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API Slices: Utilities

The API slice object includes various utilities that can be used for cache management, such as implementing optimistic updates, as well implementing server side rendering.

These are included as api.util inside the API object.

info

Some of the TS types on this page are pseudocode to illustrate intent, as the actual internal types are fairly complex.

updateQueryData​

A Redux thunk action creator that, when dispatched, creates and applies a set of JSON diff/patch objects to the current state. This immediately updates the Redux state with those changes.

Signature​

const updateQueryData = (
  endpointName: string,
  arg: any,
  updateRecipe: (draft: Draft<CachedState>) => void,
  updateProvided?: boolean,
) => ThunkAction<PatchCollection, PartialState, any, AnyAction>

interface PatchCollection {
  patches: Patch[]
  inversePatches: Patch[]
  undo: () => void
}

Parameters​

  • endpointName: a string matching an existing endpoint name
  • arg: an argument matching that used for a previous query call, used to determine which cached dataset needs to be updated
  • updateRecipe: an Immer produce callback that can apply changes to the cached state
  • updateProvided: a boolean indicating whether the endpoint's provided tags should be re-calculated based on the updated cache. Defaults to false.

Description​

The thunk action creator accepts three arguments: the name of the endpoint we are updating (such as 'getPost'), any relevant query arguments, and a callback function. The callback receives an Immer-wrapped draft of the current state, and may modify the draft to match the expected results after the mutation completes successfully.

The thunk returns an object containing {patches: Patch[], inversePatches: Patch[], undo: () => void}. The patches and inversePatches are generated using Immer's produceWithPatches method.

This is typically used as the first step in implementing optimistic updates. The generated inversePatches can be used to revert the updates by calling dispatch(patchQueryData(endpointName, arg, inversePatches)). Alternatively, the undo method can be called directly to achieve the same effect.

Note that the first two arguments (endpointName and arg) are used to determine which existing cache entry to update. If no existing cache entry is found, the updateRecipe callback will not run.

Example 1​

const patchCollection = dispatch(
  api.util.updateQueryData('getPosts', undefined, (draftPosts) => {
    draftPosts.push({ id: 1, name: 'Teddy' })
  }),
)

In the example above, 'getPosts' is provided for the endpointName, and undefined is provided for arg. This will match a query cache key of 'getPosts(undefined)'.

i.e. it will match a cache entry that may have been created via any of the following calls:

api.endpoints.getPosts.useQuery()

useGetPostsQuery()

useGetPostsQuery(undefined, { ...options })

dispatch(api.endpoints.getPosts.initiate())

dispatch(api.endpoints.getPosts.initiate(undefined, { ...options }))

Example 2​

const patchCollection = dispatch(
  api.util.updateQueryData('getPostById', 1, (draftPost) => {
    draftPost.name = 'Lilly'
  }),
)

In the example above, 'getPostById' is provided for the endpointName, and 1 is provided for arg. This will match a query cache key of 'getPostById(1)'.

i.e. it will match a cache entry that may have been created via any of the following calls:

api.endpoints.getPostById.useQuery(1)

useGetPostByIdQuery(1)

useGetPostByIdQuery(1, { ...options })

dispatch(api.endpoints.getPostById.initiate(1))

dispatch(api.endpoints.getPostById.initiate(1, { ...options }))

upsertQueryData​

A Redux thunk action creator that, when dispatched, acts as an artificial API request to upsert a value into the cache.

Signature​

const upsertQueryData = <T>(endpointName: string, arg: any, newEntryData: T) =>
  ThunkAction<Promise<CacheEntry<T>>, PartialState, any, UnknownAction>

Parameters​

  • endpointName: a string matching an existing endpoint name
  • arg: an argument matching that used for a previous query call, used to determine which cached dataset needs to be updated
  • newEntryValue: the value to be written into the corresponding cache entry's data field

Description​

The thunk action creator accepts three arguments: the name of the endpoint we are updating (such as 'getPost'), the appropriate query arg values to construct the desired cache key, and the data to upsert.

If no cache entry for that cache key exists, a cache entry will be created and the data added. If a cache entry already exists, this will overwrite the existing cache entry data.

The thunk executes asynchronously, and returns a promise that resolves when the store has been updated. This includes executing the transformResponse callback if defined for that endpoint.

If dispatched while an actual request is in progress, both the upsert and request will be handled as soon as they resolve, resulting in a "last result wins" update behavior.

Example​

await dispatch(
  api.util.upsertQueryData('getPost', { id: 1 }, { id: 1, text: 'Hello!' }),
)

patchQueryData​

A Redux thunk action creator that, when dispatched, applies a JSON diff/patch array to the cached data for a given query result. This immediately updates the Redux state with those changes.

Signature​

const patchQueryData = (
  endpointName: string,
  arg: any
  patches: Patch[],
  updateProvided?: boolean
) => ThunkAction<void, PartialState, any, UnknownAction>;

Parameters​

  • endpointName: a string matching an existing endpoint name
  • arg: a cache key, used to determine which cached dataset needs to be updated
  • patches: an array of patches (or inverse patches) to apply to cached state. These would typically be obtained from the result of dispatching updateQueryData
  • updateProvided: a boolean indicating whether the endpoint's provided tags should be re-calculated based on the updated cache. Defaults to false.

Description​

The thunk action creator accepts three arguments: the name of the endpoint we are updating (such as 'getPost'), the appropriate query arg values to construct the desired cache key, and a JSON diff/patch array as produced by Immer's produceWithPatches.

This is typically used as the second step in implementing optimistic updates. If a request fails, the optimistically-applied changes can be reverted by dispatching patchQueryData with the inversePatches that were generated by updateQueryData earlier.

In cases where it is desired to simply revert the previous changes, it may be preferable to call the undo method returned from dispatching updateQueryData instead.

Example​

const patchCollection = dispatch(
  api.util.updateQueryData('getPosts', undefined, (draftPosts) => {
    draftPosts.push({ id: 1, name: 'Teddy' })
  }),
)

// later
dispatch(
  api.util.patchQueryData(
    'getPosts',
    undefined,
    patchCollection.inversePatches,
  ),
)

// or
patchCollection.undo()

upsertQueryEntries​

A standard Redux action creator that accepts an array of individual cache entry descriptions, and immediately upserts them into the store. This is designed to efficiently bulk-insert many entries at once.

Signature​

/**
 * A typesafe single entry to be upserted into the cache
 */
export type NormalizedQueryUpsertEntry<
  Definitions extends EndpointDefinitions,
  EndpointName extends QueryKeys<Definitions>,
> = {
  endpointName: EndpointName
  arg: QueryArgFrom<Definitions[EndpointName]>
  value: ResultTypeFrom<Definitions[EndpointName]>
}

const upsertQueryEntries = (entries: NormalizedQueryUpsertEntry[]) =>
  PayloadAction<NormalizedQueryUpsertEntry[]>

Parameters​

  • entries: an array of objects that contain the data needed to upsert individual cache entries:
    • endpointName: the name of the endpoint, such as "getPokemon"
    • arg: the full query key argument needed to identify this cache entry, such as "pikachu" (same as you would pass to a useQuery hook or api.endpoints.someEndpoint.select())
    • value: the data to be upserted into this cache entry, exactly as formatted.

Description​

This method is designed as a more efficient approach to bulk-inserting many entries at once than many individual calls to upsertQueryData. As a comparison:

  • upsertQueryData:
    • upserts one cache entry at a time
    • Is async
    • Dispatches 2 separate actions, pending and fulfilled
    • Runs the transformResponse callback if defined for that endpoint, as well as the merge callback if defined
  • upsertQueryEntries:
    • upserts many cache entries at once, and they may be for any combination of endpoints defined in the API
    • Is a single synchronous action
    • Does not run transformResponse, so the provided value fields must already be in the final format expected for that endpoint. However, it will still run the merge callback if defined

Currently, this method has two main use cases. The first is prefilling the cache with data retrieved from storage on app startup. The second is to act as a "pseudo-normalization" tool. RTK Query is not a "normalized" cache. However, there are times when you may want to prefill other cache entries with the contents of another endpoint, such as taking the results of a getPosts list endpoint response and prefilling the individual getPost(id) endpoint cache entries.

If no cache entry for that cache key exists, a cache entry will be created and the data added. If a cache entry already exists, this will overwrite the existing cache entry data.

If dispatched while an actual request is in progress, both the upsert and request will be handled as soon as they resolve, resulting in a "last result wins" update behavior.

Example​

const api = createApi({
  endpoints: (build) => ({
    getPosts: build.query<Post[], void>({
      query: () => '/posts',
      async onQueryStarted(_, { dispatch, queryFulfilled }) {
        const res = await queryFulfilled
        const posts = res.data

        // Pre-fill the individual post entries with the results
        // from the list endpoint query
        dispatch(
          api.util.upsertQueryEntries(
            posts.map((post) => ({
              endpointName: 'getPost',
              arg: { id: post.id },
              value: post,
            })),
          ),
        )
      },
    }),
    getPost: build.query<Post, Pick<Post, 'id'>>({
      query: (post) => `post/${post.id}`,
    }),
  }),
})

prefetch​

A Redux thunk action creator that can be used to manually trigger pre-fetching of data.

Signature​

type PrefetchOptions = { ifOlderThan?: false | number } | { force?: boolean }

const prefetch = (endpointName: string, arg: any, options: PrefetchOptions) =>
  ThunkAction<void, any, any, UnknownAction>

Parameters​

  • endpointName: a string matching an existing endpoint name
  • args: a cache key, used to determine which cached dataset needs to be updated
  • options: options to determine whether the request should be sent for a given situation:
    • ifOlderThan: if specified, only runs the query if the difference between new Date() and the lastfulfilledTimeStamp is greater than the given value (in seconds)
    • force: if true, it will ignore the ifOlderThan value if it is set and the query will be run even if it exists in the cache.

Description​

The thunk action creator accepts three arguments: the name of the endpoint we are updating (such as 'getPost'), any relevant query arguments, and a set of options used to determine if the data actually should be re-fetched based on cache staleness.

React Hooks users will most likely never need to use this directly, as the usePrefetch hook will dispatch the thunk action creator result internally as needed when you call the prefetching function supplied by the hook.

Example​

dispatch(api.util.prefetch('getPosts', undefined, { force: true }))

selectInvalidatedBy​

A selector function that can select query parameters to be invalidated.

Signature​

function selectInvalidatedBy(
  state: RootState,
  tags: ReadonlyArray<TagDescription<string>>,
): Array<{
  endpointName: string
  originalArgs: any
  queryCacheKey: QueryCacheKey
}>

Parameters​

  • state: the root state
  • tags: a readonly array of invalidated tags, where the provided TagDescription is one of the strings provided to the tagTypes property of the api. e.g.
    • [TagType]
    • [{ type: TagType }]
    • [{ type: TagType, id: number | string }]

Description​

The function accepts two arguments

  • the root state and
  • the cache tags to be invalidated.

It returns an array that contains

  • the endpoint name,
  • the original args and
  • the queryCacheKey.

Example​

const entries = api.util.selectInvalidatedBy(state, ['Post'])
const entries = api.util.selectInvalidatedBy(state, [{ type: 'Post', id: 1 }])
const entries = api.util.selectInvalidatedBy(state, [
  { type: 'Post', id: 1 },
  { type: 'Post', id: 4 },
])

invalidateTags​

A Redux action creator that can be used to manually invalidate cache tags for automated re-fetching.

Signature​

const invalidateTags = (
  tags: Array<TagTypes | FullTagDescription<TagTypes>>,
) => ({
  type: string,
  payload: tags,
})

Parameters​

  • tags: an array of tags to be invalidated, where the provided TagType is one of the strings provided to the tagTypes property of the api. e.g.
    • [TagType]
    • [{ type: TagType }]
    • [{ type: TagType, id: number | string }]

Description​

The action creator accepts one argument: the cache tags to be invalidated. It returns an action with those tags as a payload, and the corresponding invalidateTags action type for the api.

Dispatching the result of this action creator will invalidate the given tags, causing queries to automatically re-fetch if they are subscribed to cache data that provides the corresponding tags.

Example​

dispatch(api.util.invalidateTags(['Post']))
dispatch(api.util.invalidateTags([{ type: 'Post', id: 1 }]))
dispatch(
  api.util.invalidateTags([
    { type: 'Post', id: 1 },
    { type: 'Post', id: 'LIST' },
  ]),
)

selectCachedArgsForQuery​

A selector function that can select arguments for currently cached queries.

Signature​

function selectCachedArgsForQuery(
  state: RootState,
  queryName: QueryName,
): Array<QueryArg>

Parameters​

  • state: the root state
  • queryName: a string matching an existing query endpoint name

Description​

The function accepts two arguments

  • the root state and

  • the name of the query

It returns an array that contains arguments used for each entry.

Example​

const args = api.util.selectCachedArgsForQuery(state, 'getPosts')

resetApiState​

Signature​

const resetApiState = () => ({
  type: string,
  payload: undefined,
})

Description​

A Redux action creator that can be dispatched to manually reset the api state completely. This will immediately remove all existing cache entries, and all queries will be considered 'uninitialized'.

Note that hooks also track state in local component state and might not fully be reset by resetApiState.

Example​

dispatch(api.util.resetApiState())

getRunningQueriesThunk and getRunningMutationsThunk​

Signature​

getRunningQueriesThunk(): ThunkWithReturnValue<Array<QueryActionCreatorResult<any>>>
getRunningMutationsThunk(): ThunkWithReturnValue<Array<MutationActionCreatorResult<any>>>

Description​

Thunks that (if dispatched) return either all running queries or mutations. These returned values can be awaited like promises.

This is useful for SSR scenarios to await all queries (or mutations) triggered in any way, including via hook calls or manually dispatching initiate actions.

Awaiting all currently running queries example
await Promise.all(dispatch(api.util.getRunningQueriesThunk()))

getRunningQueryThunk and getRunningMutationThunk​

Signature​

getRunningQueryThunk<EndpointName extends QueryKeys<Definitions>>(
  endpointName: EndpointName,
  args: QueryArgFrom<Definitions[EndpointName]>
): ThunkWithReturnValue<
  | QueryActionCreatorResult<
      Definitions[EndpointName] & { type: 'query' }
    >
  | undefined
>

getRunningMutationThunk<EndpointName extends MutationKeys<Definitions>>(
  endpointName: EndpointName,
  fixedCacheKeyOrRequestId: string
): ThunkWithReturnValue<
  | MutationActionCreatorResult<
      Definitions[EndpointName] & { type: 'mutation' }
    >
  | undefined
>

Description​

Thunks that (if dispatched) return a single running query (or mutation) for a given endpoint name + argument (or requestId/fixedCacheKey) combination, if it is currently running. If it is not currently running, the function returns undefined.

These thunks are primarily added to add experimental support for suspense in the future. They enable writing custom hooks that look up if RTK Query has already got a running query/mutation for a certain endpoint/argument combination, and retrieving that to throw it as a promise.

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