Add retryOnWindowFocus

[JoffrayBillon]

I don't know if it's a bug, an inconsistency or just a feature request but the params retryOnWindowFocus doesn't exist as the refetchOnWindowFocus is.

So the api behaves like retry again at each new windowFocus even with a retry at 0.

I know there is many case where the api send 404 and it's good for the app to retry when the data exist but there is also case where it's just a bad request and better not spam the api anymore.

So why not let to the developers the opportunity decide how the api should behaves ?

[TkDodo]

not sure what you mean or what retries have to do with window focus specifically ? If you don’t want to retry 404s, just implement the retry function ?

[JoffrayBillon]

You're right, I misspoke, when you set retry to false the request retries at each new window focus even if retry is set to false. There may be a bug here ?

I was simply proposing to add retries in the granular way that refetches are made because retryOnWindowFocus doesn't exist.

As an example:

  const { data } = useQuery({
    queryKey: ['key'],
    queryFn: async ({ signal }) => {
      const url = `localhost:3000/api`
      // This always return 404
      await axios.get(`${url}/return404`, { signal })
    },
    refetchOnMount: true,
    refetchOnWindowFocus: true,
    retryOnMount: false,
    retry: false,
    staleTime: 1000 * 60 * 5, // 5 minutes
  })

Assuming that the provider is correctly configured without any options.
This example will make a new request (refetch) onMount respecting the staleTime, but without ever retrying onMount.
Alternatively, it will make a new request (refetch) for each onWindowFocus without respecting the staleTime.

To test:
If I remove retryOnMount: false, both act in the same way, refetch onMount or onWindowFocus without respecting the staleTime.
Or if I remove refetchOnWindowFocus: true, the onWindowFocus is never refreshed again, regardless of the staleTime.

So there is, in fact, no way of making onMount and onWindowFocus act in the same way.
Because retryOnWindowFocus doesn't exist.

Did I make it more clear ?

PS: I fully understand that the staleTime depends on the refetch (onMount or onWindowFocus), the subject is the retry.

[TkDodo]

You're right, I misspoke, when you set retry to false the request retries at each new window focus even if retry is set to false. There may be a bug here ?

please don’t mix up retry with refetch.

retry

when a query fails, it will stay in fetchStatus: fetching (and status: pending on initial fetches) and internally do retries. Only when the retries are exhausted, the query will transition to the error state. This is all inside one querying process.

refetch

a refetch will happen when a query is considered stale and a trigger happens. This might yield multiple retries. If you have a query that is in error state, it will always be considered stale because it has no data.

that means, if you focus the window while you have a query in error state, it will re-fetch.

retryOnMount

This setting is not well named, as it doesn’t do anything with “retries” as I’ve described above. It’s mostly an internal setting that we have to set for suspense and error boundaries to work (in certain scenarios). I don’t think it’s intended for you to set. What it does is it prevents queries that are in error state from triggering a new fetch when a component mounts and that component is in error state.

---

if you don’t want any more fetches to happen when a component is in error state, then using throwOnError: true and using ErrorBoundaries is the best approach, because it unmounts the component with the query completely and gives you control over when to re-render the component (by re-setting the ErrorBoundary).