Ajax: Use Cases

GET request

export const getRequest = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = name => {
    ajax
      .fetch(`../assets/${name}.json`)
      .then(response => response.json())
      .then(result => {
        actionLogger.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2));
      });
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('pabu')}">Fetch Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('naga')}">Fetch Naga</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

POST request

import { ajax } from '@lion/ajax';

const response = await ajax.fetch('/api/users', {
  method: 'POST',
  body: JSON.stringify({ username: 'steve' }),
});

const newUser = await response.json();

JSON requests

We usually deal with JSON requests and responses. ajax.fetchJson supports JSON by:

Serializing request body as JSON
Deserializing response payload as JSON
Adding the correct Content-Type and Accept headers

Note that, the result will have the Response object on .response property, and the parsed JSON will be available on .body.

GET JSON request

export const getJsonRequest = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = name => {
    ajax.fetchJson(`../assets/${name}.json`).then(result => {
      console.log(result.response);
      actionLogger.log(JSON.stringify(result.body, null, 2));
    });
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('pabu')}">Fetch Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('naga')}">Fetch Naga</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

POST JSON request

import { ajax } from '@lion/ajax';

const { response, body } = await ajax.fetchJson('/api/users', {
  method: 'POST',
  body: { username: 'steve' },
});

Error handling

Different from fetch, Ajax throws when the server returns a 4xx or 5xx, returning the request and response:

export const errorHandling = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = async () => {
    try {
      const users = await ajax.fetchJson('/api/users');
    } catch (error) {
      if (error.response) {
        if (error.response.status === 400) {
          // handle a specific status code, for example 400 bad request
        } else {
          actionLogger.log(error);
        }
      } else {
        // an error happened before receiving a response,
        // Example: an incorrect request or network error
        actionLogger.log(error);
      }
    }
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${fetchHandler}">Fetch</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

Fetch Polyfill

For IE11 you will need a polyfill for fetch. You should add this on your top level layer, e.g. your application.

This is the polyfill we recommend. It also has a section for polyfilling AbortController

Ajax Caching Support

Ajax package provides in-memory cache support through interceptors. And cache interceptors can be added manually or by configuring the Ajax instance.

The cache request interceptor and cache response interceptor are designed to work together to support caching of network requests/responses.

The request interceptor checks whether the response for this particular request is cached, and if so returns the cached response. And the response interceptor caches the response for this particular request.

Getting started

Consume the global ajax instance and add interceptors to it, using a cache configuration which is applied on application level. If a developer wants to add specifics to cache behaviour they have to provide a cache config per action (get, post, etc.) via cacheOptions field of local ajax config, see examples below.

Note: make sure to add the interceptors only once. This is usually done on app-level

import { ajax, createCacheInterceptors } from '@lion-web/ajax';

const globalCacheOptions = {
  useCache: true,
  maxAge: 1000 * 60 * 5, // 5 minutes
};

// Cache is removed each time an identifier changes,
// for instance when a current user is logged out
const getCacheIdentifier = () => getActiveProfile().profileId;

const [cacheRequestInterceptor, cacheResponseInterceptor] = createCacheInterceptors(
  getCacheIdentifier,
  globalCacheOptions,
);

ajax.addRequestInterceptor(cacheRequestInterceptor);
ajax.addResponseInterceptor(cacheResponseInterceptor);

const { response, body } = await ajax.fetchJson('/my-url');

Alternatively, most often for sub-classers, you can extend or import Ajax yourself, and pass cacheOptions when instantiating the ajax.

import { Ajax } from '@lion/ajax';

export const ajax = new Ajax({
  cacheOptions: {
    useCache: true,
    maxAge: 1000 * 60 * 5, // 5 minutes
    getCacheIdentifier: () => getActiveProfile().profileId,
  },
});

Ajax cache example

Let's assume that we have a user session, for this demo purposes we already created an identifier function for this and set the cache interceptors.

We can see if a response is served from the cache by checking the response.fromCache property, which is either undefined for normal requests, or set to true for responses that were served from cache.

export const cache = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = name => {
    ajax.fetchJson(`../assets/${name}.json`).then(result => {
      actionLogger.log(`From cache: ${result.response.fromCache || false}`);
      actionLogger.log(JSON.stringify(result.body, null, 2));
    });
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('pabu')}">Fetch Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('naga')}">Fetch Naga</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

You can also change the cache options per request, which is handy if you don't want to remove and re-add the interceptors for a simple configuration change.

In this demo, when we fetch naga, we always pass useCache: false so the Response is never a cached one.

export const cacheActionOptions = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = name => {
    let actionCacheOptions;
    if (name === 'naga') {
      actionCacheOptions = {
        useCache: false,
      };
    }

    ajax.fetchJson(`../assets/${name}.json`, { cacheOptions: actionCacheOptions }).then(result => {
      actionLogger.log(`From cache: ${result.response.fromCache || false}`);
      actionLogger.log(JSON.stringify(result.body, null, 2));
    });
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('pabu')}">Fetch Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('naga')}">Fetch Naga</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

Invalidating cache

Invalidating the cache, or cache busting, can be done in multiple ways:

Going past the maxAge of the cache object
Changing cache identifier (e.g. user session or active profile changes)
Doing a non GET request to the cached endpoint
- Invalidates the cache of that endpoint
- Invalidates the cache of all other endpoints matching invalidatesUrls and invalidateUrlsRegex

maxAge

In this demo we pass a maxAge of three seconds. Try clicking the fetch button and watch fromCache change whenever maxAge expires.

After maxAge expires, the next request will set the cache again, and for the next 3 seconds you will get cached responses for subsequent requests.

export const cacheMaxAge = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = () => {
    ajax
      .fetchJson(`../assets/pabu.json`, {
        cacheOptions: {
          maxAge: 1000 * 3, // 3 seconds
        },
      })
      .then(result => {
        actionLogger.log(`From cache: ${result.response.fromCache || false}`);
        actionLogger.log(JSON.stringify(result.body, null, 2));
      });
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${fetchHandler}">Fetch Pabu</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

Changing cache identifier

For this demo we use localStorage to set a user id to '1'.

Now we will allow you to change this identifier to invalidate the cache.

export const changeCacheIdentifier = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = () => {
    ajax.fetchJson(`../assets/pabu.json`).then(result => {
      actionLogger.log(`From cache: ${result.response.fromCache || false}`);
      actionLogger.log(JSON.stringify(result.body, null, 2));
    });
  };

  const changeUserHandler = () => {
    const currentUser = parseInt(localStorage.getItem('lion-ajax-cache-demo-user-id'), 10);
    localStorage.setItem('lion-ajax-cache-demo-user-id', `${currentUser + 1}`);
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${fetchHandler}">Fetch Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${changeUserHandler}">Change user</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

Non-GET request

In this demo we show that by doing a PATCH request, you invalidate the cache of the endpoint for subsequent GET requests.

Try clicking the GET pabu button twice so you see a cached response. Then click the PATCH pabu button, followed by another GET, and you will see that this one is not served from cache, because the PATCH invalidated it.

The rationale is that if a user does a non-GET request to an endpoint, it will make the client-side caching of this endpoint outdated. This is because non-GET requests usually in some way mutate the state of the database through interacting with this endpoint. Therefore, we invalidate the cache, so the user gets the latest state from the database on the next GET request.

Ignore the browser errors when clicking PATCH buttons, JSON files (our mock database) don't accept PATCH requests.

export const nonGETRequest = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = (name, method) => {
    ajax.fetchJson(`../assets/${name}.json`, { method }).then(result => {
      actionLogger.log(`From cache: ${result.response.fromCache || false}`);
      actionLogger.log(JSON.stringify(result.body, null, 2));
    });
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('pabu', 'GET')}">GET Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('pabu', 'PATCH')}">PATCH Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('naga', 'GET')}">GET Naga</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('naga', 'PATCH')}">PATCH Naga</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

Invalidate Rules

There are two kinds of invalidate rules:

invalidateUrls (array of URL like strings)
invalidateUrlsRegex (RegExp)

If a non-GET method is fired, by default it only invalidates its own endpoint. Invalidating /api/users cache by doing a PATCH, will not invalidate /api/accounts cache.

However, in the case of users and accounts, they may be very interconnected, so perhaps you do want to invalidate /api/accounts when invalidating /api/users.

This is what the invalidate rules are for.

In this demo, invalidating the pabu endpoint will invalidate naga, but not the other way around.

For invalidateUrls you need the full URL e.g. <protocol>://<domain>:<port>/<url> so it's often easier to use invalidateUrlsRegex

export const invalidateRules = () => {
  const actionLogger = renderLitAsNode(html`<sb-action-logger></sb-action-logger>`);

  const fetchHandler = (name, method) => {
    const actionCacheOptions = {};
    if (name === 'pabu') {
      actionCacheOptions.invalidateUrlsRegex = /\/docs\/tools\/ajax\/assets\/naga.json/;
    }

    ajax
      .fetchJson(`../assets/${name}.json`, {
        method,
        cacheOptions: actionCacheOptions,
      })
      .then(result => {
        actionLogger.log(`From cache: ${result.response.fromCache || false}`);
        actionLogger.log(JSON.stringify(result.body, null, 2));
      });
  };

  return html`
    <style>
      sb-action-logger {
        --sb-action-logger-max-height: 300px;
      }
    </style>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('pabu', 'GET')}">GET Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('pabu', 'PATCH')}">PATCH Pabu</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('naga', 'GET')}">GET Naga</button>
    <button @click="${() => fetchHandler('naga', 'PATCH')}">PATCH Naga</button>
    ${actionLogger}
  `;
};

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