@colony/redux-promise-listener

A Redux middleware that allows actions to be converted into Promises

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import colonyReduxPromiseListener from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@colony/redux-promise-listener';
</script>

README

Redux Promise Listener

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Redux Promise Listener generates an async function that will dispatch a start action, and will resolve or reject the promise when a resolve or reject action is dispatched.

Libraries like redux-promise or redux-promise-middleware are useful for converting promises to actions. Redux Promise Listener does the inverse: converting actions to promises.

Why?

Most of the popular form libraries accept an onSubmit function that is expected to return a Promise that resolves when the submission is complete, or rejects when the submission fails. This mechanism is fundamentally incompatible with action management libraries like redux-saga, which perform side-effects (e.g. ajax requests) in a way that does not let the submission function easily return a promise. Redux Promise Listener is a potential solution.

Usage

Step 1

Create and add the middleware as you would with any Redux middleware. Remember to export the middleware!

// store.js
import { createStore, applyMiddleware } from 'redux'
import createReduxPromiseListener from 'redux-promise-listener'

const reduxPromiseListener = createReduxPromiseListener()
const store = createStore(
  reducer,
  initialState,
  applyMiddleware(...otherMiddleware, reduxPromiseListener.middleware)
)
export const promiseListener = reduxPromiseListener // <---- ⚠️ IMPORTANT ⚠️

export default store

Step 2

If you are using react-redux, your Step 2 is over here.

...

Okay, now that those React nerds are gone...

Wherever you need an async function that dispatches one action and listens for others...

// someFile.js
import { promiseListener } from './store.js'

const generatedAsyncFunction = promiseListener.generateAsyncFunction(
  'START_ACTION_TYPE', // the type of action to dispatch when this function is called
  'RESOLVE_ACTION_TYPE', // the type of action that will resolve the promise
  'REJECT_ACTION_TYPE' // the type of action that will reject the promise
)

// This structure is in the shape:
// {
//   asyncFunction, <--- the async function that dispatches the start action and returns a Promise
//   unsubscribe    <--- a function to unsubscribe from the Redux store
// }

// dispatches an action { type: 'START_ACTION_TYPE', payload: values }
generatedAsyncFunction.asyncFunction(values).then(
  // called with action.payload when an action of
  // type 'RESOLVE_ACTION_TYPE' is dispatched
  resolvePayload => {
    // do happy stuff 😄
  },

  // called with action.payload when an action of
  // type 'REJECT_ACTION_TYPE' is dispatched
  rejectPayload => {
    // do sad stuff 😢
  }
)

// when done, to prevent memory leaks
generatedAsyncFunction.unsubscribe()

Avoiding conflicts

By default the listener will succeed when the first action matching the defined matcher is dispatched. Most of the times this is not the desired behavior (as multiple actions can be fired at the same time). To avoid this, the dispatched action gets an id property in its meta field. If this id is present in the resolve, reject actions it will only react to these which id matches to the one generated in the beginning. It is on you to pass through the id in your sagas. The easiest way is to pass through the whole meta object:

function* saga() {
  while(true) {
    const { payload, meta } = yield take('RESOURCE_REQUEST')
                     ^
    try {
      const detail = yield call(callApi, payload) // payload == { id: 'foo' }
      yield put({
        type: 'RESOURCE_SUCCESS',
        payload: detail,
        meta
        ^
      })
    } catch (e) {
      yield put({
        type: 'RESOURCE_FAILURE',
        payload: e,
        error: true,
        ^
        meta
        ^
      })
    }
  }
}

API

createListener: () => PromiseListener

The default export of this library. Creates a Redux middleware, but that also has a function on it called generateAsyncFunction

middleware.generateAsyncFunction: (config: Config) => AsyncFunction

Types

ActionMatcher: Action => boolean

A predicate with which to make decisions about Redux actions.

PromiseListener

An object with the following values:

middleware: Middleware

Redux middleware that should be used when creating your Redux store.

createAsyncFunction: (config: Config) => AsyncFunction

Takes a Config and returns an object containing the async function capable of dispatching an action and resolving/rejecting a Promise upon the dispatch of specified actions, and a function to unsubscribe this listener from the Redux store.

Config

An object with the following values:

start: string

The type of action to dispatch when the function is called.

resolve: string | ActionMatcher

The type of action that will cause the promise to be resolved, or a predicate function that will return true when given the type of action to resolve for.

reject: string | ActionMatcher

The type of action that will cause the promise to be rejected, or a predicate function that will return true when given the type of action to reject for.

setPayload?: (action: Object, payload: any) => Object

A function to set the payload (the parameter passed to the async function). Defaults to (action, payload) => ({ ...action, payload }).

getPayload?: (action: Object) => any

A function to get the payload out of the resolve action to pass to resolve the promise with. Defaults to (action) => action.payload.

getError?: (action: Object) => any

A function to get the error out of the reject action to pass to reject the promise with. Defaults to (action) => action.payload.

AsyncFunction

An object with the following values:

asyncFunction: (payload: any) => Promise<any>

The async function that will dispatch the start action and return a promise that will resolve when the resolve action is dispatched or reject when the reject action is dispatched.

unsubscribe: () => void

A cleanup function that should be called when the async function is no longer needed.

⚠️ Failure to call unsubscribe() may result in a memory leak. ⚠️

If you are using react-redux-promise-listener, this is done for you on componentWillUnmount.