mobx README

The project's README from github.com/mobxjs/mobx. As one markdown file: README.md.

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MobX

Simple, scalable state management.

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Documentation

Documentation can be found at mobx.js.org.

Sponsors

MobX is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors below, and many other individual backers. Sponsoring directly impacts the longevity of this project.

🥇🥇 Platinum sponsors ($5000+ total contribution): 🥇🥇


Guilded Canva Parallax

🥇 Gold sponsors ($2500+ total contribution):


One Beyond Frontend Masters Auction Frontier CodeFirst Modulz Coinbase Curology Mendix Facebook Open Source Casino Sites Bugsnag

🥈 Silver sponsors ($500+ total contributions):

mantro GmbH Extremely Heavy Industries Algolia Space307 Blokt UPPER DAZN talentplot EaseUS Route Planner and Route Optimizer Handsontable

Introduction

Anything that can be derived from the application state, should be. Automatically.

MobX is a signal based, battle-tested library that makes state management simple and scalable by transparently applying functional reactive programming. The philosophy behind MobX is simple:

😙

Straightforward

Write minimalistic, boilerplate-free code that captures your intent. Trying to update a record field? Simply use a normal JavaScript assignment — the reactivity system will detect all your changes and propagate them out to where they are being used. No special tools are required when updating data in an asynchronous process.

🚅

Effortless optimal rendering

All changes to and uses of your data are tracked at runtime, building a dependency tree that captures all relations between state and output. This guarantees that computations that depend on your state, like React components, run only when strictly needed. There is no need to manually optimize components with error-prone and sub-optimal techniques like memoization and selectors.

🤹🏻‍♂️

Architectural freedom

MobX is unopinionated and allows you to manage your application state outside of any UI framework. This makes your code decoupled, portable, and above all, easily testable.

A quick example

So what does code that uses MobX look like?

import React from "react"
import ReactDOM from "react-dom"
import { makeAutoObservable } from "mobx"
import { observer } from "mobx-react-lite"

// Model the application state.
const myTimer = makeAutoObservable({
    secondsPassed: 0,
    increase() {
        this.secondsPassed += 1
    },
    reset() {
        this.secondsPassed = 0
    }
})

// Build a "user interface" that uses the observable state.
const TimerView = observer(({ timer }) => (
    <button onClick={() => timer.reset()}>Seconds passed: {timer.secondsPassed}</button>
))

ReactDOM.render(<TimerView timer={myTimer} />, document.body)

// Update the 'Seconds passed: X' text every second.
setInterval(() => {
    myTimer.increase()
}, 1000)

The observer wrapper around the TimerView React component will automatically detect that rendering depends on the timer.secondsPassed observable, even though this relationship is not explicitly defined. The reactivity system will take care of re-rendering the component when precisely that field is updated in the future.

Every event (onClick / setInterval) invokes an action (myTimer.increase / myTimer.reset) that updates observable state (myTimer.secondsPassed). Changes in the observable state are propagated precisely to all computations and side effects (TimerView) that depend on the changes being made.

MobX unidirectional flow

This conceptual picture can be applied to the above example, or any other application using MobX.

Getting started

To learn about the core concepts of MobX using a larger example, check out The gist of MobX page, or take the 10 minute interactive introduction to MobX and React. The philosophy and benefits of the mental model provided by MobX are also described in great detail in the blog posts UI as an afterthought and How to decouple state and UI (a.k.a. you don’t need componentWillMount).

Further resources

The MobX book

The MobX Quick Start Guide ($24.99) by Pavan Podila and Michel Weststrate is available as an ebook, paperback, and on the O'Reilly platform (see preview).

Videos

Credits

MobX is inspired by reactive programming principles, which are for example used in spreadsheets. It is inspired by model–view–viewmodel frameworks like MeteorJS's Tracker, Knockout and Vue.js, but MobX brings transparent functional reactive programming (TFRP, a concept which is further explained in the MobX book) to the next level and provides a standalone implementation. It implements TFRP in a glitch-free, synchronous, predictable and efficient manner.

A ton of credit goes to Mendix, for providing the flexibility and support to maintain MobX and the chance to prove the philosophy of MobX in a real, complex, performance critical applications.

mobx (mobxjs/mobx)

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28.2K ·GitHub
Mobx
What is this?MobX is a state management library for JavaScript apps that makes anything derived from application state update automatically, using transparent functional reactive programming.
Is it a framework or a library?It is a library, not a framework. It is unopinionated and can manage state outside of any UI framework, though it is commonly paired with React.
How do I add it to a project?Install it via npm and wrap observable state with 'observable' and reactive components with the 'observer' wrapper so they auto-update when dependencies change.
Do I need React to use it?No, MobX itself has no dependencies and works standalone; React bindings are just one common use case.
Do I need to manually optimize re-renders?No, MobX automatically builds a dependency tree at runtime so only components that actually depend on changed state re-render, without manual memoization or selectors.
Why is it called a signal-based library?MobX tracks state at runtime and builds a dependency graph so changes propagate precisely and synchronously to only the computations and UI parts that depend on them, similar to how spreadsheets recalculate.
What inspired MobX's design?MobX draws on reactive programming principles used in spreadsheets and MVVM frameworks like Meteor's Tracker, Knockout, and Vue.js, implementing transparent functional reactive programming in a glitch-free, synchronous way.
Where can I learn MobX beyond the README?The official docs live at mobx.js.org, and there's also a 10-minute interactive React+MobX tutorial, an Egghead.io course, and a paid MobX Quick Start Guide book for deeper learning.
What are similar projects?xstate, rxdb, vueuse, formily, pinia, redux, zustand, formik
Which topics is it in?reactive-programming, state-management, vue, react, npm, frontend, library, typescript, javascript, web
Creator
mobxjs
Size
22.4 MB
Stars
28.2K
Updated
CommitOct 17Release[email protected]Oct 02
Age
11y
Commits · 90 Days