Fetcher
Responsible for retrieving data from remote sources, such as web services or APIs. It defines how fresh data is fetched when the the Store doesn’t have the required information or when the data needs to be refreshed.
Purpose of the Fetcher
- Data Retrieval: The Fetcher abstracts the logic of fetching data from remote sources, allowing the Store to request data without needing to know the details of how and where the data is obtained.
- Error Handling: It provides a consistent way to handle errors that may occur during data retrieval.
- Multiple Responses: The Fetcher supports both single and multiple responses per request, accommodating various network protocols like HTTP and WebSockets.
- Fallback Mechanisms: It allows specifying fallback Fetchers to use alternative data sources if the primary fetch fails.
APIs
Fetcher
Fetcher has the following structure:
The type representing the key used to identify the data to fetch. For example,
if fetching a list of posts, this could be an Int
representing the post ID.
The type representing the data fetched from the remote source. For example, if
fetching a list of posts, this could be List<Post>
representing the list
of posts.
An optional unique name for the Fetcher, useful when differentiating between multiple fetchers, particularly when using fallbacks.
A function that takes a key and returns a Flow<FetcherResult<Network>>
,
representing the asynchronous stream of fetched data or errors.
FetcherResult
When the Fetcher retrieves data, it wraps the result in a FetcherResult, which can represent either a successful data retrieval or an error.
FetcherResult.Data
Represents a successful fetch.
The fetched data.
An optional string to identify the source of the data.
FetcherResult.Error
Represents an error that occurred during fetching.
FetcherResult.Error.Exception
Used to represent an exception that occurred.
The exception that occurred.
FetcherResult.Error.Message
Used to represent an error that occurred without an exception being thrown.
The error message.
FetcherResult.Error.Custom
Used to represent a custom error. This is useful when the network returns an error object that is not an exception. For example, a union type returned from a gRPC call.
The type representing the custom error. For example, if fetching a list of
posts, this could be PostNetworkError
.
The custom error.
Data Flow
Data Request
Application code requests data from the Store.
Extension for Making a Cached Data Request:
Extension for Making a Fresh Data Request:
Client-Side Checks Conditional On Request Type
Fresh Data Requests Bypass Client-Side Checks:
If the request is for fresh data, the Store bypasses the Memory Cache, Source Of Truth, and Validator and invokes the Fetcher immediately.
Cache Check
If the request is for cached data, the Store checks the Memory Cache for the requested data. If the Memory Cache does not contain the data, the Store checks the Source Of Truth, if the Store is configured with a Source Of Truth.
Data Fetching
The Fetcher retrieves data from the remote source, emitting FetcherResult objects.
Error Handling
If an error occurs, the Fetcher emits a FetcherResult.Error, which the Store can handle appropriately.
Data Storage
Successful data is written to the Source Of Truth and Memory Cache.
Data Delivery
The Store provides the data to the application in the form of a StoreReadResponse.