use-abortable-effect

Super simple React hook for running abortable effects based on the AbortController API.

Check the live DEMO.

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Install

yarn add @closeio/use-abortable-effect

Benefits

• Extremely lightweight (less than 500B minzipped).
• It uses the AbortController API and it is compatible with the fetch API.
• If a browser does not support the AbortController API then the hook behaves exactly like a regular useEffect hook. See Can I Use for browser support overview.
• No other 3rd-party dependencies.

API differences over useEffect

• API is compatible with useEffect, where the effect function you pass-in accepts an AbortSignal instance as a param and you can return a cleanup function that accepts an AbortController instance.
• Supports abortable fetch requests.
• Supports running custom operations/computations that can be easily aborted.
• Auto-aborts effects on re-run (or component unmount), unless you provide a custom cleanup function.

useEffect(() => {
  // do something

  return () => {
    /* cleanup */
  };
}, [deps]);

const abortControllerRef = useAbortableEffect(
  (abortSignal) => {
    // do something

    return (abortController) => {
      /* do cleanup, you should probably abort */
    };
  },
  [deps],
);

Usage

Abortable fetch requests

import React from 'react';
import useAbortableEffect from '@closeio/use-abortable-effect';

export default function MyAbortableFetchComponent() {
  const abortControllerRef = useAbortableEffect((abortSignal) =>
    fetch(url, { signal: abortSignal })
      .then(/* … */)
      .catch((rejection) => {
        if (rejection.name !== 'AbortError') {
          // Re-throw or handle non-abort rejection in another way.
          return Promise.reject(rejection);
        }
      }),
  );

  const handleManualAbort = () => abortControllerRef.current.abort();

  // …
}

Arbitrary computation that can be aborted

import React from 'react';
import useAbortableEffect from '@closeio/use-abortable-effect';

export default function MyAbortableComputationComponent() {
  const abortControllerRef = useAbortableEffect(abortSignal => {
    new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      // Should be a DOMException per spec.
      const abortRejection = new DOMException(
        'Calculation aborted by the user',
        'AbortError',
      );

      // Handle when abort was requested before starting the computation.
      if (abortSignal.aborted) {
        return reject(abortRejection);
      }

      // This simulates an expensive computation.
      const timeout = setTimeout(() => resolve(1), 5000);

      // Listen for abort request.
      abortSignal.addEventListener('abort', () => {
        clearTimeout(timeout);
        reject(abortRejection);
      });
    })
      .then(/* … */)
      .catch(rejection => {
        if (rejection.name !== 'AbortError') {
          // Re-throw or handle non-abort rejection in another way.
          return Promise.reject(rejection);
        }
      }),
  });

  const handleManualAbort = () => abortControllerRef.current.abort();

  // …
}

Custom cleanup function

import React from 'react';
import useAbortableEffect from '@closeio/use-abortable-effect';

export default function MyCustomCleanupComponent() {
  const [gotAborted, setGotAborted] = useState(false);

  const abortControllerRef = useAbortableEffect((abortSignal) => {
    fetch(url, { signal: abortSignal })
      .then(/* … */)
      .catch((rejection) => {
        if (rejection.name !== 'AbortError') {
          // Re-throw or handle non-abort rejection in another way.
          return Promise.reject(rejection);
        }
      });

    // Just return a function like in `useEffect`, with the difference that you
    // get the abort controller (not a ref) as a param.
    return (controller) => {
      controller.abort();
      setGotAborted(true);
    };
  });

  const handleManualAbort = () => abortControllerRef.current.abort();

  // …
}

License

MIT © Close