Redux library to simplify and reduce redux code.

Advantages

• Simple react style setState and getState functions for redux state management.
• 100% compatibility with your current react-redux code base.
• Automatic generation of mapStateToProps so that you do not have to write any.
• Automatic generation of mapDispatchToProps so that you do not have to write any.
• Automatic generation of the reducer so that you do not have to write any.
• Reduced code size and code complexity as compared to react-redux.
• Each reducer contains only one compare at each redux state transition which puts a small burden on performance.
• Ability to handle a react component's life cycle events in a simple way in the model code separate from the react UI.
• Complete separation of the UI from the business code according to a MVC standard.
• Simple implementations for shared state management and shared business code without requiring additional reducers.
• Thunk middleware is not required. Asynchronous UI calls are handled in the same way as synchronous UI calls.

Installation

npm install simpler-redux

Migration from react-redux to simpler-redux

1. Install the simpler-redux libraty. npm i simpler-redux
2. Where you call the redux createStore, add the following where reduxStore is returned from the redux function createStore.

// It is assumed that this file is configureStore.js
import { registerSimplerRedux } from 'simpler-redux'

export const simplerReduxStore = registerSimplerRedux(reduxStore)

3. In your react-redux Provider, replace the redux store with the simplerReduxStore as shown below.

import React from 'react'
import { Provider } from 'react-redux'
import simplerReduxStore from './configureStore'
import App from './App'

export default () =>
  <Provider store={simplerReduxStore}>
    <App />
  </Provider>

4. Copy the simpler-redux MVC component scaffolding located here. It contains comments to guide your react component development.

Basics

registerSimplerRedux

Description registerSimplerRedux(reduxStore[, rootReducersObject[, preloadedState[, options]]]) - Wrap this around your redux createStore call. It returns an enhanced reduxStore object with the redux store as its prototype. Parameters reduxStore - The redux store that is returned by createStore. rootReducersObject - If you want to use dynamic reducer loading, specify this object parameter. Note that this is not the combineReducers object but the actual reducers object. If this is a new project, it is recommended that you use dynamic reducer loading exclusively. Then specifify this as the empty object {} and simpler-redux will automatically build your reducer and also load it when the component is constructed. Therefore, simpler-redux automatically supports react loadables without any code rewrites. preloadedState- If you specify the rootReducersObject and have state to preload then you must specify it in this parameter.

Return Value A simpler redux store. Add this as a store prop to the react-redux Provider element.

createStore

Description createStore([preloadedState[, enhancer]]]) - createStore calls redux createStore and supplies an interal reducer function, preloadedState and enhancers such as a redux logger. This solves the redux performance problem with calling every reducer on every state change. Only one reducer manages the entire redux state and does not require any case statements to merge state with the redux reducer key state(s). So, state changes only require one reducer call. However, this is incompatible with redux reducer code. Hence, only use this for simpler-redux only projects. Parameters preloadedState- redux preloadedState state. enhancer - redux enhancer.

Return Value A simpler redux store. Add this as a store prop to the react-redux Provider element.

setRState

Description simplerReduxStore.setRState(reducerKey, objectToMerge, [type]) - Merge the objectToMerge at the redux state object reduxState[reducerKey]. Parameters

• reducerKey - Redux reducer key name. All state transitions will occur at reduxState[reducerKey].
• objectToMerge - This object will be merged at reduxState[reducerKey].
• type - Optional string name to identify the state change. This is the same thing as the action constant. It defaults to the reducerKey.

Return Value None

getRState

Description simplerReduxStore.getRState(reducerKey) - Returns the state at reduxState[reducerKey]. Parameters reducerKeyName - Redux reducer key name. Return Value The state at reduxState[reducerKey].

addListener

Description simplerReduxStore.addListener(listener) - Adds a listener that will be called immediately after any simpler-redux state change. Parameters function(reducerKey, objMerged, type){} - The function that will be called after the state change. Return Value Returns a function to remove the listener from simpler-redux.

generalReducer

Description generalReducer(reducerKey, initialState) - Returns a reducer function that manages the redux state transitions at reduxState[reducerKey]. Add this and the reducerKeyName to your root reducer object. Parameters

• reducerKey - Redux reducer key name. All state transitions will occur at reduxState[reducerKey].
• initialState - This object will be merged at reduxState[reducerKey] for the initial state.

Return Value A reducer function that manages the state transitions at reducerKey.

connectWithStore

Description Applies the redux connect function and returns a react HOC with the simpler-redux store in the props as props.store. This connects your UI component with your business code selectors and serviceFunctions.

connectWithStore({
    uiComponent,
    mapStateToProps,
    mapDispatchToProps,
    selectors,
    serviceFunctions,
    mergeProps,
    reduxOptions,
    storeIsDefinedCallback,
    noStoreParameterOnServiceFunctions,
    reducerKey,
    initialUIState,
    isDynamicReducer
})

Object Parameters

• uiComponent - The react component that will be wrapped such that service functions and slices of state will be in the props.
• mapStateToProps - You can write your own mapStateToProps but it is recommended that you use the selecters instead. Then a mapStateToProps will be automatically generated, based on the selectors object, and supplied to the redux connect function.
• mapDispatchToProps - You can write your own mapDispatchToProps but it is recommended that you use the serviceFunctions instead. Then a mapDispatchToProps will be automatically generated, based on the serviceFunctions object, and supplied to the redux connect function.
• selectors - The selectors is an object of functions that returns slices of the state at the reducerKey. It is used to build a mapStateToProps function for the redux connect. Below is an example.

// All keys in selectors will be in the props of the react component.
// Each entry is a function that takes the entire redux state as a parameter
// and then returns a slice of the state[reducerKey].
export const selectors = {
  counter: state => state[reducerKey].counter
}

• serviceFunctions - The serviceFunctions is an object of functions that cause state changes at the reducerKey. It is used to build a mapDispatchToProps function for the redux connect. You can also handle business code here for react lifecycle events. So for code that is non-DOM oriented, the following keys are supported and the associated functions will be called at the particular react life cycle event.

  onConstructor,
  onRender,
  componentDidMount,
  componentWillUnmount,
  componentDidCatch,
  componentToRender,

Below is an example.

// All keys in serviceFunctions will be in the props of the react component.
// Each entry is a function that takes the simpler-redux store as a parameter
// and then performs state transitions by using store.setRState.
// The functions may be synchronous or asynchronous and thunking middleware
// is not required.
export const serviceFunctions = {
  // Below is an example of an synchronous call.
  increment: store => store.setRState(reducerKey, { counter: store.getRState(reducerKey).counter + 1 }, 'increment'),
  // Below is an example of an asynchronous call.
  asyncCall: store => {
    store.setRState(reducerKey, { isBusy: true })
    someAsyncCall(
      data => store.setRState(reducerKey, { isBusy: false, data })
    )
  },
  // Below handles the componentDidMount react life cycle event.
  componentDidMount: store => handleLoadData(store)
}

• mergeProps - Redux connect mergeProps parameter.
• reduxOptions - Redux connect options parameter.
• storeIsDefinedCallback - Once the module's react component render is called for the first time, this callback will be invoked with the simpler redux store and the stateAccessors function as parameters. So it will be called before any possible user interactions.
• noStoreParameterOnServiceFunctions - Used in conjunction with storeIsDefinedCallback. This will cause simpler-redux to not add the store parameter when calling the service functions. This should not be used for shared modules.
• reducerKey - Used only in conjunction with initialUIState. When both of these are specified simpler-redux will build the mapStateToProps function directly from the keys in initialUIState.
• initialUIState - Used only in conjunction with reducerKey. When both of these are specified simpler-redux will build the mapStateToProps function directly from the keys in initialUIState. This can be only used when your react component props only needs state from the declarative state definition initialUIState. Do not specify this and selectors. If this is not specified and initialState is then initialUIState will default to initialState.
• initialState - Used only in conjunction with reducerKey. When both of these are specified simpler-redux will build the reducer that manages the state at reducerKey. If this is not specified and initialUIStateis then initialState will default to initialUIState.
• isDynamicReducer - Supports dynamic loading of the component and the reducer. If you specify the rootReducersObject parameter of your registerSimplerRedux call then simpler-redux automatically assumes isDynamicReducer is true. Set this to false if you want to manually load your reducer in the global reducers object for a specific react component.
• selectorList - An array of {selectors, keylist[list of selector keys]}. This allows combining selectors from different modules into one in order to build a mapStateToProps that includes key/values from other reducers keys including the component reducer selectors. If you specify keylist then you can include only a subset of the selectors indtead of all of them. Below is an example.

import { selectors as counterSelectors } from './Counter'

export const selectorList = [
  {counterSelectors, ['counter']}
]

• serviceFunctionList - An array of {serviceFunctions, keylist[list of serviceFunctions keys], withStore}. This allows combining serviceFunctions from different modules into one in order to build a mapDispatchToProps that includes key/values from other module serviceFunctions. The keylist allows you to select only a subset of the associated service functions. The withStore set to true will cause the store to be the first parameter for all the service functions when called with the UI parameters following after. Below is an example.

import { serviceFunctions as counterServiceFunctions } from './Counter'

export const serviceFunctionList = [
  {counterServiceFunctions, ['increment']}
]

Return Value None

stateAccessors

Description stateAccessors(store, reducerKey[, initialState]) - Returns a setState, getState and reducerState in an object that provides easier state management without having to provide a store or reducerKey. If you pass in initialState then it will also return reducerState which is a proxy to the reducerKey state. For getting state, reducerState.key is equivalent to getState().key. For setting state, reducerState.key = 1 is equivalent to setState({key: 1}). It is really just syntactic sugar for the getState and setState functions. The funciton stateAccessors should only be called as below in the storeIsDefinedCallback described above. Make sure to supply storeIsDefinedCallback to connectLifeCycleComponentWithStore or connectWithStore.

let setState, getState, reducerState
export const storeIsDefinedCallback = (store, stateAccessors) =>
  ({setState, getState, reducerState} = stateAccessors(store, reducerKey, initialState))

// Below are examples of using the functions.
let counter = getState().counter
setState({isBusy: true})
reducerState.counter++
counter = reducerState.counter
reducerState.counter = 10

buildSelectorsFromUIState

Description buildSelectorsFromUIState(reducerKey, uiInitialState) - Builds a selectors object from uiInitialState and returns that object. Parameters

• reducerKey - Redux reducer key name.
• uiInitialState - uiInitialState should only contain keys that you want in the props of the react component.

Return Value A UI selectors object.

Similarity to react's component state management

• State transition
  • React - this.setState(objToMerge). React does not guarantee that the state changes are applied immediately.
  • simpler-redux - simplerReduxStore.setRState(reducerKey, objToMerge, [type]). This is an immediate command.
• Get state
  • React - let x = this.state.x
  • simpler-redux - let x = simplerReduxStore.getRState(reducerKey)

Shared state management support

With shared state management, you can write one module that performs state management and then any simpler-redux MVC module code can simply include the functionality into the initialState, selectors and serviceFunctions by using an import of the shared modules functions and writing just three lines of code.

makeSharedModuleKeyName

Description makeSharedModuleKeyName(key, options) - In order to avoid state and prop key collisions, this function returns the concatenation of the key followed by options.id. Parameters

• key - The key that is used by the shared module as either a state key or service function key.
• options - An object with a key suffix at the id key in the object. For example, options.key ='AsyncModule'.

Return Value The return value is the concatenation of the key followed by options.id.

createModuleData

Description createModuleData(store, reducerKey[, initialState]) - Creates redux module data to replace typical module data. This way, you can manage and track changes to your module data through redux logging software.

Return Value Returns a setState, getState and reducerState in an object.

Sample usage of simpler-redux

The model code is located at `src/Counter/model.js. This code manages the state for the reducerKey. It also is responsible for performing asynchronous operations and managing the state through those transactions. So, the model code contains the state management and the business logic.

export const reducerKey = 'counter.1'
const counterKey = 'counter'

const initialState = {
  [counterKey]: 0
}
// Selectors always take in the entire redux state object.
// So, state[reducerKey] is the state object at the reducerKey.
// simpler-redux constructs a mapStateToProps from this object and
// calls redux connect using the constructed mapStateToProps.
// The keys below will be in the props of the react component.
export const selectors = {
  [counterKey]: state =>
    state[reducerKey][counterKey]
}
// serviceFunctions always takes the simpler-redux enhanced redux store as the first parameter.
// Other parameters supplied by the react component come after.
// simpler-redux constructs a mapDispatchToProps from this object and
// calls redux connect using the constructed mapDispatchToProps.
// The keys below will be in the props of the react conponent and
// whenever the UI call the function in the props like say increment, 
// the increment function below will called with the store as a parameter
// and the UI parameters follow after that.
export const serviceFunctions = {
  increment: store =>
    store.setRState(reducerKey, { [counterKey]: store.getRState(reducerKey)[counterKey] + 1 }, 'increment')
}

The View code is located at src/Counter/view.js. It should only display information received in the props and call functions supplied by the props. This code is responsible for display only. Any functional behavior should be supplied by the model to the controller and then into the props of the view where is is simply called by the view.

import React from 'react'

export default ({counter, increment}) =>
  <div>
    <div>Counter: {counter}</div>
    <button onClick={increment}>Increment</button>
  </div>

The controller code is located at src/Counter/index.js. This is generally the same for all controllers so it is basically a copy and paste.

import { connectWithStore, generalReducer } from 'simpler-redux'
import uiComponent from './view/view'
import * as modelDefinition from './model/model'

// Use connectLifeCycleComponentWithStore to handle react life cycle events in the serviceFunctions object in the model code.
export default connectWithStore({ uiComponent, ...modelDefinition })
export const reducerKey = modelDefinition.reducerKey
export const reducer = generalReducer(reducerKey, modelDefinition.initialState)
// Simpler-redux builds the reducer for you. Add reducerKey and reducer to your global reducer object. 

Note that the above controller code does not contain any intelligence. Its purpose is simply to connect the model code to the view code without knowing anything about the details of either's implementions. Therefore, this technique removes any side effects of changing the model code or underlying state. Also, this code can be copy and pasted for any component because it does the same thing for most simpler-redux component modules. The src/Counter/index.js code exports features of the simpler-redux MVC module to the outside.

The reducer code located at src/reducers.js.

import { reducerKey as counterReducerKey, reducer as counterReducer } from './Counter'

export default {
  [counterReducerKey]: counterReducer
}

The redux store code is located at src/reduxstore.js.

import reducersObject from './reducers'
import { createStore, combineReducers } from 'redux'
import { registerSimplerRedux } from 'simpler-redux'

export default registerSimplerRedux(createStore(combineReducers(reducersObject)))

Last, below is the App code located at src/App.jsx.

import React from 'react'
import { Provider } from 'react-redux'
import store from './reduxstore'
import Counter from './Counter'

export default () =>
  <Provider store={store}>
    <Counter />
  </Provider>

Sample usage of simpler-redux shared state management code

Shared module

Below is the style of code that would be written for shared state management. The state keys and service function keys all will have an input module id appended to the end of the keys. This prevents key collisions in the props of react components and keys in the reducer key state.

import { makeSharedModuleKeyName } from 'simpler-redux'
const counterKey = 'counter'
const incrementKey = 'increment'

const makeCounterKey = options =>
  makeSharedModuleKeyName(counterKey, options)

// The key below is 'counter' + options.id. This way the consumer of the
// shared module can make the keys what they want to avoid key collisions.
export const getInitialState = options => ({
  [makeCounterKey(options)]: 0
})

// The key below is 'counter' + options.id
export const getSelectors = (reducerKey, options) => {
  return {
    [makeCounterKey(options)]: state => state[reducerKey][makeCounterKey(options)]
  }
}

// All shared module serviceFunction functions have the following signature.
export const getServiceFunctions = (reducerKey, options) => {
  return {
    [makeSharedModuleKeyName(incrementKey, options)]: store => {
      // Change the state at 'counter' + options.id 
      store.setRState(
        reducerKey,
        { [makeCounterKey(options)]: store.getRState(reducerKey)[makeCounterKey(options)] + 1 }
      )
    }
  }
}

Consumer module

Next is the code that consumes the above shared module.

import { generalReducer } from 'simpler-redux'
import {
  getServiceFunctions as sharedCounterGetServiceFunctions,
  getSelectors as sharedCounterGetSelectors,
  getInitialState as sharedCounterInitialState
} from '../SharedModel/Counter'

export const reducerKey = 'counter.1'
const asyncModuleId = 'CounterModule'
const baseOptions = { id: asyncModuleId }

const initialState = {
  ...sharedCounterInitialState(baseOptions)
}

export const selectors = {
  ...sharedCounterGetSelectors(reducerKey, baseOptions)
}

export const serviceFunctions = {
  ...sharedCounterGetServiceFunctions(reducerKey, baseOptions)
}

export const reducer = generalReducer(reducerKey, initialState)

Here are the advantages of the above implementation.

1. No additional reducers are required which would degrade performance.
2. The consumer does not participate in the state management.
3. Your organization can collect this sharable state management code into libraries so that you do not have to repeat yourself in various projects.
4. The sharable code and the consumer code share the same paradigm (initialState, selectors, serviceFunctions). Therefore, the code is easy to understand.
5. This technique is simpler and easier to maintain as compared to the shared state management of redux.

So with simpler-redux state management you only need to think about three simple concepts:

1. initialState to initialize the state at the reducer key.
2. selectors to get slices of the current state at the reducer key.
3. serviceFunctions to state transition slices of the current state at the reducer key or call asynchronous functions.

Note that simpler-redux also converts react-redux into an MVC implementation for the react UI. As most will know, MVC is the correct way to implement user interface code. In the simpler-redux case, MVC is as follows.

1. The view is the stateless react component.
2. The model is the state management and service function code.
3. The controller is responsible for providing the connections between the view and model.