Live / Realtime

refine lets you add Realtime support to your app via the liveProvider prop for <Refine>. It can be used to update and show data in Realtime throughout your app. refine remains agnostic in its API to allow different solutions(Ably, Socket.IO, Mercure, supabase, etc.) to be integrated.

Refer to the Live Provider documentation for detailed information. &#8594

We will be using Ably in this guide to provide Realtime features.

Installation

We need to install the Ably live provider package from refine.

:::caution To make this example more visual, we used the @pankod/refine-antd package. If you are using Refine headless, you need to provide the components, hooks, or helpers imported from the @pankod/refine-antd package. :::

Setup

Since we will need apiKey from Ably, you must first register and get the key from Ably.

The app will have one resource: posts with CRUD pages(list, create, edit, and show) similar to base example.

You can also refer to CodeSandbox to see the final state of the app &#8594

Adding `liveProvider`

Firstly we create a Ably client for @pankod/refine-ably live provider.

import { Ably } from "@pankod/refine-ably";

export const ablyClient = new Ably.Realtime("your-api-key");

Then pass liveProvider from @pankod/refine-ably to <Refine>.

tsx

import { Refine } from "@pankod/refine-core";
import {
  Layout,
  ReadyPage,
  useNotificationProvider,
  ErrorComponent,
} from "@pankod/refine-antd";
import dataProvider from "@pankod/refine-simple-rest";
import routerProvider from "@pankod/refine-react-router-v6";

import "@pankod/refine-antd/dist/reset.css";

//highlight-next-line
import { liveProvider } from "@pankod/refine-ably";

//highlight-next-line
import { ablyClient } from "utility/ablyClient";
import { PostList, PostCreate, PostEdit, PostShow } from "pages/posts";

const App: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <Refine
      routerProvider={routerProvider}
      dataProvider={dataProvider("https://api.fake-rest.refine.dev")}
      Layout={Layout}
      ReadyPage={ReadyPage}
      notificationProvider={useNotificationProvider}
      catchAll={<ErrorComponent />}
      //highlight-start
      liveProvider={liveProvider(ablyClient)}
      options={{ liveMode: "auto" }}
      //highlight-end
      resources={[
        {
          name: "posts",
          list: PostList,
          create: PostCreate,
          edit: PostEdit,
          show: PostShow,
          canDelete: true,
        },
      ]}
    />
  );
};

export default App;

:::note

For live features to work automatically we added liveMode: "auto" in the options prop.

Refer to the Live Provider documentation for detailed information. &#8594 :::

Configuring `liveMode`

We may not want to make Realtime changes instantly in some cases. In these cases, we can use manual mode to prevent the data from changing instantly. Then we can handle the event manually.

For example in an edit page for a record, It would be better to handle Realtime data manually to prevent synchronization problems caused by multiple editing sources. We would not want the data changing while we are trying to edit a record.

We will be alerted about changes in an alert box on top of the form instead of changing the data instantly.

tsx

// ...

export const PostEdit: React.FC = () => {
  //highlight-start
  const [deprecated, setDeprecated] = useState<
    "deleted" | "updated" | undefined
  >();
  //highlight-end

  const { formProps, saveButtonProps, queryResult } = useForm<IPost>({
    //highlight-start
    liveMode: "manual",
    onLiveEvent: (event) => {
      if (event.type === "deleted" || event.type === "updated") {
        setDeprecated(event.type);
      }
    },
    //highlight-end
  });

  //highlight-start
  const handleRefresh = () => {
    queryResult?.refetch();
    setDeprecated(undefined);
  };
  //highlight-end

  // ...

  return (
    <Edit /* ... */>
      //highlight-start
      {deprecated === "deleted" && (
        <Alert
          message="This post is deleted."
          type="warning"
          style={{ marginBottom: 20 }}
          action={<ListButton size="small" />}
        />
      )}
      {deprecated === "updated" && (
        <Alert
          message="This post is updated. Refresh to see changes."
          type="warning"
          style={{ marginBottom: 20 }}
          action={<RefreshButton size="small" onClick={handleRefresh} />}
        />
      )}
      //highlight-end
      <Form {...formProps} layout="vertical">
        // ....
      </Form>
    </Edit>
  );
};

:::note

We can also implement a similar thing on the show page.

Refer to the CodeSandbox example for detailed information. &#8594 :::

Custom Subscriptions

You can subscribe to events emitted within refine in any place in your app with useSubscription.

For example, we can subscribe to create event for posts resource and we can show a badge for the number of events in the sider menu.

Firstly, let's implement a custom sider like in this example.

<details> <summary>Custom Sider Menu</summary>

tsx

import React, { useState } from "react";
import {
  useTitle,
  ITreeMenu,
  CanAccess,
  useRouterContext,
  useMenu,
} from "@pankod/refine-core";
import { AntdLayout, Menu, Grid, Icons } from "@pankod/refine-antd";
import { antLayoutSider, antLayoutSiderMobile } from "./styles";

export const CustomSider: React.FC = () => {
  const [collapsed, setCollapsed] = useState<boolean>(false);
  const { Link } = useRouterContext();
  const Title = useTitle();
  const { menuItems, selectedKey } = useMenu();
  const breakpoint = Grid.useBreakpoint();

  const isMobile =
    typeof breakpoint.lg === "undefined" ? false : !breakpoint.lg;

  const renderTreeView = (tree: ITreeMenu[], selectedKey: string) => {
    return tree.map((item: ITreeMenu) => {
      const { icon, label, route, name, children, parentName } = item;

      if (children.length > 0) {
        return (
          <SubMenu
            key={route}
            icon={icon ?? <Icons.UnorderedListOutlined />}
            title={label}
          >
            {renderTreeView(children, selectedKey)}
          </SubMenu>
        );
      }
      const isSelected = route === selectedKey;
      const isRoute = !(parentName !== undefined && children.length === 0);
      return (
        <CanAccess key={route} resource={name.toLowerCase()} action="list">
          <Menu.Item
            key={route}
            style={{
              fontWeight: isSelected ? "bold" : "normal",
            }}
            icon={icon ?? (isRoute && <Icons.UnorderedListOutlined />)}
          >
            <Link to={route}>{label}</Link>
            {!collapsed && isSelected && <Icons.UnorderedListOutlined />}
          </Menu.Item>
        </CanAccess>
      );
    });
  };

  return (
    <AntdLayout.Sider
      collapsible
      collapsedWidth={isMobile ? 0 : 80}
      collapsed={collapsed}
      breakpoint="lg"
      onCollapse={(collapsed: boolean): void => setCollapsed(collapsed)}
      style={isMobile ? antLayoutSiderMobile : antLayoutSider}
    >
      <Title collapsed={collapsed} />
      <Menu
        selectedKeys={[selectedKey]}
        mode="inline"
        onClick={({ key }) => {
          if (!breakpoint.lg) {
            setCollapsed(true);
          }
        }}
      >
        {renderTreeView(menuItems, selectedKey)}
      </Menu>
    </AntdLayout.Sider>
  );
};

</details>

Now, let's add a badge for the number of create and update events for posts menu items.

tsx

import React, { useState } from "react";
import {
  useTitle,
  ITreeMenu,
  CanAccess,
  useMenu,
  //highlight-start
  useSubscription,
  //highlight-end
} from "@pankod/refine-core";
import {
  AntdLayout,
  Menu,
  Grid,
  Icons,
  //highlight-start
  Badge,
  //highlight-end
} from "@pankod/refine-antd";
import { antLayoutSider, antLayoutSiderMobile } from "./styles";

export const CustomSider: React.FC = () => {
  const [subscriptionCount, setSubscriptionCount] = useState(0);
  const [collapsed, setCollapsed] = useState<boolean>(false);
  const { Link } = useRouterContext();
  const Title = useTitle();
  const { menuItems, selectedKey } = useMenu();
  const breakpoint = Grid.useBreakpoint();

  const isMobile =
    typeof breakpoint.lg === "undefined" ? false : !breakpoint.lg;

  //highlight-start
  useSubscription({
    channel: "resources/posts",
    type: ["created", "updated"],
    onLiveEvent: () => setSubscriptionCount((prev) => prev + 1),
  });
  //highlight-end

  const renderTreeView = (tree: ITreeMenu[], selectedKey: string) => {
    return tree.map((item: ITreeMenu) => {
      const { icon, label, route, name, children, parentName } = item;

      if (children.length > 0) {
        return (
          <SubMenu
            key={name}
            icon={icon ?? <Icons.UnorderedListOutlined />}
            title={label}
          >
            {renderTreeView(children, selectedKey)}
          </SubMenu>
        );
      }
      const isSelected = route === selectedKey;
      const isRoute = !(parentName !== undefined && children.length === 0);
      return (
        <CanAccess key={route} resource={name.toLowerCase()} action="list">
          <Menu.Item
            key={route}
            style={{
              fontWeight: isSelected ? "bold" : "normal",
            }}
            icon={icon ?? (isRoute && <Icons.UnorderedListOutlined />)}
          >
            //highlight-start
            <div>
              <Link to={route}>{label}</Link>
              {label === "Posts" && (
                <Badge
                  size="small"
                  count={subscriptionCount}
                  offset={[2, -15]}
                />
              )}
            </div>
            //highlight-end
          </Menu.Item>
        </CanAccess>
      );
    });
  };

  return (
    <AntdLayout.Sider
      collapsible
      collapsedWidth={isMobile ? 0 : 80}
      collapsed={collapsed}
      breakpoint="lg"
      onCollapse={(collapsed: boolean): void => setCollapsed(collapsed)}
      style={isMobile ? antLayoutSiderMobile : antLayoutSider}
    >
      <Title collapsed={collapsed} />
      <Menu
        selectedKeys={[selectedKey]}
        mode="inline"
        onClick={() => {
          if (!breakpoint.lg) {
            setCollapsed(true);
          }

          //highlight-start
          if (key === "/posts") {
            setSubscriptionCount(0);
          }
          //highlight-end
        }}
      >
        {renderTreeView(menuItems, selectedKey)}
      </Menu>
    </AntdLayout.Sider>
  );
};

:::tip

You can subscribe to specific ids with params. For example, you can subscribe to deleted and updated events from posts resource with id 1 and 2.

tsx

useSubscription({
  channel: "resources/posts",
  type: ["deleted", "updated"],
  //highlight-start
  params: {
    ids: ["1", "2"],
  },
  //highlight-end
  onLiveEvent: () => setSubscriptionCount((prev) => prev + 1),
});

:::

Example