redux-techniques.md

Redux Techniques

Debugging

• Hot reloading and time travel debugging: what are they?
  https://code-cartoons.com/hot-reloading-and-time-travel-debugging-what-are-they-3c8ed2812f35
  A short but informative article describing these concepts and why they're useful.

• Debugging is in Flux
  https://vimeo.com/166342150
  A fantastic talk that demonstrates use cases and examples for time-travel debugging in a Flux-style architecture, including crash reporting. The demo is built in Alt, but obviously completely applies to Redux as well.

• Drew Bug
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8vkg_RVIRo
  A video demonstrating a Redux crash reporter and time travel debugger.

• Redux DevTools Without Redux
  https://medium.com/@zalmoxis/redux-devtools-without-redux-or-how-to-have-a-predictable-state-with-any-architecture-61c5f5a7716f
  Instructions on setting up the Redux DevTools browser extension to use things other than a single Redux store (such as reducers for use within a React component, or other state libs)

• Redux Error Reports Concept
  https://medium.com/@jrullmann/redux-error-reports-concept-ab85b658f53e
  A semi-hypothetical description of tools that could be built to report errors by leveraging Redux

• A Quick Look at the React and Redux DevTools
  http://mediatemple.net/blog/tips/a-quick-look-at-the-react-and-redux-devtools/
  An intro to using the React DevTools and Redux DevTools extensions for debugging

• Improve your development workflow with the Redux DevTools Extension
  https://medium.com/@zalmoxis/improve-your-development-workflow-with-redux-devtools-extension-f0379227ff83
  The author of the Redux DevTools extension describes new features, including "pause/locking" for iteration on behavior, and some changes needed to add it to the store.

• Time Travel in React Redux apps using the Redux DevTools
  https://onsen.io/blog/react-redux-devtools-with-time-travel/
  Examples of configuring a Redux store to use the DevTools enhancers, and using both the DevTools components and the browser extension for debugging.

• Redux Logging in Production / Maximizing Debuggability in Redux
  https://blog.logrocket.com/redux-logging-in-production-3b2a4816b713
  https://blog.logrocket.com/maximizing-debuggability-with-redux-79b2ad07b64c
  A pair of articles discussing a variety of aspects and approaches for debugging Redux apps. Includes several mentions of the LogRocket service, but also covers other tools and approaches, including building your own analytics pipeline.

• Redux DevTools for Dummies
  https://medium.com/@tylerwclark/redux-devtools-for-dummies-74566c597d7
  An overview of the Redux DevTools Extension, including examples of how to properly add the DevTools when setting up a Redux store, and explanations of the various parts of the extension's UI.

• How to treat Errors as first-class citizen in Flux (and Redux)
  https://medium.com/@jamiedixon/how-to-treat-errors-as-first-class-citizens-in-flux-and-redux-fca7f3d5c02d
  Discusses how the FSA structure expects actions to have an optional error field, and how to write code that deals with that.

Reducers

• Redux Docs: Structuring Reducers
  http://redux.js.org/docs/recipes/StructuringReducers.html
  Comprehensive information on writing reducers and structuring data, covering reducer composition, use of combineReducers, normalizing data, proper immutable updating, and more.

• "Reducer composition without slicing state"
  https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/42ey9e/redux_reducer_composition_without_slicing_state/
  Discussion of ways to organize actions and reducer logic

• Taking Advantage of combineReducers
  http://randycoulman.com/blog/2016/11/22/taking-advantage-of-combinereducers/
  Examples of using combineReducers multiple times to produce a state tree, and some thoughts on tradeoffs in various approaches to reducer logic.

• Modifying a Leaf of the Redux State Tree
  http://cmichel.io/modifying-a-leaf-of-the-redux-state-tree/
  Some useful observations on how to properly do deep immutable updates.

• "How to dynamically load reducers for code splitting in a Redux application?"
  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32968016/how-to-dynamically-load-reducers-for-code-splitting-in-a-redux-application
  Dan Abramov gives a basic exapmle of how to rebuild and replace the root reducer function at runtime

• Inject reducer arbitrarily rather than top level for Redux store to replace reducer
  https://medium.com/@jimmy_shen/inject-reducer-arbitrarily-rather-than-top-level-for-redux-store-to-replace-reducer-fdc1060a6a7
  A quick example of the basic approach to injecting additional reducers at runtime

• State Snapshots in Redux
  http://kyleshevlin.com/state-snapshots-in-redux/
  Describes a useful technique for saving copies of state slices on command, and re-applying those copies at a later point to ensure a known starting point for further actions.

• "Problems with Flux"
  http://www.code-experience.com/problems-with-flux/
  Discusses the idea of having all state updates for an action listed in one place, vs spread throughout the store. Written shortly after the release of Redux, but definitely relevant.

• Redux Tree
  https://blog.shakacode.com/redux-tree-efc9e3d22d6e
  Looks at structuring a reducer/state tree as "branches" and "leaves", and introduces the idea of an "interaction" to encapsulate all related state changes for a given action, with a library to implement the idea.

• Reducer composition with Higher Order Reducers
  https://medium.com/@mange_vibration/reducer-composition-with-higher-order-reducers-35c3977ed08f
  Some great examples of writing small functions that can be composed together to perform larger specific reducer tasks, such as providing initial state, filtering, updating specific keys, and more.

• Using Currying to Compose Reducers
  http://www.guyzissman.com/posts/pipe-reducers/
  Some short but helpful examples of how currying functions can be used to reuse reducer logic for similar use cases.

• Higher Order Reducers - It just sounds scary
  https://medium.com/@danielkagan/high-order-reducers-it-just-sounds-scary-2b9e5dbfc705
  Explains how reducers can be composed like Lego bricks to create reusable and testable reducer logic.

• Functional Redux Reducers with Ramda
  https://alligator.io/react/functional-redux-reducers-with-ramda/
  Shows how to write a somewhat complex Redux reducer using only composition of functions from the Ramda library

Selectors and Normalization

Related topics:

• Redux Architecture - Encapsulation

• Redux Performance

• Querying a Redux Store
  https://medium.com/@adamrackis/querying-a-redux-store-37db8c7f3b0f
  A look at best practices for organizing and storing data in Redux, including normalizing data and use of selector functions.

• Normalizing Redux Stores for Maximum Code Reuse
  https://medium.com/@adamrackis/normalizing-redux-stores-for-maximum-code-reuse-ae6e3844ae95
  Thoughts on how normalized Redux stores enable some useful data handling approaches, with examples of using selector functions to denormalize hierarchical data.

• Redux Normalizr: Improve your State Management
  http://www.robinwieruch.de/the-soundcloud-client-in-react-redux-normalizr/
  A tutorial describing how to use Normalizr for improved data management of nested data in Redux

• Using normalizr.js in a Redux store
  https://medium.com/@mcowpercoles/using-normalizr-js-in-a-redux-store-96ab33991369
  Some examples of using Normalizr and selectors to manage normalized data

• Memoize-Immutable: efficient memoizer for Redux
  https://blog.prototypo.io/memoize-immutable-efficient-memoizer-for-redux-and-other-immutable-environments-59277fefa45f
  Discusses principles of immutability and memoization, and a library they built to help memoize Redux data lookups

• Two mistakes I made working with Redux
  http://www.mattzeunert.com/2016/06/01/redux-mistakes.html
  Some suggestions on how to handle denormalizing data and defining actions.

• Practical Redux: Using Redux-ORM
  http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2016/10/practical-redux-part-1-redux-orm-basics/
  http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2016/10/practical-redux-part-2-redux-orm-concepts-and-techniques/
  A look at how Redux-ORM can help manage normalized data in a Redux store, including use cases, basic usage, key concepts, and advanced techniques.

• "How do you add/remove to a redux store generated with normalizr?
  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34954726/how-do-you-add-remove-to-a-redux-store-generated-with-normalizr
  Stack Overflow discussion of how to handle updates to normalized data

• "Any deep-dive/advanced tutorials on reselect?"
  https://www.reddit.com/r/reactjs/comments/5dxasp/any_deepdiveadvanced_tutorials_on_reselect/
  Discussion on passing arguments to Reselect selectors, and how to use "factory functions" to define per-component selectors for Redux mapState functions

• ReactCasts #8: Selectors in Redux
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frT3to2ACCw
  A great overview of why and how to use selector functions to retrieve data from the store, and derive additional data from store values

• GraphQL is not only for Backend
  https://riad.blog/2017/01/07/graphql-is-not-only-for-backend-react-redux/
  A look at how to use GraphQL to query into a Redux store

• Dissecting Twitter's Redux Store
  https://medium.com/statuscode/dissecting-twitters-redux-store-d7280b62c6b1
  https://medium.com/@nuncamind/diving-deeper-into-twitters-redux-store-adventures-in-minified-vendor-javascript-67fbac5dc219
  An informative look at the contents of the Redux store for Twitter's new mobile site. The second article shows how to dig through the minified JS to enable use of the Redux DevTools against a production site.

• Advanced Redux Entity Normalization
  https://medium.com/@dcousineau/advanced-redux-entity-normalization-f5f1fe2aefc5
  Describes a "keyWindow" concept for tracking subsets of entities in state, similar to an SQL "view". A useful extension to the idea of normalized data.

• "Why are you supposed to normalize data in Redux?"
  https://twitter.com/AdamRackis/status/847883670950219776
  A Twitter thread with some excellent discussion, explaining why use of normalized data is encouraged with Redux.

• Redux Clerk: Reusable action creators and reducers for async CRUD
  https://inside.getambassador.com/redux-clerk-reusable-action-creators-and-reducers-for-async-crud-b0b6954f7056
  Discussion of a library that tries to reduce the repetitive nature of async CRUD work in Redux

• json-api-normalizer: An Easy Way To Integrate the JSON API and Redux
  https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/05/json-api-normalizer-redux/
  An in-depth article discussing why normalization of data is a good practice with Redux, and how use of the JSON API format can make normalized data easier to work with.

• How I Stumbled Upon Normalizing Redux State
  http://kyleshevlin.com/how-i-stumbled-upon-normalizing-redux-state/
  A short summary of the benefits and concept behind normalizing state

• React, Reselect, and Redux
  https://medium.com/@parkerdan/react-reselect-and-redux-b34017f8194c
  An explanation of how Reselect's memoized selector functions are useful in Redux apps, and how to create unique selector instances for each component instance.

• Use Selectors in Redux for Great Good
  https://medium.com/@TomasEhrlich/use-selectors-in-redux-for-great-good-59286ce2e2a1
  A short article explaining the importance of selectors, with a few examples of how they benefit applications and how to use them.

• Reselect with Redux and React
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xwo5mVxDqI
  A screencast that introduces the Reselect library and discusses why it's useful in Redux apps

UI and Widget Implementations

• "How can I display a modal dialog in Redux?"
  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35623656/how-can-i-display-a-modal-dialog-in-redux-that-performs-asynchronous-actions/35641680
  Dan Abramov describes a great technique for descriptively managing React modal dialogs using Redux actions and state, by storing names of components and their props.

• Creating Reusable Generic Modals in React and Redux
  http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2016/11/posts-on-packtpub-generic-redux-modals-and-building-better-bundles/
  https://www.reddit.com/r/reactjs/comments/4wjmme/implement_a_confirm_modal_using_react_redux/d68ajcw?context=3
  Describes an extension to Dan's technique that allows generic "picker" dialogs such as a ColorPicker to be reused by different parts of an application while keeping the Redux state serializable. (Blog post is based on my original comment on Reddit.)

• Implement a confirm modal using React & Redux
  http://jslancer.com/2016/08/07/implement-a-confirm-modal-using-react-redux/
  Demonstrates wrapping up an existing modal library to be controlled by Redux actions

• Implementing Search/Filter on a list in React and Redux
  https://medium.com/@yaoxiao1222/implementing-search-filter-a-list-on-redux-react-bb5de8d0a3ad
  Some quick examples of using Redux to supply a list of items as a prop, and using React local component state to store a filtered version based on inputs.

• Creating Reusable Generic Modal Dialogs with React and Redux
  https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/creating-reusable-generic-modals-react-and-redux
  A quick look at how to get results from generic dialogs like a ColorPicker, while keeping your Redux state serializable and component structure decoupled.

• Animating with React, Redux, and D3
  https://medium.com/swizec-a-geek-with-a-hat/animating-with-react-redux-and-d3-80852153a25b
  Explanation and examples of drawing animated particles using D3 to calculate new positions, Redux to store the state, and React to render them.

• Open Sourcing a Redux Component
  https://medium.com/@itsBenCripps/open-sourcing-a-redux-component-bb82f260ff62
  Details how the author developed a complex React+Redux grid component, including HTML structure, proper use of Immutable.js for good perf, and lib exports.

• Scalable Modals with React and Redux
  https://codersmind.com/scalable-modals-react-redux/
  Demonstrates implementing the basic Redux modal manager technique described by Dan Abramov in his Stack Overflow answer.

• A Redux-Saga Implementation of Modal Confirmation Dialogs in React
  https://decembersoft.com/posts/a-redux-saga-implementation-of-modal-confirmation-dialogs-in-react-redux/
  Some examples of using sagas for controlling flow of async calls and dialog management

• Practical Recursion: Implementing a File Item Tree View in React & Electron
  https://codeburst.io/practical-recursion-implementing-a-file-tree-view-in-react-electron-af62e7b46d26?gi=da3b8e9bf9ee
  Demonstrates implementing a tree view component that shows folder structure read from the filesystem, and managing the visibility of tree nodes in Redux

• How To Manage UI State with Redux
  https://codeburst.io/how-to-manage-ui-state-with-redux-24deb6cf0d57
  An informative discussion of application state vs internal component state, how "UI state" fits into app state, and how to write a UI reducer that tracks UI state.

• Introduce Redux local state to your React App
  https://medium.com/@tangbenze/introduce-redux-local-state-to-your-react-app-9f96f18d4f35
  Demonstrates setup and use of a addon library to manage scoped actions, reducers, and connections for isolated component state.

• Using react-redux-set-local
  https://www.andrewfong.com/blog/2017/07/03/react-redux-set-local/
  Discussion of the rationale and implementation of a library for connecting isolated portions of a Redux store state to a component while maintaining separation between presentation and state management.

• Making Toast from Scratch in React-Redux
  https://spin.atomicobject.com/2017/07/12/react-redux-toast/
  A short tutorial that shows how to build your own "toast" notifications in React+Redux, with a link to the resulting implementation.

• Toast notification system in a React/Redux application
  https://atech.blog/natterly/toast-notification-system-in-a-react-redux-application
  The Natterly team walks through how they built a Redux-connected toast notification implementation.

• A Functional Canvas Approach with Redux
  https://medium.com/@peterxjang/a-functional-canvas-approach-with-redux-ce59a369241b
  https://medium.com/@peterxjang/a-functional-canvas-approach-with-redux-bab357d6c33c
  Some simple examples of how to use Redux and vanilla JS canvas code to draw canvas-based UIs with minimal dependencies.

Redux and Forms

• Practical Redux, Part 7: Form Change Handling, Data Editing, and Feature Reducers
  http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/01/practical-redux-part-7-forms-editing-reducers/
  Demonstrates how to use a custom form wrapper component to buffer input change events

• Practical Redux, Part 8: Form Draft Data Management
  http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/01/practical-redux-part-8-form-draft-data-management/
  Discusses how to implement logic to handle "draft/work-in-progress" data while editing items

• Abstracted Form State with Redux-Form
  https://speakerdeck.com/erikras/abstracted-form-state-with-redux-form
  Slides by the author of Redux-Form, discussing how forms work in plain HTML/Javascript, in React, and how the Redux-Form library can integrate them into Redux.

• React, Redux, and Redux-Form
  https://jokeyrhyme.github.io/2016/06/27/react-redux-redux-form.html
  Thoughts on the merits of using the Redux-Form library

• Conversational sign-up form UI with React and Redux
  http://jsforallof.us/2016/09/08/conversational-sign-up-form-ui-with-react-and-redux/
  An example of form management with Redux

• Should you store your form state in Redux?
  http://goshakkk.name/should-i-put-form-state-into-redux/
  Thoughts on the tradeoffs involved in storing form data in component state vs Redux, and different potential use cases.

• Writing maintainable forms with Redux
  https://medium.com/@SBoudrias/writing-maintainable-forms-with-redux-2ef30b5d0e35
  Some basic examples for handling validation, loading initial data, and change tracking in forms.

• Using forms in React-Redux: Tips and Tricks
  https://medium.com/@royisch/using-forms-in-react-redux-tips-and-tricks-48ad9c7522f6
  Some helpful suggestions for using Redux-Form to manage forms in a Redux app

• Dealing with forms in React/Redux - A simple pattern
  https://medium.com/@jonasjensen/dealing-with-forms-in-react-redux-a-simple-pattern-7b94b393eb26
  Helpful examples for writing some simple generic form-handling reducers and action creators

Other

• Connecting the Linode API to Redux with Higher-Order Functions
  https://engineering.linode.com/2016/08/17/Using-metaprogramming-in-the-manager.html
  Linode explains how they generate customized action creators and reducers to talk to different parts of their API

• A Finite State Machine Helper for Redux
  https://hackernoon.com/a-finite-state-machine-helper-for-redux-c18519643719
  Describes a small but useful library for managing state machines using Redux reducers.

• Standard actions in Redux
  https://medium.com/@jtbennett/standard-actions-in-redux-c6a415c8aea4
  A description of the Flux Standard Action specification, and how it can be used with Redux

• Redux runtime reconfiguration techniques
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvbZTXs3Y3E
  http://redux-reconfig.surge.sh/
  http://codepen.io/vnovick/pen/pEgKww/?editors=0010#0
  Discussion and demonstration of some ways to load reducers and components at runtime.

• Secure file uploads with redux-plupload
  http://engineering.tes.com/post/secure-file-uploads/
  Some examples of how to use Redux-Plupload to manage file uploads

• {Persist}ence is Key: Using Redux-Persist to Store Your State in LocalStorage
  https://medium.com/@clrksanford/persist-ence-is-key-using-redux-persist-to-store-your-state-in-localstorage-ac6a000aee63
  A quick introduction to using redux-persist to reuse store state between page refreshes

• Immuto: Strongly Typed Redux Composition
  http://danielearwicker.github.io/Immuto_Strongly_Typed_Redux_Composition.html
  http://danielearwicker.github.io/Immuto_Working_with_React_An_Example_.html
  http://danielearwicker.github.io/Immuto_Radical_Unification.html
  http://danielearwicker.github.io/Immuto_Epilogue.html
  An interesting series of experiments in adding typed cursor-like behavior to Redux. The author appears to give up on the idea in the end, but the writing and thought process are informative.

• Using Actions in Redux the Correct Way
  http://cmichel.io/using-actions-in-redux-the-correct-way/
  An interesting trick using ES6 proxies to ensure wrong action types aren't accidentally used.

• Object Oriented Functional Programming, or, How You Can Use Classes as Redux Reducers
  https://medium.com/@ustunozgur/object-oriented-functional-programming-or-how-can-you-use-classes-as-redux-reducers-23462a5cae85
  An exploration of how to use Immutable.js Record classes with methods as Redux reducers. This is a very non-idiomatic approach, but the article is reasonably informative.

• Exploring Interaction History with Redux-DAG-History
  https://blog.atsid.com/exploring-interaction-history-d09a52a7d186
  The Microsoft Research group describes a library they built to implement a "branching" approach to application history and undo/redo capabilities.

• Roll the Dice: Random Numbers in Redux
  https://daveceddia.com/random-numbers-in-redux/
  Some excellent examples of how "impure values" like random numbers should fit into a Redux application.

• Random in Redux
  https://blog.ohlman.io/random-in-redux-b6b9932ad061
  Another quick example of how to use seed values to safely generate random numbers in Redux.

• Things I learned about Redux: Don't Dispatch from React Lifecycle Methods
  https://github.com/carlsverre/talk-react-redux-learnings
  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1J82fXkgUKL6-k17ADVtozXMRfMGXnx5R6r5UnOm8z8g/edit?usp=sharing
  Resources from an excellent presentation on potential timing issues that result from dispatching Redux actions in React lifecycle methods. Repo includes sample code demonstrating the issues, and a link to the video of the meetup talk.

• Let the Buyer Beware: React Redux Rerender Gotcha
  https://www.nathanl.in/posts/let-the-buyer-beware-react-redux-rerender-gotcha
  An article describing some similar concerns regarding timing of Redux actions and React lifecycle methods, especially in regards to tracking loading state.

• Why I created Redux-Tiles library to deal with Redux verbosity
  http://blog.bloomca.me/2017/06/02/why-i-created-redux-tiles-library.html
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14482215
  Describes several concerns with increasing verbosity and complexity in Redux apps, and how the author's library can help simplify those.

• Manage analytics actions in React
  https://medium.com/trainline-engineering/manage-analytics-actions-in-react-67fae61495de
  Discusses using Redux middleware and redux-observable to manage analytics behavior in isolation from the rest of the application.

• VR Redux / ReactVR Redux Revisited
  http://jimpurbrick.com/2017/01/04/vr-redux/
  http://jimpurbrick.com/2017/07/04/react-vr-redux-revisited/
  A pair of posts that discuss using ReactVR and Redux to implement a networked VR application, including using a Redux middleware to synchronize actions between the clients, and approaches to managing consistency and optimistic updates.

• Using dynamic localization to improve accessibility with React and Redux
  https://medium.com/checkr/using-dynamic-localization-to-improve-accessibility-with-react-and-redux-7650878af6ef
  Some quick examples and discussion of how Checkr uses the react-redux-i18 package to set up localization for their app.

• Evil things you do in Redux - dispatch in updating lifecycle methods
  https://hackernoon.com/evil-things-you-do-with-redux-dispatch-in-updating-lifecycle-methods-ad116de882d4
  Thoughts on the pros and cons of dispatching Redux actions in React lifecycle methods, such as causing cascades of re-renders and updates in other components.

Network Management

• Ajax Polling in React with Redux and Sagas
  http://notjoshmiller.com/ajax-polling-in-react-with-redux/
  http://notjoshmiller.com/ajax-polling-part-2-sagas/
  Covers a couple different ways to manage the logic for AJAX polling.

• Firebase with Redux
  https://medium.com/@prescottprue/firebase-with-redux-82d04f8675b9
  Examples for combining Firebase into a Redux application

• Redux: Perils of Time
  http://redux-perils-of-time.surge.sh/#/?presenter
  A slideshow with some intriguing thoughts on how to manage offline experiences, cached data, and optimistic UI in a Redux app.

• Introducing Redux Offline: Offline-First Architecture for Progresive Web Applications
  https://hackernoon.com/introducing-redux-offline-offline-first-architecture-for-progressive-web-applications-and-react-68c5167ecfe0
  An excellent blog post explaining the need for better offline behavior in web apps, and introducing a new Redux-based library that helps manage that behavior.

• Offline GraphQL Queries with Redux Offline and Apollo
  http://www.east5th.co/blog/2017/07/24/offline-graphql-queries-with-redux-offline-and-apollo/
  Discussion of how to use Redux Offline to enable persistance and Apollo queries of data while offline

• Redux Websocket Integration
  https://medium.com/@ianovenden/redux-websocket-integration-c1a0d22d3189
  A summary of one possible approach for integrating Websocket functionality into a React/Redux application architecture.