted response
        data,
        error
    }
}

To update a query structure, we need 2 or 3 actions which matches the fetch, receive and accept stages, standard-redux-shape provides several strategies to deal with new responses:

• acceptLatest({string} fetchActionType, {string} receiveActionType): Always accept the latest arrived response, ealier responses will be overridden, this is the mose common case.
• keepEarliest({string} fetchActionType, {string} receiveActionType, {string} acceptActionType): Always use the first arrived response, later responses are discarded automatically, this can be used for some statistic jobs. The latest respones are keep in nextResponse so that you can accept it by dispatching acceptActionType.
• keepEarliestSuccess({string} fetchActionType, {string} receiveActionType): Quite the same as keepEarliest but override earilier error responses.
• acceptWhenNoPending({string} fetchActionType, {string} receiveActionType): Accept the latest arrived response if pendingMutext is 0, this prevents frequent view update when multiple requests may on the fly.

Aside the above, standard-redux-shape also provides functions for action creators to create action payloads which can be recognized by reducers, they are:

• {Object} createQueryPayload({any} params, {any} data) to create an action payload on success.
• {Object} createQueryErrorPayload({any} params, {any} data) to create an action payload on error.

Moreover, standard-redux-shape provides selectors to retrieve wanted properties from a query:

• {Function} createQuerySelector({Function} selectQuery, {Function} selectParams): Create a selector to get a query from query set.
• {Function} createQueryResponseSelector({Function} selectQuery, {Function} selectParams): Create a selector to get the response property of a query.
• {Function} createQueryDataSelector({Function} selectQuery, {Function} selectParams): Create a selector to get the response.data property of q query.
• {Function} createQueryErrorSelector({Function} selectQuery, {Function} selectParams): Create a selector to get the response.error property of a query.

By combining these utilities we can create a simple todo list application easily, first we define our action types, each query must have a fetch and a receive type:

// actions/type.js

export const FETCH_TODOS = 'FETCH_TODOS';
export const RECEIVE_TODOS = 'RECEIVE_TODOS';

Then simply create an action creator which invokes the remote API and dispatches corresponding actions with correct payload:

// actions/index.js

import {createQueryPayload, createQueryErrorPayload} from 'standard-redux-shape';
import {fetchTodos} from 'api';
import {FETCH_TODOS, RECEIVE_TODOS} from './type';

export const requestTodos = params => async dispatch => {
    dispatch({type: FETCH_TODOS, payload: params}); // Payload of fetch action must be the params

    try {
        const response = await fetchTodos(params);

        dispatch({type: RECEIVE_TODOS, payload: createQueryPayload(params, response)});
    }
    catch (ex) {
        if (isRequestError(ex)) {
            dispatch({type: RECEIVE_TODOS, payload: createQueryErrorPayload(params, ex)});
        }
        else {
            throw ex;
        }
    }
};

The reducers can be super simple:

// reducers.js

import {acceptWhenNoPending} from 'standard-redux-shape';
import {combineReducers} from 'redux';
import {FETCH_TODOS, RECEIVE_TODOS} from './type';

const reducers = {
    todoList: acceptWhenNoPending(FETCH_TODOS, RECEIVE_TODOS)
};

export default combineReducers(reducers);

In component we can get query state by selectors:

// TodoList.js

import {createQuerySelector} from 'standard-redux-shape';
import parseQuery from 'parse-query';
import {withRouter} from 'react-router';

const selectTodoList = createQuerySelector(
    state => state.todoListQuery,
    state => {
        const {pageNumber, startDate, endDate} = parseQuery(props.location.query);
        return {pageNumber, startDate, endDate};
    }
);

const TodoList = props => {
    const query = selectTodoList(props);

    if (query.pendingMutex) {
        return <Loading />;
    }

    if (query.response.error) {
        return <Error error={query.response.error} />
    };

    return (
        <ul>
            {query.response.data.map(todo => <li>...</li>)}
        </ul>
    );
};


const mapStateToProps = state => {
    return {
        todoListQuery: state.todoList.queries // Suppose we combine reducers here
    }
};

export default withRouter(connect(mapStateToProps)(TodoList));

Quick create thunk

The thunkCreatorFor function helps you to quick create a simple thunk function which just dispatching 2 actions around an API call function:

{Function} thunkCreatorFor(
    {Function} api,
    {string} fetchActionType,
    {string} receiveActionType,
    {Object} options
);

More options can be passed via options parameter:

• {Function} computeParams({any} ...args): To compute the params for api.
• {boolean} once: If set to true, api will not be invoked when there is already a response in store.
• {boolean} trustPending: It set to true, thunk will immediately return if previous api call is still pending, in this case, the pendingMutex will always be 1 or 0, it can simplify idempotent cases.
• {Function} selectQuerySet({any} state): When once is set to true, selectQuerySet must be provided to select the corresponding query set to determine whether response is already in store.

Example

You can run npm start to start a demo, the chart uses keepEarliest strategy and a friendly message is displayed to user waiting their action to accept the latest data.

Change Log

1.0.0

• createTableUpdateReducer now accepts a customMerger to customize entity table merging strategy.
• BREAKING withTableUpdate‘s parameters are reversed to (selectEntities, tableName), now tableName is optional when selectEntities returns multiple entity table patch.