computed 0.5.0

A performant and flexible reactive programming framework for Dart

A straightforward, reliable, performant and testable reactive state management solution for Dart.

Tip

Are you using Flutter? Then make sure to check out Computed Flutter.

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Computed makes it a breeze to write code that reacts to external events. Just define how you compute your app state based on external data sources, and what effects you want as a result, and Computed will take care of everything else, allowing you to define your app state declaratively, rather than imperatively.

Computed:

• Integrates with all the standard data sources and sinks (Future and Stream on Dart, Listenable and ValueListenable on Flutter with Computed Flutter)
• Can be extended to include support for new data sources and sinks (Computed Flutter extends Computed to add support for Flutter-specific types)
• Automatically discovers and tracks computations' dependencies
• Re-computes the computations when needed
• Memoizes computation results
• Defers computations as much as possible
• Runs the computations in a topologically-consistent order upon external events.
• Allows you to reliably test your app's logic with no boilerplate.

Table of contents

• Here is how it works
• A larger example
• Effects
• Testing
• Looking at the past
• Computed queries
• Stream utilities
• FAQ
• Pitfalls
  • Do not use mutable values in computations
  • Use the async mode for computations kicking off async operations
  • Do not .use a Future/Stream inside the computation that created it
  • Futures returned from computations are not awaited
  • Do not forget to .use or .react your data sources
  • Keep in mind that .prev does not subscribe
  • .react is not .listen

Here is how it works

Assume you have a data source, like a Stream representing a series of external events:

Stream<int> s;

And a database to which you would like to persist your state:

FictionaryDatabase db;

Assume for the sake of example that your business logic is to multiply the received number by two, and write it to the database.

Here is how you can do this using Computed:

final sub = $(() => s.use * 2).
  asStream.listen(db.write);

That's it. Computed will take care of re-running the computation and calling the listener as needed. Note how you did not need to specify a dependency list for the computation, Computed discovers it automatically. You don't even have any mutable state in your app code.

To cancel the listener, you can use .cancel():

sub.cancel();

You can also have computations which use other computations' results:

final cPlus1 = $(() => c.use + 1);

A larger example

Assume you have two data sources, one is a stream of integers:

Stream<int> threshold;

And the other is a stream of lists of integers:

Stream<List<int>> items;

Assume for the sake of example that your business logic requires you to filter the items in the second stream by the threshold specified by the first stream, and save the results to a database.

Here is how you might approach this problem using an imperative approach.

First you define your state:

int? currentThreshold;
var currentUnfilteredItems = <int>[];

Followed by setting up listeners:

threshold.listen((value) => {
    if (value == currentThreshold) return ;
    currentThreshold = value;
    updateDB();
});
items.listen((value) => {
    currentUnfilteredItems = value;
    updateDB();
});

And your state computation logic:

void updateDB() {
    if (currentThreshold == null) return ;
    final filteredItems = currentUnfilteredItems.
        filter((x) => x > currentThreshold).
        toList();
    db.write(filteredItems);
}

And here is how to do the same using Computed:

$(() {
    final currentThreshold = threshold.use;
    return items.use.
        filter((x) => x > currentThreshold).
        toList();
}).asStream.listen(db.write);

Effects

Effects allow you to define computations with side effects. Like .listen, effects ultimately trigger the computation graph for the computations they use.
Effects are particularly useful if you wish to define side effects depending on multiple data sources or computations:

Stream<PageType> activePage;
Stream<bool> isDarkMode;

final sub = Computed.effect(() => sendAnalytics(activePage.use, isDarkMode.use));

Like listeners effects can be cancelled with .cancel():

sub.cancel();

Testing

Computed lets you mock any computation or data source, allowing you to easily test downstream behaviour.

Here is how you could test a situation where the threshold was a set value in the previous example:

threshold.mockEmit(42); // Downstream behaves as if 42 was emitted

You can also mock computations:

c.fix(42);                    // Will always return 42
c.fixThrow(FooException());   // Will always throw FooException
c.mock(() => dataSource.use); // Can mock to arbitrary computations

You can undo the mock at any time to return to the original computation:

c.unmock();

These actions will trigger a re-computation if necessary.

Looking at the past

.use returns the current value of the data source or computation, so how can you look at the past without resorting to keeping mutable state in your app code? .prev allows you to obtain the last value assumed by a given data source or computation the last time the current computation changed its value or otherwise notified its listeners or other computations which depend on it.

Here is a simple example that computes the difference between the old and new values of a data source whenever it produces a value:

final c = $(() {
    s.use; // Make sure it has a value
    late int res;
    s.react((val) => res = val - s.prevOr(0));
    return res;
}, memoized: false);

Note the use of .react in this example. .react marks the current computation to be recomputed for all values produced by a data source, even if it consecutively produces a pair of values comparing ==. .react will run the given function if the data source has produced a new value/error. As a rule of thumb, you should use .react over .use for data sources representing a sequence of events rather than a state.
.prevOr is a handy shortcut which returns the given fallback value instead of throwing NoValueException if the data source had no value the last time the current computation notified its listeners or other computations which depend on it.
memoized: false prevents the result of the computation from being memoized, as we want the result of .prevOr to always reflect the last value of s, even if the result of the computation did not change.

You can also create temporal accumulators:

final sum = Computed<int>.withPrev((prev) {
    var res = prev;
    s.react((val) => res += val);
    return res;
}, initialPrev: 0);

Computed queries

Your application might need to run queries with computed state as its parameters. You can achieve this using "async" computations and unwrap:

class FictionaryDatabase {
    Future<List<Object>> filterByCategory(int category, bool includeDeleted);
}

Stream<int> category; // Assume connected to the UI
Stream<bool> includeDeleted; // Assume connected to the UI
FictionaryDatabase db; // Assume connected to a database

final query = Computed.async(() =>
  db.filterByCategory(category.use, includeDeleted.use)).unwrap;

Using Computed.async disables some checks which don't apply for computations starting asynchronous operations.
unwrap returns a computation representing the last value produced by the last asynchronous operation returned by the computation it is applied to. In this example, it converts the computation from the type Computed<Future<int>> to Computed<int>.
unwrap is defined for computations returning Stream and Future, so the computation in the example would also work if the database returned a Stream instead of a Future. A database supporting reactive queries might do that.
Of course, other computations can use the result of the computed query, as it is a computation itself.

Stream utilities

Computed includes a minimal set of Streams likely to be useful in a reactive setting. You can find them at packages/computed/lib/utils.

FAQ

• Q: Why am I getting Computed expressions must be purely functional. Please use listeners for side effects.
• A: On debug mode, Computed runs the given computations twice and checks if both calls return the same value. If this does not hold, it throws this assertion. Possible reasons include mutating and using a mutable value inside the computation or returning a type which does not implement deep comparisons, like List or Set.

Pitfalls

Do not use mutable values in computations

Especially if conditionals depending on them are guarding .use expressions. Here is an example:

Stream<int> value;
var b = false;

final c = $(() => b ? value.use : 42);

As this may cause Computed to stop tracking value, breaking the reactivity of the computation.

Use the async mode for computations kicking off async operations

This will disable some checks which don't make sense for such computations.

Do not .use a Future/Stream inside the computation that created it

As this will lead to an infinite loop.

Futures returned from computations are not awaited

At least for memoization purposes. The re-run pass never awaits, even if a computation returns a Future. They will be passed as-is to downstream computations. If you want to instead return the values produced by the asynchronous operations returned by a computation, see .unwrap.

Do not forget to .use or .react your data sources

If a computation returns without calling either of these on a data source, Computed assumes it doesn't depend on it.

Keep in mind that .prev does not subscribe

It is also "subjective" to the running computation. Different functions can have different .prevs on the same data source or computation.

.react is not .listen

.react can only be used inside computations, .listen can only be used outside computations.
.react callbacks must not have side effects. .listen callbacks are where side effects are supposed to happen.
.listen keeps a reference to the given callback and calls it at a later point in time. .react either calls the given function before returning or doesn't call it at all.