useSWR usage in vercel/ai-chatbot hooks.

In this article, we will review the useSWR usage in vercel/ai-chatbot source code. I found two examples in hooks folder where useSWR is used. 

1. vercel/ai-chatbot/hooks/use-artifact.ts#L3

2. vercel/ai-chatbot/hooks/use-chat-visibility.ts#L4

use-artifact.ts

Let’s begin with use-artifact.ts. You will find the below import at L#3

import useSWR from 'swr';

L25–27 contain the below code

const { data: localArtifact } = useSWR<UIArtifact>('artifact', null, {
    fallbackData: initialArtifactData,
});

At this point, I would go read the useSWR documentation because, well, I forgot the definition.

SWR

The name “SWR” is derived from stale-while-revalidate, a HTTP cache invalidation strategy popularized by HTTP RFC 5861(opens in a new tab). SWR is a strategy to first return the data from cache (stale), then send the fetch request (revalidate), and finally come with the up-to-date data.

With SWR, components will get a stream of data updates constantly and automatically.

And the UI will be always fast and reactive.

Following is overview picked from SWR site.

import useSWR from 'swr'

function Profile() {
  const { data, error, isLoading } = useSWR('/api/user', fetcher)

  if (error) return <div>failed to load</div>
  if (isLoading) return <div>loading...</div>
  return <div>hello {data.name}!</div>
}

In this example, the useSWR hook accepts a key string and a fetcher function. key is a unique identifier of the data (normally the API URL) and will be passed to fetcher. fetcher can be any asynchronous function which returns the data, you can use the native fetch or tools like Axios.

The hook returns 3 values: data, isLoading and error, based on the status of the request.

Read more about SWR.

Now that we understand the basics of SWR, let’s get back to the example.

const { data: localArtifact } = useSWR<UIArtifact>('artifact', null, {
    fallbackData: initialArtifactData,
});

Looks like there is no fetcher defined in this usecase as there is null and there is a fallbackData which is initialArtifactData that is defined at the top of this hook.

export const initialArtifactData: UIArtifact = {
  documentId: 'init',
  content: '',
  kind: 'text',
  title: '',
  status: 'idle',
  isVisible: false,
  boundingBox: {
    top: 0,
    left: 0,
    width: 0,
    height: 0,
  },
};

Following are the other usecases where useSWR is used

 const { data: localArtifact, mutate: setLocalArtifact } = useSWR<UIArtifact>(
    'artifact',
    null,
    {
      fallbackData: initialArtifactData,
    },
  );

const { data: localArtifactMetadata, mutate: setLocalArtifactMetadata } =
    useSWR<any>(
      () =>
        artifact.documentId ? `artifact-metadata-${artifact.documentId}` : null,
      null,
      {
        fallbackData: null,
      },
    );

So there’s no fetcher altogether in this use-artifact hook. Interesting…

use-chat-visibility.ts

In this use-chat-visibility.ts, useSWR is found to be used only once as shown below:

 const { data: localVisibility, mutate: setLocalVisibility } = useSWR(
    `${chatId}-visibility`,
    null,
    {
      fallbackData: initialVisibility,
    },
  );

Again, there is no fetched in this hook too, there is a fallbackData.

About me:

Hey, my name is Ramu Narasinga. I study large open-source projects and create content about their codebase architecture and best practices, sharing it through articles, videos.

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Production-grade projects —  https://app.thinkthroo.com/production-grade-projects

References:

1. https://github.com/vercel/ai-chatbot/blob/main/hooks/use-artifact.ts#L3

2. https://github.com/vercel/ai-chatbot/blob/main/hooks/use-chat-visibility.ts#L4

3. https://swr.vercel.app/