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Components, Identity & Normalization
DO NOT EDIT THIS PAGE: This page is under heavy active development.
The Quick Start (om.next) introduced the fundamentals, now we'll explore more closely how Om Next simplifies coordination of state across the component tree without introducing boilerplate or additional complexity.
Before we begin we need to look at normalization and identity. Note the following two subsections are not intended to be entered into a REPL.
Consider the following bit of data. Let's assume for a moment that this is the data returned from a remote service based on a root query. Can you identify what is problematic about this representation in the context of a user interface?
(def init-data
{:list/one [{:name "John" :points 0}
{:name "Mary" :points 0}
{:name "Bob" :points 0}]
:list/two [{:name "Mary" :points 0 :age 27}
{:name "Gwen" :points 0}
{:name "Jeff" :points 0}]})The issue is that the value "Mary" appears twice. In this case
this value represents the same logical entity. While this is fine for
rendering, this representation is problematic for updates. You would
need to track all the places where "Mary" occurs and update them by
hand.
If you give an Om Next reconciler data without wrapping it in an atom, the reconciler assumes the data has not yet been normalized. It will use the root query to normalize the data. For example assume the following bit of code:
(def reconciler
(om/reconciler
{:state init-data
:parser (om/parser {:read read :mutate mutate})}))If you deref'ed the reconciler you would see the following:
{:list/one
[[:person/by-name "John"]
[:person/by-name "Mary"]
[:person/by-name "Bob"]],
:list/two
[[:person/by-name "Mary"]
[:person/by-name "Gwen"]
[:person/by-name "Jeff"]],
:person/by-name
{"John" {:name "John", :points 0},
"Mary" {:name "Mary", :points 0, :age 27},
"Bob" {:name "Bob", :points 0},
"Gwen" {:name "Gwen", :points 0},
"Jeff" {:name "Jeff", :points 0}}}Notice that all the data has been de-duplicated. In place of the
original values in :list/one and :list/two we instead have a
vector that can be used with get-in to get the actual
data. "Mary" now appears only once and all the fields are
preserved. We can now update "Mary" in one location and expect that
all parts of our user interface that need it will update accordingly.
But how was Om Next able to automatically normalize the data?
Surprise, surprise ... this falls out of colocated component queries with a small bit of extra help to determine identity.
Colocated queries actually give us an incredible amount of information with regards to intent.
(defui Person
static om/Ident
(ident [this {:keys [name]}]
[:person/by-name name])
static om/IQuery
(query [this]
'[:name :points :age])
Object
(render [this]
;; ... elided ...
))For example if you get a query from a component via
om.next/get-query you'll see that the query has some interesting
metadata:
(-> Person om.next/get-query meta)
;; => {:component om-tutorial.core/Person}This means we always know what component is associated with what data in the denormalized response.
However this isn't enough to normalize. We need to know what unique
identity value should replace the original one. So we implement the
protocol om.next/Ident. om.next/Ident takes props and returns a
unique key (unique to the client, not globally). This key has an
additional related purpose beyond normalization - we can also use this
key to know which components are backed by the same data.
So normalization simplifies updates. Providing an identity operation allows us to automate normalization based on the colocated queries. The identity operation also makes UI reconciliation trivial since we now know which UI elements map to which data.
Note on DataScript: the previous sections do not apply to a custom store like DataScript which already stores all data in a normalized form. Normalization is necessary only in the cases where you wish to represent client state with simple EDN data or where the data is being supplied by a remote service that responds to query expressions. These results will be in tree form ready to render, but again this form isn't ideal for updates.
Let's see how this works in practice. You can skip the following three sections if you've already done the setup from the Quick Start.
This tutorial uses Leiningen, Figwheel, and Google Chrome. You should install Leiningen and Google Chrome before proceeding. Leiningen is a standard tool for managing Clojure and ClojureScript library dependencies. Figwheel is a ClojureScript build tool and REPL that enables an expressive live programming model well suited for interactive application development. Figwheel also plays well with text editors that make traditional REPL integration more challenging.
You can of course use any web browser, but this tutorial only includes relevant instructions for Chrome to avoid tangential material.
Create a new project and switch into it:
mkdir om-tutorial
cd om-tutorialInside your project directory create a project.clj:
touch project.cljMake it look like the following:
(defproject om-tutorial "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:description "My first Om program!"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.7.0"]
[org.clojure/clojurescript "1.7.170"]
[org.omcljs/om "1.0.0-alpha21"]
[figwheel-sidecar "0.5.0-SNAPSHOT" :scope "test"]])A Leiningen project.clj file simply allows you to declare a variety
of properties about your project. In our the case the most important
is the list of :dependencies.
Now create a file script/figwheel.clj.
mkdir script
touch script/figwheel.cljChange script/figwheel.clj to look like the following:
(require '[figwheel-sidecar.repl :as r]
'[figwheel-sidecar.repl-api :as ra])
(ra/start-figwheel!
{:figwheel-options {}
:build-ids ["dev"]
:all-builds
[{:id "dev"
:figwheel true
:source-paths ["src"]
:compiler {:main 'om-tutorial.core
:asset-path "js"
:output-to "resources/public/js/main.js"
:output-dir "resources/public/js"
:verbose true}}]})
(ra/cljs-repl)This file describes how to build your ClojureScript project and starts a REPL. If you are new to ClojureScript you may find this file a bit overwhelming. If you would like to know more, after this tutorial you may want to work through the ClojureScript Quick Start to re-inforce fundamental ClojureScript concepts encountered in this tutorial.
We now need to provide some basic markup to host our ClojureScript application.
Make a file resources/public/index.html:
mkdir -p resources/public
touch resources/public/index.htmlChange the contents of this file to the following:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head lang="en">
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Om Tutorial!</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="app"></div>
<script src="js/main.js"></script>
</body>
</html>Create a file src/om_tutorial/core.cljs:
mkdir -p src/om_tutorial
touch src/om_tutorial/core.cljsEdit its contents to look like the following:
(ns om-tutorial.core
(:require [goog.dom :as gdom]
[om.next :as om :refer-macros [defui]]
[om.dom :as dom]))
(enable-console-print!)
(println "Hello world!")Start Figwheel:
lein run -m clojure.main script/figwheel.cljFor enhanced REPL behavior it's recommended that you install rlwrap. Under OS X this can be easily done with brew.
If you have rlwrap installed you can then launch with:
rlwrap lein run -m clojure.main script/figwheel.cljPoint your browser at http://localhost:3449. You should see a blank page with the title "Om Tutorial!" visible on your browser tab.
Open the Chrome Developer Tools with the View > Developer >
JavaScript Console menu. In the JavaScript Console you should see
Hello, world! printed out.
Change src/om_tutorial/core.cljs to look like the following:
(ns om-tutorial.core
(:require [goog.dom :as gdom]
[om.next :as om :refer-macros [defui]]
[om.dom :as dom]))
(enable-console-print!)
(def init-data
{:list/one [{:name "John" :points 0}
{:name "Mary" :points 0}
{:name "Bob" :points 0}]
:list/two [{:name "Mary" :points 0 :age 27}
{:name "Gwen" :points 0}
{:name "Jeff" :points 0}]})This is the same bit of data we saw above. It is important that the items in :list/one and :list/two are in a vector. Normalization does not touch items in a list.
Let's write our parsing code next and test as we go along. First lets deal with reading:
(defmulti read om/dispatch)
(defn get-people [state key]
(let [st @state]
(into [] (map #(get-in st %)) (get st key))))
(defmethod read :list/one
[{:keys [state] :as env} key params]
{:value (get-people state key)})
(defmethod read :list/two
[{:keys [state] :as env} key params]
{:value (get-people state key)})Note that in this case we must supply read functions - our data will be normalized so we have to build the original tree form. Fortunately doing this is usually a one liner. However even one liners can have bugs so we'll want to do some interactive testing with the REPL momentarily.
But before we do that we need some help from our components that will
map this data into the UI. Fortunately we can write components without
render functions to simplify design and testing. We know that we'll be
rendering a RootView with two lists and a Person component for
each logical person in our test data:
(defui Person
static om/Ident
(ident [this {:keys [name]}]
[:person/by-name name])
static om/IQuery
(query [this]
'[:name :points]))
(defui RootView
static om/IQuery
(query [this]
(let [subquery (om/get-query Person)]
`[{:list/one ~subquery} {:list/two ~subquery}])))The only new idea here is om.next/Ident. Like om.next/IQuery it's
a static method so that we can invoke regardless of whether we have
instantiated any components or not. This method takes the props the
component will receive (or has received) and return a unique
identifier. This identifier will be used for normalization (to dedupe)
as well as to identify which mounted components depend on the same
data and therefore should change together.
In any case, this is all we need to do to view a normalized version of our data, try the following at the Figwheel REPL:
(in-ns 'om-tutorial.core)
(require '[cljs.pprint :as pp])
(def norm-data (om/tree->db RootView init-data true))
(pp/pprint norm-data)You should see a normalized version of the data pretty printed.
Now let's verify that we can reconstruct the data:
(def parser (om/parser {:read read}))
(parser {:state (atom norm-data)} '[:list/one])You should see denormalized data.
Lets add some simple mutations to increment and decrement the :points
field of the various characters:
(defmulti mutate om/dispatch)
(defmethod mutate 'points/increment
[{:keys [state]} _ {:keys [name]}]
{:action
(fn []
(swap! state update-in
[:person/by-name name :points]
inc))})
(defmethod mutate 'points/decrement
[{:keys [state]} _ {:keys [name]}]
{:action
(fn []
(swap! state update-in
[:person/by-name name :points]
#(let [n (dec %)] (if (neg? n) 0 n))))})By now this should look pretty straightforward.
Let's verify that we can mutate and get the expected denormalized view in the Figwheel REPL:
(def parser (om/parser {:read read :mutate mutate}))
(def st (atom norm-data))
(parser {:state st} '[(points/increment {:name "Mary"})])
(parser {:state st} '[:list/one])You should see that "Mary" has her points incremented.
But wait! She also appears in :list/two, we better check that
as well:
(parser {:state st} '[:list/two])You should see that her score is correct in both places.
This is a lot of power for little effort. Normalization is a strategy directly lifted from Relay and Falcor.
Modify Person to the following:
(defui Person
static om/Ident
(ident [this {:keys [name]}]
[:person/by-name name])
static om/IQuery
(query [this]
'[:name :points :age])
Object
(render [this]
(println "Render Person" (-> this om/props :name))
(let [{:keys [points name] :as props} (om/props this)]
(dom/li nil
(dom/label nil (str name ", points: " points))
(dom/button
#js {:onClick
(fn [e]
(om/transact! this
`[(points/increment ~props)]))}
"+")
(dom/button
#js {:onClick
(fn [e]
(om/transact! this
`[(points/decrement ~props)]))}
"-")))))
(def person (om/factory Person {:keyfn :name}))This should look pretty straighforward.
After Person add ListView:
(defui ListView
Object
(render [this]
(println "Render ListView" (-> this om/path first))
(let [list (om/props this)]
(apply dom/ul nil
(map person list)))))
(def list-view (om/factory ListView))After ListView add RootView, the reconciler construction and kick off:
(defui RootView
static om/IQuery
(query [this]
(let [subquery (om/get-query Person)]
`[{:list/one ~subquery} {:list/two ~subquery}]))
Object
(render [this]
(println "Render RootView")
(let [{:keys [list/one list/two]} (om/props this)]
(apply dom/div nil
[(dom/h2 nil "List A")
(list-view one)
(dom/h2 nil "List B")
(list-view two)]))))
(def reconciler
(om/reconciler
{:state init-data
:parser (om/parser {:read read :mutate mutate})}))
(om/add-root! reconciler
RootView (gdom/getElement "app"))You should now see a UI that you can interact with. You'll see that if you change Mary's points in one list her points will change in the other. But you already knew that since you tested this in the REPL.
Open the Chrome Developer Console if it isn't already open. Notice that every component prints when it renders. Notice that after the initial render, components only re-render themselves on data changes - this is a significant render optimization.
At the same time we haven't had to resort to caching via local state or other shenanigans that would break time travel.
So you can have your cake and eat it too!
The full code for this tutorial follows.
The complete source for this tutorial.
(ns om-tutorial.core
(:require [goog.dom :as gdom]
[om.next :as om :refer-macros [defui]]
[om.dom :as dom]))
(enable-console-print!)
(def init-data
{:list/one [{:name "John" :points 0}
{:name "Mary" :points 0}
{:name "Bob" :points 0}]
:list/two [{:name "Mary" :points 0 :age 27}
{:name "Gwen" :points 0}
{:name "Jeff" :points 0}]})
;; -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
;; Parsing
(defmulti read om/dispatch)
(defn get-people [state key]
(let [st @state]
(into [] (map #(get-in st %)) (get st key))))
(defmethod read :list/one
[{:keys [state] :as env} key params]
{:value (get-people state key)})
(defmethod read :list/two
[{:keys [state] :as env} key params]
{:value (get-people state key)})
(defmulti mutate om/dispatch)
(defmethod mutate 'points/increment
[{:keys [state]} _ {:keys [name]}]
{:action
(fn []
(swap! state update-in
[:person/by-name name :points]
inc))})
(defmethod mutate 'points/decrement
[{:keys [state]} _ {:keys [name]}]
{:action
(fn []
(swap! state update-in
[:person/by-name name :points]
#(let [n (dec %)] (if (neg? n) 0 n))))})
;; -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
;; Components
(defui Person
static om/Ident
(ident [this {:keys [name]}]
[:person/by-name name])
static om/IQuery
(query [this]
'[:name :points :age])
Object
(render [this]
(println "Render Person" (-> this om/props :name))
(let [{:keys [points name] :as props} (om/props this)]
(dom/li nil
(dom/label nil (str name ", points: " points))
(dom/button
#js {:onClick
(fn [e]
(om/transact! this
`[(points/increment ~props)]))}
"+")
(dom/button
#js {:onClick
(fn [e]
(om/transact! this
`[(points/decrement ~props)]))}
"-")))))
(def person (om/factory Person {:keyfn :name}))
(defui ListView
Object
(render [this]
(println "Render ListView" (-> this om/path first))
(let [list (om/props this)]
(apply dom/ul nil
(map person list)))))
(def list-view (om/factory ListView))
(defui RootView
static om/IQuery
(query [this]
(let [subquery (om/get-query Person)]
`[{:list/one ~subquery} {:list/two ~subquery}]))
Object
(render [this]
(println "Render RootView")
(let [{:keys [list/one list/two]} (om/props this)]
(apply dom/div nil
[(dom/h2 nil "List A")
(list-view one)
(dom/h2 nil "List B")
(list-view two)]))))
(def reconciler
(om/reconciler
{:state init-data
:parser (om/parser {:read read :mutate mutate})}))
(om/add-root! reconciler
RootView (gdom/getElement "app"))