Is this a redux middleware anti-pattern? How to properly build async actions with middleware - redux

Question

Just built my first API Middleware and was just wondering where I'm suppose to chain promises for action creators that dispatch multiple actions. Is what I did an anti-pattern:
export const fetchChuck = () => {
return {
[CALL_API]: {
types: [ CHUCK_REQUEST, CHUCK_SUCCESS, CHUCK_FAILURE ],
endpoint: `jokes/random`
}
}
}
export const saveJoke = (joke) => {
return { type: SAVE_JOKE, joke: joke }
}
export const fetchAndSaveJoke = () => {
return dispatch => {
dispatch(fetchChuck()).then((response) => {
dispatch(saveJoke(response.response.value.joke))
})
}
}
Should fetchAndSaveJoke dispatch the section action in my react component or is it okay to have it as its own action creator?

Answer 1

I would say that at this point in the Redux world, it's not super clear what's best practice and what the anti-patterns are. It's a very unopinionated tool. While that's been great for a diverse ecosystem to flourish, it does present challenges for people looking for ways to organize their apps without running into pitfalls or excessive boilerplate. From what I can tell, your approach seems to be roughly in line with the advice from the Redux guide. The one thing that looks funny to me is that it seems like CHUCK_SUCCESS should probably make SAVE_JOKE unnecessary.
I personally find it rather awkward to have action creators dispatch more actions, and so I worked out the approach behind react-redux-controller. It's brand new, so it's certainly not a "best practice", but I'll throw it out there in case you or someone else wants to give it a try. In that workflow, you'd have a controller method that looks something like:
// actions/index.js
export const CHUCK_REQUEST = 'CHUCK_REQUEST';
export const CHUCK_SUCCESS = 'CHUCK_SUCCESS';
export const CHUCK_FAILURE = 'CHUCK_FAILURE';
export const chuckRequest = () => { type: CHUCK_REQUEST };
export const chuckSuccess = (joke) => { type: CHUCK_SUCCESS, joke };
export const chuckFailure = (err) => { type: CHUCK_FAILURE, err };
// controllers/index.js
import fetch from 'isomorphic-fetch'; // or whatever
import * as actions from '../actions';
const controllerGenerators = {
// ... other controller methods
*fetchAndSaveJoke() {
const { dispatch } = yield getProps;
// Trigger a reducer to set a loading state in your store, which the UI can key off of
dispatch(actions.chuckRequest());
try {
const response = yield fetch('jokes/random');
dispatch(actions.chuckSuccess(response.response.value.joke));
} catch(err) {
dispatch(actions.chuckFailure(err));
}
},
};