React redux async data sync then re-render view - react-native

Question

I have a number of actions and reducers setup for different content types, e.g. pages, events and venues. These actions and reducers get data which has been saved to AsyncStorage, by another action called sync, and puts it into the store.
Sync performs an async call to Contentful and retrieves any new/updated/deleted entries, which I then save to AsyncStorage.
What is the best way to ensure the view correctly is re-rendered after the async call is finished?
Should syncReducer merge data into the store that would normally be pulled out by pagesReducer, venuesReducer etc or should there be some kind of event emitted after syncReducer is done?
Data is pulled in asynchronously for offline viewing and keeping things fast, so I really don't want to wait for the sync before rendering.
data/sync.js
import { AsyncStorage } from 'react-native';
import database from './database';
const cache = {
getByType: async (query) => {
return new Promise(async(resolve, reject) => {
// Get results from AsyncStorage
resolve(results);
});
},
sync: async () => {
return new Promise(async(resolve, reject) => {
database
.sync(options)
.then(async results => {
// Save results to AsyncStorage
resolve(results);
});
});
}
};
export default cache;
actions/sync.js
import actionTypes from '../constants/actionTypes';
import cache from '../data/cache';
export function sync() {
return dispatch => {
dispatch(syncRequestedAction());
return cache
.sync()
.then(() => {
dispatch(syncFulfilledAction());
})
.catch(error => {
console.log(error);
dispatch(syncRejectedAction());
});
};
}
function syncRequestedAction() {
return {
type: actionTypes.SyncRequested
};
}
function syncRejectedAction() {
return {
type: actionTypes.SyncRejected
};
}
function syncFulfilledAction(data) {
return {
type: actionTypes.SyncFulfilled,
data
};
}
actions/getPages.js
import actionTypes from '../constants/actionTypes';
import cache from '../data/cache';
export function getPages() {
return dispatch => {
dispatch(getPagesRequestedAction());
return cache
.getByType('page')
.then(results => {
dispatch(getPagesFulfilledAction(results));
})
.catch(error => {
console.log(error);
dispatch(getPagesRejectedAction());
});
};
}
function getPagesRequestedAction() {
return {
type: actionTypes.GetPagesRequested
};
}
function getPagesRejectedAction() {
return {
type: actionTypes.GetPagesRejected
};
}
function getPagesFulfilledAction(settings) {
return {
type: actionTypes.GetPagesFulfilled,
pages
};
}
reducers/pagesReducer.js
import { merge } from 'lodash';
import actionTypes from '../constants/actionTypes';
const pagesReducer = (state = {}, action) => {
switch (action.type) {
case actionTypes.GetPagesRequested: {
return merge({}, state, { loading: true });
}
case actionTypes.GetPagesRejected: {
return merge({}, state, { error: 'Error getting pages', loading: false });
}
case actionTypes.GetPagesFulfilled: {
const merged = merge({}, state, { error: false, loading: false });
return { ...merged, data: action.pages };
}
default:
return state;
}
};
export default pagesReducer;

Answer 1

In the end I was able to solve this by importing the other actions into my sync action, and dispatching depending on which data needs to be updated.
import { getEvents } from './getEvents';
import { getPages } from './getPages';
import { getVenues } from './getVenues';
export function sync() {
return dispatch => {
dispatch(syncRequestedAction());
return cache
.sync()
.then(results => {
dispatch(syncFulfilledAction());
if (results.includes('event')) {
dispatch(getEvents());
}
if (results.includes('page')) {
dispatch(getPages());
}
if (results.includes('venue')) {
dispatch(getSettings());
}
})
.catch(error => {
console.log(error);
dispatch(syncRejectedAction());
});
};
}

Answer 2

Your sync action should be a thunk function (redux middleware) that makes the call to Contentful, resolves the promise, and contains the data, or error. Then you can dispatch another action, or actions to reduce the data into the store.
On each component that you want to re-render (based on the data being updated in the store via the actions we just dispatched and reduced), if you have connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps) and have included those parts of the store in MSTP, those props will be updated which will re-render the components.
You can even be more explicit about the resolution of data if necessary by creating another action where you can dispatch and reduce to some part of your store the current state of the fetch.
So when you make the call, you could dispatch 'FETCH_IN_PROGRESS', then either 'FETCH_ERROR' or 'FETCH_SUCCESS' and if that was mapStateToProps into your component, you could choose to evaluate it in shouldComponentUpdate() and based on where in the process it is, you could either return true or false based on if you wanted to rerender. You could also force render in componentWillReceiveProps. I'd start with just relying on props changing and adding this if necessary.

Answer 3

You should use Redux Persist for this kind of thing, it supports AsyncStorage and a range of other options.
https://github.com/rt2zz/redux-persist
Actions and Reducers should be just designed to update the Redux store. Any other action is known as a side effect, and should be managed in a Middleware or Store Enhancer.
I would strongly advise against using Redux-Thunk it is way too powerful for the few things that it is useful for and very easy to create unmaintainable anti-patten code as it blurs the boundaries between actions and middleware code.
If you think you need to use Redux-Thunk first look to see if their is already a middleware that does what you need and if not learn about Redux-Sagas.