Best practice of Angular - javascript

I've just finished my Angular lessons and I already find out some differences between what I learn and the Angular official documentation.
Let's imagine I want to recover an user with ID of an API.
Here is how I would do it according to my lessons :
export class UserService {
constructor(
private httpClient: HttpClient
) {
}
public user: User; // local variable using User model
public userSubject: BehaviorSubject<User> = new BehaviorSubject<User>(null);
async getSingleUserFromServer() {
await this.httpClient.get<any>('https://xvalor.repliqa.fr/api/v1/user/' + this.userId).subscribe(
(response) => {
this.user = response;
this.userPortfolios = this.user.portfolioAssoc;
this.emitSubjects();
});
}
emitSubjects() {
this.userSubject.next(this.user);
}
}
and here is how angular doc procceed
getHeroes (): Observable<Hero[]> {
return this.http.get<Hero[]>(this.heroesUrl)
.pipe(
tap(_ => this.log('fetched heroes')),
catchError(this.handleError<Hero[]>('getHeroes', []))
);
}
I understand than both methods are quiet doing the same thing, I just want to be sure which one I should use, especially in big project developpement.

I would stick to the second approach as it is more generic and it uses Observable. Observale allow to emit any count of events and callback will be called for each event. Promise generates a single event after completion.
In addition, service class should not have async and await parts. The goal of service is to return data and UI component can consume data using async and await parts. async and await are syntactic sugar to avoid writing .subscribe part as it is really verbose. So write async and await in your UI components.
If you want to use Promise, then your service should not have subscribe part:
getSingleUserFromServer() {
return this.httpClient.get<any>('https://xvalor.repliqa.fr/api/v1/user/' + this.userId);
}
However, it is better to return Observables from your service.

Your first approach is flawed in that the consumer must perform two separate operations: call getSingleUserFromServer() to make the call, and subscribe to UserService.user to consume the results. And in case of errors, he won't receive any feedback.
Stick to the official guidelines for now. BTW, if your goal was to additionally store the user as a variable available to everyone, then with the Observable pattern it's as simple as adding another tap to the pipe:
httpClient.get(url)
.pipe(
someOperator(),
tap(user => this.user = user),
anotherOperator(...someArgs),
)

Observables and Subjects are two diffrent objects from rxjs and bring diffrent properties with them. The answers to this question show some of the key differences: What is the difference between a Observable and a Subject in rxjs?

Related

Returning a nested observable

Given this method:
public logIn(data:any): Observable<any> {
this.http.get('https://api.myapp.com/csrf-cookie').subscribe(() => {
return this.http.post('https://api.myapp.com/login', data);
});
}
I would like it to return that nested observable, so that my calling code can use it like so:
this.apiService.logIn(credentials).subscribe(() => {
// redirect user to their dashboard
});
without needing to know about the first /csrf-cookie request. Obviously the above doesn't work - but I'm struggling to understand how to make the inner HTTP request wait for the outer one to finish AND be returned by the method.
you should use switchMap see the documentation on switch map
public logIn(data:any): Observable<any> {
return this.http.get('https://api.myapp.com/csrf-cookie').pipe(
switchMap(x => this.http.post('https://api.myapp.com/login', data))
);
}
with rxjs nested subscribes are generally not a good idea. There are many great operators within the library that will get you around it. In this case above where one call depends on another switchMap(...) is the best fit.
Also the code has been modified to return the observable not the subscription

How do you handle the order of functions in Angular?

So I have an Angular component.
With some array objects containing data I want to work with:
books: Book[] = [];
reviews: Review[] = [];
This is what my ngOnInit() looks like:
ngOnInit(): void {
this.retrieveBooks();
this.retrieveReviews();
this.setRatingToTen();
}
With this I write Books, and Reviews to object arrays.
This is done through a "subscription" to data through services:
retrieveBooks(): void {
this.bookService.getAll()
.subscribe(
data => {
this.books = data;
},
error => {
console.log(error);
}
);
}
retrieveReviews(): void {
this.reviewService.getAll()
.subscribe(
data => {
this.reviews = data;
},
error => {
console.log(error);
});
}
So this next function I have is just an example of "working with the data".
In this example, I just want to change all of the totalratings to 10 for each Book:
setRatingToTen(): void {
this.books.forEach(element => {
element.totalrating = 10;
});
console.log(this.books);
}
The problem I have been trying to wrap my head around is this:
this.books is an empty array.
I THINK the reason is because this function is running before the data subscription.
IF this is the case, then my understanding of ngOnInit must not be right.
I thought it would call the function in order.
Maybe that's still the case, it's just that they don't complete in order.
So my questions are:
1. Why is it an empty array?
(was I right? or is there more to it?)
2. How do Angular developers write functions so they operate in a desired order?
(since the data needs to be there so I can work with it, how do I avoid this issue?)
(3.) BONUS question:
(if you have the time, please and thank you)
My goal is to pull this.reviews.rating for each book where this.reviews.title equals this.books.title, get an average score; and then overwrite the "0" placeholder of this.books.totalrating with the average. How could I re-write the setRatingToTen() function to accomplish this?
Here is one of solution using forkJoin method in rxjs .
you can check this for details https://medium.com/#swarnakishore/performing-multiple-http-requests-in-angular-4-5-with-forkjoin-74f3ac166d61
Working demo : enter link description here
ngOnInit:
ngOnInit(){
this.requestDataFromMultipleSources().subscribe(resList => {
this.books = resList[0];
this.reviews = resList[1];
this.setRatingToTen(this.books,this.reviews);
})
}
forkJoin method:
public requestDataFromMultipleSources(): Observable<any[]> {
let response1 = this.retrieveBooks();
let response2 = this.retrieveReviews();
// Observable.forkJoin (RxJS 5) changes to just forkJoin() in RxJS 6
return forkJoin([response1, response2]);
}
Other methods:
retrieveBooks(): void {
this.bookService.getAll()
.subscribe(
data => {
this.books = data;
},
error => {
console.log(error);
}
);
}
retrieveReviews(): void {
this.reviewService.getAll()
.subscribe(
data => {
this.reviews = data;
},
error => {
console.log(error);
});
}
setRatingToTen(books, reviews): void {
this.books.forEach(element => {
element.totalrating = 10;
});
console.log(this.books);
}
Angular makes heavy use of observables to handle variety of asynchronous operations. Making server side requests (through HTTP) is one of those.
Your first two questions clearly reflect you are ignoring the asynchronous nature of observables.
Observables are lazy Push collections of multiple values. detailed link
Means observable response would be pushed over time in an asynchronous way. You can not guarantee which of the two distinct functions would return its response first.
Having said that, rxjs library (Observables are also part of this library and angular borrowed them from here) provides a rich collection of operators that you can use to manipulate observables.
With the above explanation, here is one by one answer to your questions.
1. Why is it an empty array?
Because you are thinking in terms of synchronous sequential flow of code, where one method would get called only after the other has finished with its working. But here retrieveBooks and retrieveReviews both are making asynchronous (observable) calls and then subscribing to it. This means there is no guarantee when their response would be received. Meanwhile the hit to setRatingToTen had already been made, at that point in time books array was empty.
2. How do Angular developers write functions so they operate in a desired order?
Angular developer would understand the nature of asynchronous observable calls, and would pipe the operators in an order so that they are sure they have the response in hand before performing any further operation on the observable stream.
(3.) BONUS question:
Your requirement specifies that you must first have the response of both observables at hand before performing any action. For that forkJoin rxjs operator suits your need. Documentation for this operator say
One common use case for this is if you wish to issue multiple requests on page load (or some other event) and only want to take action when a response has been received for all. detailed link
Not sure about your average score strategy, but here is an example code how you would achieve your purpose.
ngOnInit(){
let req1$ = this.bookService.getAll();
let req2$ = this.reviewService.getAll();
forkJoin(req1$, req2$).subscribe(([response1, response2])=>{
for(let book of response1) //loop through book array first
{
for(let review of response2) //inner loop of reviews
{
if(book.title == review.title)
{
//complete your logic here..
}
}
}
});
}

How to return a mapped string from a Service that fetches values from an API with rjxs?

I have a service called MappingService in Angular 7. This service fetches a list of names from an API:
{
'guid1': 'Item 1',
'guid2': 'Item 2',
'guide': 'Item 3',
}
These values should later be mapped by their ids. Of course I could subscribe to items$ in a componentn and then do something like:
{{ mapping[id] }}
But I thought it would be nice, If I don't have to subscribe to that service or its list so I don't have to pass it around all the time, because the mapping is fixed once loaded and is needed by multiple components.
So I thought I add a method map to the service that does this:
gets an id
returns the corresponding string
Like:
{{ mappingSrervice.map(id) }}
But this is where I'm stuck:
import { Injectable } from '#angular/core';
import { HttpClient } from '#angular/common/http';
import { BehaviorSubject, Observable, of } from 'rxjs';
import { mergeMap, tap, catchError } from 'rxjs/operators';
#Injectable({
providedIn: 'root'
})
export class MappingService {
items$ = new BehaviorSubject<any>(null);
constructor(private http: HttpClient) { }
getAll(): Observable<any> {
return this.items$.pipe(mergeMap(items => {
if (items) {
return of(items);
} else {
return this.http.get<any>(
'http://api'
).pipe(
tap((response: any) => response),
catchError(error => {
return of([]);
})
);
}
}));
}
map(id: number): string {
return this.items$[id] || null;
}
}
How do I correctly implement map()? Should I run getAll() in the constructor? The problem is still of course that items$ will not be filled before getAll() is finished.
Can I get it to work like I thought? Is string the correct return type?
I wonder whether this approach is possible? Or do I need to return promises instead? But this would generate a new level of abstraction, making it not that much simpler instead of the naive approach (just subscribing to items$.
Let's first talk about caching. You already tried using a BehaviorSubject which is a very good idea. As always with async operations, there is a certain timespan when the data is not available because it is still loading.
This is not a problem and we can deal with this in our components.
There is no really cool way to do the request before the application loads (there are ways but I don't want to recommend any of them).
Talking about this, a BehaviorSubject is not the best choice, because we always need to initialize it with a value.
What is more suitable is the ReplaySubject: It keeps the last elements in its buffer and replays them to each new subscriber.
While all this is cool the way you did it, we can do easier: with the shareReplay() operator.
This makes a cold observable hot, which means: It converts the normal HTTP Observable, which does an HTTP request for each subscriber, to a shared Observable which does its task once and shares its values with all subscribers.
The code could look something like this:
export class MappingService {
items$ = this.getAll().pipe(shareReplay(1));
getAll(): Observable<any>() {
return this.http.get('http://api'); // also add catchError here as you already did
}
}
For the very first subscriber, getAll() will be called and the HTTP request will be performed. For all subsequent subscribers, the cached value will be used.
Note that you still need to subscribe to the items$ Observable, but it is not a problem or challenge to subscribe to Observables in components.
For the mapping I recommend using the RxJS map() operator.
You should provide a service method that takes an ID and returns an Observable with the result. It could look like this:
getItem(id: number): Observable<string> {
return this.items$.pipe(
map(items => items[id])
);
}
This way – using Observables everywhere – you also avoid race conditions through async operations. Each of your Observables will return data as soon as they have arrived.
Resolver may help you.
In summary, you want to delay rendering the routed component until all necessary data have been fetched.
If you return Observable or Promise in the resolve() method of your resolver, your component is not rendered until the Observable completes or the Promise is fulfilled.
In your component you can access the data provided by the resolver with route.snapshot.data.xxx.
The drawback of this approach is that it delays the rendering of your component.
Actually, I believe that it would be better to simply subscribe to items$ in this case.

Avoid callback hell with angular, HttpClient and Observables

I am currently struggling to wrap my head around angular (2+), the HttpClient and Observables.
I come from a promise async/await background, and what I would like to achieve in angular, is the equivalent of:
//(...) Some boilerplate to showcase how to avoid callback hell with promises and async/await
async function getDataFromRemoteServer() {
this.result = await httpGet(`/api/point/id`);
this.dependentKey = someComplexSyncTransformation(this.result);
this.dependentResult = await httpGet(`/api/point/id/dependent/keys/${this.dependentKey}`);
this.deeplyNestedResult = await httpGet(`/api/point/id/dependen/keys/${this.dependentResult.someValue}`);
}
The best I could come op with in angular is:
import { HttpClient } from `#angular/common/http`;
//(...) boilerplate to set component up.
constructor(private http: HttpClient) {}
// somewhere in a component.
getDataFromRemoteServer() {
this.http.get(`/api/point/id`).subscribe( result => {
this.result = result;
this.dependentKey = someComplexSyncTransformation(this.result);
this.http.get(`/api/point/id/dependent/keys/${this.dependentKey}`).subscribe( dependentResult => {
this.dependentResult = dependentResult;
this.http.get(`/api/point/id/dependen/keys/${this.dependentResult.someValue}`).subscribe( deeplyNestedResult => {
this.deeplyNestedResult = deeplyNestedResult;
});
})
});
}
//...
As you might have noticed, I am entering the Pyramid of Doom with this approach, which I would like to avoid.
So how could I write the angular snippet in a way as to avoid this?
Thx!
Ps: I am aware of the fact that you can call .toPromise on the result of the .get call.
But let's just assume I want to go the total Observable way, for now.
When working with observables, you won't call subscribe very often. Instead, you'll use the various operators to combine observables together, forming a pipeline of operations.
To take the output of one observable and turn it into another, the basic operator is map. This is similar to how you can .map an array to produce another array. For a simple example, here's doubling all the values of an observable:
const myObservable = of(1, 2, 3).pipe(
map(val => val * 2)
);
// myObservable is an observable which will emit 2, 4, 6
Mapping is also what you do to take an observable for one http request, and then make another http request. However, we will need one additional piece, so the following code is not quite right:
const myObservable = http.get('someUrl').pipe(
map(result => http.get('someOtherUrl?id=' + result.id)
)
The problem with this code is that it creates an observable that spits out other observables. A 2-dimensional observable if you like. We need to flatten this down so that we have an observable that spits out the results of the second http.get. There are a few different ways to do the flattening, depending on what order we want the results to be in if multiple observables are emitting multiple values. This is not much of an issue in your case since each of these http observables will only emit one item. But for reference, here are the options:
mergeMap will let all the observables run in whatever order, and outputs in whatever order the values arrive. This has its uses, but can also result in race conditions
switchMap will switch to the latest observable, and cancel old ones that may be in progress. This can eliminate race conditions and ensure you have only the latest data.
concatMap will finish the entirety of the first observable before moving on to the second. This can also eliminate race conditions, but won't cancel old work.
Like i said, it doesn't matter much in your case, but i'd recommend using switchMap. So my little example above would become:
const myObservable = http.get('someUrl').pipe(
switchMap(result => http.get('someOtherUrl?id=' + result.id)
)
Now here's how i can use those tools with your code. In this code example, i'm not saving all the this.result, this.dependentKey, etc:
getDataFromRemoteServer() {
return this.http.get(`/api/point/id`).pipe(
map(result => someComplexSyncTransformation(result)),
switchMap(dependentKey => this.http.get(`/api/point/id/dependent/keys/${dependentKey}`)),
switchMap(dependantResult => this.http.get(`/api/point/id/dependent/keys/${dependentResult.someValue}`)
});
}
// to be used like:
getDataFromRemoteServer()
.subscribe(deeplyNestedResult => {
// do whatever with deeplyNestedResult
});
If its important to you to save those values, then i'd recommend using the tap operator to highlight the fact that you're generating side effects. tap will run some code whenever the observable emits a value, but will not mess with the value:
getDataFromRemoteServer() {
return this.http.get(`/api/point/id`).pipe(
tap(result => this.result = result),
map(result => someComplexSyncTransformation(result)),
tap(dependentKey => this.dependentKey = dependentKey),
// ... etc
});
}

RxJs - (why) Does an Observable emit it's latest value on a new subsription?

Ok, this is a quick one, i'm kinda exhausted already and am confusing myself :D
I'm working with angular2 and RxJS Observables.
I have a service with a property "data", which is an Observable that get's set in the constructor, and a method to return this observable to subscribe to.
export class test{
private data: Observable<Object>
constructor(private http: Http){
this.data = this.http.get(url).map( res => res.json());
}
getData(): Observable<Object>{
return this.data
}
}
I have worked wit replaySubjects a while ago to always emit all values of the sequence to new subscribers. However, with the code above the Observable seems to emit it's latest value to new subscribers. Is this intended?
test(i: number) {
if (i > 0) {
setTimeout( () => {
this.dataService.getData().subscribe( (data) => {
this.debug.log(data);
this.test(i-1);
});
}, 2000);
}
}
test(4)
I get a value for every iteration. I am confused, 'cause a year ago when i wanted that behaviour, i got no new values when subscribing 'too late'.
Essentially, i just want to cache the result of the http.get, and deliver the same value to all subscribers, instead of making a new http request for every subscription (returning the http.get(url).. in getData())
I know this question is a bit old, but the answers seem to me quite confusing.
The Observable you return from the method getData() is just that, an Observable. So every time a consumer subscribes it gets the response. So it is working fine, but it is indeed making a new request every time.
In order to cache the result there are plenty of ways to do it depending on the behavior you want. To just cache a single request I would recommend t use the #publishBehavior operator:
export class test{
private data: Observable<Object>;
constructor(private http: Http){
this.data = this.http.get(url)
.map(res => res.json())
.publishBehavior([])
.refCount();
}
getData(): Observable<Object>{
return this.data;
}
}
The parameter passed to the publishBehavior is the initial value. With this two operators, the request will be made when the first subscriber arrived. Next subscribers will get the cached answer.
In others answers the use of Subjects has been suggested. The publishBehavior is using subjects under the hood. But to directly call next() it is consider bad practice unless there is no other remedy, and thats not the case for this scenario in my opinion. Even if you use Subjects directly, it will be wise to return an Observable to the Components by using the #asObservable() operator so the component won't have access to the next, error and complete methods.
No. You need to use Subject for this. It has a method next() to which you will send your newly arrived property so that it pushes it to the subscribers.
In addition to this, you should create a service that will be a singleton. Whenever your components instantiate it in a constructor, they will receive the object already formed with all the data. There will be no need to fetch the data every time.
Also, instead of instantiating your data in the constructor, implement OnInit and do the calls to the server from there.

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