Rx Observable that gets value from other Observable - ios

Question

I am new to RxSwift and MVVM.
my viewModel has a method named rx_fetchItems(for:) that does the heavy lifting of fetching relevant content from backend, and returns Observable<[Item]>.
My goal is to supply an observable property of the viewModel named collectionItems, with the last emitted element returned from rx_fetchItems(for:), to supply my collectionView with data.
Daniel T has provided this solution that I could potentially use:
protocol ServerAPI {
func rx_fetchItems(for category: ItemCategory) -> Observable<[Item]>
}
struct ViewModel {
let collectionItems: Observable<[Item]>
let error: Observable<Error>
init(controlValue: Observable<Int>, api: ServerAPI) {
let serverItems = controlValue
.map { ItemCategory(rawValue: $0) }
.filter { $0 != nil }.map { $0! } // or use a `filterNil` operator if you already have one implemented.
.flatMap { api.rx_fetchItems(for: $0)
.materialize()
}
.filter { $0.isCompleted == false }
.shareReplayLatestWhileConnected()
collectionItems = serverItems.filter { $0.element != nil }.dematerialize()
error = serverItems.filter { $0.error != nil }.map { $0.error! }
}
}
The only problem here is that my current ServerAPI aka FirebaseAPI, has no such protocol method, because it is designed with a single method that fires all requests like this:
class FirebaseAPI {
private let session: URLSession
init() {
self.session = URLSession.shared
}
/// Responsible for Making actual API requests & Handling response
/// Returns an observable object that conforms to JSONable protocol.
/// Entities that confrom to JSONable just means they can be initialized with json.
func rx_fireRequest<Entity: JSONable>(_ endpoint: FirebaseEndpoint, ofType _: Entity.Type ) -> Observable<[Entity]> {
return Observable.create { [weak self] observer in
self?.session.dataTask(with: endpoint.request, completionHandler: { (data, response, error) in
/// Parse response from request.
let parsedResponse = Parser(data: data, response: response, error: error)
.parse()
switch parsedResponse {
case .error(let error):
observer.onError(error)
return
case .success(let data):
var entities = [Entity]()
switch endpoint.method {
/// Flatten JSON strucuture to retrieve a list of entities.
/// Denoted by 'GETALL' method.
case .GETALL:
/// Key (underscored) is unique identifier for each entity, which is not needed here.
/// value is k/v pairs of entity attributes.
for (_, value) in data {
if let value = value as? [String: AnyObject], let entity = Entity(json: value) {
entities.append(entity)
}
}
// Need to force downcast for generic type inference.
observer.onNext(entities as! [Entity])
observer.onCompleted()
/// All other methods return JSON that can be used to initialize JSONable entities
default:
if let entity = Entity(json: data) {
observer.onNext([entity] as! [Entity])
observer.onCompleted()
} else {
observer.onError(NetworkError.initializationFailure)
}
}
}
}).resume()
return Disposables.create()
}
}
}
The most important thing about the rx_fireRequest method is that it takes in a FirebaseEndpoint.
/// Conforms to Endpoint protocol in extension, so one of these enum members will be the input for FirebaseAPI's `fireRequest` method.
enum FirebaseEndpoint {
case saveUser(data: [String: AnyObject])
case fetchUser(id: String)
case removeUser(id: String)
case saveItem(data: [String: AnyObject])
case fetchItem(id: String)
case fetchItems
case removeItem(id: String)
case saveMessage(data: [String: AnyObject])
case fetchMessages(chatroomId: String)
case removeMessage(id: String)
}
In order to use Daniel T's solution, Id have to convert each enum case from FirebaseEndpoint into methods inside FirebaseAPI. And within each method, call rx_fireRequest... If I'm correct.
Id be eager to make this change if it makes for a better Server API design. So the simple question is, Will this refactor improve my overall API design and how it interacts with ViewModels. And I realize this is now evolving into a code review.
ALSO... Here is implementation of that protocol method, and its helper:
func rx_fetchItems(for category: ItemCategory) -> Observable<[Item]> {
// fetched items returns all items in database as Observable<[Item]>
let fetchedItems = client.rx_fireRequest(.fetchItems, ofType: Item.self)
switch category {
case .Local:
let localItems = fetchedItems
.flatMapLatest { [weak self] (itemList) -> Observable<[Item]> in
return self!.rx_localItems(items: itemList)
}
return localItems
// TODO: Handle other cases like RecentlyAdded, Trending, etc..
}
}
// Helper method to filter items for only local items nearby user.
private func rx_localItems(items: [Item]) -> Observable<[Item]> {
return Observable.create { observable in
observable.onNext(items.filter { $0.location == "LA" })
observable.onCompleted()
return Disposables.create()
}
}
If my approach to MVVM or RxSwift or API design is wrong PLEASE do critique.

Answer 1

I know it is tough to start understanding RxSwift
I like to use Subjects or Variables as inputs for the ViewModel and Observables or Drivers as outputs for the ViewModel
This way you can bind the actions that happen on the ViewController to the ViewModel, handle the logic there, and update the outputs
Here is an example by refactoring your code
View Model
// Inputs
let didSelectItemCategory: PublishSubject<ItemCategory> = .init()
// Outputs
let items: Observable<[Item]>
init() {
let client = FirebaseAPI()
let fetchedItems = client.rx_fireRequest(.fetchItems, ofType: Item.self)
self.items = didSelectItemCategory
.withLatestFrom(fetchedItems, resultSelector: { itemCategory, fetchedItems in
switch itemCategory {
case .Local:
return fetchedItems.filter { $0.location == "Los Angeles" }
default: return []
}
})
}
ViewController
segmentedControl.rx.value
.map(ItemCategory.init(rawValue:))
.startWith(.Local)
.bind(to: viewModel.didSelectItemCategory)
.disposed(by: disposeBag)
viewModel.items
.subscribe(onNext: { items in
// Do something
})
.disposed(by: disposeBag)

Answer 2

I think the problem you are having is that you are only going half-way with the observable paradigm and that's throwing you off. Try taking it all the way and see if that helps. For example:
protocol ServerAPI {
func rx_fetchItems(for category: ItemCategory) -> Observable<[Item]>
}
struct ViewModel {
let collectionItems: Observable<[Item]>
let error: Observable<Error>
init(controlValue: Observable<Int>, api: ServerAPI) {
let serverItems = controlValue
.map { ItemCategory(rawValue: $0) }
.filter { $0 != nil }.map { $0! } // or use a `filterNil` operator if you already have one implemented.
.flatMap { api.rx_fetchItems(for: $0)
.materialize()
}
.filter { $0.isCompleted == false }
.shareReplayLatestWhileConnected()
collectionItems = serverItems.filter { $0.element != nil }.dematerialize()
error = serverItems.filter { $0.error != nil }.map { $0.error! }
}
}
EDIT to handle problem mentioned in comment. You now need to pass in the object that has the rx_fetchItems(for:) method. You should have more than one such object: one that points to the server and one that doesn't point to any server, but instead returns canned data so you can test for any possible response, including errors. (The view model should not talk to the server directly, but should do so through an intermediary...
The secret sauce in the above is the materialize operator that wraps error events into a normal event that contains an error object. That way you stop a network error from shutting down the whole system.
In response to the changes in your question... You can simply make the FirebaseAPI conform to ServerAPI:
extension FirebaseAPI: ServerAPI {
func rx_fetchItems(for category: ItemCategory) -> Observable<[Item]> {
// fetched items returns all items in database as Observable<[Item]>
let fetchedItems = self.rx_fireRequest(.fetchItems, ofType: Item.self)
switch category {
case .Local:
let localItems = fetchedItems
.flatMapLatest { [weak self] (itemList) -> Observable<[Item]> in
return self!.rx_localItems(items: itemList)
}
return localItems
// TODO: Handle other cases like RecentlyAdded, Trending, etc..
}
}
// Helper method to filter items for only local items nearby user.
private func rx_localItems(items: [Item]) -> Observable<[Item]> {
return Observable.create { observable in
observable.onNext(items.filter { $0.location == "LA" })
observable.onCompleted()
return Disposables.create()
}
}
}
You should probably change the name of ServerAPI at this point to something like FetchItemsAPI.

Answer 3

You run into a tricky situation here because your observable can throw an error and once it does throw an error the observable sequence errors out and no more events can be emitted. So to handle subsequent network requests, you must reassign taking the approach you're currently taking. However, this is generally not good for driving UI elements such as a collection view because you would have to bind to the reassigned observable every time. When driving UI elements, you should lean towards types that are guaranteed to not error out (i.e. Variable and Driver). You could make your Observable<[Item]> to be let items = Variable<[Item]>([]) and then you could just set the value on that variable to be the array of items that came in from the new network request. You can safely bind this variable to your collection view using RxDataSources or something like that. Then you could make a separate variable for the error message, let's say let errorMessage = Variable<String?>(nil), for the error message that comes from the network request and then you could bind the errorMessage string to a label or something like that to display your error message.