We need 'Action' similar to RAC's 'Action' or how to solve this with RxSwift?

[Fab1n]

Imagine, we have a function like func openAlert() -> Observable<AlertResponse> where AlertResponse contains .OK and .Cancel for an alertView which has an OK and Cancel button.
Now I want to know if the observable is currently active and bind this information to a - let's say - button's rx_enabled state to make clear that while the action is ongoing, the button can't be pressed.
Doesn't make so much sense for Alerts, but here is another example:

On button tap, a server request is sent. How can I easily bind the button's rx_enabled subject to the actions ongoing state?

It is quite common that I want to know if some action is currently active or not.

How to solve this in a nice way with RxSwift?

[kzaher]

@Fab1n Take a look at RxExample app. We use ActivityIndicator class in Wikipedia image search and Github repository search example.

ActivityIndicator is pretty generic.

The trick is to use using operator and treat ActivityToken as resources.

That's how I would do it, not sure if there is some nicer way :)

Note:
Driver class is there to guarantee and express that we want to receive those "is it running" elements on main thread, that observable can't error out and is sharing subscription.

We could have exposed _variable.asObservable(), but this was kind of nicer way of communicating properties of that observable sequence.

[Fab1n]

Ok thank you 😀

I will have a look at it tomorrow

Am 12.11.2015 um 10:42 schrieb Krunoslav Zaher notifications@github.com:

@Fab1n Take a look at RxExample app. We use ActivityIndicator class in Wikipedia image search and Github repository search example.

ActivityIndicator is pretty generic.

The trick is to use using operator and treat ActivityToken as resources.

That's how I would do it, not sure if there is some nicer way :)

Note:
Driver class is there to guarantee and express that we want to receive those "is it running" elements on main thread, that observable can't error out and is sharing subscription.

We could have exposed _variable.asObservable(), but this was kind of nicer way of communicating properties of that observable sequence.

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[ashfurrow]

Looking forward to this!

[ashfurrow]

I've begun working on something like this here: https://github.com/ashfurrow/Action Still very early, and it's very scaled down from ReactiveCocoa's version, but I think it's a good start.

[kzaher]

Hey @ashfurrow ,
If you are looking for a way how to track activity, we've got something in RxExample app. We didn't export it to a separate project, but it's pretty simple :)

https://github.com/ReactiveX/RxSwift/blob/642b84e946792cb22ca72613b0410132d6edf5f2/RxExample/RxExample/Services/ActivityIndicator.swift

It will aggregate activity from multiple observables.

Let me know what you think ...

[ashfurrow]

Neat! I'll have to take a closer look once I've had my coffee ☕️

[kzaher]

It looks to me that Action = ActivityIndicator + flatMapLatest + some small additional juice :)

[ashfurrow]

Opened an issue to do it, I can't spare too much time on it right now but I'll see what I can do. Thanks so much for the suggestion!

[fpillet]

Action is awesome, thanks!

[Fab1n]

ActivityIndicator is really great! Thank you! Maybe we should make it an official API. Should we keep this issue open until we have it?

[kzaher]

We have some related projects grouped under RxSwiftCommunity organization.

I'm thinking maybe it would be good idea to add ActivityIndicator to some of them. Maybe RxViewModel. That is kind of @esttorhe's baby, so it depends what is his vision for that project :)

I'll probably create a new project under RxSwiftCommunity for reactive data sources for table and collection views. What is currently in RxDataSourceStarterKit and polish that code.

If people like @ashfurrow Action that much, maybe it would also make sense to move it under RxSwiftCommunity to better promote it.

[ashfurrow]

Yup! I've been discussing moving it over, but it needs to be "production ready" first. I have one remaining issue to get it there, but it needs replayAll, which will be in RxSwift's next release.

[esttorhe]

@kzaher hahaha. It was my baby now is part of the community.

I think ActivityIndicator would work great on RxViewModel

[kzaher]

We can probably close this issue for now.