typesafe-actions

Typesafe "Action Creators" for Redux / Flux Architectures (in TypeScript)

Flexible functional API that's specifically designed to reduce types verbosity (especially maintainability concerns) and complexity (thanks to powerful helpers).

Found it usefull? Want more updates? Show your support by giving a ⭐

This lib is an integral part of React & Redux TypeScript Guide 📖

Reference implementation of Todo-App with typesafe-actions: https://codesandbox.io/s/github/piotrwitek/typesafe-actions-todo-app 💻

Now compatible with TypeScript v2.8.3 (rewritten using conditional types) 🎉

Features

• small and focused - according to rollup-plugin-filesize (Bundle size: 2.6 KB, Gzipped size: 808 B) check also on bundlephobia
• secure and optimized - no external dependencies with 3 different bundle types (cjs, esm and umd for browser)
• solid as a rock - complete test-suite for entire API surface with extra tests for static-types

Contributing Guide

If you're planning to contribute please make sure to read the contributing guide: CONTRIBUTING.md

Bug Report CodeSandbox

You can use this CodeSandbox to reproduce bug reports: https://codesandbox.io/s/github/piotrwitek/typesafe-actions/tree/master/examples/starter

Sponsor

If you like what we're doing here, you can help us by funding the work on specific issues that you choose by using IssueHunt.io!

This gives you the power to prioritize our work and support project contributors. Moreover it'll guarantee the project will be updated and maintained in the long run.

I keep sponsor anonymity by default but if you'd like your brand to be featured in this repo, please contact me at: piotrek.witek@gmail.com

---

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Compatibility
• Motivation
• Behold the Mighty "Tutorial"
• API Docs
  • utility-types
    • ActionType (RootAction type-helper)
    • StateType (RootState type-helper)
  • action-creators
    • action
    • createAction
    • createStandardAction
    • createAsyncAction
  • action-helpers
    • getType
    • isActionOf
    • isOfType
• Migration Guide
• Compare to others
  • redux-actions

---

Installation

// NPM
npm install typesafe-actions

// YARN
yarn add typesafe-actions

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Compatibility

If you support older browsers (e.g. IE < 11) and mobile devices please provide this polyfill:

• Object.assign

You could also consider including a global polyfill in your bundled application, such as core-js or babel-polyfill. You can check React guidelines on how to do that specifically: https://reactjs.org/docs/javascript-environment-requirements.html

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Motivation

When I was first starting with Redux and TypeScript I was trying to use redux-actions to simplify maintainability of action-creators. I was struggling and results were intimidating: incorrect type signatures and broken type-inference cascading throughout the entire code-base (read more detailed comparison).

Moreover alternative solutions in the wild have been either too verbose because of excess type annotations (primary maintainability concern) or used classes (hinders readability and enforce to use a new keyword 😱).

The solution for all the above pain points is finally here, the typesafe-actions. The core idea was to design an API that would harness the power of incredible type-inference 💪 to lift the "maintainability burden" of type annotations. In addition I wanted to make it "look and feel" as close as possible to idiomatic JavaScript we all know and love ❤️, maybe sometimes we even hate but anyway...

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---

Behold the Mighty "Tutorial"

To showcase flexibility and the power of type-safety provided by this library, let's build together the common parts of a typical todo-app following Redux architecture:

WARNING: Please make sure that you understand the following concepts of programming languages to be able to follow along with me: Type Inference, Control flow analysis, Tagged union types, Generics and some Advanced Types.

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- The Actions

Different projects have different needs and conventions vary across teams this is why typesafe-actions was designed and built with flexibility in mind. It provides 3 different factory functions so you can choose what would be the best fit for your project.

1. Classic JS style with constants FTW!

Using this simple function we'll have complete type-safety with minimal type declaration effort, but we're constrained to use constants (as in regular JS applications) because some of advanced action-helpers (getType, isActionOf) will not work with such action-creator. This is still a very compelling option, especially for refactoring existing projects.

import { action } from 'typesafe-actions';

import { ADD, TOGGLE } from './constants';

export const toggle = (id: string) => action(TOGGLE, id);
// (id: string) => { type: 'todos/TOGGLE'; payload: string; }

export const add = (title: string) => action(ADD, { title, id: cuid(), completed: false } as Todo);
// (title: string) => { type: 'todos/ADD'; payload: Todo; }

WARNING: When using string constants for action type, please be sure to use simple string literals. Don't use string concatenation, template strings or object map because your type will lose the type information, widening to it's supertype string (this is how TypeScript works).

// example './constants.js' file
export const ADD = '@prefix/ADD'; // type literal => '@prefix/ADD'
export const TOGGLE = '@prefix/TOGGLE'; // type literal => '@prefix/TOGGLE'

// Below will NOT work!!!
// export const ADD = `${prefix}/ADD`; // widened to string
// export default { ADD: '@prefix/ADD' } // widened to string

2. Opinionated without need for constants

This approach will give us access for all the action-helpers and eliminate the use of constants, but it's opinionated and will always accept 2 arguments (1st is payload, and 2nd is meta). It also has a very useful map chain method for extra flexibility.

import { createStandardAction } from 'typesafe-actions';

export const toggle = createStandardAction('todos/TOGGLE')<string>();
// (payload: string) => { type: 'todos/TOGGLE'; payload: string; }

export const add = createStandardAction(ADD).map(
  ({ title }: { title: string }) => ({
    payload: { title, id: cuid(), completed: false } as Todo,
  })
);
// ({ title: string }) => { type: 'todos/ADD'; payload: Todo; }

3. Most flexible with all helpers

This approach will gives us the best of both worlds: all the action-helpers will work and we have the flexibility of providing variadic amount of named parameters like with regular functions.

import { createAction } from 'typesafe-actions';

export const toggle = createAction('todos/TOGGLE', resolve => {
  return (id: string) => resolve(id);
});
// (id: string) => { type: 'todos/TOGGLE'; payload: string; }

export const add = createAction('todos/ADD', resolve => {
  return (title: string) => resolve({ title, id: cuid(), completed: false } as Todo);
});
// (title: string) => { type: 'todos/ADD'; payload: Todo; }

For more examples check the API Docs, there are plenty!

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- The Reducer

Here we'll start by generating a tagged union type of actions (TodosAction). It's very easy to do using TS type-inference and ActionType utility-type provided by typesafe-actions.

import { ActionType, getType } from 'typesafe-actions';

import * as todos from './actions';
export type TodosAction = ActionType<typeof todos>;

Now we define a regular reducer function by annotating state and action arguments with their respective types (use TodosAction for action type)

export default (state: Todo[] = [], action: TodosAction) => {

With static types in place we can finally leverage tagged union types. Using switch-cases on the common type property of action, we can distinguish and narrow the type of TodosAction to a single specific action type valid for the corresponding code block.

  switch (action.type) {
    case getType(todos.add): 
      // below action type is narrowed to: { type: "todos/ADD"; payload: Todo; }
      return [...state, action.payload];
    ...

Notice we are using getType action-helper with the respective action-creator as an argument for the corresponding switch case. This will help to reduce boilerplate and completely remove the need to use type-constants in our application.

Note: If your team prefers to use regular "type constants", no problem. You can still use them with typesafe-actions.

PRO-TIP: I recommend to create a RootAction in the central point of your redux store - it will model a complete representation of all possible action types in your application. You can even merge it with existing third-party declarations as shown below.

// types.d.ts
// example of including `react-router` actions in `RootAction`
import { RouterAction, LocationChangeAction } from 'react-router-redux';
type ReactRouterAction = RouterAction | LocationChangeAction;
import { TodosAction } from '../features/todos';

export type RootAction =
  | ReactRouterAction
  | TodosAction;

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- The Async-Flow

Starring redux-observable epics

To handle async-flow of request to a remote resources, we'll implement an epic. The epic will call a remote API using an injected todosApi client and then return a Promise. To help us simplify the creation process of necessary action-creators, we'll use createAsyncAction function providing us with a nice common interface { request: ... , success: ... , failure: ... } that will nicely fit with the functional API of RxJS. This will mitigate redux verbosity and greatly reduce the maintenance cost of type annotations for actions objects and action-creators that would otherwise be written by hand.

// actions.ts
import { createAsyncAction } from 'typesafe-actions';

const fetchTodos = createAsyncAction(
  'FETCH_TODOS_REQUEST',
  'FETCH_TODOS_SUCCESS',
  'FETCH_TODOS_FAILURE'
)<void, Todo[], Error>();

// epics.ts
import { fetchTodos } from './actions';

const fetchTodosFlow: Epic<RootAction, RootAction, RootState, Services> = (action$, store, { todosApi }) =>
  action$.pipe(
    filter(isActionOf(fetchTodos.request)),
    switchMap(action =>
      from(todosApi.getAll(...)).pipe(
        map(fetchTodos.success),
        catchError(pipe(fetchTodos.failure, of))
      )
    );

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- The Side-Effects

Starring redux-observable epics

To showcase handling of various side-effects in our application we'll implement an epic responsible of showing a notification when the user adds a new todo. In the async-flow section above we have already seen the usage of the isActionOf function. We used it to help us filter actions coming from the source stream using action-creators as an argument. It's also a type-guard so it'll narrow tagged union type of all actions (here we're using RootAction) to a specific action down the pipe in epics.

// epics.ts
import { isActionOf } from 'typesafe-actions';

import { add, toggle } from './actions';

const addTodoToast: Epic<RootAction, RootAction, RootState, Services> = (action$, store, { toastService }) =>
  action$.pipe(
    filter(isActionOf(add)),
    tap(action => { // here action type is narrowed to: { type: "todos/ADD"; payload: Todo; }
      toastService.success(...);
    })
    ...

PRO-TIP: It also works with multiple actions as an array argument

  action$.pipe(
    filter(isActionOf([add, toggle])) // here action type is narrowed to a smaller union:
    // { type: "todos/ADD"; payload: Todo; } | { type: "todos/TOGGLE"; payload: string; }

ALTERNATIVE: If your team prefers to use type-constants, I still got you covered! We have an equivalent isOfType function that will work with type-constants instead of action-creators.

// epics.ts
import { isOfType } from 'typesafe-actions';

import { ADD } from './constants';

const addTodoToast: Epic<RootAction, RootAction, RootState, Services> = (action$, store, { toastService }) =>
  action$.pipe(
    filter(isTypeOf(ADD)),
    tap(action => { // here action type is narrowed to: { type: "todos/ADD"; payload: Todo; }
    ...

PRO-TIP: Both helpers above prove useful in all conditional statements

import { isActionOf, isOfType } from 'typesafe-actions';

if (isActionOf(actions.add, action)) {
  // here action is narrowed to: { type: "todos/ADD"; payload: Todo; }
}
// or with type constants
if (isOfType(types.ADD, action)) {
  // here action is narrowed to: { type: "todos/ADD"; payload: Todo; }
}

PS: If you're wondering what the Services type is in the epics signature and how to declare it in your application to easily inject statically typed API clients to your epics also ensuring for easy mocking while testing resulting in clean architecture, please create an issue for it and perhaps I'll find some time in the future to write an article about it.

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---

API Docs

ActionType

powerful type helper that will infer union type from "action-creator map" object or "module import"

NB: This helper works similar to ReturnType but instead of function type paramerer it will accept "typeof action-creators" (it can be "import *" from module or "action-creators map")

import { ActionType } from 'typesafe-actions';

import * as todos from './actions';
export type TodosAction = ActionType<typeof todos>;


const actions = {
  action1: createAction('action1'),
  nested: {
    action2: createAction('action2'),
    moreNested: {
      action3: createAction('action3'),
    }
  }
};
export type RootAction = ActionType<typeof actions>;
// RootAction: { type: 'action1' } | { type: 'action2' } | { type: 'action3' }

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StateType

powerful type helper that will infer state object type from "reducer function" or "nested/combined reducers"

NB: This helper works similar to ReturnType but instead of function type paramerer it will accept "typeof reducer" or "nested/combined reducers map" (result of combineReducers)

Redux Combatibility: working with redux@4+ types

import { combineReducers } from 'redux';
import { StateType } from 'typesafe-actions';

// 
const todosReducer = (state: Todo[] = [], action: TodosAction) => {
  switch (action.type) {
    case getType(todos.add):
      return [...state, action.payload];
    ...
export type TodosState = StateType<typeof todosReducer>;

const rootReducer = combineReducers({
  router: routerReducer,
  counters: countersReducer,
});
export type RootState = StateType<typeof rootReducer>;

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action

simple action factory function, to create typed action

Warning: this action creator does not let you use action helpers such as getType and isActionOf

function action(type: T, payload?: P, meta?: M): { type: T, payload?: P, meta?: M }

Examples:

> Advanced Usage Examples

// type with payload
const createUser = (id: number, name: string) =>
  action('CREATE_USER', { id, name });
// { type: 'CREATE_USER'; payload: { id: number; name: string }; }

// type with meta
const getUsers = (meta: string) =>
  action('GET_USERS', undefined, meta);
// { type: 'GET_USERS'; meta: string; }

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createAction

create the action-creator of a typesafe compatible action

// type only
function createAction(type: T): () => { type: T };
// createAction('INCREMENT');

// type with payload
function createAction(type: T, executor): (...args) => { type: T, payload: P };
const executor = (resolve) => (...args) => resolve(payload: P)
// createAction('ADD', resolve => {
//   return (amount: number) => resolve(amount);
// });

// type with meta
function createAction(type: T, executor): (...args) => { type: T, meta: M };
const executor = (resolve) => (...args) => resolve(payload: undefined, meta: M)
// createAction('ADD', resolve => {
//   return (meta: string) => resolve(undefined, meta);
// });

// type with payload and meta
function createAction(type: T, executor): (...args) => { type: T, payload: P, meta: M };
const executor = (resolve) => (...args) => resolve(payload: P, meta: M)
// createAction('GET_TODO', resolve => {
//   return (id: string, meta: string) => resolve(id, meta);
// });

Examples:

> Advanced Usage Examples

import { createAction } from 'typesafe-actions';

// type only
const increment = createAction('INCREMENT');
expect(increment())
  .toEqual({ type: 'INCREMENT' });

// type with payload
const add = createAction('ADD', resolve => {
  return (amount: number) => resolve(amount);
});
expect(add(10))
  .toEqual({ type: 'ADD', payload: 10 });

// type with meta
const getTodos = createAction('GET_TODOS', resolve => {
  return (meta: string) => resolve(undefined, meta);
});
expect(getTodos('some_meta'))
  .toEqual({ type: 'GET_TODOS', meta: 'some_meta' });

// type with payload and meta
const getTodo = createAction('GET_TODO', resolve => {
  return (id: string, meta: string) => resolve(id, meta);
});
expect(getTodo('some_id', 'some_meta'))
  .toEqual({ type: 'GET_TODO', payload: 'some_id', meta: 'some_meta' });

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createStandardAction

simple creator compatible with "Flux Standard Action" to reduce boilerplate and enforce convention

function createStandardAction(type: T): <P, M>() => (payload: P, meta: M) => { type: T, payload: P, meta: M };
function createStandardAction(type: T): { map: (payload: P, meta: M): { ...anything } => (...args) => { type: T, ...anything } };

Examples:

> Advanced Usage Examples

import { createStandardAction } from 'typesafe-actions';

// type only
const increment = createStandardAction('INCREMENT')<void>();
expect(increment()).toEqual({ type: 'INCREMENT' });

// type with payload
const add = createStandardAction('ADD')<number>();
expect(add(10)).toEqual({ type: 'ADD', payload: 10 });

// type with meta
const getData = createStandardAction('GET_DATA')<void, string>();
expect(getData(undefined, 'meta')).toEqual({ type: 'GET_DATA', meta: 'meta' });

// type with payload and meta
const notify = createStandardAction('NOTIFY').map(
  ({ username, message }}: Notification) => ({
    payload: `${username}: ${message || ''}`,
    meta: { username, message }, 
  })
);
expect(notify({ username: 'Piotr', message: 'Hello!' })).toEqual({
  type: 'NOTIFY',
  payload: 'Piotr: Hello!',
  meta: { username: 'Piotr', message: 'Hello!' },
});

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createAsyncAction

create a composite action-creator containing three action handlers for async flow (e.g. network request - request/success/failure)

function createAsyncAction(requestType: T1, successType: T2, failureType: T3): <P1, P2, P3>() => {
  request: AC<T1, P1>,
  success: AC<T2, P2>,
  failure: AC<T3, P3>,
};

Examples:

> Advanced Usage Examples

import { createAsyncAction } from 'typesafe-actions';

const fetchUsers = createAsyncAction(
  'FETCH_USERS_REQUEST',
  'FETCH_USERS_SUCCESS',
  'FETCH_USERS_FAILURE'
)<void, User[], Error>();

const requestResult = fetchUsers.request();
expect(requestResult).toEqual({
  type: 'FETCH_USERS_REQUEST',
});

const successResult = fetchUsers.success([{ firstName: 'Piotr', lastName: 'Witek' }]);
expect(successResult).toEqual({
  type: 'FETCH_USERS_SUCCESS',
  payload: [{ firstName: 'Piotr', lastName: 'Witek' }],
});

const failureResult = fetchUsers.failure(Error('Failure reason'));
expect(failureResult).toEqual({
  type: 'FETCH_USERS_FAILURE',
  payload: Error('Failure reason'),
});

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---

getType

get the "type" property of a given action-creator
contains properly narrowed literal type

NOTE: ActionCreator type is generated from the createAction API. Simple action creators throw a RuntimeError

function getType(actionCreator: ActionCreator<T>): T

> Advanced Usage Examples

Examples:

const increment = createAction('INCREMENT');
const type: 'INCREMENT' = getType(increment);
expect(type).toBe('INCREMENT');

// in reducer
switch (action.type) {
  case getType(increment):
    return state + 1;

  default:
    return state;
}

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isActionOf

(curried assert function) check if action is an instance of given action-creator(s) it will narrow actions union to a specific action

NOTE: ActionCreator type is generated from the createAction API. Simple action creators throw a RuntimeError

// can be used as a binary function
isActionOf(actionCreator: ActionCreator<T>, action: any): action is T
isActionOf([actionCreator]: Array<ActionCreator<T>>, action: any): action is T
// or curried function
isActionOf(actionCreator: ActionCreator<T>): (action: any) => action is T
isActionOf([actionCreator]: Array<ActionCreator<T>>): (action: any) => action is T

Examples:

> Advanced Usage Examples

import { addTodo } from './todos-actions';

const addTodoToast: Epic<RootAction, RootAction, RootState> =
  (action$, store) => action$
    .filter(isActionOf(addTodo))
    .concatMap((action) => { // action is asserted as: { type: "ADD_TODO"; payload: string; }
      const toast = `Added new todo: ${action.payload}`;

// epics with multiple actions
import { addTodo, toggleTodo } from './todos-actions';

const logTodoAction: Epic<RootAction, RootAction, RootState> =
  (action$, store) => action$
    .filter(isActionOf([addTodo, toggleTodo]))
    .concatMap((action) => { // action is asserted as: { type: "ADD_TODO"; payload: string; } | { type: "TOGGLE_TODO"; payload: string; }
      const log = `Dispatched action: ${action.type}`;

// conditionals where you need a type guard
import { addTodo } from './actions';

if(isActionOf(addTodo, action)) {
  operationThatNeedsPayload(action.payload) // action is asserted as: { type: "ADD_TODO"; payload: string; }
}

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isOfType

(curried assert function) check if action type is equal given type-constant it will narrow actions union to a specific action

// can be used as a binary function
isOfType(type: T, action: any): action is Action<T>
// or curried function
isOfType(type: T): (action: any) => action is T

Examples:

> Advanced Usage Examples

import { ADD } from './todos-types';

const addTodoToast: Epic<RootAction, RootAction, RootState, Services> =
  (action$, store, { toastService }) => action$
    .filter(isOfType(ADD))
    .do((action) => {
      // action is narrowed as: { type: "todos/ADD"; payload: Todo; }
      toastService.success(`Added new todo: ${action.payload}`);
    })
    .ignoreElements();

// conditionals where you need a type guard
import { ADD } from './todos-types';

if(isOfType(ADD, action)) {
  return functionThatAcceptsTodo(action.payload) // action: { type: "todos/ADD"; payload: Todo; }
}

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---

Migration Guide

NOTE: typesafe-actions@1.x.x are best used with utility-types@1.x.x which contains $call utility that was removed in v2.x.x

v1.x.x to v2.x.x

// target action creator
getTodo('some_id', 'some_meta'); // { type: 'GET_TODO', payload: 'some_id', meta: 'some_meta' }

// deprecated API
const getTodo = createActionDeprecated('GET_TODO',
  (id: string, meta: string) => ({
    type: 'GET_TODO',
    payload: id,
    meta: meta,
  })
);

// new API equivalent (we offer 4 different styles - choose your preference)
const getTodoSimple = (id: string, meta: string) => action('GET_TODO', id, meta);

const getTodoVariadic = createAction('GET_TODO', resolve => {
  return (id: string, meta: string) => resolve(id, meta);
});

const getTodoStandard = createStandardAction('GET_TODO')<string, string>();

const getTodoStandardWithMap = createStandardAction('GET_TODO').map(
  ({ id, meta }: { id: string; meta: string; }) => ({
    payload: id,
    meta,
  })
);

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Compare to others

Here you can find out a detailed comparison of typesafe-actions to other solutions.

redux-actions

Lets compare the 3 most common action-creator variants (type only, with payload, with payload and meta)

tested with "@types/redux-actions": "2.2.3"

- type only (no payload)

/**
 * redux-actions
 */
const notify1 = createAction('NOTIFY');
// resulting type:
// () => {
//   type: string;
//   payload: void | undefined;
//   error: boolean | undefined;
// }

with redux-actions you can notice the redundant nullable payload property and literal type of type property is lost (discrimination of union type would not be possible) (🐼 is really sad!)

/**
 * typesafe-actions
 */
const notify1 = () => action('NOTIFY');
// resulting type:
// () => {
//   type: "NOTIFY";
// }

with typesafe-actions there is no excess nullable types, only the data that is really there, also the action "type" property is containing precise literal type

- with payload

/**
 * redux-actions
 */
const notify2 = createAction('NOTIFY',
  (username: string, message?: string) => ({
    message: `${username}: ${message || 'Empty!'}`,
  })
);
// resulting type:
// (t1: string) => {
//   type: string;
//   payload: { message: string; } | undefined;
//   error: boolean | undefined;
// }

first the optional message parameter is lost, username param name is changed to some generic t1, literal type of type property is lost again and payload is nullable because of broken inference

/**
 * typesafe-actions
 */
const notify2 = (username: string, message?: string) => action(
  'NOTIFY',
  { message: `${username}: ${message || 'Empty!'}` },
);
// resulting type:
// (username: string, message?: string | undefined) => {
//   type: "NOTIFY";
//   payload: { message: string; };
// }

typesafe-actions still retain very precise resulting type

- with payload and meta

/**
 * redux-actions
 */
const notify3 = createAction('NOTIFY',
  (username: string, message?: string) => (
    { message: `${username}: ${message || 'Empty!'}` }
  ),
  (username: string, message?: string) => (
    { username, message }
  )
);
// resulting type:
// (...args: any[]) => {
//   type: string;
//   payload: { message: string; } | undefined;
//   meta: { username: string; message: string | undefined; };
//   error: boolean | undefined;
// }

this time we got a complete loss of arguments arity with falling back to any type with all the remaining issues as before

/**
 * typesafe-actions
 */
const notify3 = (username: string, message?: string) => action(
  'NOTIFY',
  { message: `${username}: ${message || 'Empty!'}` },
  { username, message },
);
// resulting type:
// (username: string, message?: string | undefined) => {
//   type: "NOTIFY";
//   payload: { message: string; };
//   meta: { username: string; message: string | undefined; };
// }

typesafe-actions never fail to any type (🐼 is impressed by completely type-safe results)

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---

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2017 Piotr Witek piotrek.witek@gmail.com (http://piotrwitek.github.io)