What is redux-saga?
redux-saga is a library that aims to make application side effects (i.e., asynchronous things like data fetching and impure things like accessing the browser cache) easier to manage, more efficient to execute, and better at handling failures. It uses an ES6 feature called Generators to make those asynchronous flows easy to read, write, and test.
What are redux-saga's main functionalities?
Handling Asynchronous Actions
This feature allows you to handle asynchronous actions in a more readable and maintainable way. The code sample demonstrates how to fetch user data asynchronously using the `call` effect to call the API and `put` effect to dispatch actions.
function* fetchUser(action) {
try {
const user = yield call(Api.fetchUser, action.payload.userId);
yield put({type: 'USER_FETCH_SUCCEEDED', user: user});
} catch (e) {
yield put({type: 'USER_FETCH_FAILED', message: e.message});
}
}
function* mySaga() {
yield takeEvery('USER_FETCH_REQUESTED', fetchUser);
}
Managing Side Effects
redux-saga helps manage side effects like delays, API calls, and more. The code sample shows how to delay an increment action by 1 second using the `delay` effect.
import { delay } from 'redux-saga/effects';
function* incrementAsync() {
yield delay(1000);
yield put({ type: 'INCREMENT' });
}
function* watchIncrementAsync() {
yield takeEvery('INCREMENT_ASYNC', incrementAsync);
}
Handling Concurrency
redux-saga provides tools to handle concurrency, ensuring that only the latest action is processed. The code sample demonstrates using `takeLatest` to handle only the most recent fetch request.
import { takeLatest } from 'redux-saga/effects';
function* fetchData(action) {
try {
const data = yield call(Api.fetchData, action.payload);
yield put({ type: 'FETCH_SUCCEEDED', data });
} catch (error) {
yield put({ type: 'FETCH_FAILED', error });
}
}
function* mySaga() {
yield takeLatest('FETCH_REQUESTED', fetchData);
}
Other packages similar to redux-saga
redux-thunk
redux-thunk is a middleware that allows you to write action creators that return a function instead of an action. It is simpler and more lightweight compared to redux-saga, but it doesn't offer the same level of control over complex asynchronous flows.
redux-observable
redux-observable is an RxJS-based middleware for Redux that allows you to work with async actions using Observables. It is more powerful and flexible than redux-saga for handling complex async logic, but it has a steeper learning curve due to its reliance on RxJS.
rematch
rematch is a Redux framework that abstracts away much of the boilerplate associated with Redux. It includes built-in support for side effects and async actions, making it easier to use than redux-saga, but it may not offer the same level of customization and control.
redux-saga
redux-saga
is a library that aims to make side effects (i.e. asynchronous things like data fetching and impure things like accessing the browser cache) in React/Redux applications easier and better.
The mental model is that a saga is like a separate thread in your application that's solely responsible for side effects. redux-saga
is a redux middleware, which means this thread can be started, paused and cancelled from the main application with normal redux actions, it has access to the full redux application state and it can dispatch redux actions as well.
It uses an ES6 feature called Generators to make those asynchronous flows easy to read, write and test. (if you're not familiar with them here are some introductory links) By doing so, these asynchronous flows look like your standard synchronous JavaScript code. (kind of like async
/await
, but generators have a few more awesome features we need)
You might've used redux-thunk
before to handle your data fetching. Contrary to redux thunk, you don't end up in callback hell, you can test your asynchronous flows easily and your actions stay pure.
Getting started
Install
$ npm install --save redux-saga
or
$ yarn add redux-saga
Alternatively, you may use the provided UMD builds directly in the <script>
tag of an HTML page. See this section.
Usage Example
Suppose we have a UI to fetch some user data from a remote server when a button is clicked. (For brevity, we'll just show the action triggering code.)
class UserComponent extends React.Component {
...
onSomeButtonClicked() {
const { userId, dispatch } = this.props
dispatch({type: 'USER_FETCH_REQUESTED', payload: {userId}})
}
...
}
The Component dispatches a plain Object action to the Store. We'll create a Saga that watches for all USER_FETCH_REQUESTED
actions and triggers an API call to fetch the user data.
sagas.js
import { call, put, takeEvery, takeLatest } from 'redux-saga/effects'
import Api from '...'
function* fetchUser(action) {
try {
const user = yield call(Api.fetchUser, action.payload.userId);
yield put({type: "USER_FETCH_SUCCEEDED", user: user});
} catch (e) {
yield put({type: "USER_FETCH_FAILED", message: e.message});
}
}
function* mySaga() {
yield takeEvery("USER_FETCH_REQUESTED", fetchUser);
}
function* mySaga() {
yield takeLatest("USER_FETCH_REQUESTED", fetchUser);
}
export default mySaga;
To run our Saga, we'll have to connect it to the Redux Store using the redux-saga
middleware.
main.js
import { createStore, applyMiddleware } from 'redux'
import createSagaMiddleware from 'redux-saga'
import reducer from './reducers'
import mySaga from './sagas'
const sagaMiddleware = createSagaMiddleware()
const store = createStore(
reducer,
applyMiddleware(sagaMiddleware)
)
sagaMiddleware.run(mySaga)
Documentation
Translation
Using umd build in the browser
There is also a umd build of redux-saga
available in the dist/
folder. When using the umd build redux-saga
is available as ReduxSaga
in the window object. This enables you to create Saga middleware without using ES6 import
sytnax like this:
var sagaMiddleware = ReduxSaga.default()
The umd version is useful if you don't use Webpack or Browserify. You can access it directly from unpkg.
The following builds are available:
Important! If the browser you are targeting doesn't support ES2015 generators, you must provide a valid polyfill, such as the one provided by babel
. The polyfill must be imported before redux-saga:
import 'babel-polyfill'
import sagaMiddleware from 'redux-saga'
Building examples from sources
$ git clone https://github.com/redux-saga/redux-saga.git
$ cd redux-saga
$ npm install
$ npm test
Below are the examples ported (so far) from the Redux repos.
Counter examples
There are three counter examples.
counter-vanilla
Demo using vanilla JavaScript and UMD builds. All source is inlined in index.html
.
To launch the example, just open index.html
in your browser.
Important: your browser must support Generators. Latest versions of Chrome/Firefox/Edge are suitable.
counter
Demo using webpack
and high-level API takeEvery
.
$ npm run counter
$ npm run test-counter
cancellable-counter
Demo using low-level API to demonstrate task cancellation.
$ npm run cancellable-counter
Shopping Cart example
$ npm run shop
$ npm run test-shop
async example
$ npm run async
$ npm run test-async
real-world example (with webpack hot reloading)
$ npm run real-world
TypeScript
Redux-Saga with TypeScript requires DOM.Iterable
or ES2015.Iterable
. If your target
is ES6
, you are likely already set, however, for ES5
, you will need to add it yourself.
Check your tsconfig.json
file, and the official compiler options documentation.
Logo
You can find the official Redux-Saga logo with different flavors in the logo directory.
Backers
Support us with a monthly donation and help us continue our activities. [Become a backer]
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