Morioh
Login
Flutter Packages

Flutter Packages

8 months ago

MobX Is A Library for Reactively Managing The State Of Your Flutter Applications

mobx.dart en 

MobX for the Dart language.

Supercharge the state-management in your Dart apps with Transparent Functional Reactive Programming (TFRP)

Introduction 

MobX is a state-management library that makes it simple to connect the reactive data of your application with the UI. This wiring is completely automatic and feels very natural. As the application-developer, you focus purely on what reactive-data needs to be consumed in the UI (and elsewhere) without worrying about keeping the two in sync.

It's not really magic but it does have some smarts around what is being consumed (observables) and where (reactions), and automatically tracks it for you. When the observables change, all reactions are re-run. What's interesting is that these reactions can be anything from a simple console log, a network call to re-rendering the UI.

MobX has been a very effective library for the JavaScript apps and this port to the Dart language aims to bring the same levels of productivity.

Go deep 

For a deeper coverage of MobX, do check out MobX Quick Start Guide. Although the book uses the JavaScript version of MobX, nearly all of the concepts are applicable to Dart and Flutter.

 

Core Concepts 

 

At the heart of MobX are three important concepts: Observables, Actions and Reactions.

Observables 

Observables represent the reactive-state of your application. They can be simple scalars to complex object trees. By defining the state of the application as a tree of observables, you can expose a reactive-state-tree that the UI (or other observers in the app) consume.

A simple reactive-counter is represented by the following observable:

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';
final counter = Observable(0);

More complex observables, such as classes, can be created as well.

class Counter {
  Counter() {
    increment = Action(_increment);
  }

  final _value = Observable(0);
  int get value => _value.value;

  set value(int newValue) => _value.value = newValue;
  Action increment;

  void _increment() {
    _value.value++;
  }
}

On first sight, this does look like some boilerplate code which can quickly go out of hand! This is why we added mobx_codegen to the mix that allows you to replace the above code with the following:

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

part 'counter.g.dart';

class Counter = CounterBase with _$Counter;

abstract class CounterBase with Store {
  @observable
  int value = 0;

  @action
  void increment() {
    value++;
  }
}

Note the use of annotations to mark the observable properties of the class. Yes, there is some header boilerplate here but its fixed for any class. As you build more complex classes this boilerplate will fade away and you will mostly focus on the code within the braces.

Note: Annotations are available via the mobx_codegen package.

Readonly 

If you want to reduce your code you may want to swap @observable for @readonly. For every private variable it generates a public getter such that the client of your store can't change its value. Read more about it here

Computed Observables 

What can be derived, should be derived. Automatically.

The state of your application consists of core-state and derived-state. The core-state is state inherent to the domain you are dealing with. For example, if you have a Contact entity, the firstName and lastName form the core-state of Contact. However, fullName is derived-state, obtained by combining firstName and lastName.

Such derived state, that depends on core-state or other derived-state is called a Computed Observable. It is automatically kept in sync when its underlying observables change.

State in MobX = Core-State + Derived-State

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

part 'counter.g.dart';

class Contact = ContactBase with _$Contact;

abstract class ContactBase with Store {
  @observable
  String firstName;

  @observable
  String lastName;

  @computed
  String get fullName => '$firstName, $lastName';

}

In the example above fullName is automatically kept in sync if either firstName and/or lastName changes.

Actions 

Actions are how you mutate the observables. Rather than mutating them directly, actions add a semantic meaning to the mutations. For example, instead of just doing value++, firing an increment() action carries more meaning. Besides, actions also batch up all the notifications and ensure the changes are notified only after they complete. Thus the observers are notified only upon the atomic completion of the action.

Note that actions can also be nested, in which case the notifications go out when the top-most action has completed.

final counter = Observable(0);

final increment = Action((){
  counter.value++;
});

When creating actions inside a class, you can take advantage of annotations!

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

part 'counter.g.dart';

class Counter = CounterBase with _$Counter;

abstract class CounterBase with Store {
  @observable
  int value = 0;

  @action
  void increment() {
    value++;
  }
}

Reactions 

Reactions complete the MobX triad of observables, actions and reactions. They are the observers of the reactive-system and get notified whenever an observable they track is changed. Reactions come in few flavors as listed below. All of them return a ReactionDisposer, a function that can be called to dispose the reaction.

One striking feature of reactions is that they automatically track all the observables without any explicit wiring. The act of reading an observable within a reaction is enough to track it!

The code you write with MobX appears to be literally ceremony-free!

ReactionDisposer autorun(Function(Reaction) fn)

Runs the reaction immediately and also on any change in the observables used inside fn.

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

final greeting = Observable('Hello World');

final dispose = autorun((_){
  print(greeting.value);
});

greeting.value = 'Hello MobX';

// Done with the autorun()
dispose();


// Prints:
// Hello World
// Hello MobX

ReactionDisposer reaction<T>(T Function(Reaction) fn, void Function(T) effect)

Monitors the observables used inside the fn() function and runs the effect() when the fn() function returns a different value. Only the observables inside fn() are tracked.

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

final greeting = Observable('Hello World');

final dispose = reaction((_) => greeting.value, (msg) => print(msg));

greeting.value = 'Hello MobX'; // Cause a change

// Done with the reaction()
dispose();


// Prints:
// Hello MobX

ReactionDisposer when(bool Function(Reaction) predicate, void Function() effect)

Monitors the observables used inside predicate() and runs the effect() when it returns true. After the effect() is run, when automatically disposes itself. So you can think of when as a one-time reaction. You can also dispose when() pre-maturely.

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

final greeting = Observable('Hello World');

final dispose = when((_) => greeting.value == 'Hello MobX', () => print('Someone greeted MobX'));

greeting.value = 'Hello MobX'; // Causes a change, runs effect and disposes


// Prints:
// Someone greeted MobX

Future<void> asyncWhen(bool Function(Reaction) predicate)

Similar to when but returns a Future, which is fulfilled when the predicate() returns true. This is a convenient way of waiting for the predicate() to turn true.

final completed = Observable(false);

void waitForCompletion() async {
  await asyncWhen(() => _completed.value == true);

  print('Completed');
}

Observer

One of the most visual reactions in the app is the UI. The Observer widget (which is part of the flutter_mobx package), provides a granular observer of the observables used in its builder function. Whenever these observables change, Observer rebuilds and renders.

Below is the Counter example in its entirety.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_mobx/flutter_mobx.dart';
import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

part 'counter.g.dart';

class Counter = CounterBase with _$Counter;

abstract class CounterBase with Store {
  @observable
  int value = 0;

  @action
  void increment() {
    value++;
  }
}

class CounterExample extends StatefulWidget {
  const CounterExample({Key key}) : super(key: key);

  @override
  _CounterExampleState createState() => _CounterExampleState();
}

class _CounterExampleState extends State<CounterExample> {
  final _counter = Counter();

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) => Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(
          title: const Text('Counter'),
        ),
        body: Center(
          child: Column(
            mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
            children: <Widget>[
              const Text(
                'You have pushed the button this many times:',
              ),
              Observer(
                  builder: (_) => Text(
                        '${_counter.value}',
                        style: const TextStyle(fontSize: 20),
                      )),
            ],
          ),
        ),
        floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
          onPressed: _counter.increment,
          tooltip: 'Increment',
          child: const Icon(Icons.add),
        ),
      );
}

Contributing 

If you have read up till here, then 🎉🎉🎉. There are couple of ways in which you can contribute to the growing community of MobX.dart.

Use this package as a library

Depend on it

Run this command:

With Dart:

 $ dart pub add mobx

With Flutter:

 $ flutter pub add mobx

This will add a line like this to your package's pubspec.yaml (and run an implicit dart pub get):

dependencies:
  mobx: ^2.2.1

Alternatively, your editor might support dart pub get or flutter pub get. Check the docs for your editor to learn more.

Import it

Now in your Dart code, you can use:

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

example/README.md

Examples 

Annotations 

Annotations drastically simplify the usage of MobX by tastefully tucking away all the boilerplate in the generated files (*.g.dart).

These examples use annotations, which is supported by the mobx_codegen package. To run the code-generator, we are using the following command:

$> cd $PATH_TO_MOBX_DART/mobx/example
$> flutter packages pub run build_runner build

Counter (counter.dart) 

A really simple Counter. After all this is how you start off a Dart/Flutter project :-)

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

part 'counter.g.dart';

class Counter = CounterBase with _$Counter;

abstract class CounterBase with Store {
  @observable
  int value = 0;

  @action
  void increment() {
    value++;
  }
}

Notice the @observable value property and the @action increment()that mutates it.

Todos (todos.dart) 

This example showcases some of the core features of MobX such as Observable, Computed and Action. We have intentionally left out Reaction to keep it simple.

The Todos example is a classic way of showcasing a framework or a library. Here, you can see how MobX can simplify your code.

Todo 

A Todo entity is at the heart of the Todos example. A bit of boilerplate is needed to make the code-generator do the rest for you.

import 'package:mobx/mobx.dart';

part 'example.g.dart';

class Todo = TodoBase with _$Todo;

abstract class TodoBase with Store {
  TodoBase(this.description);

  @observable
  String description = '';

  @observable
  bool done = false;
}

Observables

The TodoList manages the list of Todo. Notice the use of annotations to make the code more readable. MobX follows the princple:

What can be derived, should be derived. Automatically.

This is achieved with a small core-state (the @observable properties) and the derived-state (the @computed properties).

enum VisibilityFilter { all, pending, completed }

class TodoList = TodoListBase with _$TodoList;

abstract class TodoListBase with Store {
  @observable
  ObservableList<Todo> todos = ObservableList<Todo>();

  @observable
  VisibilityFilter filter = VisibilityFilter.all;

  @observable
  String currentDescription = '';

  @computed
  ObservableList<Todo> get pendingTodos =>
      ObservableList.of(todos.where((todo) => todo.done != true));

  @computed
  ObservableList<Todo> get completedTodos =>
      ObservableList.of(todos.where((todo) => todo.done == true));

  @computed
  bool get hasCompletedTodos => completedTodos.isNotEmpty;

  @computed
  bool get hasPendingTodos => pendingTodos.isNotEmpty;

  @computed
  String get itemsDescription =>
      '${pendingTodos.length} pending, ${completedTodos.length} completed';

  @computed
  ObservableList<Todo> get visibleTodos {
    switch (filter) {
      case VisibilityFilter.pending:
        return pendingTodos;
      case VisibilityFilter.completed:
        return completedTodos;
      default:
        return todos;
    }
  }

  // ...
}

Notice how you can have derived-state that depends on other derived-state. For example, itemsDescription depends on pendingTodos and completedTodos, which are also computed (aka derived) properties.

Actions

The operations that can be performed on the TodoList are marked with @action. These are simple functions, which can be invoked like normal dart functions! There is no extra ceremony to invoke an action.

class TodoList = TodoListBase with _$TodoList;

abstract class TodoListBase with Store {
  // ...

  @action
  void addTodo(String description) {
    final todo = Todo(description);
    todos.add(todo);
    currentDescription = '';
  }

  @action
  void removeTodo(Todo todo) {
    todos.removeWhere((x) => x == todo);
  }

  @action
  void changeDescription(String description) =>
      currentDescription = description;

  @action
  void changeFilter(VisibilityFilter filter) => this.filter = filter;

  @action
  void removeCompleted() {
    todos.removeWhere((todo) => todo.done);
  }

  @action
  void markAllAsCompleted() {
    for (final todo in todos) {
      todo.done = true;
    }
  }
}

Download details:

Author: dart.pixelingene.com

Source: https://github.com/mobxjs/mobx.dart

#flutter #android #ios

MobX Is A Library for Reactively Managing The State Of Your Flutter Applications
1.60 GEEK