Simple state mutations in NGXS with Immer

Modified August 15, 2022

Tim Deschryver

timdeschryver.dev

Recently I wrote Clean NgRx reducers using Immer and Austin hinted that I also should write one for NGXS. Of course I couldn’t let him down, so here we are!

NGXS link

NGXS is a state management pattern + library for Angular. Just like Redux and NgRx it’s modeled after the CQRS pattern. NGXS uses TypeScript functionality to its fullest extent and because of this it may feel more Angular-y.

Unlike NgRx, NGXS isn’t using reducers, but it relies on decorators and dependency injection to modify the state. More info and examples can be found below.

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In this post we’re not going to see every part of the NGXS API, just the way it handles state mutations. If you’re interested in getting to know NGXS in detail, there are some resources at the bottom of this post.

Also, NGXS just hit 1000 starts on GitHub!

Why Immer link

Immer can simplify the way we edit state.

Ease of use, you don’t have to learn a new API or concept because it’s just using normal JavaScript objects and arrays. This can also lower the transition from a backend role to a front end role.

The thing I like most is that it can just be plugged in wherever needed. Introducing Immer doesn’t mean you have to use it in everywhere in your code base.

About Immer link

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Immer (German for: always) is a tiny package that allows you to work with immutable state in a more convenient way. It is based on the copy-on-write mechanism.

With Immer you’re treating your state with what they call a draft. This draft can be mutated “in the normal way”, with the JavaScript API. The mutations applied on the draft produce the next state. All this while still having the benefit that the state will remain immutable in the rest of your application. To make this possible Immer relies on Proxies under the hood.

It is created by Michel Weststrate, the owner of MobX.

Side by side comparison link

It’s time for some code samples! Like my previous post, we’re going to use the classic shopping cart example where we can add and remove items from the cart.

The cart model can be presented as followed:

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export interface CartStateModel {
  cartItems: { [sku: string]: number };
}

To edit the state we have to define 3 actions. Just like with NgRx this can be done by using classes.

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export class AddToCart {
  static readonly type = '[Product List] Add to cart';
  constructor(public payload: { sku: string }) {}
}
 
export class RemoveFromCart {
  static readonly type = '[Product List] Remove from cart';
  constructor(public payload: { sku: string }) {}
}
 
export class EmptyCart {
  static readonly type = '[Cart] Empty cart';
}

Now that we have everything in place we can implement our actions.

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@State<CartStateModel>({
  name: 'cartItems',
  defaults: {
    cartItems: {},
  },
})
export class CartState {
  @Action(AddToCart)
  addProduct(ctx: StateContext<CartStateModel>, action: AddToCart) {
    const state = ctx.getState();
    ctx.setState({
      ...state,
      cartItems: {
        ...state.cartItems,
        [action.payload.sku]: (state.cartItems[action.payload.sku] || 0) + 1,
      },
    });
  }
 
  @Action(RemoveFromCart)
  removeProduct(ctx: StateContext<CartStateModel>, action: RemoveFromCart) {
    const state = ctx.getState();
    ctx.patchState({
      cartItems: {
        ...state.cartItems,
        [action.payload.sku]: Math.max((state.cartItems[action.payload.sku] || 0) - 1, 0),
      },
    });
  }
 
  @Action(EmptyCart)
  emptyCart(ctx: StateContext<CartStateModel>, action: EmptyCart) {
    ctx.setState({ cartItems: {} });
  }
}

As we zoom into the addProduct method we can see that an action is implemented by using the Action decorator, and it has a StateContext parameter and our AddToCart action. Using the StateContext we can retrieve the current CartStateModel slice of our application by using the getState() method. To edit the state we have to use setState(T) from the StateContext, which as the name gives away, sets the new state. NGXS does also have the functionality to modify a part of our state by using patchState(Partial<T>). An example can be found inside the removeProduct implementation, where we’re only modifying the cartItems inside our CartStateModel.

If we would use Immer to modify our state, the actions implementation would become: (No other changes are necessary, the rest of the code remains the same!)

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@State<CartStateModel>({
  name: 'cartItems',
  defaults: {
    cartItems: {},
  },
})
export class CartState {
  @Action(AddToCart)
  addProduct(ctx: StateContext<CartStateModel>, action: AddToCart) {
    ctx.setState(
      produce(ctx.getState(), (draft) => {
        draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku] = (draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku] || 0) + 1;
      }),
    );
  }
 
  @Action(RemoveFromCart)
  removeProduct(ctx: StateContext<CartStateModel>, action: RemoveFromCart) {
    ctx.setState(
      produce(ctx.getState(), (draft) => {
        const newAmount = draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku] - 1;
        if (newAmount > 0) {
          draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku] = newAmount;
          return;
        }
        delete draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku];
      }),
    );
  }
 
  @Action(EmptyCart)
  emptyCart(ctx: StateContext<CartStateModel>, action: EmptyCart) {
    ctx.setState(produce(ctx.getState(), (draft) => ({ cartItems: {} })));
  }
}

The difference here is that we’re mutating the state directly, well to be honest not directly… Because we’re actually mutating the Immer draft from the produce method, which is the current state of our StateContext. Every change on draft will be used to produce the next state, which just like before is being set with setState. Because the draft is our ‘full’ state, it doesn’t make sense to use patchState anymore, thus making this method obsolete.

Notice how easy it is to increment the current amount with Immer.

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draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku] = (draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku] || 0) + 1;

And we can also delete a property (cart item) from our cart by using existing and known JavaScript functionality.

delete draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku];

To give another example, let’s take a look at how we load the catalog:

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@Action(LoadCatalog)
loadCatalog(ctx: StateContext<CatalogStateModel>, action: LoadCatalog) {
  ctx.setState(
    produce(ctx.getState(), draft => {
      action.payload.products.forEach(product => {
        draft.products[product.sku] = product;
        draft.productSkus.push(product.sku);
      });
    }),
  );
}

Pretty straight forward, right?

Transitioning to Immer link

You can safely start using Immer in some parts of your application. Using Immer doesn’t mean a big bang migration, but it can be implemented where needed and this can be done step by step.

Just like I said in my previous post, by using immer you won’t lose any benefit of NGXS or NgRx. This means:

• selectors will still be memoized
• the redux devtools keeps working

BUT be aware that Immer comes with object freezing out of the box in development. This means that it will throw an error if the state is mutated from outside the produce function. If you want to mutate your state (which I don’t recommend by the way), you can turn off this feature with setAutoFreeze(false). If the application is built in production mode, this check will automatically be skipped for performance reasons.

Great, but how can I use it link

In order to use Immer you’ll have to install it first via npm install immer, and then import it with import produce from 'immer’.

Conclusion link

My conclusion is a bit different as in Clean NgRx reducers using Immer.

I still find Immer a great library, but in contrast to NgRx I think I would quicker use Immer with NGXS. Because to me it goes hand in hand with the NGXS mindset.

I also think it would be even more handy if we could do the following

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ctx.setState(
  produce((draft) => {
    draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku] = (draft.cartItems[action.payload.sku] || 0) + 1;
  }),
);

This post is meant to be a short introduction to Immer and to spread the word to the NGXS community (and also to score some points with Austin of course 😃). If you like what you’re seeing and want some more details or if you’re interested on how Immer works, there are some useful resources below.

The code from the cart example can be found on GitHub or directly on StackBlitz.

More resources link

• Introduction - NGXS
• Why another state management framework for Angular?
• Introducing Immer: Immutability the easy way
• The Immer repository on GitHub

Outgoing links

• Clean NgRx reducers using Immer

Feel free to update this blog post on GitHub, thanks in advance!

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