actions.md

Actions

Create actions by extending from the base Actions class.

class MessageActions extends Actions {

  // Methods on the prototype are automatically converted into actions
  newMessage(content) {

    // The return value from the action is sent to the dispatcher.
    // It is also returned to the caller.
    return content;
  }

  // Asynchronous functions are also supported: just return a promise
  // This is easy using async-await
  async createMessage(messageContent) {
    const response = await serverCreateMessage(messageContent);
    return await response.json();
  }

}

You can also use a plain JavaScript object. When passed to flux.createActions, it will be converted into an Actions class.

// Same as previous example
const MessageActions = {
  newMessage(content) {
    return content;
  },

  async createMessage(messageContent) {
    const response = await serverCreateMessage(messageContent);
    return await response.json();
  }
}

Testing

The return value of an action is dispatched automatically. It's also returned to the caller. This means it's possible to test actions completely independently from a Flux or Store instance. Here's how you'd test the example MessageActions from above:

// Using mocha and chai-as-promised
const actions = new MessageActions();

expect(actions.newMessage('Hello world!')).to.equal('Hello world');

// Assuming `serverCreateMessage()` has been mocked
expect(actions.createMessage('Hello world!')).to.eventually.deep.equal({
  id: 1,
  content: 'Hello world!',
});

Asynchronous actions

Asynchronous actions are actions that return promises. Unlike synchronous actions, async actions fire the dispatcher twice: at the beginning and at the end of the action. Refer to the Store API for information on how to register handlers for asynchronous actions.

Methods

getActionIds

object getActionIds()

Returns an object of action ids, keyed by action name. (In most cases, it's probably more convenient to use Flux#getActionIds() instead.)

Also available as getConstants()