redux-pinky

Yet another Redux middleware for dispatching async actions

Disclaimer

This middleware is a rip-off of redux-pack: we just needed a more standard way of handling the actions :shaved_ice:

Setup

This library is available on npm, install it with: npm install --save redux-pinky.

Then connect it to the store like all the other middlewares (order matters!):

import reduxPinky from 'redux-pinky'

...

applyMiddleware([reduxThunk, reduxPinky, reduxLogger])

Usage

The aim of redux-pinky is to provide an easy way to dispatch async actions.
To use it just dispatch an action with a promise field:

const login = (email, password) => ({
  type: 'LOGIN',
  promise: yourAPI.login(email, password)
})

Whenever an action has a promise field it will be handled by redux-pinky, that will always dispatch the following:

• { type: LOGIN_REQUEST }: Dispatched immediately
• { type: LOGIN_SUCCESS, payload: result }: Dispatched only if the promise succeeds (the result of the promise is in the payload field)
• { type: LOGIN_FAILURE, payload: error }: Dispatched only if the promise fails (the result of the promise is in the payload field)

Since release 2.0 you can also directly dispatch an action with the type LOGIN_REQUEST instead of LOGIN (just a matter of taste, redux-pinky will dispatch LOGIN_REQUEST regardless).

Adding side-effects with event hooks

You might want to add side effects (like sending analytics events or navigate to different views) based on promise results. You can do it using the hooks of the meta object of the action.

Here are the available hooks and their associated payload:

• onStart, function called with the initial action payload value
• onFinish, function called with true if the promise resolved, false otherwise
• onSuccess, function called with the promise resolution value
• onFailure, function called with the promise error

The last parameter of all the above functions is the store state (at the hook call time).

Examples

Basic usage:

const initializeApp = () => ({
  type: 'INITIALIZE_APP',
  promise: yourAPI.initialize()
})

A simple way to dispatch a series of promises/async operations usinc async-await:

const initializeApp = () => ({
  type: 'INITIALIZE_APP',
  promise: (async () => {
    await yourAPI.initializeAPI()
    return yourAPI.login(email, password)
  })()
})

Send analytics when an user downloads a file:

const downloadFile = (fileId) => {
  return {
    type: 'DOWNLOAD_FILE',
    promise: yourAPI.downloadFile(fileId),
    meta: {
      onSuccess: (result, getState) => {
        const userId = getState().currentUser.id
        sendAnalytics('USER_DOWNLOADED_A_FILE', userId, fileId)
      }
    }
  }
}

Show an alert when the promise fails (React-Native):

const checkCredentials = (fileId) => {
  return {
    type: 'CHECK_CREDENTIALS',
    promise: yourAPI.checkCredentials(userId),
    meta: {
      onFailure: (error, getState) => {
        Alert.alert('Credentials check error', error.message)
      }
    }
  }
}