Why RxJS Is The Hottest Way To Handle Async

With RxJS growing rapidly, and the recent release of RxJS 5, it’s easy to see why Observables are becoming a more important part in app development. Soon, Observables will be fully native to the web, and with that, it will become clear to everyone that RxJS isn’t just something for Angular 2.

In one of the latest Polygot Developer articles, Tracy Lee guest blogs and explains why you should learn RxJS and Observables now, and not later.

Find out the best way to handle asynchrony, increase functionality without a refactor and how to harness the power of RxJS in the most productive way possible.

You can find the original post here.

Observables. Native To The Web Platform?

One of the common misconceptions in the web world is that RxJS is an “Angular 2 thing”.

What most developers don’t realize is that Observables are on their way to becoming native to the web, and if you aren’t already using them to handle asynchrony, you are not adequately preparing yourself for the future.

The Best Way To Handle Asynchrony

RxJS allows you to solve hard problems with less code, promotes maintainability, readability, flexibility, and composability. These are just some of the reasons RxJS is the hottest way to handle async right now.

Learning how to handle asynchrony the reactive way instead of using promises and callbacks will also greatly reduce the probability that you are leaking resources. And because RxJS works with any framework (angular.js, react.js, ember.js, vue.js), node, and even without frameworks, it’s easy to future proof your applications and have confidence in using this technology.

Increase Functionality Without A Refactor

If you think it’s difficult to use Observables, or a large refactor may have to take place, you’re wrong. With the power of RxJS operators, you can easily add functionality to existing code without altering it.

RxJS allows you to increase the power of your application with reactive programming techniques. In just a few lines of maintainable code, you can have multiplex web sockets and easily coordinate multiple ajax requests.

RxJS is also great for state management with asynchronous data flows. With Rx, you can handle this in a declarative and flexible way alongside redux or as a replacement for redux.

Harnessing The Power Of RxJS

Ben Lesh, author of RxJS 5 and primary lead for the project has launched RxWorkshop, the best way for you to learn the power of RxJS.

While working at Netflix, Ben developed a technique for multiplexing websockets with RxJS and introduced it into RxJS 5. With his work, you can learn how to reconnect your multiplex data streams in one line of code.

RxWorkshop is a framework agnostic course and great for developing a basic foundation of how to leverage reactive programming in your applications.

You’ll learn the advantages of declarative programming and how Observables fit into existing programming patterns like the observer pattern.

RxJS with Angular 2

Because Observables are the async type of choice for Angular 2, learning RxJS will allow you to leverage the power of reactive programming in your Angular 2 apps.

RxJS with React

State management can be difficult with managing data flows that are asynchronous. Though redux has become the de-facto means of managing state in React, it does not manage asynchrony. But, you can use RxJS as redux or alongside redux to manage asynchrony in a declarative way for maximum flexibility.

Curious about RxWorkshop? Check out the philosophy behind teaching RxJS here.

A full course outline for RxWorkshop is listed here.

Dates and availability for RxWorkshop at RxWorkshop.com.

You can follow Tracy @ladyleet on Twitter.