How to communicate with a polymorphic child component in Elm? - functional-programming

My main program has an update function of
update : Msg -> Model -> ( Model, Cmd Msg )
To communicate with sub-components we can add another variant and wrap our messages in a new message
type alias Model =
{ ...
, child : Child.Model
}
type Msg
= ...
| ChildMsg Child.Msg
update msg model =
case msg of
...
ChildMsg childMsg ->
let
( childModel, cmd ) =
Child.update childMsg model.child
updatedModel =
{ model | child = childModel }
childCmd =
Cmd.map ChildMsg cmd
in
( updatedModel, childCmd )
However this seem challenging if the type of my sub-component's update function does not match the parent. Consider a child with a polymorphic update function:
-- PolymorphicChild.elm
update : Msg a -> Model -> ( Model, Cmd (Msg a) )
When running a command from this module, I must wrap it
PolymorphicChild.someCommand : Cmd (Msg Foo)
PolymorphicChild.someCommand
|> Cmd.map PolymorphicChild
However, this produces a Msg (PolymorphicChild.Msg Foo), not the Msg PolymorphicChild.Msg my App is expecting.
The right side of (|>) is causing a type mismatch.
(|>) is expecting the right side to be a:
Cmd (PolyMorphicChild.Msg Foo) -> a
But the right side is:
Cmd Polymorphic.Msg -> Cmd Msg
I tried adding a polymorphic parameter to App.Msg
-- App.elm
type Msg a =
= ..
| PolymorphicChildMsg (PolymorphicChild.Msg a)
But it basically blows up my entire program. Every function involving App.Msg needs to somehow be changed to work with the new child component.
How can I unify the two types and get the two components working together?

I think the problem is that you're leaking too much information in your publicly exposed Msg type. Your use of the type parameter of Msg a seems limited to a known set of types, either an Author, Category, Post, or Tag. From skimming your code, it looks like it will never be anything but one of those four, so the fact that you are abstracting things in this manner should be kept inside of this module rather than exposing it and burdening any other code that may be pulling this in.
I think you need to move the abstraction down a level to avoid parameterizing your public Msg type. I would suggest having four concrete constructors for Msg instead of parameterizing it, and shift the abstraction down to a helper LoadInfo a type:
type alias LoadInfo a =
{ worker : Worker a
, url : Url
, result : Result Http.Error ( Int, List a )
}
type Msg
= LoadPost (LoadInfo Post)
| LoadCategory (LoadInfo Category)
| LoadTag (LoadInfo Tag)
| LoadAuthor (LoadInfo Author)

Related

ELM QueryString parser dont compile

I am really trying to learn a bit of ELM, but my mind collapse at the query parse, my idea was to create a function to get a query string value by name something like: given an query string ?name=Neuber a function like this getParam "name" that would return Neuber
But its failing at most basic example, it doesn't even compile
page comes from here
routeParser comes from here
module Main exposing (..)
-- import Url.Parser exposing (Parser, (</>), (<?>), oneOf, s)
import Url.Parser.Query exposing (int, map, map2, string)
type alias QueryParams =
{ search : Maybe String
, page : Maybe Int
}
routeParser : Url.Parser.Query.Parser QueryParams
routeParser = map2 QueryParams (string "search") (int "page")
page : Url.Parser.Query.Parser Int
page = map (Result.withDefault 1) (int "page")
The error i got
-- TYPE MISMATCH ---------------- /a/long/way/to/project/src/Main.elm
The 2nd argument to `map` is not what I expect:
15| page = map (Result.withDefault 1) (int "page")
^^^^^^^^^^
This `int` call produces:
Url.Parser.Query.Parser (Maybe Int)
But `map` needs the 2nd argument to be:
Url.Parser.Query.Parser (Result x number)
Hint: I always figure out the argument types from left to right. If an argument
is acceptable, I assume it is “correct” and move on. So the problem may actually
be in one of the previous arguments!
The immediate problem is that int "page" will return a Maybe Int, but you're trying to use it with Result.withDefault, which, as the error message says, expects a Result. The fix for this is just to use Maybe.withDefault instead.

What's a good pattern to manage impossible states in Elm?

Maybe you can help. I'm an Elm beginner and I'm struggling with a rather mundane problem. I'm quite excited with Elm and I've been rather successful with smaller things, so now I tried something more complex but I just can't seem to get my head around it.
I'm trying to build something in Elm that uses a graph-like underlying data structure. I create the graph with a fluent/factory pattern like this:
sample : Result String MyThing
sample =
MyThing.empty
|> addNode 1 "bobble"
|> addNode 2 "why not"
|> addEdge 1 2 "some data here too"
When this code returns Ok MyThing, then the whole graph has been set up in a consistent manner, guaranteed, i.e. all nodes and edges have the required data and the edges for all nodes actually exist.
The actual code has more complex data associated with the nodes and edges but that doesn't matter for the question. Internally, the nodes and edges are stored in the Dict Int element.
type alias MyThing =
{ nodes : Dict Int String
, edges : Dict Int { from : Int, to : Int, label : String }
}
Now, in the users of the module, I want to access the various elements of the graph. But whenever I access one of the nodes or edges with Dict.get, I get a Maybe. That's rather inconvenient because by the virtue of my constructor code I know the indexes exist etc. I don't want to clutter upstream code with Maybe and Result when I know the indexes in an edge exist. To give an example:
getNodeTexts : Edge -> MyThing -> Maybe (String, String)
getNodeTexts edge thing =
case Dict.get edge.from thing.nodes of
Nothing ->
--Yeah, actually this can never happen...
Nothing
Just fromNode -> case Dict.get edge.to thing.nodes of
Nothing ->
--Again, this can never actually happen because the builder code prevents it.
Nothing
Just toNode ->
Just ( fromNode.label, toNode.label )
That's just a lot of boilerplate code to handle something I specifically prevented in the factory code. But what's even worse: Now the consumer needs extra boilerplate code to handle the Maybe--potentially not knowing that the Maybe will actually never be Nothing. The API is sort of lying to the consumer. Isn't that something Elm tries to avoid? Compare to the hypothetical but incorrect:
getNodeTexts : Edge -> MyThing -> (String, String)
getNodeTexts edge thing =
( Dict.get edge.from thing.nodes |> .label
, Dict.get edge.to thing.nodes |> .label
)
An alternative would be not to use Int IDs but use the actual data instead--but then updating things gets very tedious as connectors can have many edges. Managing state without the decoupling through Ints just doesn't seem like a good idea.
I feel there must be a solution to this dilemma using opaque ID types but I just don't see it. I would be very grateful for any pointers.
Note: I've also tried to use both drathier and elm-community elm-graph libraries but they don't address the specific question. They rely on Dict underneath as well, so I end up with the same Maybes.
There is no easy answer to your question. I can offer one comment and a coding suggestion.
You use the magic words "impossible state" but as OOBalance has pointed out, you can create an impossible state in your modelling. The normal meaning of "impossible state" in Elm is precisely in relation to modelling e.g. when you use two Bools to represent 3 possible states. In Elm you can use a custom type for this and not leave one combination of bools in your code.
As for your code, you can reduce its length (and perhaps complexity) with
getNodeTexts : Edge -> MyThing -> Maybe ( String, String )
getNodeTexts edge thing =
Maybe.map2 (\ n1 n2 -> ( n1.label, n2.label ))
(Dict.get edge.from thing.nodes)
(Dict.get edge.to thing.nodes)
From your description, it looks to me like those states actually aren't impossible.
Let's start with your definition of MyThing:
type alias MyThing =
{ nodes : Dict Int String
, edges : Dict Int { from : Int, to : Int, label : String }
}
This is a type alias, not a type – meaning the compiler will accept MyThing in place of {nodes : Dict Int String, edges : Dict Int {from : Int, to : Int, label : String}} and vice-versa.
So rather than construct a MyThing value safely using your factory functions, I can write:
import Dict
myThing = { nodes = Dict.empty, edges = Dict.fromList [(0, {from = 0, to = 1, label = "Edge 0"})] }
… and then pass myThing to any of your functions expecting MyThing, even though the nodes connected by Edge 0 aren't contained in myThing.nodes.
You can fix this by changing MyThing to be a custom type:
type MyThing
= MyThing { nodes : Dict Int String
, edges : Dict Int { from : Int, to : Int, label : String }
}
… and exposing it using exposing (MyThing) rather than exposing (MyThing(..)). That way, no constructor for MyThing is exposed, and code outside of your module must use the factory functions to obtain a value.
The same applies to Edge, wich I'm assuming is defined as:
type alias Edge =
{ from : Int, to : Int, label : String }
Unless it is changed to a custom type, it is trivial to construct arbitrary Edge values:
type Edge
= Edge { from : Int, to : Int, label : String }
Then however, you will need to expose some functions to obtain Edge values to pass to functions like getNodeTexts. Let's assume I have obtained a MyThing and one of its edges:
myThing : MyThing
-- created using factory functions
edge : Edge
-- an edge of myThing
Now I create another MyThing value, and pass it to getNodeTexts along with edge:
myOtherThing : MyThing
-- a different value of type MyThing
nodeTexts = getNodeTexts edge myOtherThing
This should return Maybe.Nothing or Result.Err String, but certainly not (String, String) – the edge does not belong to myOtherThing, so there is no guarantee its nodes are contained in it.

How to recur over extensible records?

I am a relative beginner in Elm. I learned how to recur over records, and to create extensible records. My target application has tree-shaped data, that is to be rendered in several tree views.
In order for Elm to allow recursive models, one needs
a Union type for the children field,
a Maybe in that type definition, and
the lazy anonymous function construct if Json decoding is needed.
So far so good, but I cannot combine recursion with extension. Here below is a minimized version of how far I got. This program is capable of rendering either one of the two example types (Folder and Note), but not both. (see lines commented with -- NOTE and -- FOLDER).
The problem is with the kids function. Elm doesn't allow it to produce two different output types. I am stuck with either duplicating the code, or do without record extensions. Both seems like show-stoppers.
Is there a way to get this working with both, extension and recursion, and without code duplication?
Run on Ellie
module Main exposing (main)
import Html exposing (..)
import Maybe
-- MAIN
main = Html.beginnerProgram
{ model = init
, update = update
, view = view
}
-- MODEL
type alias Model =
{ folder : Folder
, note : Note
}
type alias Node a =
{ a | name : String
, children : Children a
}
type alias Folder =
{ name : String
, children : ChildFolders
}
type alias Note =
{ name : String
, children : ChildNotes
}
type Children a = Children a (Maybe (List (Node a)))
type ChildFolders = ChildFolders (Maybe (List Folder))
type ChildNotes = ChildNotes (Maybe (List Note))
-- INIT
init : Model
init = Model
(Folder "Parent F" someFolders)
(Note "Parent N" (ChildNotes Nothing))
someFolders : ChildFolders
someFolders = ChildFolders
( Just
( [ Folder "Child F1" (ChildFolders Nothing)
, Folder "Child F2" (ChildFolders Nothing)
, Folder "Child F3" (ChildFolders Nothing)
]
)
)
-- UPDATE
type Msg = NoOp
update : Msg -> Model -> Model
update msg model =
case msg of
NoOp -> model
-- VIEW
view : Model -> Html msg
view model =
div []
[ viewBranch model.folder -- FOLDER
-- , viewBranch model.note -- NOTE
]
-- viewBranch : (?) -> Html msg
viewBranch node =
uli
( text node.name
:: ( node
|> kids
|> List.map viewBranch
)
)
uli : List (Html msg) -> Html msg
uli items = ul [] [ li [] items ]
-- kids : (?) -> (?)
kids { children } =
case children of
(ChildFolders data) -> Maybe.withDefault [] data -- FOLDER
-- (ChildNotes data) -> Maybe.withDefault [] data -- NOTE

Railway oriented programming with Async operations

Previously asked similar question but somehow I'm not finding my way out, attempting again with another example.
The code as a starting point (a bit trimmed) is available at https://ideone.com/zkQcIU.
(it has some issue recognizing Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Result type, not sure why)
Essentially all operations have to be pipelined with the previous function feeding the result to the next one. The operations have to be async and they should return error to the caller in case an exception occurred.
The requirement is to give the caller either result or fault. All functions return a Tuple populated with either Success type Article or Failure with type Error object having descriptive code and message returned from the server.
Will appreciate a working example around my code both for the callee and the caller in an answer.
Callee Code
type Article = {
name: string
}
type Error = {
code: string
message: string
}
let create (article: Article) : Result<Article, Error> =
let request = WebRequest.Create("http://example.com") :?> HttpWebRequest
request.Method <- "GET"
try
use response = request.GetResponse() :?> HttpWebResponse
use reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
use memoryStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(reader.ReadToEnd()))
Ok ((new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof<Article>)).ReadObject(memoryStream) :?> Article)
with
| :? WebException as e ->
use reader = new StreamReader(e.Response.GetResponseStream())
use memoryStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(reader.ReadToEnd()))
Error ((new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof<Error>)).ReadObject(memoryStream) :?> Error)
Rest of the chained methods - Same signature and similar bodies. You can actually reuse the body of create for update, upload, and publish to be able to test and compile code.
let update (article: Article) : Result<Article, Error>
// body (same as create, method <- PUT)
let upload (article: Article) : Result<Article, Error>
// body (same as create, method <- PUT)
let publish (article: Article) : Result<Article, Error>
// body (same as create, method < POST)
Caller Code
let chain = create >> Result.bind update >> Result.bind upload >> Result.bind publish
match chain(schemaObject) with
| Ok article -> Debug.WriteLine(article.name)
| Error error -> Debug.WriteLine(error.code + ":" + error.message)
Edit
Based on the answer and matching it with Scott's implementation (https://i.stack.imgur.com/bIxpD.png), to help in comparison and in better understanding.
let bind2 (switchFunction : 'a -> Async<Result<'b, 'c>>) =
fun (asyncTwoTrackInput : Async<Result<'a, 'c>>) -> async {
let! twoTrackInput = asyncTwoTrackInput
match twoTrackInput with
| Ok s -> return! switchFunction s
| Error err -> return Error err
}
Edit 2 Based on F# implementation of bind
let bind3 (binder : 'a -> Async<Result<'b, 'c>>) (asyncResult : Async<Result<'a, 'c>>) = async {
let! result = asyncResult
match result with
| Error e -> return Error e
| Ok x -> return! binder x
}
Take a look at the Suave source code, and specifically the WebPart.bind function. In Suave, a WebPart is a function that takes a context (a "context" is the current request and the response so far) and returns a result of type Async<context option>. The semantics of chaining these together are that if the async returns None, the next step is skipped; if it returns Some value, the next step is called with value as the input. This is pretty much the same semantics as the Result type, so you could almost copy the Suave code and adjust it for Result instead of Option. E.g., something like this:
module AsyncResult
let bind (f : 'a -> Async<Result<'b, 'c>>) (a : Async<Result<'a, 'c>>) : Async<Result<'b, 'c>> = async {
let! r = a
match r with
| Ok value ->
let next : Async<Result<'b, 'c>> = f value
return! next
| Error err -> return (Error err)
}
let compose (f : 'a -> Async<Result<'b, 'e>>) (g : 'b -> Async<Result<'c, 'e>>) : 'a -> Async<Result<'c, 'e>> =
fun x -> bind g (f x)
let (>>=) a f = bind f a
let (>=>) f g = compose f g
Now you can write your chain as follows:
let chain = create >=> update >=> upload >=> publish
let result = chain(schemaObject) |> Async.RunSynchronously
match result with
| Ok article -> Debug.WriteLine(article.name)
| Error error -> Debug.WriteLine(error.code + ":" + error.message)
Caution: I haven't been able to verify this code by running it in F# Interactive, since I don't have any examples of your create/update/etc. functions. It should work, in principle — the types all fit together like Lego building blocks, which is how you can tell that F# code is probably correct — but if I've made a typo that the compiler would have caught, I don't yet know about it. Let me know if that works for you.
Update: In a comment, you asked whether you need to have both the >>= and >=> operators defined, and mentioned that you didn't see them used in the chain code. I defined both because they serve different purposes, just like the |> and >> operators serve different purposes. >>= is like |>: it passes a value into a function. While >=> is like >>: it takes two functions and combines them. If you would write the following in a non-AsyncResult context:
let chain = step1 >> step2 >> step3
Then that translates to:
let asyncResultChain = step1AR >=> step2AR >=> step3AR
Where I'm using the "AR" suffix to indicate versions of those functions that return an Async<Result<whatever>> type. On the other hand, if you had written that in a pass-the-data-through-the-pipeline style:
let result = input |> step1 |> step2 |> step3
Then that would translate to:
let asyncResult = input >>= step1AR >>= step2AR >>= step3AR
So that's why you need both the bind and compose functions, and the operators that correspond to them: so that you can have the equivalent of either the |> or the >> operators for your AsyncResult values.
BTW, the operator "names" that I picked (>>= and >=>), I did not pick randomly. These are the standard operators that are used all over the place for the "bind" and "compose" operations on values like Async, or Result, or AsyncResult. So if you're defining your own, stick with the "standard" operator names and other people reading your code won't be confused.
Update 2: Here's how to read those type signatures:
'a -> Async<Result<'b, 'c>>
This is a function that takes type A, and returns an Async wrapped around a Result. The Result has type B as its success case, and type C as its failure case.
Async<Result<'a, 'c>>
This is a value, not a function. It's an Async wrapped around a Result where type A is the success case, and type C is the failure case.
So the bind function takes two parameters:
a function from A to an async of (either B or C)).
a value that's an async of (either A or C)).
And it returns:
a value that's an async of (either B or C).
Looking at those type signatures, you can already start to get an idea of what the bind function will do. It will take that value that's either A or C, and "unwrap" it. If it's C, it will produce an "either B or C" value that's C (and the function won't need to be called). If it's A, then in order to convert it to an "either B or C" value, it will call the f function (which takes an A).
All this happens within an async context, which adds an extra layer of complexity to the types. It might be easier to grasp all this if you look at the basic version of Result.bind, with no async involved:
let bind (f : 'a -> Result<'b, 'c>) (a : Result<'a, 'c>) =
match a with
| Ok val -> f val
| Error err -> Error err
In this snippet, the type of val is 'a, and the type of err is 'c.
Final update: There was one comment from the chat session that I thought was worth preserving in the answer (since people almost never follow chat links). Developer11 asked,
... if I were to ask you what Result.bind in my example code maps to your approach, can we rewrite it as create >> AsyncResult.bind update? It worked though. Just wondering i liked the short form and as you said they have a standard meaning? (in haskell community?)
My reply was:
Yes. If the >=> operator is properly written, then f >=> g will always be equivalent to f >> bind g. In fact, that's precisely the definition of the compose function, though that might not be immediately obvious to you because compose is written as fun x -> bind g (f x) rather than as f >> bind g. But those two ways of writing the compose function would be exactly equivalent. It would probably be very instructive for you to sit down with a piece of paper and draw out the function "shapes" (inputs & outputs) of both ways of writing compose.
Why do you want to use Railway Oriented Programming here? If you just want to run a sequence of operations and return information about the first exception that occurs, then F# already provides a language support for this using exceptions. You do not need Railway Oriented Programming for this. Just define your Error as an exception:
exception Error of code:string * message:string
Modify the code to throw the exception (also note that your create function takes article but does not use it, so I deleted that):
let create () = async {
let ds = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof<Error>)
let request = WebRequest.Create("http://example.com") :?> HttpWebRequest
request.Method <- "GET"
try
use response = request.GetResponse() :?> HttpWebResponse
use reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
use memoryStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(reader.ReadToEnd()))
return ds.ReadObject(memoryStream) :?> Article
with
| :? WebException as e ->
use reader = new StreamReader(e.Response.GetResponseStream())
use memoryStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(reader.ReadToEnd()))
return raise (Error (ds.ReadObject(memoryStream) :?> Error)) }
And then you can compose functions just by sequencing them in async block using let! and add exception handling:
let main () = async {
try
let! created = create ()
let! updated = update created
let! uploaded = upload updated
Debug.WriteLine(uploaded.name)
with Error(code, message) ->
Debug.WriteLine(code + ":" + message) }
If you wanted more sophisticated exception handling, then Railway Oriented Programming might be useful and there is certainly a way of integrating it with async, but if you just want to do what you described in your question, then you can do that much more easily with just standard F#.

Understanding Elm's Type Signature return types

I am trying to understand elm's type signatures. What does this function return exactly? It appears to be a function that accepts no arguments and returns ...
route : Parser (Page -> a) a
As a learning exercise for myself I'm going to try to answer this. Others will chip in if I get something wrong.
I'm sure you are used to something like
type Person = Adult String | Child String Age
Child is a type that takes two parameters. Parser is the same. But it's definition is pretty formidable
type Parser a b =
Parser (State a -> List (State b))
type alias State value =
{ visited : List String
, unvisited : List String
, params : Dict String String
, value : value
}
That said, you see how Parser is ultimately a wrapper around a function from a State to a list of States. Ultimately it is going to be passed a List of 'unvisited' strings or params; it will progressively 'visit' each one and the result will be combined into the final 'value'.
Next, note that while Parser takes two type parameters - a, b - parseHash is defined
parseHash : Parser (a -> a) a -> Location -> Maybe a
So, your original
route : Parser (Page -> a) a
is going to have to be
route : Parser (Page -> Page) Page
to type check.
To return to your original question, therefore, route is a Parser (which is a very general object) that encapsulates instructions on how to go from one Page to another, and can be used - via parseHash - to tell you what Page to go to next, and that is of course what you would expect from a router.
Hope this gets you started

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