How to structure redux store for server response - javascript

This question might be considered to be "opinion-based", but I am just looking for inspiration here, so here it goes:
In my app I request data from a server. This data is not a list or anything, it is basically just a bunch of key-value-pairs, which should then be displayed to the user. A similar used case is described here Should I store search result in redux store?
Now the question ist: How do I store this data in the redux-store. Does it get its own reducer? Or do I store it in some kind of AppState-Store which itself is key-value-based?
I have searched through several blogs, but they only describe the typical use-case of a "ToDo-List", which does not apply in my case. At the end I would only have one Reducer-Case "SET_NEW_RESULTS_FROM_SERVER", which somewhat feels iffy.

You should model the entire request lifecycle:
REQUEST_RESULTS_FROM_SERVER
REQUEST_RESULTS_FROM_SERVER_SUCCESS
REQUEST_RESULTS_FROM_SERVER_FAILURE.
Why? Loading indicator, error messages displayed to the user, and other reasons.
The store is initialized with something like null (so your view can render before anything has been fetched) and when the response contains valid data, you save it there ("a bunch of key values pairs" sounds like a plain object to me).
Your data does not necessarily need its own reducer. Depends on your application of course, which we don't know.
Also, when you're fetching data via ajax in redux the reducer typically needs to keep track of:
The result, your payload in the response
Any error message in case of REQUEST_RESULTS_FROM_SERVER_FAILURE
Wether or not the request in still in progress - so your view can adapt accordingly
Example:
{
result: null,
error: null,
isLoading: false
}

Related

Making really simple app including front & backend skills (js, node.js, psql, react...)

I'm trying to make a simple todo app in order to understand how frontend and backend are connected. I read some of the websites showing a tutorial for using and connecting rest API, express server, and database, but still, I was not able to get the fake data from a database. Anyway, I wanted to check if my understanding of how they are connected and talk to each other is correct or not. So could you give some advice please?
First of all, I'm planning to use either Javascript & HTML or React for frontend, Express for server, and Postgres for the database. My plan is a user can add & delete his or her task. I have already created a server in my index.js file and created a database using psql command. Now if I type "" it takes me to the page saying "Hello" (I made this endpoint), and I'm failing to seed my data to the database. Here are my questions↓
After I was able to seed my fake data into the database, how should I get the data from the database and send to the frontend? I think in my index.js file, create a new endpoint something like "app.get("/api/todo", (res, req) => ..." and inside of the callback function, I should write something like "select * from [table name]". Also, form the front end, I should probably access certain endpoints using fetch. Is this correct?
Also, how can I store data which is sent from the frontend? For example, if I type my new todo to <input> field and click the add <button>, what is the sequence of events looks like? Adding event listener to button and connect to the server, then create post method in the server and insert data, kind of (?) <= sorry this part it's super unclear for me.
Displaying task on the frontend is also unclear for me. If I use an object like {task: clean up my room, finished: false (or 0 ?)} in the front end, it makes sense but, when I start using the database, I'm confused about how to display items that are not completed yet. In order to display each task, I won't use GET method to get the data from the database, right?
Also, do I need to use knex to solve this type of problem? (or better to have knex and why?)
I think my problem is I kind of know what frontend, server, database for, but not clear how they are connected with each other...
I also drew some diagrams as well, so I hope it helps you to understand my vague questions...
how should I get the data from the database and send to the frontend?
I think in my index.js file, create a new endpoint something like
"app.get("/api/todo", (res, req) => ..." and inside of the callback
function, I should write something like "select * from [table name]".
Typically you use a controller -> service -> repository pattern:
The controller is a thin layer, it's basically the callback method you refer to. It just takes parameters from the request, and forwards the request to the service in the form of a method call (i.e. expose some methods on the service and call those methods). It takes the response from the service layer and returns it to the client. If the service layer throws custom exceptions, you also handle them here, and send an appropriate response to the client (error status code, custom message).
The service takes the request and forwards it to the repository. In this layer, you can perform any custom business logic (by delegating to other isolated services). Also, this layers will take care of throwing custom exceptions, e.g. when an item was not found in the database (throw new NotFoundException)
The repository layer connects to the database. This is where you put the custom db logic (queries like you mention), eg when using a library like https://node-postgres.com/. You don't put any other logic here, the repo is just a connector to the db.
Also, form the front end, I should probably access certain endpoints
using fetch. Is this correct?
Yes.
Also, how can I store data which is sent from the frontend? For
example, if I type my new todo to field and click the add , what is
the sequence of events looks like? Adding event listener to button and
connect to the server, then create post method in the server and
insert data, kind of (?) <= sorry this part it's super unclear for me.
You have a few options:
Form submit
Ajax request, serialize the data in the form manually and send a POST request through ajax. Since you're considering a client library like React, I suggest using this approach.
Displaying task on the frontend is also unclear for me. If I use an
object like {task: clean up my room, finished: false (or 0 ?)} in the
front end, it makes sense but, when I start using the database, I'm
confused about how to display items that are not completed yet. In
order to display each task, I won't use GET method to get the data
from the database, right?
If you want to use REST, it typically implies that you're not using backend MVC / server rendering. As you mentioned React, you're opting for keeping client state and syncing with the server over REST.
What it means is that you keep all state in the frontend (in memory / localstorage) and just sync with the server. Typically what is applied is what is referred to as optimistic rendering; i.e. you just manage state in the frontend as if the server didn't exist; yet when the server fails (you see this in the ajax response), you can show an error in the UI, and rollback state.
Alternatively you can use spinners that wait until the server sync is complete. It makes for less interesting user perceived performance, but is just as valid technical wise.
Also, do I need to use knex to solve this type of problem? (or better
to have knex and why?) I think my problem is I kind of know what
frontend, server, database for, but not clear how they are connected
with each other...
Doesn't really matter what you use. Personally I would go with the stack:
Node Express (REST), but could be Koa, Restify...
React / Redux client side
For the backend repo layer you can use Knex if you want to, I have used node-postgres which worked well for me.
Additional info:
I would encourage you to take a look at the following, if you're doubtful how to write the REST endpoints: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgrP6r-cFUQ
After I was able to seed my fake data into the database, how should I get the data from the database and send to the frontend? I think in my index.js file, create a new endpoint something like "app.get("/api/todo", (res, req) => ..." and inside of the callback function, I should write something like "select * from [table name]". Also, form the front end, I should probably access certain endpoints using fetch. Is this correct?
You are right here, you need to create an endpoint in your server, which will be responsible for getting data from Database. This same endpoint has to be consumed by your Frontend application, in case you are planning to use ReactJS. As soon as your app loads, you need to get the current userID and make a fetch call to the above-created endpoint and fetch the list of todos/any data for that matter pertaining to the concerned user.
Also, how can I store data which is sent from the frontend? For example, if I type my new todo to field and click the add , what is the sequence of events looks like? Adding event listener to button and connect to the server, then create post method in the server and insert data, kind of (?) <= sorry this part it's super unclear for me.
Okay, so far, you have connected your frontend to your backend, started the application, user is present and you have fetched the list of todos, if any available for that particular user.
Now coming to adding new todo the most minimal flow would look something like this,
User types the data in a form and submits the form
There is a form submit handler which will take the form data
Check for validation for the form data
Call the POST endpoint with payload as the form data
This Post endpoint will be responsible for saving the form data to DB
If an existing todo is being modified, then this should be handled using a PATCH request (Updating the state, if task is completed or not)
The next and possibly the last thing would be to delete the task, you can have a DELETE endpoint to remove the todo item from the list of todos
Displaying task on the frontend is also unclear for me. If I use an object like {task: clean up my room, finished: false (or 0 ?)} in the front end, it makes sense but, when I start using the database, I'm confused about how to display items that are not completed yet. In order to display each task, I won't use GET method to get the data from the database, right?
Okay, so as soon as you load the frontend for the first time, you will make a GET call to the server and fetch the list of TODOS. Store this somewhere in the application, probably redux store or just the application local state.
Going by what you have suggested already,
{task: 'some task name', finished: false, id: '123'}
Now anytime there has to be any kind of interaction with any of the TODO item, either PATCH or DELETE, you would use the id for each TODO and call the respective endpoint.
Also, do I need to use knex to solve this type of problem? (or better to have knex and why?) I think my problem is I kind of know what frontend, server, database for, but not clear how they are connected with each other...
In a nutshell or in the most minimal sense, think of Frontend as the presentation layer and backend and DB as the application layer.
the overall game is of sending some kind of request and receiving some response for those sent requests. Frontend is what enables any end-user to create these so-called requests, the backend (server & database) is where these requests are processed and response is sent back to the presentational layer for the end user to be notified.
These explanations are very minimal to make sure you get the gist of it. Since this question almost revolves around the entire scope of web development. I would suggest you read a few articles about both these layers and how they connect with each other.
You should also spend some time understanding what is RESTful API. That should be a great help.

React routing and persistence on page refresh

I am using React with react-router and Reflux as my datastore, but I am unsure on how to best deal with persistence to allow page refresh.
My components connect to the store with Reflux.connect, but since the store fetches the data from a backend, it is not available yet when the Components first initialize and render.
When the user enters my app from the start, then all this data is loaded in order and available when it needs to be, but if further down a route you trigger a page refresh, react tries to render components that rely on data that is not there yet.
I solved this by constantly keeping a copy of data in LocalStorage and serving that from the Reflux store getInitialState(), so that all components get the data before they render.
I wonder if this is the proper way to do it. When for some reason the local storage data gets cleared or corrupted, the interface goes blank, because the components cannot access the correct data. Substructures and properties don't exist and trigger javascript errors. It seems like a messy and unreliable solution.
I am curious to know what patterns are used to solve this.
------ edit -----
To answer to the comment of WiredPrairie:
1) Why are you initializing components with data in getInitialState?
When my components use Reflux.connect, they don't have the data in their state yet on the first render as the store still needs to fetch its data. My views currently don't work gracefully with undefined data. By returning the locally stored cache from the Reflux store in getInitialState(), all connected components will get that data before their first render call.
2) What's causing a page refresh and why can't the data be loaded in the same manner as it was the first time?
It's mainly a workaround I had to build around livereload refreshing the page when I make edits (will look into using react-hotloader later but is not an options yet), but users can also just hit refresh when they are somewhere in my nested views and that would have the same effect. When they manually refresh, they are not entering the app at the start.
3) When components are wired to the change events of a store, why don't they update then?
They do update, but like I said they don't deal with empty data right now and on first render they will miss it waiting for the store to fetch things. I can make all my views work gracefully with empty data, but that would add a lot of boilerplate code.
From the replies so far, I get the feeling that what I'm doing with localStorage is the common way to do it. Cache stuff locally in localStorage or sessionStorage or something similar, and serve that data immediately after a refresh.
I should make my views a bit more robust by gracefully handing empty data on the odd occasion that localStorage doesn't work properly.
I've been caching each Store in sessionStorage when its emitChange() fires, and initializing the store from sessionStorage if cached data exists, or null values otherwise. This seems to work provided that the views can handle null values, which is probably a good idea anyway (it sounds like this is your main problem).
I'd suggest making your views handle the case of no data gracefully, initialize everything with null values if the cache isn't available, and then call the backend to update the null values with an Action whenever the data returns.
I haven't tried Reflux, but in regular Flux it would look like this (maybe you can apply the same principle):
var _data;
if (sessionStorage.PostStore)
_data = JSON.parse(sessionStorage.PostStore);
else {
_data = {
posts: null
};
BackendAPI.getPosts(function(err, posts) {
if (posts) {
PostActions.setPosts(posts);
}
});
}
...
AppDispatcher.register(function(payload) {
var action = payload.action;
switch (action.actionType) {
...
case Constants.SET_POSTS:
_data.posts= action.data.posts;
break;
default:
return true
}
// Update cache because state changed
sessionStorage.PostStore = JSON.stringify(_data);
PostStore.emitChange();
return true;
});

Fetch current user through store.find('users', 'me') stores invalid User instance

I am trying this solution to fetch the current user before my application is rendered to the user:
Em.Route.extend({
model: function() {
var currentUserPromise = this.store.find('user', 'me');
return Em.RSVP.all([
currentUserPromise
]);
}
});
So, I query the user with the ID me, which is a constant that my API recognizes as the currently authenticated user.
It works really well most of the way. The issue is that Ember-Data immediately creates a User model in the store with this ID constant me and no other attributes. This instance is not removed after the response has arrived and Ember-Data correctly stores the real User model.
I can't figure out where Ember-Data creates this temporary instance and if there is a way to prevent this behavior.
Either a solution to prevent Ember-Data from creating the temp. instance or remove it when the real data arrives will be fine.
Anyone with a solution?
After consulting with #emberjs I found that a much cleaner solution to this challenge is to request the active user by requesting a session object from my API.
By exposing a /sessions endpoint in my API I could expose the current session—which can also include auth token, etc.—with a relationship to the currently logged in profile. That resulted in a JSON payload like this:
{
"sessions": [
{
"id": 1,
"user": { ... },
"accessToken": "abcdef1234567890"
}
]
}
This means that I will no longer have the issue that Ember-Data caches a bogus User object with the id 'me', instead I will now have a session object where the active user is correctly loaded into the store and have it available through the session.
I think you are going about things the wrong way. You're in a single page application, which means the user can log out or log in at any time, and any rendering is essentially already happening before and after that. You can only control what you allow to render, but not the when.
Also, you are explicitly returning a set of promises which resolves when the single promise it contains is resolved. This achieves the same:
Em.Route.extend({
model: function() {
return this.store.find('user', 'me');
}
});
You don't know when that will resolve, but you're asking to "fetch the user before the app is rendered to the user". That's not how it works in Ember, as you can't really delay rendering. (Technically you can, but that offers terrible user experience giving the feeling the browser has locked up).
What you would want to do instead is to modify what you are rendering based on the state of the logged in user, and on the backend side you only ever send what that user is allowed to see. Anything else is insecure, as you can't ever trust the browser. It's pretty trivial to make an Ember app think you are logged in.
The issue is that Ember-Data immediately creates a User model in the store with this ID constant me and no other attributes.
I'm not sure about that one; I'm guessing ember-data creates a placeholder while it waits for the population of the real data (if ever). It is as if you're creating a new empty object in code.
I can't figure out where Ember-Data creates this temporary instance
Ember-data is in its core basically a cache (why it is called the store) with various adapters to read from and write to that cache and an API to use it. In your example me is created in the cache only, at least until you decide to save it.
Ember data modifies the same record instead of creating a new record after the materialization. There might be some other problem while finding the records for table. For example In ember data 1.0.0-beta.8 the the following code logs correct id rather than printing 'me'.
this.store.find('user', 'me').then(function(user) {
console.log(user.get('id'));
});

Ways to save Backbone.js model data?

I am more into front end development and have recently started exploring Backbone.js into my app. I want to persist the model data to the server.
Could you please explain me the various way to save the Model data (using json format). I am using Java on server side. Also I have mainly seen REST being used to save data. As i am more into front end dev, i am not aware of REST and other similar stuff.
It would be great if someone could please explain me the process with some simple example.
Basically Models have a property called attributes which are the various values a certain model may have. Backbone uses JSON objects as a simple way to populate these values using various methods that take JSON objects. Example:
Donuts = Backbone.Model.extend({
defaults: {
flavor: 'Boston Cream', // Some string
price: '0.50' // Dollars
}
});
To populate the model there are a few ways to do so. For example, you can set up your model instance by passing in a JSON OR use method called set() which takes a JSON object of attributes.
myDonut = new Donut({'flavor':'lemon', 'price':'0.75'});
mySecondHelping = new Donut();
mySecondHelping.set({'flavor':'plain', 'price':'0.25'});
console.log(myDonut.toJSON());
// {'flavor':'lemon', 'price':'0.75'}
console.log(mySecondHelping.toJSON());
// {'flavor':'plain', 'price':'0.25'}
So this brings us up to saving models and persisting them either to a server. There is a whole slew of details regarding "What is REST/RESTful?" And it is kind of difficult to explain all this in a short blurb here. Specifically with regard to REST and Backbone saving, the thing to wrap your head around is the semantics of HTTP requests and what you are doing with your data.
You're probably used to two kinds of HTTP requests. GET and POST. In a RESTful environment, these verbs have special meaning for specific uses that Backbone assumes. When you want to get a certain resource from the server, (e.g. donut model I saved last time, a blog entry, an computer specification) and that resource exists, you do a GET request. Conversely, when you want to create a new resource you use POST.
Before I got into Backbone, I've never even touched the following two HTTP request methods. PUT and DELETE. These two verbs also have specific meaning to Backbone. When you want to update a resource, (e.g. Change the flavor of lemon donut to limon donut, etc.) you use a PUT request. When you want to delete that model from the server all together, you use a DELETE request.
These basics are very important because with your RESTful app, you probably will have a URI designation that will do the appropriate task based on the kind of request verb you use. For example:
// The URI pattern
http://localhost:8888/donut/:id
// My URI call
http://localhost:8888/donut/17
If I make a GET to that URI, it would get donut model with an ID of 17. The :id depends on how you are saving it server side. This could just be the ID of your donut resource in your database table.
If I make a PUT to that URI with new data, I'd be updating it, saving over it. And if I DELETE to that URI, then it would purge it from my system.
With POST, since you haven't created a resource yet it won't have an established resource ID. Maybe the URI target I want to create resources is simply this:
http://localhost:8888/donut
No ID fragment in the URI. All of these URI designs are up to you and how you think about your resources. But with regard to RESTful design, my understanding is that you want to keep the verbs of your actions to your HTTP request and the resources as nouns which make URIs easy to read and human friendly.
Are you still with me? :-)
So let's get back to thinking about Backbone. Backbone is wonderful because it does a lot of work for you. To save our donut and secondHelping, we simply do this:
myDonut.save();
mySecondHelping.save();
Backbone is smart. If you just created a donut resource, it won't have an ID from the server. It has something called a cID which is what Backbone uses internally but since it doesn't have an official ID it knows that it should create a new resource and it sends a POST request. If you got your model from the server, it will probably have an ID if all was right. In this case, when you save() Backbone assumes you want to update the server and it will send a PUT. To get a specific resource, you'd use the Backbone method .fetch() and it sends a GET request. When you call .destroy() on a model it will send the DELETE.
In the previous examples, I never explicitly told Backbone where the URI is. Let's do that in the next example.
thirdHelping = Backbone.Model.extend({
url: 'donut'
});
thirdHelping.set({id:15}); // Set the id attribute of model to 15
thirdHelping.fetch(); // Backbone assumes this model exists on server as ID 15
Backbone will GET the thirdHelping at http://localhost:8888/donut/15 It will simply add /donut stem to your site root.
If you're STILL with me, good. I think. Unless you're confused. But we'll trudge on anyway. The second part of this is the SERVER side. We've talked about different verbs of HTTP and the semantic meanings behind those verbs. Meanings that you, Backbone, AND your server must share.
Your server needs to understand the difference between a GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE request. As you saw in the examples above, GET, PUT, and DELETE could all point to the same URI http://localhost:8888/donut/07 Unless your server can differentiate between these HTTP requests, it will be very confused as to what to do with that resource.
This is when you start thinking about your RESTful server end code. Some people like Ruby, some people like .net, I like PHP. Particularly I like SLIM PHP micro-framework. SLIM PHP is a micro-framework that has a very elegant and simple tool set for dealing with RESTful activities. You can define routes (URIs) like in the examples above and depending on whether the call is GET, POST, PUT, or DELETE it will execute the right code. There are other solutions similar to SLIM like Recess, Tonic. I believe bigger frameworks like Cake and CodeIgniter also do similar things although I like minimal. Did I say I like Slim? ;-)
This is what excerpt code on the server might look (i.e. specifically regarding the routes.)
$app->get('/donut/:id', function($id) use ($app) {
// get donut model with id of $id from database.
$donut = ...
// Looks something like this maybe:
// $donut = array('id'=>7, 'flavor'=>'chocolate', 'price'=>'1.00')
$response = $app->response();
$response['Content-Type'] = 'application/json';
$response->body(json_encode($donut));
});
Here it's important to note that Backbone expects a JSON object. Always have your server designate the content-type as 'application/json' and encode it in json format if you can. Then when Backbone receives the JSON object it knows how to populate the model that requested it.
With SLIM PHP, the routes operate pretty similarly to the above.
$app->post('/donut', function() use ($app) {
// Code to create new donut
// Returns a full donut resource with ID
});
$app->put('/donut/:id', function($id) use ($app) {
// Code to update donut with id, $id
$response = $app->response();
$response->status(200); // OK!
// But you can send back other status like 400 which can trigger an error callback.
});
$app->delete('/donut/:id', function($id) use ($app) {
// Code to delete donut with id, $id
// Bye bye resource
});
So you've almost made the full round trip! Go get a soda. I like Diet Mountain Dew. Get one for me too.
Once your server processes a request, does something with the database and resource, prepares a response (whether it be a simple http status number or full JSON resource), then the data comes back to Backbone for final processing.
With your save(), fetch(), etc. methods - you can add optional callbacks on success and error. Here is an example of how I set up this particular cake:
Cake = Backbone.Model.extend({
defaults: {
type: 'plain',
nuts: false
},
url: 'cake'
});
myCake = new Cake();
myCake.toJSON() // Shows us that it is a plain cake without nuts
myCake.save({type:'coconut', nuts:true}, {
wait:true,
success:function(model, response) {
console.log('Successfully saved!');
},
error: function(model, error) {
console.log(model.toJSON());
console.log('error.responseText');
}
});
// ASSUME my server is set up to respond with a status(403)
// ASSUME my server responds with string payload saying 'we don't like nuts'
There are a couple different things about this example that. You'll see that for my cake, instead of set() ing the attributes before save, I simply passed in the new attributes to my save call. Backbone is pretty ninja at taking JSON data all over the place and handling it like a champ. So I want to save my cake with coconuts and nuts. (Is that 2 nuts?) Anyway, I passed in two objects to my save. The attributes JSON object AND some options. The first, {wait:true} means don't update my client side model until the server side trip is successful. The success call back will occur when the server successfully returns a response. However, since this example results in an error (a status other than 200 will indicate to Backbone to use the error callback) we get a representation of the model without the changes. It should still be plain and without nuts. We also have access to the error object that the server sent back. We sent back a string but it could be JSON error object with more properties. This is located in the error.responseText attribute. Yeah, 'we don't like nuts.'
Congratulations. You've made your first pretty full round trip from setting up a model, saving it server side, and back. I hope that this answer epic gives you an IDEA of how this all comes together. There are of course, lots of details that I'm cruising past but the basic ideas of Backbone save, RESTful verbs, Server-side actions, Response are here. Keep going through the Backbone documentation (which is super easy to read compared to other docs) but just keep in mind that this takes time to wrap your head around. The more you keep at it the more fluent you'll be. I learn something new with Backbone every day and it gets really fun as you start making leaps and see your fluency in this framework growing. :-)
EDIT: Resources that may be useful:
Other Similar Answers on SO:
How to generate model IDs with Backbone
On REST:
http://rest.elkstein.org/
http://www.infoq.com/articles/rest-introduction
http://www.recessframework.org/page/towards-restful-php-5-basic-tips

How to avoid too many ajax calls and cache json data on the client side

I have a calendar application and it loads all of the event data using ajax and json results. the issue is that i have different view and right now i have to re call the server when i change views.
Is there any recommendation for ways i can cache this data on the client side and check if i have loaded these events already before firing off more ajax calls.
What is the best practice for this ?
Like hvgotcodes said, an MVC framework would help; try backbone.js (http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/), for instance.
Alternatively, you might want to consider using jStorage (http://www.jstorage.info/). Every time you need to make an AJAX call, check first if it's in your storage object, then run the AJAX call if it isn't. On the other end, whenever you finish an AJAX call, store the results in the storage object. Make sure you have some kind of index (a CalendarEvent id) to reference when looking it up in the data store. Might want to add some kind of "expire time" to the data in your storage, too ... a timestamp after the AJAX call, and re-request up front if it's out of date.
It's called MVC.
You need to construct a data model for you application, write some sort of Record objects, and then you can determine their status. So your application would have some sort of CalendarEvent model, and when you load data from the server, you would instantiate instances.
So when changing views, you would first check to see if you had the model object for that view, and if you did, you wouldn't need to load it from the server (unless you want to check for changes).
Your scheme doesn't need to be that complicated. If you load events by Id, you can do something like
window.App = {};
window.App.Models = {};
when you load a record you could put
window.App.Models[id] = InstanceOfYourRecord
and that way its pretty fast to look for records. Or just use a framework (like Sproutcore) that has a robust data layer.
I had similar issues on a recent project.
Conceptually, I have the "real" data model (DM) kept on the server, persisted to a database.
To make life sane, the client keeps its own local data model. Outside of the client DM, all the client code thinks it's pulling results locally.
When reading data (GET) from the client DM it:
checks the cache for existing results
invokes appropriate AJAX queries when cached data is not available, then caches the results.
When changing data (POST) via the client DM it:
invalidates the cache as appropriate
invokes appropriate AJAX queries
emits custom jQuery event indicating client DM changed
Note that this client DM also:
centralizes AJAX error handling
tracks AJAX calls still in-flight. (Lets us warn users when leaving pages with unsaved changes).
allows a drop-in, dummy replacement for unit testing, where all the calls hit local data and are completely synchronous.
Implementation notes:
I coded this as a JavaScript class called DataModel. As the design becomes more complex, it makes sense to further break-down the responsibilities in to separate objects.
jQuery's custom events let you easily implement the observer pattern. Client components update themselves from the client DM whenever it indicates data has changed.
JSON in your remote API helps simplify the code. My client DM stores the JSON results directly in its cache.
The client dm function arguments include call-backs so everything can naturally be passed along via AJAX when needed: function listAll( contactId, cb ) { ... }
My project only allowed single user logins. If outside parties can change the server datamodel, some sort of has-data-changed probe should be fired regularly to ensure the client cache is still valid.
For my app, multiple client components would request the same data when receiving a client DM changed event. This resulted in multiple AJAX calls with the same info. I fixed this problem with a getJsonOnce() helper, which manages a queue of client component call-backs awaiting the same result.
Example function in my implementation:
listAll:
function( contactId, cb ) {
// pull from cache
if ( contactId in this.notesCache ) {
cb( this.notesCache[contactId] );
return;
}
// init queue if needed
this.listAllQueue[contactId] = this.listAllQueue[contactId] || [];
// pull from server
var self = this;
dataModelHelpers.getJsonOnce(
'/teafile/api/notes.php',
{'req': 'listAll', 'contact': contactId},
function(resp) { self.notesCache[contactId] = resp; },
this.listAllQueue[contactId],
cb
);
}
The getJsonOnce() helper makes sure that if multiple client components request the exact same (uncached) data, that we only send out a single AJAX request and inform everyone once it comes in.
The notesCache is just a simple javascript object:
this.notesCache = {};

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