Introduction to Redux

There's this great new library called redux that has been making rounds recently for all of the right reasons. But, why are developers so crazy about redux, and why should you consider using redux in your next application? This post will explain what makes redux a good choice as we create a small application using redux and its principles.

Redux is based on three main principles; they are as follows:

Every app has a single store: The "store" is where the state of your application is stored. Your app must have its entire state in only one store. This is because there has to be a single source of truth that renders the rest of your application. What this means is that if there’s something that doesn't look right in your app, it's easier to track the source of the bug because you know exactly where the state of each component is coming from.
The application state is immutable: Once you have set your application state, it cannot be mutated again. This doesn't mean your application can't be dynamic. State can only be changed through actions and reducers (explained next), in which case you have to recompute the new state of the application each time and not change the existing state. The immutable state is better for your application because every time there is a new state, your application gets notified and can re-render accordingly. In this way, you are guaranteed to have your application show a visual representation of your state at any point in time.
All reducers are pure functions: As stated before, the only way you can change the state of your application is by recomputing the new state from the old state. This is done with a reducer, which is nothing more than a function that takes two arguments (that is, the previous state and the action required) and returns the new application state. The most important concept here is that all reducers must be pure functions. If your reducer is doing anything outside the function's scope, it's possible that you're doing it wrong.

Writing reducers

The standard format of a reducer is as follows:

const myReducer = (state = defaultValue, action) => {
  /*
  perform some calculations based on action and old state.
  newState !== state
  */
  return newState;
};

Using this format, let’s write a reducer for a simple counter:

const counter = (state = 0, action) => {
  const { type } = action;
  switch (type) {
    case 'INCREMENT':
      return state + 1;
    case 'DECREMENT':
      return state + 2;
    default:
      return state;
  }
};

The state variable is the original state passed to the reducer—we give a default value of 0 just in case (because this is the first time the reducer is called).
The action argument is an object that contains a type attribute describing the kind of change we want in our state.
If the action is of the INCREMENT type, we return the state increased by one and decrease the state by one for the DECREMENT type.
If the type of action passed is unrecognized, we just return the state as it is. This is an important concept to remember because it will become very important once the application grows in size.

Writing an application using the reducer

So far, there has been no mention of redux, only of reducers. We now need redux as a glue to bridge our business logic (the counter reducer) to the store and the application state.

In order to make our application, we will use npm and ES6 modules. You can bootstrap a project easily using a yeoman generator like this one:

Install redux and react using the following:

npm install --save redux

Create the counter store:

import { createStore } from 'redux';
const store = createStore(counter);

In our html file, we will add a simple interface for our counter:

<html>

<head>
  <title>My App</title>
</head>

<body>
  <div id="counter-display">
  </div>
  <button id="counter-increment"> + </button>
  <button id="counter-decrement"> - </button>

  <script src="bundle.min.js"></script>
</body>

</html>

Next, let’s create a render method and subscribe our store to it such that it is called every time the state of the store is changed:

const counterDisplay = document.getElementById('counter-display');
const render = () => {
  counterDisplay.innerHTML = store.getState();
};

store.subscribe(render);
render();

We also call the render method once in the beggining to render the app initially.

Now, we will add event listeners to the increment and decrement buttons to dispatch events every time they are clicked:

const incrementButton = document.getElementById('counter-increment');
const decrementButton = document.getElementById('counter-decrement');

incrementButton.addEventListener('click', ()=>{
  store.dispatch({type : 'INCREMENT'});
});

decrementButton.addEventListener('click', ()=>{
  store.dispatch({type : 'DECREMENT'});
});

Now we have a fully functioning counter. The data flow in/out counter is as follows:

The user clicks a button (increment or decrement).
The event listener dispatches an event, with a type of either INCREMENT or DECREMENT, based on the button clicked.
The reducer re-computes the state of the store depending on the action type.
Since there is a new state, the render function, which was subscribed to the state, is called.
The render method gets the current state from the store and changes the contents of the DOM.

The source code for this application can be found here, and the working example can be seen here.

Redux developer tools

Redux is so great because of the many developer tools that it makes available. This one is written by the creator of redux himself. A few of the reasons you should consider incorporationg developer tools into your development are as follows:

They provide a way to constantly monitor your state. No more pesky console.logs to check what your current state is.
You can see exactly which action changed the state. There’s no more guesswork. If the state was changed, you now know exactly when and why it was changed.
You can change the past. Yes, you read that right! The redux developer tools give you the option of removing an action you may have performed some time ago and re-computing the state to show you the current state of the application, as if that action had never been performed at all.

For small scale applications, redux devolopment tools provide an easy and convenient way to debug and inspect your application, and for larger applications, I would go so far as to say that they are required.

About the author

Soham Kamani is a Full Stack web developer and electronics hobbyist. He is especially interested in JavaScript, Python, and IOT. HisTwitter handle is @sohamkamani, and he can also be found here.

Introduction to Redux

Writing reducers

Writing an application using the reducer

Redux developer tools

About the author

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