return promise from store after redux thunk dispat

Question

//EDITED FOR CLARITY

I am trying to chain dispatches with redux thunk

function simple_action(){
  return {type: "SIMPLE_ACTION"}
}

export function async_action(){
  return function(dispatch, getState){
    return dispatch(simple_action).then(()=>{...});
  }
}

How do I get the dispatch to return a promise from the store?

MORE SPECIFICALLY:

I am probably just not understanding something here, but in all the examples with redux-thunk, they call a separate async event (like fetch), which obviously returns a Promise.

What I'm specifically looking for is when I dispatch an action to the store: How do I make certain the store has processed that action completely before anything else happens in the function action_creator() above.

Ideally, I would like the store to return some sort of promise, but I don't understand how or where that happens?

Answer 1

This is a pattern I've been using recently:

export const someThenableThunk = someData => (dispatch, getState) => Promise.resolve().then(() => {
  const { someReducer } = getState();
  return dispatch({
    type: actionTypes.SOME_ACTION_TYPE,
    someData,
  });
});

When you dispatch(someThenableThunk('hello-world')), it returns a Promise object that you can chain further actions to.

Answer 2

Here you have an example on how to dispatch and chain async action. https://github.com/gaearon/redux-thunk

The thunk middleware knows how to turn thunk async actions into actions, so you just have to have your simple_action() to be a thunk and the thunk middleware will do the job for you, if the middleware see a normal action, he will dispatch this action as normal action but if it's an async function it will turn your async action into normal action.

So your simple_action need to be a thunk ( A thunk is a function that returns a function.) Like this for example:

function makeASandwichWithSecretSauce(forPerson) {
  return function (dispatch) {
    return fetchSecretSauce().then(
      sauce => dispatch(makeASandwich(forPerson, sauce)),
      error => dispatch(apologize('The Sandwich Shop', forPerson, error))
    );
  };
}

When using the makeASandwichWithSecretSauce function you can use the dispatch function

store.dispatch(
  makeASandwichWithSecretSauce('Me')
);

And even

// It even takes care to return the thunk’s return value
// from the dispatch, so I can chain Promises as long as I return them.

store.dispatch(
  makeASandwichWithSecretSauce('My wife')
).then(() => {
  console.log('Done!');
});

Here a complete example on how you can write action creators that dispatch actions and async actions from other action creators, and build your control flow with Promises.

function makeSandwichesForEverybody() {
  return function (dispatch, getState) {
    if (!getState().sandwiches.isShopOpen) {
      // You don’t have to return Promises, but it’s a handy convention
      // so the caller can always call .then() on async dispatch result.
      return Promise.resolve();
    }

    //Do this action before starting the next one below 
    dispatch(simple_action());

    // We can dispatch both plain object actions and other thunks,
    // which lets us compose the asynchronous actions in a single flow.
    return dispatch(
      makeASandwichWithSecretSauce('My Grandma')
    ).then(() =>
      Promise.all([
        dispatch(makeASandwichWithSecretSauce('Me')),
        dispatch(makeASandwichWithSecretSauce('My wife'))
      ])
    ).then(() =>
      dispatch(makeASandwichWithSecretSauce('Our kids'))
    ).then(() =>
      dispatch(getState().myMoney > 42 ?
        withdrawMoney(42) :
        apologize('Me', 'The Sandwich Shop')
      )
    );
  };
}
//apologize and withdrawMoney are simple action like this for example
      return {
        type:  "END_SUCESS"
      }

//usage

store.dispatch(
  makeSandwichesForEverybody()
).then(() =>
    console.log("Done !");
);

To create you own promises you can use a library like bluebird.

//EDIT : To be sure that the store has processed that action completely before anything else happens in the function action_creator() you can dispatch this simple_action before action_creator(); // I added this comment to the code //Do this action before starting the next one below

Answer 3

dispatch will return whatever the action/function it calls returns; so if you want to chain certain activities (as per your example), your action would need to return a Promise.

As @Aaleks mentions, if your action were a thunk you can create a scenario where you return a Promise, then you could do as you mention.

BTW I think naming your thunk action_creator is a bit misleading, as simple_action is actually an Action Creator in Redux parlance - have edited accordingly :)