effects-as-data

Effects as Data

Installation

npm i --save effects-as-data

Try It

You can run the code below using this command. You can see the code here.

npm install
npm run demo

Usage

Action Creators

First, create some action creators:

const httpGet = (url) => {
  return {
    type: 'httpGet',
    url
  }
}

const log = (message) => {
  return {
    type: 'log',
    message
  }
}

const writeFile = (path, data) => {
  return {
    type: 'writeFile',
    path,
    data
  }
}

const userInput = (question) => {
  return {
    type: 'userInput',
    question
  }
}

Action Handlers

Second, create handlers for the actions. This is the only place where side-effect producing code should exist.

const httpGetActionHandler = (action) => {
  return get(action.url)
}

const writeFileActionHandler = (action) => {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    fs.writeFile(action.path, action.data, {encoding: 'utf8'}, (err) => {
      if (err) {
        reject(err)
      } else {
        resolve({
          realpath: path.resolve(action.path),
          path: action.path
        })
      }
    })
  })
}

const logHandler = (action) => {
  console.log(action.message)
}

const userInputHandler = (action) => {
  const rl = readline.createInterface({
    input: process.stdin,
    output: process.stdout
  })

  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    rl.question(action.question, (answer) => {
      resolve(answer)
      rl.close()
    })
  })
}

Pure Functions for Business Logic

Third, define a pure function that effects-as-data can use to perform your business logic. This function coordinates your workflow. The function below does a lot and would normally be difficult to test:

• Reads user input (a Github username).
• Does a GET request to Github for the user's repositories.
• Prints the user's repositories in a formatted list.
• Writes the user's repositories to a file.

const saveRepositories = function * (filename) {
  const {payload: username} = yield userInput('\nEnter a github username: ')
  const repos = yield httpGet(`https://api.github.com/users/${username}/repos`)
  if (isFailure(repos)) return repos
  const list = buildList(repos.payload)
  yield printRepository(list, username)
  const writeResult = yield writeFile(filename, JSON.stringify(repos.payload))
  if (isFailure(writeResult)) return writeResult
  yield log(`\nRepos Written From Github To File: ${writeResult.payload.realpath}`)
  return writeResult
}

const printRepository = (list, username) => {
  return [
    log(`\nRepositories for ${username}`),
    log(`=============================================`),
    log(list)
  ]
}

const buildList = (repos) => {
  const l1 = map(pick(['name', 'git_url']), repos)
  const l2 = map(({name, git_url}) => `${name}: ${git_url}`, l1)
  const l3 = l2.join('\n')
  return l3
}

Test It

Fourth, test your business logic using logic-less tests. Each tuple in the array is an input-output pair.

it('should get user repos and write file', testIt(saveRepositories, () => {
  const repos = [{name: 'test', git_url: 'git://...'}]
  const reposListFormatted = 'test: git://...'
  const writeFileResult = success({path: 'repos.json', realpath: 'r/repos.json'})
  //  3 log actions return 3 success results
  const printResult = [success(), success(), success()]
  return [
    ['repos.json', userInput('\nEnter a github username: ')],
    ['orourkedd', httpGet('https://api.github.com/users/orourkedd/repos')],
    [repos, printRepository(reposListFormatted, 'orourkedd')],
    [printResult, writeFile('repos.json', JSON.stringify(repos))],
    [writeFileResult, log('\nRepos Written From Github To File: r/repos.json')],
    [undefined, writeFileResult]
  ]
}))

it('should log http error and return failure', testIt(saveRepositories, () => {
  const httpError = new Error('http error!')
  return [
    ['repos.json', userInput('\nEnter a github username: ')],
    ['orourkedd', httpGet('https://api.github.com/users/orourkedd/repos')],
    [failure(httpError), failure(httpError)]
  ]
}))

it('should log file write error and return failure', testIt(saveRepositories, () => {
  const repos = [{name: 'test', git_url: 'git://...'}]
  const reposListFormatted = 'test: git://...'
  const writeError = new Error('write error!')
  //  3 log actions return 3 success results
  const printResult = [success(), success(), success()]
  return [
    ['repos.json', userInput('\nEnter a github username: ')],
    ['orourkedd', httpGet('https://api.github.com/users/orourkedd/repos')],
    [repos, printRepository(reposListFormatted, 'orourkedd')],
    [printResult, writeFile('repos.json', JSON.stringify(repos))],
    [failure(writeError), failure(writeError)]
  ]
}))

Debug

If your tests are failing, you get a message like this:

AssertionError: expected { Object (type, path, ...) } to deeply equal { Object (type, path, ...) }

Error on Step 4
============================

Expected:
{
  "type": "writeFile",
  "path": "repos.json",
  "data": ...
}

Actual:
{
  "type": "writeFile",
  "path": "wrong-file.json",
  "data": ...
}

Wire It Up and Run It

Fifth, wire it all up:

const handlers = {
  httpGet: httpGetActionHandler,
  writeFile: writeFileActionHandler,
  log: logHandler,
  userInput: userInputHandler
}

run(handlers, saveRepositories, 'repos.json').catch(console.error)