React useApi()

Axios-based React hooks for async HTTP request data. react-use-api feeds API data to React components when SSR (Server-Side Rendering), and caches the data to Front-End. react-use-api makes your code consistent between the two sides and also supports diverse UI states for your application.

TypeScript Support

Thread-safe SSR

Installation

❗Axios is a peer dependency (prerequisite) and it has to be installed

NPM

// NPM
$ npm i react-use-api axios
// or yarn
$ yarn add react-use-api axios

Usage

Setup With ApiProvider

import React from 'react'
import ReactDom from 'react-dom'
import useApi, { ApiProvider } from 'react-use-api'

import App from './App'

// This is optional from client side
const apiContext = {
  settings: {
    cache: new LRU<string, ReactUseApi.CacheData | any>(),
    axios: axios as AxiosStatic | AxiosInstance,
    maxRequests: 50, // max requests count when running ReactDom.renderToString in SSR
    useCacheData: true, // whether to use the cached api data come from server
    alwaysUseCache: false, // whether to use the cached api data always for each api call
    clearLastCacheWhenConfigChanges: true, // clear the last cache data with the last config when the config changes
    debug: false,
    clientCacheVar: '__USE_API_CACHE__', // the property name of window to save the cached api data come from server side
    isSSR: (...args: any[]): boolean | void => typeof window === 'undefined',
    renderSSR: (...args: any[]): string => '', // a callback to render SSR HTML string
    shouldUseApiCache: (
      config?: ReactUseApi.Config,
      cacheKey?: string
    ): boolean | void => true, // a callback to decide whether to use the cached api data
  },
}
ReactDom.render(
  <ApiProvider context={apiContext}>
    <App />
  </ApiProvider>,
  document.getElementById('root')
)

React Hooks

import React from 'react'
import useApi from 'react-use-api'

export const Main = () => {
  const [data, { loading, error }, request] = useApi({
    url: '/api/foo/bar',
  })

  return (
    <>
      {loading && <div>Loading...</div>}
      {error && <div>{error.response.data.errMsg}</div>}
      {data && (
        <>
          <div>Hello! {data.username}</div>
          <button onClick={request}>Reload</button>
        </>
      )}
    </>
  )
}

Parameters

Types

const [data, state, request] = useApi<D = ReactUseApi.Data>(
  config: string | ReactUseApi.SingleConfig | ReactUseApi.MultiConfigs,
  options?: ReactUseApi.Options | ReactUseApi.Options['handleData']
)

Code

const [data, state, request] = useApi(config, options)

// request the API data again, omit options.useCache=true
request(config?: ReactUseApi.Config, keepState = false)

With a custom TypeScript data type

interface IMyData {
  foo: string
  bar: string
}
const [data, state, request] = useApi<IMyData>(config, options)

Advanced Usages

Fetching API data forcibly

useApi calls API once only and retains data and state regardless of each time component rerendering unless the config changes. This act is same as invoking request().

import React, { useState } from 'react'
import useApi from 'react-use-api'

export const Page = () => {
  const [page, setPage] = useState(1)
  const [data, { loading }, request] = useApi({
    url: '/api/foo/bar',
    params: {
      page,
    },
  })
  return (
    <>
      <span>{data?.title ?? 'Hello'}</span>
      <button onClick={() => setPage(++page)}>Next</button>
    </>
  )
}

Cache mechanism

If your application works with SSR, useApi will use cached API data instead of calling API when rendering your application on client side for the first time.

On the other hand, options.useCache allows you to tag the API to be saved in cache and share it with the components using the same API.

import React from 'react'
import useApi from 'react-use-api'

const Card = (useCache) => {
  const [data, , request] = useApi('/api/foo/bar', { useCache })
  return (
    <>
      <>{data?.name}</>
      <button onClick={request}>Refresh</button> // call api, never use cache data
    </>
  )
}

// without cache and SSR
const Page = () => {
  return (
    <>
      <Card /> // call api
      <Card /> // call api
    </>
  )
}

// with useCache
const Page = () => {
  return (
    <>
      <Card useCache={true} /> // call api
      <Card useCache={true} /> // use cache data
      <Card /> // use cache data as well if cache exists
      <Card useCache={false} /> // call api and never use cache data
    </>
  )
}

options.useCache=false means never using cache data

Decision to use cache data globally

import React from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom'
import { ApiProvider, loadApiCache } from 'react-use-api'

import App from './components/App'

loadApiCache()

const apiContext = {
  settings: {
    shouldUseApiCache(config, cacheKey) {
      // return false to deny
      if (config.url == '/api/v1/doNotUseCache') {
        return false
      }
      return true // default to return true
    },
    alwaysUseCache: true, // set true to make ptions.useCache=true
  },
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <ApiProvider context={apiContext}>
    <App />
  </ApiProvider>,
  document.getElementById('root')
)

Manually cache data clearing

import React, { useContext } from 'react'
import { useApi, ApiContext } from 'react-use-api'

const App = (props) => {
  const apiContext = useContext(ApiContext)
  const { settings, clearCache } = apiContext
  clearCache()
}

Skipping useApi

import React from 'react'
import useApi from 'react-use-api'

const Page = (props) => {
  const [data] = useApi('/api/foo/bar', { skip: true }) // never call this API
  return <>{!data && 'No data'}</>
}

Pagination or infinite scrolling

import React, { useState, useMemo, useCallback } from 'react'
import useApi from 'react-use-api'

export const Main = () => {
  const [offset, setOffset] = useState(0)
  const limit = 10
  const options = useMemo(
    () => ({
      handleData,
      dependencies: {
        limit,
      },
    }),
    [limit]
  )
  // hasMore is a custom state here
  const [data, { loading, error, hasMore = true }, request] = useApi(
    getAPiList(),
    options
  )
  const loadMore = useCallback(() => {
    const nextOffset = offset + limit
    // fetch the data and keep the current state and prevData
    request(getAPiList(nextOffset, limit), true)
    setOffset(nextOffset)
  }, [offset])

  return (
    <>
      {loading && <div>Loading...</div>}
      {error && <div>{error.response.data.errMsg}</div>}
      {data && (
        <>
          {data.list.map(({ name }) => (
            <div key={name}>{name}</div>
          ))}
          {hasMore && <button onClick={loadMore}>Load More</button>}
        </>
      )}
    </>
  )
}

export const getAPiList = (offset, limit) => ({
  url: '/api/list',
  params: {
    offset,
    limit,
  },
})

// [IMPORTANT] Using any state setter in handleData is not allowed,
// it will cause the component re-rendering infinitely while SSR rendering.
export const handleData = (state) => {
  const { prevData = [], response, dependencies, error } = state
  if (!error) {
    const {
      data: { userList },
    } = response
    const { limit } = dependencies
    if (userList.length < limit) {
      // update hasMore
      state.hasMore = false
    }
    return [...prevData, ...userList]
  } else {
    // show an error message from the api
    console.log(error.response.data.msg)
  }
}

Config

The config can be an Axios Request Config or a URL string.

const [data, state] = useApi('/api/foo/bar')
// equals to
const [data, state] = useApi({
  url: '/api/foo/bar',
})

Options [Optional]

Name	Type	default	Description
handleData	Function(data: any, state: ReactUseApi.State)		A callback function to deal with the data of the API's response. IMPORTANT Using any state setter in handleData is dangerous, which will cause the component re-rendering infinitely while SSR rendering.
dependencies	Object		The additional needed data using in handleData. NOTE: "dependencies" is supposed to immutable due to React's rendering policy.
shouldRequest	Function	() => false	A callback to decide whether useApi re-fetches the API when only re-rendering. Returning true will trigger useApi to re-fetch. This option is helpful if you want to re-request an API when a route change occurs.
watch	any[]	[]	An array of values that the effect depends on, this is the same as the second argument of useEffect.
skip	Boolean	false	Sets true to skip API call.
useCache	Boolean	--	Sets true to use cached API data if cache exists (calling API and then saves it if there is no cache). Sets false to call API always. By default, useApi uses the cached data provided from SSR.

State

First State (before calling API)

The first state has only one property loading before calling API.

Name	Type	Default	Description
loading	boolean	false	To indicate whether calling api or not.
fromCache	boolean	false	To tell whether the data come from SSR API cache.

Full State (after calling API)

The is the full state data structure after the api has responded.

Name	Type	Default	Description
loading	boolean	false	To indicate whether calling api or not.
fromCache	boolean	false	To tell whether the data come from SSR API cache.
data	any	undefined	The processed data provided from options.handleData.
response	AxiosResponse	undefined	The Axios' response.
error	AxiosError	undefined	The Axios' error.
dependencies	Object	undefined	The additional needed data using in handleData. NOTE: "dependencies" is supposed to immutable due to React's rendering policy.
prevData	any	undefined	The previous data of the previous state.
prevState	ReactUseApi.State	undefined	The previous state.
[custom data]	any		You can add your own custom state data into the state by setting up in options.handleData. For example, state.foo = 'bar'. The data always be preserved whether re-rendering.

Request Function

A function allows requesting API data again. This function will trigger re-render.

Name	Type	Default	Description
config	ReactUseApi.Config	The config passed from useApi()	An axios' config object to fetch API data.
keepState	boolean	false	Set to true to maintain current state data, which facilitates combining previous data with current data, such as table list data.
revalidate	boolean	false	Set to true to fetch API without using cache data.

Server Side Rendering (SSR)

The biggest advantage of react-use-api is to make your code consistent for both client and server sides. Unlike using Next.js or Redux, these require you to fetch API data by yourself before feeding it to the React component. react-use-api does the chores for you and saves all your API data as cache for client side.

react-use-api guarantees that the SSR for each HTTP request is thread-safe as long as passing the api context with SSR settings to ApiProvider.

Please be aware that no lifecycle methods will be invoked when SSR.

SSR and injecting cached api data

// server/render.js (based on Express framework)
import React from 'react'
import ReactDomServer from 'react-dom/server';
import { StaticRouter } from 'react-router-dom'
import { ApiProvider, injectSSRHtml } from 'react-use-api'

import App from '../../src/App'

export const render = async (req, axios) => {
  const { url } = req
  const apiContext = {
    // configure your global options or SSR settings
    settings: {
      axios, // to set your custom axios instance
      isSSR: () => true, // we are 100% sure here is SSR mode
    },
  }
  const routerContext = {}
  const renderSSR = () =>
    ReactDomServer.renderToString(
      <ApiProvider context={apiContext}>
        <StaticRouter location={url} context={routerContext}>
          <App />
        </StaticRouter>
      </ApiProvider>
    )
  const html = await injectSSRHtml(apiContext, renderSSR)
  return html
}

The cache data has been inserted into your SSR HTML string as well.

The cache data will be cleaned up after calling loadApiCache() by default

<script>
  window.__USE_API_CACHE__ = '[{ ... }]' // the cache data
</script>

SSR Settings of apiContext (ReactUseApi.CustomSettings)

Each property is optional

Name	Type	Default	Description
cache	LRU<String, ReactUseApi.CacheData | any>	new LRU()	The cache instance based on lru-cache
axios	AxiosStatic | AxiosInstance	axios	axios instance (http client)
maxRequests	number	100	The maximum of API requests when SSR
useCacheData	boolean	true	Set true to inject JS cache data into html when calling injectSSRHtml()
alwaysUseCache	boolean	false	Set true to use cache data always (equivalent to options.useCache = true)
clearLastCacheWhenConfigChanges	boolean	true	This is default behavior that the cached data will be removed once the url config of useApi has been changed. Set false to remain the cached data
debug	boolean	true	Set true to get debug message from console
clientCacheVar	string	'USE_API_CACHE'	The JS variable name of cache data
renderSSR	Function	() => ''	A callback to render SSR string for injectSSRHtml()
isSSR	Function	() => typeof window === 'undefined'	A function to determine if the current environment is server
shouldUseApiCache	Function	(config?: ReactUseApi.Config, cacheKey?: string): boolean	Returns true to enable useApi to get the API data from API cache, which is loaded by loadApiCache. Default is true

Arguments of injectSSRHtml

injectSSRHtml(
  context: ReactUseApi.CustomContext,
  renderSSR?: () => string,
  postProcess?: (ssrHtml: string, apiCacheScript: string) => string, // a callback for after rendering SSR HTML string
): string

SSR - Load cached API data

Please don't forget to invoke loadApiCache() to load the cached API data come from your server side. useApi will use the cache data instead of calling API when rendering your application for the first time.

// src/index.jsx
import React from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom'
import { ApiProvider, loadApiCache } from 'react-use-api'

import App from './components/App'

const rootElement = document.getElementById('root')
const method = rootElement.hasChildNodes() ? 'hydrate' : 'render'

loadApiCache()

ReactDOM[method](
  <ApiProvider>
    <App />
  </ApiProvider>,
  rootElement
)

TypeScript Support

All the associated types are provided by the namespace ReactUseApi as long as importing react-use-api.

NOTE, this only works if you set up compilerOptions.typeRoots: ["node_modules/@types"] in your tsconfig.json.

Support TypeScript v2.9+ only

License

MIT

Icons made by Eucalyp from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC 3.0 BY.