Unifies server module library and client SDK for TypeScript (and fixes several bugs)
Description of Changes
This PR is a very large change to the workings of the TypeScript SDK and as such requires a higher bar of testing than other PRs. However, it does several important things:
- Unifies the API of the server and client so they not only have the same API, but they actually implement it with the same TypeScript types. This fixes several inconsistencies between them and fixes several small bugs as well.
- Closes https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/issues/3365
- Closes https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/issues/3431
- Closes https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/issues/3435
- Subsumes the work done in https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/pull/3447
- Derives all type information on the client from a single
RemoteModuletype which vastly cleans up the correctness of type checking on the client and helped me to find several small bugs
It accomplishes this by changing code generation of TypeScript on the client to code generation approximately what a developer would manually write in their module. The ultimate goal would be to allow the developer to use the types and functions that they define on in their module directly on the client without needing to do any code generation at all, provided they are using TypeScript on the server and client.
https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/issues/3365 is resolved by .build()ing the DbConnection inside a React useEffect rather than doing it directly in line with the render of the provider. In order to do that we needed to not expose the DbConnection directly to developers by returning a different type from useSpacetimeDB. useSpacetimeDB now returns a ConnectionState object which is stored as React state and updates when any of the fields change. This change also resolves https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/issues/3431.
https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/issues/3435 was the issue that initially lead me down the rabbit hole of unifying the server and the client because it was nearly impossible to track down all the various type functions and how they connect to the values that we code generate on the server. After several hours of attempting this, I decided to clean up the types a bit to be more uniform.
Implementing the unification between the client and the server also necessitated fully implemented parts of the API that were fully implemented on the server, but were broken or missing on the client.
API and ABI breaking changes
[Unification] -> Means that this is breaking behavior for the client SDK, but that the new behavior is identical to the server's existing behavior
Breaking changes:
-
Table accessor names and index accessor names are converted to camelCase on the
ctx, soctx.db.foo_baris nowctx.db.fooBar -
[Unification] On the client
my_table.iter()returnsIterableIteratorinstead of anArray -
[Unification]
module_bindingsnow exportTypeBuilders for all types instead of atype MyTypeand objectMyType, so instead of usingMyTypeas a type directly, you need to infer the typeMyType->Infer<typeof MyType>. -
[Unification] We no longer generate and export
MyTypeVariantsfor sum types (these are now accessed byInfer<typeof MyType.variants.myVariant>) -
[Unification]
MyType.getTypeScriptAlgebraicType()has been replaced withMyType.algebraicType -
useSpacetimeDB()no longer takes type parameters -
useTable()now takes aTableDefparameter and type params are inferred -
useTable()now just returns anArraydirectly instead of a object with{ rows } -
[Unification]
ctx.reducers.createPlayer(argA, argB)->ctx.reducers.createPlayer({ argA, argB }) -
[Unification]
ctx.reducers.onCreatePlayer(ctx, argA, argB)->ctx.reducers.onCreatePlayer(ctx, { argA, argB }) -
[Unification]
ctx.reducers.removeOnCreatePlayer(ctx, argA, argB)->ctx.reducers.removeOnCreatePlayer(ctx, { argA, argB }) -
[Unification]
myTable.count(): number->myTable.count(): bigint
Additive changes:
Infer<>now also doesInferTypeOfRow<>if applicable- Added a
useReducer()React hook module_bindingsnow exports atablesobject with references to all theTableDefsmodule_bindingsnow exports areducersobject with references to all theReducerDefs- Added a new
MyType.create('MyVariant', ...)function in addition to theMyType.MyVariant(...)constructors (this is private)
Notable things that did not change:
MyType.serialize(writer: BinaryWriter, value: Infer<typeof MyType>)andMyType.deserialize(reader: BinaryReader): Infer<typeof MyType>are still supported exactly as before.- The
MyType.MyVariant(...)constructor function on sum types is still present, but implemented with the privateMyType.create('MyVariant', ...). We could choose to move away from this API later if we didn't like the variants polluting the namespace
Expected complexity level and risk
4 - This is a deep reaching an complex change for the SDK. For the server, it is much less deep reaching since it reuses much of the same machinery, although it does require thorough testing there as some of the code was modified.
This change is fully localized to TypeScript and does not touch the host (or other languages) at all, and therefore only impacts a beta aspect of SpacetimeDB.
Testing
- [ ] Added regression test for https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/issues/3435
- [x] Manually tested
test-appandtest-react-router-app - [ ] Add test cases for camelCase-ing
Notes from PR review meeting:
- Indexes are still not camelCase
- Modify
useTableto return tuple of[rows, loading]