Complex Loader Management Hook for React.

Read the Medium post "Managing Complex Waiting Experiences on Web UIs".

---

react-wait is a React Hook helps to manage multiple loading states on the page without any conflict. It's based on a very simple idea that manages an Array of multiple loading states. The built-in loader component listens its registered loader and immediately become loading state.

Why not React.Suspense?:

React has its own Suspense feature to manage all the async works. For now it only supports code-splitting (not data-fetching).

useWait allows you to manage waiting experiences much more explicitly and not only for Promised/async patterns but also complete loading management.

Overview

Here's a quick overview that what's useWait for:

import { useWait, Waiter } from "react-wait";

function A() {
  const { isWaiting } = useWait();
  return (
    <div>
      {isWaiting("creating user") ? "Creating User..." : "Nothing happens"}
    </div>
  );
}

function B() {
  const { anyWaiting } = useWait();
  return (
    <div>
      {anyWaiting() ? "Something happening on app..." : "Nothing happens"}
    </div>
  );
}

function C() {
  const { startWaiting, endWaiting, isWaiting } = useWait();

  function createUser() {
    startWaiting("creating user");
    // Faking the async work:
    setTimeout(() => {
      endWaiting("creating user");
    }, 1000);
  }

  return (
    <button disabled={isWaiting("creating user")} onClick={createUser}>
      <Wait on="creating user" fallback={<Spinner />}>
        Create User
      </Wait>
    </button>
  );
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <Waiter>
    <C />
  </Waiter>,
  document.getElementById("root")
);

Quick Start

If you are a try and learn developer, you can start trying the react-wait now using codesandbox.io.

Quick start on CodeSandbox

1. Install:

yarn add react-wait

2. Require:

import { Waiter, useWait } from "react-wait";

function UserCreateButton() {
  const { startWaiting, endWaiting, isWaiting, Wait } = useWait();

  return (
    <button
      onClick={() => startWaiting("creating user")}
      disabled={isWaiting("creating user")}
    >
      <Wait on="creating user" fallback={<div>Creating user!</div>}>
        Create User
      </Wait>
    </button>
  );
}

3. Wrap with the Waiter Context Provider

And you should wrap your App with Waiter component. It's actually a Context.Provider that provides a loading context to the component tree.

const rootElement = document.getElementById("root");
ReactDOM.render(
  <Waiter>
    <App />
  </Waiter>,
  rootElement
);

Installation

$ yarn add react-wait
# or if you using npm
$ npm install react-wait

The API

react-wait provides some helpers to you to use in your templates.

anyWaiting()

Returns boolean value if any loader exists in context.

const { anyWaiting } = useWait();

return <button disabled={anyWaiting()}>Disabled while waiting</button>;

isWaiting(waiter String)

Returns boolean value if given loader exists in context.

const { isWaiting } = useWait();

return (
  <button disabled={isWaiting("creating user")}>
    Disabled while creating user
  </button>
);

startWaiting(waiter String)

Starts the given waiter.

const { startWaiting } = useWait();

return <button onClick={() => startWaiting("message")}>Start</button>;

endWaiting(waiter String)

Stops the given waiter.

const { end } = useWait();

return <button onClick={() => endWaiting("message")}>Stop</button>;

Using Wait Component

function Component() {
  const { Wait } = useWait();
  return (
    <Wait on="the waiting message" fallback={<div>Waiting...</div>}>
      The content after waiting done
    </Wait>
  );
}

Better example for a button with loading state:

<button disabled={isWaiting("creating user")}>
  <Wait on="creating user" fallback={<div>Creating User...</div>}>
    Create User
  </Wait>
</button>

Making Reusable Loader Components

With reusable loader components, you will be able to use custom loader components as example below. This will allow you to create better user loading experience.

function Spinner() {
  return <img src="spinner.gif" />;
}

Now you can use your spinner everywhere using waiting attribute:

<button disabled={isWaiting("creating user")}>
  <Wait on="creating user" fallback={<Spinner />}>
    Create User
  </Wait>
</button>

Creating Waiting Contexts using createWaitingContext(context String)

To keep your code DRY you can create a Waiting Context using createWaitingContext.

function CreateUserButton() {
  const { createWaitingContext } = useWait();

  // All methods will be curried with "creating user" on.
  const { startWaiting, endWaiting, isWaiting, Wait } = createWaitingContext(
    "creating user"
  );

  function createUser() {
    startWaiting();
    setTimeout(endWaiting, 1000);
  }

  return (
    <Button disabled={isWaiting()} onClick={createUser}>
      <Wait fallback="Creating User...">Create User</Wait>
    </Button>
  );
}

Contributors

• Fatih Kadir Akın, (creator)

Other Implementations

Since react-wait based on a very simple idea, it can be implemented on other frameworks.

• vue-wait: Multiple Process Loader Management for Vue.
• dom-wait: Multiple Process Loader Management for vanilla JavaScript.

License

MIT © Fatih Kadir Akın