Data Fetching Patterns

Data Fetching Patterns

The monorepo uses SWR (stale-while-revalidate) for data fetching and caching.

SWR Basics

Simple Usage

import useSWR from 'swr';

function MyComponent() {
  const { data, error, isLoading } = useSWR('/api/data', fetcher);

  if (isLoading) return <div>Loading...</div>;
  if (error) return <div>Error: {error.message}</div>;

  return <div>{data.value}</div>;
}

Fetcher Function

const fetcher = (url: string) => fetch(url).then(res => res.json());

// Or with error handling
const fetcher = async (url: string) => {
  const res = await fetch(url);

  if (!res.ok) {
    const error = new Error('An error occurred while fetching the data.');
    error.info = await res.json();
    error.status = res.status;
    throw error;
  }

  return res.json();
};

Custom Hook Pattern

Basic Pattern

import useSWR from 'swr';

type UserData = {
  username: string;
  email: string;
  groups: string[];
};

export function useUserInfo() {
  const { data, error, isLoading } = useSWR<UserData>(
    '/auth/api/v1/user-info',
    fetcher
  );

  return {
    user: data,
    isLoading,
    error,
  };
}

With Conditional Fetching

export function useTimesSquarePage(pageSlug: string | null) {
  const { data, error, isLoading } = useSWR(
    pageSlug ? `/times-square/api/v1/pages/${pageSlug}` : null,
    fetcher
  );

  return {
    page: data,
    isLoading,
    error,
  };
}

With Parameters

export function usePageData(id: string, options?: { refreshInterval?: number }) {
  const { data, error, isLoading, mutate } = useSWR(
    `/api/pages/${id}`,
    fetcher,
    {
      refreshInterval: options?.refreshInterval,
    }
  );

  return {
    data,
    isLoading,
    error,
    refresh: mutate, // Manual revalidation
  };
}

Error Handling

In Components

function MyComponent() {
  const { data, error, isLoading } = useUserInfo();

  if (isLoading) {
    return <LoadingSpinner />;
  }

  if (error) {
    return (
      <ErrorMessage
        title="Failed to load user data"
        message={error.message}
        retry={() => window.location.reload()}
      />
    );
  }

  if (!data) {
    return <EmptyState message="No data available" />;
  }

  return <UserProfile user={data} />;
}

Global Error Handler

// _app.tsx
import { SWRConfig } from 'swr';

function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return (
    <SWRConfig
      value={{
        fetcher,
        onError: (error, key) => {
          console.error('SWR Error:', key, error);
          // Send to error tracking
        },
      }}
    >
      <Component {...pageProps} />
    </SWRConfig>
  );
}

Mutations

Optimistic Updates

function useUpdateUser() {
  const { data, mutate } = useSWR('/api/user', fetcher);

  const updateUser = async (updates: Partial<UserData>) => {
    // Optimistic update
    mutate(
      { ...data, ...updates },
      false // Don't revalidate yet
    );

    try {
      // Make API call
      const updated = await fetch('/api/user', {
        method: 'PATCH',
        body: JSON.stringify(updates),
      }).then(res => res.json());

      // Revalidate with real data
      mutate(updated);
    } catch (error) {
      // Rollback on error
      mutate();
      throw error;
    }
  };

  return { data, updateUser };
}

Revalidation

function MyComponent() {
  const { data, mutate } = useSWR('/api/data', fetcher);

  const handleRefresh = () => {
    mutate(); // Revalidate
  };

  const handleUpdate = async () => {
    await updateData();
    mutate(); // Revalidate after update
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <button
      {data && <DataDisplay data={data} />}
    </div>
  );
}

Caching and Revalidation

SWR Configuration

<SWRConfig
  value={{
    refreshInterval: 30000, // Revalidate every 30s
    revalidateOnFocus: true, // Revalidate when window regains focus
    revalidateOnReconnect: true, // Revalidate on network recovery
    dedupingInterval: 2000, // Dedupe requests within 2s
  }}
>
  <App />
</SWRConfig>

Per-Hook Configuration

const { data } = useSWR('/api/data', fetcher, {
  refreshInterval: 10000, // Override global setting
  revalidateOnFocus: false,
});

Mock Data

Development Mocks

// src/lib/mocks/userData.ts
export const mockUserData = {
  username: 'testuser',
  email: 'test@example.com',
  groups: ['admin', 'developers'],
  uid: 1000,
};

export const mockUserDataError = {
  error: 'Unauthorized',
  message: 'Invalid credentials',
};

Mock API Routes

// pages/api/dev/user-info.ts
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next';
import { mockUserData } from '../../../src/lib/mocks/userData';

export default function handler(
  req: NextApiRequest,
  res: NextApiResponse
) {
  // Simulate delay
  setTimeout(() => {
    res.status(200).json(mockUserData);
  }, 500);
}

Conditional Mocking

const fetcher = async (url: string) => {
  // Use mock in development
  if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development' && url.startsWith('/api/dev/')) {
    return fetch(url).then(res => res.json());
  }

  // Use real API in production
  return fetch(url).then(res => res.json());
};

Loading States

Skeleton Loaders

function MyComponent() {
  const { data, isLoading } = useData();

  if (isLoading) {
    return (
      <div>
        <Skeleton width="100%" height={60} />
        <Skeleton width="80%" height={40} />
        <Skeleton width="90%" height={40} />
      </div>
    );
  }

  return <DataDisplay data={data} />;
}

Suspense (Experimental)

import { Suspense } from 'react';

function MyComponent() {
  const { data } = useSWR('/api/data', fetcher, {
    suspense: true, // Enable Suspense
  });

  return <DataDisplay data={data} />;
}

// Usage
<Suspense fallback={<LoadingSpinner />}>
  <MyComponent />
</Suspense>

Pagination

function usePaginatedData(page: number, pageSize: number) {
  const { data, error, isLoading } = useSWR(
    `/api/data?page=${page}&size=${pageSize}`,
    fetcher
  );

  return {
    data: data?.items || [],
    total: data?.total || 0,
    isLoading,
    error,
  };
}

function PaginatedList() {
  const [page, setPage] = useState(1);
  const { data, total, isLoading } = usePaginatedData(page, 10);

  return (
    <div>
      {isLoading ? <LoadingSpinner /> : <List items={data} />}
      <Pagination
        current={page}
        total={total}
       
      />
    </div>
  );
}

Infinite Loading

import useSWRInfinite from 'swr/infinite';

function useInfiniteData() {
  const getKey = (pageIndex: number, previousPageData: any) => {
    if (previousPageData && !previousPageData.hasMore) return null;
    return `/api/data?page=${pageIndex}`;
  };

  const { data, size, setSize, isLoading } = useSWRInfinite(
    getKey,
    fetcher
  );

  const items = data ? data.flatMap(page => page.items) : [];
  const hasMore = data ? data[data.length - 1]?.hasMore : false;

  return {
    items,
    isLoading,
    hasMore,
    loadMore: () => setSize(size + 1),
  };
}

Best Practices

1. Create custom hooks for each API endpoint
2. Handle all states (loading, error, empty)
3. Use TypeScript types for data
4. Mock APIs for development
5. Configure revalidation appropriately
6. Use optimistic updates for better UX
7. Dedupe requests with SWR's built-in caching
8. Handle authentication in fetcher
9. Log errors for debugging
10. Test with mock data

Common Patterns

Dependent Fetching

function useUserAndPosts() {
  const { data: user } = useUserInfo();
  const { data: posts } = useSWR(
    user ? `/api/users/${user.id}/posts` : null,
    fetcher
  );

  return { user, posts };
}

Polling

const { data } = useSWR('/api/status', fetcher, {
  refreshInterval: 1000, // Poll every second
});

Prefetching

import { mutate } from 'swr';

function prefetchData() {
  mutate('/api/data', fetcher('/api/data'));
}

// Prefetch on hover
<Link => prefetchData('/api/page-data')}>
  Page
</Link>

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