The Power of Gradual Data Loading
When building applications, we often encounter situations where a large number of HTTP requests need to be made. This can lead to performance issues, making the browser unresponsive and causing requests to fail due to insufficient resources. In this article, we’ll explore a solution to tackle these problems using a custom React Hook.
The Problem: Unresponsive Browsers and Failed Requests
Imagine a reporting application that loads data and aggregates it for presentation purposes. This requires making multiple HTTP requests, which can overwhelm the browser, leading to unresponsiveness and failed requests. We need a way to load data gradually and present loading progress to users.
Spinning Up a TypeScript React App
To demonstrate this issue, we’ll create a simple React app using Create React App. We’ll use the react-use library to simplify our code and create a custom hook to tackle the problem.
The Initial Approach: Firing 10,000 HTTP Requests
Our initial approach involves firing 10,000 HTTP requests in parallel using the Fetch API. However, this leads to a browser that becomes unresponsive, and many requests fail due to insufficient resources. The user is left in the dark, with no information about the progress.
Introducing the Throttle: A Solution to Unresponsiveness
To address these issues, we can implement a throttle, a mechanism that limits the rate at which operations are performed. In this case, we want to limit the rate at which HTTP requests are made. Our custom hook, useThrottleRequests, returns two properties: throttle and updateThrottle. The throttle property contains information about the total requests, errors, values, percentage loaded, and loading status. The updateThrottle property exposes functions to queue requests, handle successful requests, and handle failed requests.
Migrating to the useThrottleRequests Hook
By migrating our code to use the useThrottleRequests hook, we can ensure that the browser remains responsive, requests are successfully sent, and progress information is displayed to the user.
A Real-World Scenario: Building a GitHub Contributors App
Let’s apply our useThrottleRequests hook to a more realistic scenario. We’ll build an application that lists all contributors’ blogs for a given GitHub repository. We’ll use the GitHub REST API to fetch the necessary data and display progress information to the user.
The Result: A Responsive and Informative App
Our final app enables users to enter a GitHub organization and repository, loads the contributors, and displays a tile for each user with a listed blog. The app communicates progress as it loads, ensuring a responsive and informative user experience.
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