useFetch

^{🐶 React hook for making isomorphic http requests

Main Documentation}

npm i use-http

Features

SSR (server side rendering) support
TypeScript support
2 dependencies (use-ssr, urs)
GraphQL support (queries + mutations)
Provider to set default url and options
Request/response interceptors
React Native support
Aborts/Cancels pending http requests when a component unmounts
Built in caching
Persistent caching support
Suspense^{(experimental)} support
Retry functionality

Usage

Examples + Videos

useFetch - managed state, request, response, etc.
useFetch - request/response interceptors
useFetch - retries, retryOn, retryDelay
useFetch - abort, timeout, onAbort, onTimeout
useFetch - persist, cache
useFetch - cacheLife, cachePolicy
useFetch - suspense ^{(experimental)}
useFetch - pagination
useQuery - GraphQL
useFetch - Next.js
useFetch - create-react-app

Basic Usage Managed State useFetch

If the last argument of useFetch is not a dependency array [], then it will not fire until you call one of the http methods like get, post, etc.

import useFetch from 'use-http'

function Todos() {
  const [todos, setTodos] = useState([])
  const { get, post, response, loading, error } = useFetch('https://example.com')

  useEffect(() => { initializeTodos() }, []) // componentDidMount
  
  async function initializeTodos() {
    const initialTodos = await get('/todos')
    if (response.ok) setTodos(initialTodos)
  }

  async function addTodo() {
    const newTodo = await post('/todos', { title: 'my new todo' })
    if (response.ok) setTodos([...todos, newTodo])
  }

  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={addTodo}>Add Todo</button>
      {error && 'Error!'}
      {loading && 'Loading...'}
      {todos.map(todo => (
        <div key={todo.id}>{todo.title}</div>
      ))}
    </>
  )
}

Basic Usage Auto-Managed State useFetch

This fetch is run onMount/componentDidMount. The last argument [] means it will run onMount. If you pass it a variable like [someVariable], it will run onMount and again whenever someVariable changes values (aka onUpdate). If no method is specified, GET is the default.

import useFetch from 'use-http'

function Todos() {
  const options = {} // these options accept all native `fetch` options
  // the last argument below [] means it will fire onMount (GET by default)
  const { loading, error, data = [] } = useFetch('https://example.com/todos', options, [])
  return (
    <>
      {error && 'Error!'}
      {loading && 'Loading...'}
      {data.map(todo => (
        <div key={todo.id}>{todo.title}</div>
      ))}
    </>
  )
}

Suspense Mode^{(experimental)} Auto-Managed State

Can put suspense in 2 places. Either useFetch (A) or Provider (B).

import useFetch, { Provider } from 'use-http'

function Todos() {
  const { data: todos = [] } = useFetch('/todos', {
    suspense: true // A. can put `suspense: true` here
  }, []) // onMount

  return todos.map(todo => <div key={todo.id}>{todo.title}</div>)
}

function App() {
  const options = {
    suspense: true // B. can put `suspense: true` here too
  }
  return (
    <Provider url='https://example.com' options={options}>
      <Suspense fallback='Loading...'>
        <Todos />
      </Suspense>
    </Provider>
  )
}

Suspense Mode^{(experimental)} Managed State

Can put suspense in 2 places. Either useFetch (A) or Provider (B). Suspense mode via managed state is very experimental.

import useFetch, { Provider } from 'use-http'

function Todos() {
  const [todos, setTodos] = useState([])
  // A. can put `suspense: true` here
  const { get, response } = useFetch({ suspense: true })

  const loadInitialTodos = async () => {
    const todos = await get('/todos')
    if (response.ok) setTodos(todos)
  }

  // componentDidMount
  useEffect(() => {
    loadInitialTodos()
  }, [])

  return todos.map(todo => <div key={todo.id}>{todo.title}</div>)
}

function App() {
  const options = {
    suspense: true // B. can put `suspense: true` here too
  }
  return (
    <Provider url='https://example.com' options={options}>
      <Suspense fallback='Loading...'>
        <Todos />
      </Suspense>
    </Provider>
  )
}

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Pagination + Provider

The onNewData will take the current data, and the newly fetched data, and allow you to merge the two however you choose. In the example below, we are appending the new todos to the end of the current todos.

import useFetch, { Provider } from 'use-http'

const Todos = () => {
  const [page, setPage] = useState(1)

  const { data = [], loading } = useFetch(`/todos?page=${page}&amountPerPage=15`, {
    onNewData: (currTodos, newTodos) => [...currTodos, ...newTodos], // appends newly fetched todos
    perPage: 15, // stops making more requests if last todos fetched < 15
  }, [page]) // runs onMount AND whenever the `page` updates (onUpdate)

  return (
    <ul>
      {data.map(todo => <li key={todo.id}>{todo.title}</li>}
      {loading && 'Loading...'}
      {!loading && (
        <button onClick={() => setPage(page + 1)}>Load More Todos</button>
      )}
    </ul>
  )
}

const App = () => (
  <Provider url='https://example.com'>
    <Todos />
  </Provider>
)

Destructured useFetch

⚠️ Do not destructure the response object! Details in this video. Technically you can do it, but if you need to access the response.ok from, for example, within a component's onClick handler, it will be a stale value for ok where it will be correct for response.ok. ️️⚠️

var [request, response, loading, error] = useFetch('https://example.com')

// want to use object destructuring? You can do that too
var {
  request,
  response, // 🚨 Do not destructure the `response` object!
  loading,
  error,
  data,
  cache,    // methods: get, set, has, delete, clear (like `new Map()`)
  get,
  post,
  put,
  patch,
  delete    // don't destructure `delete` though, it's a keyword
  del,      // <- that's why we have this (del). or use `request.delete`
  head,
  options,
  connect,
  trace,
  mutate,   // GraphQL
  query,    // GraphQL
  abort
} = useFetch('https://example.com')

// 🚨 Do not destructure the `response` object!
// 🚨 This just shows what fields are available in it.
var {
  ok,
  status,
  headers,
  data,
  type,
  statusText,
  url,
  body,
  bodyUsed,
  redirected,
  // methods
  json,
  text,
  formData,
  blob,
  arrayBuffer,
  clone
} = response

var {
  loading,
  error,
  data,
  cache,  // methods: get, set, has, delete, clear (like `new Map()`)
  get,
  post,
  put,
  patch,
  delete  // don't destructure `delete` though, it's a keyword
  del,    // <- that's why we have this (del). or use `request.delete`
  mutate, // GraphQL
  query,  // GraphQL
  abort
} = request

Relative routes useFetch

var request = useFetch('https://example.com')

request.post('/todos', {
  no: 'way'
})

Abort useFetch

const { get, abort, loading, data: repos } = useFetch('https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q=')

// the line below is not isomorphic, but for simplicity we're using the browsers `encodeURI`
const searchGithubRepos = e => get(encodeURI(e.target.value))

<>
  <input onChange={searchGithubRepos} />
  <button onClick={abort}>Abort</button>
  {loading ? 'Loading...' : repos.data.items.map(repo => (
    <div key={repo.id}>{repo.name}</div>
  ))}
</>

GraphQL Query useFetch

const QUERY = `
  query Todos($userID string!) {
    todos(userID: $userID) {
      id
      title
    }
  }
`

function App() {
  const request = useFetch('http://example.com')

  const getTodosForUser = id => request.query(QUERY, { userID: id })

  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={() => getTodosForUser('theUsersID')}>Get User's Todos</button>
      {request.loading ? 'Loading...' : <pre>{request.data}</pre>}
    </>
  )
}

GraphQL Mutation useFetch

The Provider allows us to set a default url, options (such as headers) and so on.

const MUTATION = `
  mutation CreateTodo($todoTitle string) {
    todo(title: $todoTitle) {
      id
      title
    }
  }
`

function App() {
  const [todoTitle, setTodoTitle] = useState('')
  const request = useFetch('http://example.com')

  const createtodo = () => request.mutate(MUTATION, { todoTitle })

  return (
    <>
      <input onChange={e => setTodoTitle(e.target.value)} />
      <button onClick={createTodo}>Create Todo</button>
      {request.loading ? 'Loading...' : <pre>{request.data}</pre>}
    </>
  )
}

Provider using the GraphQL useMutation and useQuery

Query for todos

import { useQuery } from 'use-http'

export default function QueryComponent() {
  
  // can also do it this way:
  // const [data, loading, error, query] = useQuery`
  // or this way:
  // const { data, loading, error, query } = useQuery`
  const request = useQuery`
    query Todos($userID string!) {
      todos(userID: $userID) {
        id
        title
      }
    }
  `

  const getTodosForUser = id => request.query({ userID: id })
  
  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={() => getTodosForUser('theUsersID')}>Get User's Todos</button>
      {request.loading ? 'Loading...' : <pre>{request.data}</pre>}
    </>
  )
}

Add a new todo

import { useMutation } from 'use-http'

export default function MutationComponent() {
  const [todoTitle, setTodoTitle] = useState('')
  
  // can also do it this way:
  // const request = useMutation`
  // or this way:
  // const { data, loading, error, mutate } = useMutation`
  const [data, loading, error, mutate] = useMutation`
    mutation CreateTodo($todoTitle string) {
      todo(title: $todoTitle) {
        id
        title
      }
    }
  `
  
  const createTodo = () => mutate({ todoTitle })

  return (
    <>
      <input onChange={e => setTodoTitle(e.target.value)} />
      <button onClick={createTodo}>Create Todo</button>
      {loading ? 'Loading...' : <pre>{data}</pre>}
    </>
  )
}

Adding the Provider

These props are defaults used in every request inside the <Provider />. They can be overwritten individually

import { Provider } from 'use-http'
import QueryComponent from './QueryComponent'
import MutationComponent from './MutationComponent'

function App() {

  const options = {
    headers: {
      Authorization: 'Bearer YOUR_TOKEN_HERE'
    }
  }
  
  return (
    <Provider url='http://example.com' options={options}>
      <QueryComponent />
      <MutationComponent />
    <Provider/>
  )
}

Request/Response Interceptors

This example shows how we can do authentication in the request interceptor and how we can camelCase the results in the response interceptor

import { Provider } from 'use-http'
import { toCamel } from 'convert-keys'

function App() {
  let [token, setToken] = useLocalStorage('token')
  
  const options = {
    interceptors: {
      // every time we make an http request, this will run 1st before the request is made
      // url, path and route are supplied to the interceptor
      // request options can be modified and must be returned
      request: async ({ options, url, path, route }) => {
        if (isExpired(token)) {
          token = await getNewToken()
          setToken(token)
        }
        options.headers.Authorization = `Bearer ${token}`
        return options
      },
      // every time we make an http request, before getting the response back, this will run
      response: async ({ response, request }) => {
        // unfortunately, because this is a JS Response object, we have to modify it directly.
        // It shouldn't have any negative affect since this is getting reset on each request.
        const res = response
        if (res.data) res.data = toCamel(res.data)
        return res
      }
    }
  }
  
  return (
    <Provider url='http://example.com' options={options}>
      <SomeComponent />
    <Provider/>
  )
}

File Uploads (FormData)

This example shows how we can upload a file using useFetch.

import useFetch from 'use-http'

const FileUploader = () => {
  const [file, setFile] = useState()
  
  const { post } = useFetch('https://example.com/upload')

  const uploadFile = async () => {
    const data = new FormData()
    data.append('file', file)
    if (file instanceof FormData) await post(data)
  }

  return (
    <div>
      {/* Drop a file onto the input below */}
      <input onChange={e => setFile(e.target.files[0])} />
      <button onClick={uploadFile}>Upload</button>
    </div>
  )
}

Handling Different Response Types

This example shows how we can get .json(), .text(), .formData(), .blob(), .arrayBuffer(), and all the other http response methods. By default, useFetch 1st tries to call response.json() under the hood, if that fails it's backup is response.text(). If that fails, then you need a different response type which is where this comes in.

import useFetch from 'use-http'

const App = () => {
  const [name, setName] = useState('')
  
  const { get, loading, error, response } = useFetch('http://example.com')

  const handleClick = async () => {
    await get('/users/1?name=true') // will return just the user's name
    const text = await response.text()
    setName(text)
  }
  
  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={handleClick}>Load Data</button>
      {error && error.messge}
      {loading && "Loading..."}
      {name && <div>{name}</div>}
    </>
  )
}

Overwrite/Remove Options/Headers Set in Provider

This example shows how to remove a header all together. Let's say you have <Provider url='url.com' options={{ headers: { Authentication: 'Bearer MY_TOKEN' } }}><App /></Provider>, but for one api call, you don't want that header in your useFetch at all for one instance in your app. This would allow you to remove that.

import useFetch from 'use-http'

const Todos = () => {
  // let's say for this request, you don't want the `Accept` header at all
  const { loading, error, data: todos = [] } = useFetch('/todos', globalOptions => {
    delete globalOptions.headers.Accept
    return globalOptions
  }, []) // onMount
  return (
    <>
      {error && error.messge}
      {loading && "Loading..."}
      {todos && <ul>{todos.map(todo => <li key={todo.id}>{todo.title}</li>)}</ul>}
    </>
  )
}

const App = () => {
  const options = {
    headers: {
      Accept: 'application/json'
    }
  }
  return (
    <Provider url='https://url.com' options={options}><Todos /></Provider>
}

Retries retryOn & retryDelay

In this example you can see how retryOn will retry on a status code of 305, or if we choose the retryOn() function, it returns a boolean to decide if we will retry. With retryDelay we can either have a fixed delay, or a dynamic one by using retryDelay(). Make sure retries is set to at minimum 1 otherwise it won't retry the request. If retries > 0 without retryOn then by default we always retry if there's an error or if !response.ok. If retryOn: [400] and retries > 0 then we only retry on a response status of 400.

import useFetch from 'use-http'

const TestRetry = () => {
  const { response, get } = useFetch('https://httpbin.org/status/305', {
    // make sure `retries` is set otherwise it won't retry
    retries: 1,
    retryOn: [305],
    // OR
    retryOn: async ({ attempt, error, response }) => {
      // returns true or false to determine whether to retry
      return error || response && response.status >= 300
    },

    retryDelay: 3000,
    // OR
    retryDelay: ({ attempt, error, response }) => {
      // exponential backoff
      return Math.min(attempt > 1 ? 2 ** attempt * 1000 : 1000, 30 * 1000)
      // linear backoff
      return attempt * 1000
    }
  })

  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={() => get()}>CLICK</button>
      <pre>{JSON.stringify(response, null, 2)}</pre>
    </>
  )
}

Overview

Hooks

Hook	Description
`useFetch`	The base hook
`useQuery`	For making a GraphQL query
`useMutation`	For making a GraphQL mutation

Options

This is exactly what you would pass to the normal js fetch, with a little extra. All these options can be passed to the <Provider options={/* every option below */} />, or directly to useFetch. If you have both in the <Provider /> and in useFetch, the useFetch options will overwrite the ones from the <Provider />

Option	Description	Default
`cacheLife`	After a successful cache update, that cache data will become stale after this duration	`0`
`cachePolicy`	These will be the same ones as Apollo's fetch policies. Possible values are `cache-and-network`, `network-only`, `cache-only`, `no-cache`, `cache-first`. Currently only supports `cache-first` or `no-cache`	`cache-first`
`data`	Allows you to set a default value for `data`	`undefined`
`interceptors.request`	Allows you to do something before an http request is sent out. Useful for authentication if you need to refresh tokens a lot.	`undefined`
`interceptors.response`	Allows you to do something after an http response is recieved. Useful for something like camelCasing the keys of the response.	`undefined`
`loading`	Allows you to set default value for `loading`	`false` unless the last argument of `useFetch` is `[]`
`onAbort`	Runs when the request is aborted.	empty function
`onError`	Runs when the request get's an error. If retrying, it is only called on the last retry attempt.	empty function
`onNewData`	Merges the current data with the incoming data. Great for pagination.	`(curr, new) => new`
`onTimeout`	Called when the request times out.	empty function
`persist`	Persists data for the duration of `cacheLife`. If `cacheLife` is not set it defaults to 24h. Currently only available in Browser.	`false`
`perPage`	Stops making more requests if there is no more data to fetch. (i.e. if we have 25 todos, and the perPage is 10, after fetching 2 times, we will have 20 todos. The last 5 tells us we don't have any more to fetch because it's less than 10) For pagination.	`0`
`responseType`	This will determine how the `data` field is set. If you put `json` then it will try to parse it as JSON. If you set it as an array, it will attempt to parse the `response` in the order of the types you put in the array. Read about why we don't put `formData` in the defaults in the yellow Note part here.	`['json', 'text', 'blob', 'readableStream']`
`retries`	When a request fails or times out, retry the request this many times. By default it will not retry.	`0`
`retryDelay`	You can retry with certain intervals i.e. 30 seconds `30000` or with custom logic (i.e. to increase retry intervals).	`1000`
`retryOn`	You can retry on certain http status codes or have custom logic to decide whether to retry or not via a function. Make sure `retries > 0` otherwise it won't retry.	`[]`
`suspense`	Enables Experimental React Suspense mode. example	`false`
`timeout`	The request will be aborted/cancelled after this amount of time. This is also the interval at which `retries` will be made at. in milliseconds. If set to `0`, it will not timeout except for browser defaults.	`0`

const options = {
  // accepts all `fetch` options such as headers, method, etc.

  // The time in milliseconds that cache data remains fresh.
  cacheLife: 0,

  // Cache responses to improve speed and reduce amount of requests
  // Only one request to the same endpoint will be initiated unless cacheLife expires for 'cache-first'.
  cachePolicy: 'cache-first', // 'no-cache'
  
  // set's the default for the `data` field
  data: [],

  // typically, `interceptors` would be added as an option to the `<Provider />`
  interceptors: {
    request: async ({ options, url, path, route }) => { // `async` is not required
      return options // returning the `options` is important
    },
    response: async ({ response, request }) => {
      // notes:
      // - `response.data` is equivalent to `await response.json()`
      // - `request` is an object matching the standard fetch's options
      return response // returning the `response` is important
    }
  },

  // set's the default for `loading` field
  loading: false,
  
  // called when aborting the request
  onAbort: () => {},
  
  // runs when an error happens.
  onError: ({ error }) => {},

  // this will allow you to merge the `data` for pagination.
  onNewData: (currData, newData) => {
    return [...currData, ...newData] 
  },
  
  // called when the request times out
  onTimeout: () => {},
  
  // this will tell useFetch not to run the request if the list doesn't haveMore. (pagination)
  // i.e. if the last page fetched was < 15, don't run the request again
  perPage: 15,

  // Allows caching to persist after page refresh. Only supported in the Browser currently.
  persist: false,

  // this would basically call `await response.json()`
  // and set the `data` and `response.data` field to the output
  responseType: 'json',
  // OR can be an array. It's an array by default.
  // We will try to get the `data` by attempting to extract
  // it via these body interface methods, one by one in
  // this order. We skip `formData` because it's mostly used
  // for service workers.
  responseType: ['json', 'text', 'blob', 'arrayBuffer'],

  // amount of times it should retry before erroring out
  retries: 3,

  // The time between retries
  retryDelay: 10000,
  // OR
  // Can be a function which is used if we want change the time in between each retry
  retryDelay({ attempt, error, response }) {
    // exponential backoff
    return Math.min(attempt > 1 ? 2 ** attempt * 1000 : 1000, 30 * 1000)
    // linear backoff
    return attempt * 1000
  },

  // make sure `retries` is set otherwise it won't retry
  // can retry on certain http status codes
  retryOn: [503],
  // OR
  async retryOn({ attempt, error, response }) {
    // retry on any network error, or 4xx or 5xx status codes
    if (error !== null || response.status >= 400) {
      console.log(`retrying, attempt number ${attempt + 1}`);
      return true;
    }
  },

  // enables experimental React Suspense mode
  suspense: true, // defaults to `false`
  
  // amount of time before the request get's canceled/aborted
  timeout: 10000,
}

useFetch(options)
// OR
<Provider options={options}><ResOfYourApp /></Provider>

Who's using use-http?

Does your company use use-http? Consider sponsoring the project to fund new features, bug fixes, and more.

Browser Support

If you need support for IE, you will need to add additional polyfills. The React docs suggest these polyfills, but from this issue we have found it to work fine with the react-app-polyfill. If you have any updates to this browser list, please submit a PR!

Edge	Firefox	Chrome	Safari	Opera
12+	last 2 versions	last 2 versions	last 2 versions	last 2 versions

Feature Requests/Ideas

If you have feature requests, submit an issue to let us know what you would like to see!

Todos