rnr

rnr.js

A library for cascading reactive data in Javascript (ES6)

Please note: The API has changed as of version 0.5.0. Please update dependent code accordingly.

Overview

rnr.js is a library for creating and managing cascading reactive data, with an interface based loosely on Node's EventEmitter and the Promise API. It can be used to perform DOM data-binding, to replace oft-repeated Promise chains, to untangle event callback nests, to pipe data through a sequence of functions, or anything else where multiple processing steps are required whenever a value is updated. A "Reactor" -- the core class -- can be chained, branched, and cancelled, each with functions provided for updates, errors, and/or finalization. Adding a new child is as simple as calling the on() method.

It's perhaps easiest to consider a Reactor to be akin to a repeatable, persistent Promise. Instead of reestablishing a chain of then() and catch() each time a Promise is created, a chain (or tree) of dependent functions can be set up once, and simply rerun whenever update() is called with a new value on the parent Reactor.

A Reactor has any or all of three attached functions: updatefn, which is called when the update() method is called on the Reactor or its parent; errorfn, which is called if if an error is passed down from its parent, or it has the error() method called; and/or cancelfn, which is called when it or its parent has the cancel() method called. Each Reactor will subsequently call its children (if any) with the result of these functions. The value property stores the most recent result of update() or error(), or the final value after cancel(). The iserr property indicates if an error was passed down from its parent without errorfn present, or if a value was thrown by either updatefn or errorfn as appropriate.

As with Promises, a Reactor can be in one of three states: valid, error, or pending. A Reactor is in valid state when update() is called successfully, in error state if updatefn or errorfn throw or if error() is called and errorfn is not present or throws, and in pending state if update() is called with a thenable, if updatefn or errorfn return a thenable, or if the pending symbol is passed to update() or returned from updatefn or errorfn.

Changelog

0.5.0:

• no more initial values during Reactor construction
  • all Reactors begin with value undefined and in pending state
  • no initval parameter in Reactor constructor or cr()
  • initial update will still be performed if parent Reactor not pending
• removed undefined return value checking for output of updatefn and errorfn
  • calling update() with undefined will no longer skip updatefn
  • returning undefined from updatefn will no longer propagate originally-passed value
  • no more newval !== oldval check; always cascades unless value is hold
• added hold and pending symbols
  • hold will prevent setting and propagating new value
  • pending will propagate pending status but retain old value
• error value stored separately from last valid result
  • updatefn and errorfn called with last valid result
  • error value cleared on next successful update
  • .value property returns correct value (valid or error) for current state

0.4.4:

• resolving a promise passed to update() with a value of undefined will now still call updatefn

0.4.2:

• value is no longer set to undefined when awaiting resolution of a thenable; value remains set to the previous value
• new getter property pending added; true when awaiting resolution of a thenable, false otherwise
• cancel() will reject any pending promises from then() with an error
• then() will return a rejected promise if Reactor is already cancelled
• now() method added, returning an immediately resolved/rejected promise with the current value, or a pending promise as per then() if currently awaiting resolution of a thenable

0.4.0:

• thenable objects (including but not limited to Promises) are now handled by update()
  • update(thenable) will set and propagate undefined for both value and iserr properties until thenable is resolved or rejected, at which point value will be set to the returned value of thenable, and iserr will be false if resolved, or true if rejected
  • if updatefn or errorfn return a promise will set value and iserr as above, until said promise is resolved or rejected
  • a promise returned by updatefn which is eventually rejected will set iserr to true
  • a promise returned by errorfn which is eventually resolved will set iserr to false
  • if update() or error() are called before thenable is resolved/rejected, the value will be set as normal -- however, please note that thenable is assumed to be non-cancelable, and therefore the intermediate value will be overwritten once thenable resolves or rejects
• then() is now available on Reactor objects, returning a promise which will be resolved or rejected on the next call to update() or error(), or when a pending thenable (as supplied to update(), or returned by updatefn or errorfn) is resolved or rejected
  • by default, then() uses the native new Promise() constructor; this can be overridden with a user-specified function using Reactor.promiser() (see below for details) in order to use another Promise-equivalent library such as Angular's $q
  • please note that the promise returned by then() will not be resolved/rejected until the Reactor's value is updated; the current value will not be automatically promisified by then()

0.3.1:

• errorfn no longer called if thenfn of same Reactor throws; error value stored directly and error() called on children
• value passed to error() and error thrown by thenfn now stored as value in Reactor in addition to cascading to children, with iserr property true to disambiguate from successful update() calls
• iserr determines whether update() (if false) or error() (if true) is called on children

0.3.0:

• then() renamed to on()
• catch() renamed to onerror()
• finally() renamed to oncancel()

Requirements

rnr.js requires Node 6.0 or higher, uses rollup.js for bundling, and uses the Mocha test framework with the Chai assertion library for unit testing. These will be automatically installed as dev dependencies when installing through npm.

Installation

The easiest method is simply npm install rnr. Manual installation is possible through git clone https://github.com/rneilson/rnr.js.git; however, the bundled library in the /dist directory requires Node to be installed, and can be built with npm run build.

Importing

ES6 syntax:

import * as rnr from 'rnr';

Node/CommonJS syntax:

const rnr = require('rnr');

Three library versions are available depending on use:

• /dist/rnr.js ES6 native export format (recommended for use with rollup.js)
• /dist/rnr.cjs.js CommonJS module format (for use with Node/npm)
• /dist/rnr.iife.js Immediately-invoked function expression (for direct use in the browser)

Usage

To create a new Reactor object:

var a = new rnr.Reactor(updatefn, errorfn, cancelfn);

Or use the shortcut function:

var a = rnr.cr(updatefn, errorfn, cancelfn);

To create a child of an existing Reactor:

var b = a.on(updatefn, errorfn, cancelfn);

Additional syntaxes:

var c = b.onerror(errorfn, cancelfn); // Equivalent to b.on(null, errorfn, cancelfn);
var d = c.oncancel(cancelfn);        // Equivalent to c.on(null, null, cancelfn);

Parameter	Description
updatefn	Function to call when update() is called, or if a value is passed down from parent.
errorfn	Function to call if error() method is called, or if an error is passed down from parent.
cancelfn	Function to call when cancel() method is called directly or by parent.

updatefn, errorfn, and cancelfn must be null, undefined, or functions with signature fn(value, lastres), where value is the argument to update(value), error(value), or cancel(value) as appropriate, and lastres is the previous stored value (result of updatefn).

Reactor properties

value
Read-only getter; this Reactor's current value.

iserr
Read-only getter; true if value is an error thrown by updatefn or errorfn, or by a call to error() with no errorfn; false if value is a value successfully returned by updatefn or errorfn, or by a call to update() with no updatefn; undefined if a thenable if update() was called with a thenable, if updatefn or errorfn returned a thenable, or if updatefn or errorfn returned the pending symbol.

done
Read-only getter; true if this Reactor has been cancelled, false otherwise.

persistent
Read-only getter; true if persist() method called on this Reactor, false otherwise.

children
Read-only getter; array of this Reactor's current children (returns new array when accessed).

pending
Read-only getter; true if this Reactor is in pending state, false otherwise.

Reactor methods

on(updatefn, errorfn, cancelfn)
Returns new Reactor as child.

onerror(errorfn, cancelfn)
Equivalent to on(null, errorfn, cancelfn).

oncancel(cancelfn)
Equivalent to on(null, null, cancelfn).

onchange(updatefn, errorfn, cancelfn)
Returns new Reactor as child, with an intermediate function which will only update (calling updatefn if given) if update() is passed a value different (by !==) from the previous passed value.

update(val, skipfn)
Calls updatefn if present and stores returned value, stores val if updatefn not present, or stores error if updatefn throws. update() (or error() if updatefn throws) are then called on children. If skipfn is true, updatefn will not be called. All Reactors in the tree will be locked while updating; additional calls to update() or error() during the update sequence will be ignored.

error(val, skipfn)
Calls errorfn if present and stores returned value, stores val if errorfn not present, or stores error if errorfn throws. update() (or error() if errorfn throws) are then called on children. If skipfn is true, errorfn will not be called. All Reactors in the tree will be locked while updating; additional calls to update() or error() during the update sequence will be ignored.

cancel(val, skipfn)
Calls cancelfn if present and skipfn is not true, stores returned value (or val if cancelfn not present), and cancels children. This does not respect locked Reactors in the tree, and thus may be called during the update sequence.

attach(parent, skipset)
Adds Reactor as child of parent; will not initialize with parent's current value if skipset is true.

detach(parent, autocancel)
Removes Reactor as child of parent; will call cancel() on parent if autocancel is true and no children of parent remain.

clear(cancel, final)
Removes all children from Reactor; will call cancel(final) on children if cancel is true.

then(onresolve, onreject)
Returns a promise to be resolved or rejected on the next call to update() or error(), or when a pending thenable (passed to update(), or returned from updatefn or errorfn) is resolved or rejected. This promise will be pending until the Reactor's value changes; the current value is not promisified. Calling cancel() will reject this promise with an error. Calling then() on an already-cancelled Reactor will return an immediately-rejected promise.

catch(onreject)
Equivalent to then(undefined, onreject).

now(onresolve, onreject)
Returns a promise immediately resolved (if iserr false) or rejected (if iserr true) with the current value, or if Reactor is awaiting a pending thenable (iserr is undefined), returns a pending promise as per then(). Calling now() on an already-cancelled Reactor will return an immediately-rejected promise.

Reactor static methods

Reactor.uncaught(errfn)
Sets uncaught error handler function for all Reactor instances. Default is null (noop). errfn must be null or a function of signature function (err) {...}.

Reactor.promiser(promisefn)
Sets promise constructor function used by then(). promisefn must be a function taking a single argument of resolver as per Promises/A+ specification, where resolver is a function with signature function (resolve, reject) {...}. Default is function (resolver) { return new Promise(resolver); }.

Reactor.any(...parents)
Returns new Reactor with multiple parents, which is updated when any parent is updated; value is the latest value passed by any parent.

Reactor.all(...parents)
Returns new Reactor with multiple parents, which is updated when any parent is updated; value is an array of the current values of all parents.

Reactor.hold
Read-only getter; returns hold symbol. If passed to update() or returned (not thrown) from updatefn or errorfn, will prevent setting a new value or cascading updates to children.

Reactor.pending
Read-only getter; returns pending symbol. If passed to update() or returned (not thrown) from updatefn or errorfn, will retain the last valid value but set the Reactor and any children to pending state.

Alternate syntaxes:

rnr.crAny(...parents); // Equivalent to Reactor.any(...parents)
rnr.crAll(...parents); // Equivalent to Reactor.all(...parents)
rnr.hold;              // Equivalent to Reactor.hold
rnr.pending;           // Equivalent to Reactor.pending