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https://github.com/vigetlabs/microcosm
Flux with actions at center stage. Write optimistic updates, cancel requests, and track changes with ease.
https://github.com/vigetlabs/microcosm
flux react
Last synced: 4 days ago
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Flux with actions at center stage. Write optimistic updates, cancel requests, and track changes with ease.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/vigetlabs/microcosm
- Owner: vigetlabs
- License: mit
- Created: 2015-03-14T05:33:11.000Z (almost 10 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2024-11-21T16:25:48.000Z (about 1 month ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-12-10T17:05:06.788Z (11 days ago)
- Topics: flux, react
- Language: JavaScript
- Homepage: http://code.viget.com/microcosm/
- Size: 7.84 MB
- Stars: 487
- Watchers: 48
- Forks: 22
- Open Issues: 28
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
- awesome-starred-test - vigetlabs/microcosm - Flux with actions at center stage. Write optimistic updates, cancel requests, and track changes with ease. (JavaScript)
README
# [](http://code.viget.com/microcosm/)
[](https://circleci.com/gh/vigetlabs/microcosm)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/microcosm)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/microcosm)
Microcosm is a state management tool for [React](https://github.com/facebook/react) (and similar libraries). Keep track of user actions, cancel requests, and perform optimistic updates with ease.
## Heads up
**As of July 2019, Microcosm is no longer in active development.** We will continue to maintain it for existing clients, and would be happy to accept contributions to continue support in the future.
It's been a great journey, thanks for taking it with us.
## What you get
- A central place to track all application data
- [Schedule work with actions](./docs/api/actions.md)
- Actions understand Promises out of the box and move through predefined states.
- Keep loading states out of the data layer. Track action progress using [status callbacks](./docs/api/actions.md#ondonecallback-scope).
- [Split up application state in large apps](./docs/api/microcosm.md#fork) while still sharing common data
- [Painless optimistic updates](./docs/recipes/ajax.md)
- Track changes and handle business logic with [Presenter components](./docs/api/presenter.md)
- 5.5kb gzipped (~18kb minified)
## At a glance
```javascript
import Microcosm, { get, set } from 'microcosm'
import axios from 'axios'
let repo = new Microcosm()
function getUser (id) {
// This will return a promise. Microcosm automatically handles promises.
// See http://code.viget.com/microcosm/api/actions.html
return axios(`/users/${id}`)
}
// Domains define how a Microcosm should turn actions into new state
repo.addDomain('users', {
getInitialState () {
return {}
},
addUser (users, record) {
// The set helper non-destructively assigns keys to an object
return set(users, record.id, record)
},
register () {
return {
[getUser]: {
done: this.addUser
}
}
}
})
// Push an action, a request to perform some kind of work
let action = repo.push(getUser, 2)
action.onDone(function () {
let user = get(repo.state, ['users', '2'])
console.log(user) // { id: 2, name: "Bob" }
})
// You could also handle errors in a domain's register method
// by hooking into `getUser.error`
action.onError(function () {
alert("Something went terribly wrong!")
})
```
## Why?
Other [Flux](https://facebook.github.io/flux/) implementations treat actions as static events; the result of calling a dispatch method or resolving some sort of data structure like a Promise.
But what if a user gets tired of waiting for a file to upload, or switches pages before a GET request finishes? What if they dip into a subway tunnel and lose connectivity? They might want to retry a request, cancel it, or just see what’s happening.
The burden of this state often falls on data stores (Domains, in Microcosm) or a home-grown solution for tracking outstanding requests and binding them to related action data. Presentation layer requirements leak into the data layer, making it harder to write tests, reuse code, and accommodate unexpected changes.
### How Microcosm is different
Microcosm actions are first-class citizens. An action can move from an `open` to `error` state if a request fails. Requests that are aborted may move into a `cancelled` state. As they change, actions resolve within a greater history of every other action.
This means that applications can make a lot of assumptions about user actions:
- Actions resolve in a consistent, predictable order
- Action types are automatically generated
- Actions maintain the same public API, no matter what asynchronous pattern is utilized (or not)
This reduces a lot of boilerplate, however it also makes it easier for the presentation layer to handle use-case specific display requirements, like displaying an error, performing an optimistic update, or tracking file upload progress.
## Get started
```
npm install --save microcosm
```
Check out our [quickstart guide](http://code.viget.com/microcosm/guides/quickstart.html).
## Documentation
Comprehensive documentation can be found in the [docs section of this repo](docs).
## Overview
Microcosm is an evolution of [Flux](https://facebook.github.io/flux/)
that makes it easy to manage complicated async workflows and unique
data modeling requirements of complicated UIs.
### Actions take center stage
Microcosm organizes itself around a history of user actions. As those actions move through a set lifecycle,
Microcosm reconciles them in the order they were created.
Invoking `push()` appends to that history, and returns an `Action` object to represent it:
```javascript
// axios is an AJAX library
// https://github.com/mzabriskie/axios
import axios from 'axios'
function getPlanet (id) {
// axios returns a Promise, handled out of the box
return axios(`/planets/${id}`)
}
let action = repo.push(getPlanet, 'venus')
action.onDone(function (planet) {
console.log(planet.id) // venus
})
```
### Domains: Stateless Stores
A Domain is a collection of side-effect free operations for manipulating data. As actions update, Microcosm
uses domains to determine how state should change. Old state comes in, new state comes out:
```javascript
const PlanetsDomain = {
getInitialState () {
return []
},
addPlanet (planets, record) {
return planets.concat(record)
},
register() {
return {
[getPlanet]: this.addPlanet
}
}
}
repo.addDomain('planets', PlanetsDomain)
```
By implementing a register method, domains can subscribe to actions. Each action
is assigned a unique string identifier. **Action type constants are generated automatically**.
### Pending, failed, and cancelled requests
Microcosm makes it easy to handle pending, loading, cancelled,
completed, and failed requests:
```javascript
const PlanetsDomain = {
// ...handlers
register() {
return {
[getPlanet] : {
open : this.setPending,
update : this.setProgress,
done : this.addPlanet,
error : this.setError,
cancel : this.setCancelled
}
}
}
}
```
`open`, `loading`, `done`, `error` and `cancelled` are action
states. In our action creator, we can unlock a deeper level of control
by returning a function:
```javascript
import request from 'superagent'
function getPlanet (id) {
return function (action) {
action.open(id)
let request = request('/planets/' + id)
request.end(function (error, response) {
if (error) {
action.reject(error)
} else {
action.resolve(response.body)
}
})
// Cancellation!
action.onCancel(request.abort)
}
}
```
First, the action becomes `open`. This state is useful when waiting
for something to happen, such as loading. When the request finishes,
if it fails, we reject the action, otherwise we resolve it.
**Microcosm actions are cancellable**. Invoking `action.cancel()` triggers a
cancellation event:
```javascript
let action = repo.push(getPlanet, 'Pluto')
// Wait, Pluto isn't a planet!
action.cancel()
```
When `action.cancel()` is called, the action will move into a
`cancelled` state. If a domain doesn't handle a given state no data
operation will occur.
Visit [the API documentation for actions](./docs/api/actions.md) to
read more.
### A historical account of everything that has happened
Whenever an action creator is pushed into a Microcosm, it creates an
action to represent it. This gets placed into a tree of all actions
that have occurred.
For performance, completed actions are archived and purged from
memory, however passing the `maxHistory` option into Microcosm allows
for a compelling debugging story, For example, [the time-travelling
Microcosm debugger](https://github.com/vigetlabs/microcosm-debugger):
```javascript
let forever = new Microcosm({ maxHistory: Infinity })
```
Taken from [the Chatbot example](https://github.com/vigetlabs/microcosm/tree/master/examples/chatbot).
#### Optimistic updates
**Microcosm will never clean up an action that precedes incomplete
work** When an action moves from `open` to `done`, or `cancelled`, the
historical account of actions rolls back to the last state, rolling
forward with the new action states. This makes optimistic updates simpler
because action states are self cleaning:
```javascript
import { send } from 'actions/chat'
const Messages = {
getInitialState () {
return []
},
setPending(messages, item) {
return messages.concat({ ...item, pending: true })
},
setError(messages, item) {
return messages.concat({ ...item, error: true })
},
addMessage(messages, item) {
return messages.concat(item)
}
register () {
return {
[send]: {
open: this.setPending,
error: this.setError,
done: this.addMessage
}
}
}
}
```
In this example, as chat messages are sent, we optimistically update
state with the pending message. At this point, the action is in an
`open` state. The request has not finished.
On completion, when the action moves into `error` or `done`, Microcosm
recalculates state starting from the point _prior_ to the `open` state
update. The message stops being in a loading state because, as far as
Microcosm is now concerned, _it never occured_.
### Forks: Global state, local concerns
Global state management reduces the complexity of change propagation
tremendously. However it can make application features such as
pagination, sorting, and filtering cumbersome.
How do we maintain the current page we are on while keeping in sync
with the total pool of known records?
To accommodate this use case, there is `Microcosm::fork`:
```javascript
const UsersDomain = {
getInitialState() {
return []
},
addUsers(users, next) {
return users.concat(next)
},
register() {
return {
[getUsers]: this.addUsers
}
}
})
const PaginatedUsersDomain {
getInitialState() {
return []
},
addUsers(users, next) {
let page = next.map(user => user.id)
// Reduce the user list down to only what was included
// in the current request
return users.filter(user => page.contains(user.id))
},
register() {
return {
[getUsers]: this.addUsers
}
}
})
let roster = new Microcosm()
let pagination = parent.fork()
roster.addDomain('users', UsersDomain)
pagination.addDomain('users', PaginatedUsersDomain)
// Forks share the same history, so you could also do
// `pagination.push(getUsers, ...)`
roster.push(getUsers, { page: 1 }) // 10 users
roster.push(getUsers, { page: 2 }) // 10 users
// when it finishes...
console.log(roster.state.users.length) // 20
console.log(pagination.state.users.length) // 10
```
`fork` returns a new Microcosm, however it shares the same action
history. Additionally, it inherits state updates from its
parent. In this example, we've added special version of the `roster`
repo that only keeps track of the current page.
As `getUsers()` is called, the `roster` will add the new users to the
total pool of records. Forks dispatch sequentially, so the child
`pagination` repo is able to filter the data set down to only what it
needs.
### Networks of Microcosms with Presenters
Fork is an important component of
the [`Presenter` addon](./docs/api/presenter.md). Presenter is a
special React component that can build a view model around a given
Microcosm state, sending it to child "passive view" components.
All Microcosms sent into a Presenter are forked, granting them a sandbox
for data operations specific to a particular part of an application:
```javascript
class PaginatedUsers extends Presenter {
setup (repo, { page }) {
repo.add('users', PaginatedUsersDomain)
repo.push(getUsers, page)
}
getModel () {
return {
page: state => state.users
}
}
render () {
const { page } = this.model
return
}
}
const repo = new Microcosm()
repo.addDomain('users', UsersDomain)
ReactDOM.render(, el)
```
## Inspiration
- [Worlds](http://www.vpri.org/pdf/rn2008001_worlds.pdf)
- [Om](https://github.com/omcljs/om)
- [Elm Language](https://elm-lang.org)
- [Flummox](https://github.com/acdlite/flummox)
- [But the world is mutable](http://www.lispcast.com/the-world-is-mutable)
- [Event Sourcing Pattern](http://martinfowler.com/eaaDev/EventSourcing.html)
- [Apache Kafka](http://kafka.apache.org/)
- [LMAX Architecture](http://martinfowler.com/articles/lmax.html)
- [Redux](https://github.com/reactjs/redux) (Provider/Connect and thunks)
- [Retroactive Data Structures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactive_data_structures)
---
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