Unlocking the Power of Recoil: A Step-by-Step Guide to Refactoring Redux Apps
Recoil, the new state management library, has taken the developer community by storm, garnering nearly 9,000 stars on GitHub in just a few months. In this article, we’ll explore how to refactor Redux apps to Recoil, highlighting the key differences and benefits of each approach.
Learning by Refactoring: A Proven Strategy
One effective way to learn is by refactoring existing codebases from known to unknown technologies. In this case, we’ll refactor three small Redux apps to Recoil, demonstrating the simplicity and efficiency of Recoil’s state management system.
HelloUI: The Hello World Application for UI Development
Let’s start with a simple “hello world” app, bootstrapped with create-react-app and using React bindings for Redux via react-redux. To refactor this app to Recoil, we’ll begin by wrapping our root component in a “provider” component, similar to react-redux. However, unlike react-redux, Recoil doesn’t require a store prop; instead, it uses a Context Provider to manage state values internally.
Refactoring the Global State
Next, we’ll create and update the global state using Recoil’s atom function, which represents a piece of state. We’ll then use the useRecoilState Hook to read and update the state value, similar to React’s useState Hook.
Redux App #2: Fetching Data with Thunks
In our second example, we’ll refactor an app that fetches user profile details from a remote server using Redux-thunk. With Recoil, we’ll create an atom to hold the fetched data and use the useRecoilState Hook to read and update the state value. We’ll also trigger the data fetch using an async function, which sets the global state using the state updater function.
Redux App #3: Multiple User Profiles Fetched with Thunks
Our final example showcases Recoil’s strength in handling complex state dependencies. We’ll refactor an app that fetches multiple user profiles, including friends, using Redux-thunk. With Recoil, we’ll create an atom to hold the current user ID and an async selector that fetches the user data based on the ID. Recoil will efficiently recompute the state values and re-render components subscribed to these values.
The Benefits of Recoil
Recoil’s data-flow graph and efficient state management system make it an attractive alternative to Redux. By focusing on the flow of state via a graph data structure, Recoil provides a more intuitive and simple API, making it easier to manage complex state dependencies.
Get Started with Recoil Today!
Recoil is still a young library, but its potential is vast. Stay tuned for more articles exploring Recoil’s capabilities, and get set up with LogRocket’s modern React error tracking to optimize your development workflow.