React Query 3: What’s New and Improved

Unlock the Power of Asynchronous Data Management with React Query

When building React applications, developers often face the challenge of managing asynchronous data. By default, React doesn’t provide built-in support for routing, data fetching, and complex state management, leading to the development of third-party libraries and frameworks to meet these needs. One such library is React Query, which revolutionizes the way we handle asynchronous data in React.

The Need for Efficient State Management

In traditional React applications, developers often resort to fetching data inside a useEffect hook and then copying the result into a component-based state. However, this pattern has several drawbacks, including prop drilling, boilerplate code, and the mixing of client and server states.

Introducing React Query

React Query is a game-changer in the world of asynchronous data management. It provides a set of custom hooks that make fetching, caching, and updating asynchronous or server state in React easy. With React Query, you can efficiently manage server state by storing it in an in-memory cache, detecting changes, and periodically updating the state in the background.

Getting Started with React Query

To get started with React Query, you’ll need to set up the QueryClient and QueryClientProvider to connect your app to React Query’s cache. Then, you can use the useQuery hook to fetch data from your component. This hook provides a more elegant and maintainable way of handling asynchronous data, eliminating the need for complex useEffect and useState logic.

New Features in React Query 3

React Query 3 brings some exciting new features to the table, including:

• Query Data Selectors: Select or transform the desired parts of the query result, bringing some of the good parts of GraphQL to REST.
• The useQueries Hook: Fetch a variable number of queries and return an array with all the query results.
• Retry/Offline Mutations: Configure retry for mutations, ensuring that they are retried when the device is reconnected.
• Persist Mutation: Persist mutations to storage using hydrate functions, allowing you to pause and resume mutations when the device is offline.
• QueryObserver and InfiniteQueryObserver: Create or watch queries and infinite queries, respectively, with the new operator.
• QueriesObserver: Create or observe multiple queries with the new operator.
• Set Default Options for Specific Queries and Mutations: Set default options for specific queries and mutations using the setQueryDefaults and setMutationDefaults methods.
• The useIsFetching Hook: Return the number of queries your application is fetching in the background, with an optional filter to return only the numbers of queries that match the filter.

Conclusion

React Query is an awesome library that simplifies the process of managing asynchronous data in React. With its efficient caching, automatic retry, and periodic updates, React Query ensures that your components always receive the latest server state. By leveraging the new features in React Query 3, you can take your application to the next level. Get started with React Query today and discover a more efficient way of handling asynchronous data!