Getting Started with Redux Toolkit#

Purpose#

The Redux Toolkit package is intended to be the standard way to write Redux logic. It was originally created to help address three common concerns about Redux:

  • "Configuring a Redux store is too complicated"
  • "I have to add a lot of packages to get Redux to do anything useful"
  • "Redux requires too much boilerplate code"

We can't solve every use case, but in the spirit of create-react-app and apollo-boost, we can try to provide some tools that abstract over the setup process and handle the most common use cases, as well as include some useful utilities that will let the user simplify their application code.

These tools should be beneficial to all Redux users. Whether you're a brand new Redux user setting up your first project, or an experienced user who wants to simplify an existing application, Redux Toolkit can help you make your Redux code better.

Installation#

Using Create React App#

The recommended way to start new apps with React and Redux Toolkit is by using the official Redux+JS template for Create React App, which takes advantage of React Redux's integration with React components.

npx create-react-app my-app --template redux

We also have a Redux+TS template for CRA as well:

npx create-react-app my-app --template redux-typescript

An Existing App#

Redux Toolkit is available as a package on NPM for use with a module bundler or in a Node application:

# NPM
npm install @reduxjs/toolkit
# Yarn
yarn add @reduxjs/toolkit

It is also available as a precompiled UMD package that defines a window.RTK global variable. The UMD package can be used as a <script> tag directly.

What's Included#

Redux Toolkit includes these APIs:

  • configureStore(): wraps createStore to provide simplified configuration options and good defaults. It can automatically combine your slice reducers, adds whatever Redux middleware you supply, includes redux-thunk by default, and enables use of the Redux DevTools Extension.
  • createReducer(): that lets you supply a lookup table of action types to case reducer functions, rather than writing switch statements. In addition, it automatically uses the immer library to let you write simpler immutable updates with normal mutative code, like state.todos[3].completed = true.
  • createAction(): generates an action creator function for the given action type string. The function itself has toString() defined, so that it can be used in place of the type constant.
  • createSlice(): accepts an object of reducer functions, a slice name, and an initial state value, and automatically generates a slice reducer with corresponding action creators and action types.
  • createAsyncThunk: accepts an action type string and a function that returns a promise, and generates a thunk that dispatches pending/fulfilled/rejected action types based on that promise
  • createEntityAdapter: generates a set of reusable reducers and selectors to manage normalized data in the store
  • The createSelector utility from the Reselect library, re-exported for ease of use.

Help and Discussion#

The #redux channel of the Reactiflux Discord community is our official resource for all questions related to learning and using Redux. Reactiflux is a great place to hang out, ask questions, and learn - come join us!

You can also ask questions on Stack Overflow using the #redux tag.