react-spit

Easy data handling in react.

A library with the advantages of react-redux but less boilerplate code.

Getting started

Create a basket for your data (CatContainer.jsx):

import { SpitEvent, Spit } from 'react-spit';

export const catEvent = new SpitEvent([], 'cats');

export default Spit(catEvent);

This creates you an Event and a Container for your data. In this example is this an Array of cats. The new SpitEvent([], 'cats') creates an Event, this is used for handling new incoming data.The first param of the constructor is the initial Value, your container will have. The second is an identifier. This is mostly used for ServerSide rendering or for debugging causes. More on this later.

If you use hooks, you can simply use the useSpit hook (from version 1.1.0):

import { useSpit } from 'react-spit';
import { catEvent } from './CatContainer';

export default () => {
  const [cats, setCats] = useSpit(catEvent);
  
  return cats.map(cat => (
    <div>{cat}</div>
 ));
}

Or the old way with a render props container. To use it (Animals.jsx):

import CatContainer from './CatContainer';

<CatContainer>
  {({ data }) => (
    data.map(cat => (
       <div>{cat}</div>
    ))
  )}
</CatContainer>

So this is basically it. You can use this container everywhere you want to have your cat data. You can use the same container to set the data:

import CatContainer from './CatContainer';

<CatContainer>
  {({ set }) => (
    <button onClick={() => set(['carla', 'fred'])}>Set cats</button>
  )}
</CatContainer>

This will set your cat data globally. You have always the same data available. A single source of truth.

Any call of the set function will trigger your CatContaier to re-render.

Google Chrome Extension

Get your Google Chrome extension here: Chrome Web Store. With the Extension you can analyse the different Containers and their versions.

To enable the Chrome extension just add this snippet to your code:

import { Store as store } from "react-spit";

// Enable React Spit Chrome Extension
if (typeof window !== undefined) {
  window.__REACT_SPIT_DEV_TOOLS__ && window.__REACT_SPIT_DEV_TOOLS__(store);
}

Advanced Usage

In most cases, setting any data is not as simple as the first use case. If you like to fetch any data for example its more complex.

Fetch data

The easiest way would be to just create a new function in a new file, import the cat event, set the data on fetch.then and use this function in useEffect or componentDidMount if you dont use hooks (fetchCatsAction.js):

import { catEvent } from './CatContainer';

export default async () => {
    const result = await fetch('cats.json');
    const json = await result.json();
    catEvent.set(json);
};
    

This could be called in useEffect:

import fetchCats from './fetchCatsAction';

...

useEffect(() => {
    fetchCats();
}, []);
    

Or any componentDidMount:

import fetchCats from './fetchCatsAction';

...

componentDidMount() {
    fetchCats();
}
    

In fact that the Event triggers all the containers, everywhere you use a cat container, it will be updated. But this code example cant only used once and is not really good testable.

So i prefer to wrap the function to have a dynamic function (fetchCatsAction.js):

export default event => async () => {
    const result = await fetch('cats.json');
    const json = await result.json();
    event.set(json);
};
    

The connection between the action and the event can now be established in the view (Cats.jsx):

import { catEvent } from './CatContainer';
import fetchCatsAction from './fetchCatsAction';

const fetchCats = fetchCatsAction(catEvent);

...

componentDidMount() {
    fetchCats();
}