RemoteData and WebData to use with bs-fetch and bs-json for BuckleScript
RemoteData.t is a simple variant type that allows you to store a data that can have 4 potential states:
- Success('a): your data has been successfully retrieved and stored
- Failure('e): your data could not be retrieved
- Loading: your data is beeing fetched
- NotAsked: you didn't fetch your data yet
This type provides you many usefull functions to handle your data: map, andThen, withDefault, fromOption, fromResult, fromPromise, ...
The main goal for this type is to be used for HTTP requests. That's where WebData comes into play.
WebData.t is a RemoteData.t type but with the error type specified as a WebData.error. The WebData module provides some usefull functions to fetch data from API and convert it to a WebData.t. You can even provide your own Json decoder to convert the result of your API call to a WebData.t of any type you want/need.
type person = {
  age: int,
  name: string
};
module Decode = {
  let personDecoderExn = json =>
    Json.Decode.{
      age: json |> field("age", int),
      name: json |> field("name", string)
    };
    
  let personDecoder = json =>
    try (Belt.Result.Ok(personDecoderExn(json))) {
    | Json.Decode.DecodeError(err) => Belt.Result.Error(err)
    };    
};
/* At app launch say you set your data state to `NotAsked` */
let data: WebData.t(person) = RemoteData.NotAsked;
/* You received an event and you need to retrieve your data */
let data: WebData.t(person) = RemoteData.Loading;
Fetch.fetch("http://my-api")
|> WebData.fromResponse(Decode.personDecoder)
|> Js.Promise.then_(data => {
  /* Here your data is still a WebData.t(person) and will be
    either Success(person), or Failure(httpError) */
});npm install --save bs-remotedata
Then add bs-remotedata to bs-dependencies in your bsconfig.json:
{
  ...
  "bs-dependencies": ["bs-remotedata"]
}
For the moment, please see the interface files: