unctx

🍦 unctx

Composition-api in Vanilla js

What is it?

Vue.js introduced an amazing pattern called Composition API that allows organizing complex logic by splitting it into reusable functions and grouping in logical order. unctx allows easily implementing composition api pattern in your javascript libraries without hassle.

Integration

In your awesome library:

yarn add unctx
# or
npm install unctx

import { createContext } from 'unctx'

const ctx = createContext()

export const useAwesome = ctx.use

// ...
ctx.call({ test: 1 }, () => {
  // This is similar to vue setup function
  // Any function called here, can use `useAwesome` to get { test: 1 }
})

User code:

import { useAwesome } from 'awesome-lib'

// ...
function setup() {
  const ctx = useAwesome()
}

Using Namespaces

To avoid issues with multiple version of library, unctx provides a safe global namespace to access context by key (kept in globalThis). Important: Please use a verbose name for key to avoid conflict with other js libraries. Using npm package name is recommended. Using symbols has no effect since it still causes multiple context issue.

import { useContext, getContext } from 'unctx'

const useAwesome = useContext('awesome-lib')

// or
// const awesomeContext = getContext('awesome-lib')

You can also create your own internal namespace with createNamespace utility for more advanced use cases.

Singleton Pattern

If you are sure it is safe to use a shared instance (not depending to request), you can also use ctx.set and ctx.unset for a singleton pattern.

Note: You cannot combine set with call. Always use unset before replacing instance otherwise you will get Context conflict error.

import { createContext } from 'unctx'

const ctx = createContext()
ctx.set(new Awesome())

// Replacing instance without unset
// ctx.set(new Awesome(), true)

export const useAwesome = ctx.use

Typescript

A generic type exists on all utilities to be set for instance/context type:

// Return type of useAwesome is Awesome | null
const { use: useAwesome } = createContext<Awesome>()

Async Context

Normally, using context is only possible before first await statement:

async function setup() {
  console.log(useAwesome()) // Returns context
  await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 1000))
  console.log(useAwesome()) // Returns null
}

A simple workaround, is caching context before first await and use it directly:

async function setup() {
  const ctx = useAwesome()
  await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 1000))
  console.log(ctx) // We can directly access cached version of ctx
}

However, this is not always as easy as making a variable when using nested composables.

Unctx provides a better solution that transforms async to automatically restore context after each await call. This requires using a bundler such as Rollup, Vite or Webpack.

Import and register transform plugin:

import { unctxPlugin } from 'unctx/plugin'

// Rollup
// TODO: Add to rollup configuration
unctxPlugin.rollup()

// Vite
// TODO: Add to vite configuration
unctxPlugin.vite()

// Webpack
// TODO: Add to webpack configuration
unctxPlugin.webpack()

Use ctx.callAsync instead of ctx.call:

await ctx.callAsync('test', setup)

Any async function that requires context, should be wrapped with withAsyncContext:

import { withAsyncContext } from 'unctx'

const setup = withAsyncContext(async () => {
  console.log(useAwesome()) // Returns context
  await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 1000))
  console.log(useAwesome()) // Still returns context with dark magic!
})

Under the hood

Composition of functions is possible using temporary context injection. When calling ctx.call(instance, cb), instance argument will be stored in a temporary variable then cb is called. Any function inside cb, can then implicitly access instance by using ctx.use (or useAwesome)

Pitfalls

context can be only used before first await:

Please check Async context section.

Context conflict error:

In your library, you should only keep one call() running at a time (unless calling with same reference for first argument)

For instance this makes an error:

ctx.call({ test: 1 }, () => {
  ctx.call({ test: 2 }, () => {
    // Throws error!
  })
})

License

MIT. Made with 💖