Clean Fetch

Simple, Unopinionated, Just Working - React Data Fetching Library

Installation

npm i clean-fetch

Usage

Hook Usage

import useFetch from 'clean-fetch'

• Signature: useFetch<T>(fetchfn, getInitial).

• fetchFn: () => Promise<T> | T: a function that returns the data or a promise which resolves to the data.

• getInitial?: () => T | undefined: an optional function that returns the initial data. If not provided, the initial data is undefined. getInitial() can return undefined, getInitial can be absent, or it can throw an error.

• Returns {data, error, reload} where:

  • If data and error are both undefined, it means the data is loading or not yet fetched (initial render). They are never both not undefined.
  • reload: a function that takes no argument, reloads the data and returns what the function passed to the hook returns. The reload function reference never changes, you can safely pass it to the independent array of useEffect without causing additional renders. In subsequent renders, reload uses the latest function passed to the hook.

• useFetch: only fetches data in the first return, only if initial data is not provided. If you want to refetch the data, you need to manually call reload().

const {data, error, reload} = useFetch(() => fetchData(params))
// when params changes, you need to manually call reload()
useEffect(() => void reload(), [params, reload]) // `reload` value never changes

Note

• useFetch<T>() has a generic type T which is the type of the data returned by the function passed to the hook.
• When calling reload(), error and data are immediately/synchronously set to undefined (via setState) and the data is refetched.
• If you want to keep the last data while refetching, for example, to keep the last page of a paginated list until the new page is fetched, you can create a custom hook that retains the last data while fetching the new data.

// only update when value is not undefined
export const useKeep = <T>(value: T): T => {
	const ref = useRef(value)
	if (value !== undefined) ref.current = value
	return value ?? ref.current
}

This useKeep hook is available in misc-hooks package.

• If you want to delay showing the loading indicator, you should implement that function in caller component.

export const useTimedOut = (timeout: number) => {
	const [timedOut, enable] = useReducer(() => true, false)
	useEffect(() => {
		let cancelled = false
		const timer = setTimeout(() => !cancelled && enable(), timeout)
		return () => {
			cancelled = true
			clearTimeout(timer)
		}
	}, [enable, timeout])
	return timedOut
}

const {data, error, reload} = useFetch(() => fetchData(params))
const timedOut = useTimedOut(500)
return error // has error
	? <ErrorPage/>
	: data // has data
		? <Data data={data}/>
		: timedOut // loading
			? <Loading/>
			: null

This useTimedOut hook is available in misc-hooks package.

• For now, both data and Error's types are defined. We will improve the type definition in the future.