Oct 20, 2024

Best Practices For React Redux

1. Structure Your Redux Store Thoughtfully

Organize your state: Split your Redux state by feature rather than type. For instance, group related state like posts and users rather than isLoading or errors globally.
Normalize the state: When dealing with relational data (e.g., posts and comments), avoid deep nesting. Normalize it using libraries like normalizr, storing entities by IDs.

Avoid side effects: Reducers should only calculate and return the new state. Do not perform side effects like API calls or modifying inputs directly within reducers.
Use createSlice from Redux Toolkit: It simplifies writing reducers by combining action creators and the reducer logic into a single function.

Leverage Redux Toolkit: It provides utilities like createSlice, configureStore, createAsyncThunk, and others to handle boilerplate code and ensure best practices.
Avoid manual action types and creators: With createSlice, you get auto-generated action creators and reducers in one step, reducing verbosity.

Thunks for simple logic: Use redux-thunk (or createAsyncThunk from Redux Toolkit) for basic async logic, such as fetching data.
Redux-saga for complex flows: For more complex side effects (like handling multiple async actions or dealing with retries), consider using redux-saga.

Use useSelector carefully: Break down complex state slices and only select what you need. Using shallowEqual with useSelector can help reduce unnecessary re-renders.
Memoize selectors: Use reselect to memoize selectors for better performance when accessing derived data in the state.
Avoid over-connecting components: Keep Redux-connected components at the top level and pass props down, rather than connecting deeply nested components.

When updating deeply nested data, use the immer library, which allows you to write "mutating" logic that produces immutable updates, simplifying state updates.

Track your actions: The Redux DevTools extension lets you inspect actions, state changes, and even time travel to previous states, making debugging much easier.

Limit what you store in Redux: Avoid putting local UI state (like form inputs, modals) in Redux. Keep Redux for more global or shared state across your app.

Add logging or error handling middleware: Middleware can extend Redux’s functionality. For example, add logging to track actions or add a custom error handler middleware to catch errors in actions.

Write unit tests: Test your actions, reducers, and async logic (like thunks or sagas) to ensure they work as expected. You can use testing libraries like Jest to mock API calls and test the flow.

Cache or memoize API results: When possible, store data in your Redux store and only refetch it when necessary. Avoid fetching the same data multiple times.