React Notification Mastery: Code Implementation with Redux Middleware

In the world of React applications, keeping users informed through notifications is pretty standard. Whether it’s letting them know an action was successful, flagging errors, or sharing important updates, having a reliable notification system is key for a good user experience. One smart way to handle notifications in React is by using something called Redux middleware.

This blog post is all about diving into this concept of React Redux notification middleware. We’ll compare it to the traditional way of handling notifications and then show you how to actually use it with a popular library called Toastify. As we go through this journey, we’ll break down the idea of React Redux notification middleware. Think of it as a kind of messenger between the storage system in Redux and the parts of your app that show notifications.

We’ll talk about how it’s different from the traditional way of doing notifications and why it’s a good idea to use Redux middleware. The blog will wrap up with a hands-on demonstration, guiding you through the steps of setting it up using Toastify—a well-liked notification library in the React world. The goal here is to give developers a solid understanding and practical skills so they can create a top-notch notification system in their React apps.

What is React Redux Notification Middleware?

React Redux notification middleware is a middleware layer that intercepts actions dispatched in Redux and provides a mechanism to display notifications to the user. It acts as a bridge between your Redux store and the notification component(s), allowing you to easily manage and display notifications across your application.

Traditional Approach vs. React Redux Notification Approach Using Toastify

When it comes to handling notifications in a React application, there are different approaches you can take. The traditional approach often involves passing notification data as props down the component tree, while the React Redux notification approach utilizes middleware and libraries like Toastify to provide a more efficient and centralized solution. Let’s explore the differences between these two approaches in more detail:

Scalability and Reusability

✅ Traditional Approach: In the traditional approach, handling notifications can become cumbersome as the application grows in size and complexity. As more components need access to notifications, passing the data through multiple levels of components can lead to code duplication and maintenance challenges. Additionally, if you want to reuse a notification in different parts of your application, you may need to duplicate the logic for displaying and managing it.

☑️ React Redux Notification Approach: By using React Redux notification middleware, you have a centralized and scalable solution for handling notifications. The middleware intercepts dispatched actions and allows you to add, remove, or modify notifications as needed. This approach promotes code reuse since the notification logic is abstracted away in the middleware and can be easily used across different components and containers. It provides a clean separation of concerns and avoids code duplication.

Ease of Implementation and Flexibility

✅ Traditional Approach: Implementing notifications using the traditional approach requires manual handling of notification data and its propagation through the component tree. You must create and manage state variables, event handlers, and callback functions to display and dismiss notifications. This can be time-consuming and prone to errors, especially if notifications need to be shown in different parts of the application.

☑️ React Redux Notification Approach: The React Redux notification approach simplifies the implementation by leveraging middleware and libraries like Toastify. The middleware intercepts dispatched actions, extracts the notification data, and adds it to the Redux store. Components can then subscribe to the store and display the notifications using the chosen notification library or custom components. This approach provides a consistent and reusable notification system that is easy to integrate and extend with different notification libraries.

Customization and Styling

✅ Traditional Approach: With the traditional approach, customizing and styling notifications can be more challenging. Since the notification data is passed as props, modifying the appearance of notifications in different parts of the application requires updating multiple components. This can lead to inconsistencies and make it harder to maintain a cohesive visual design.

☑️ React Redux Notification Approach: By utilizing React Redux notification middleware with libraries like Toastify, you have more flexibility in customizing and styling notifications. The notification library provides a wide range of options to customize the appearance, animation, and behaviour of notifications. You can easily configure and style notifications in a centralized manner, ensuring a consistent look and feel across your application.

Related read: How To Implement Redux Toolkit With React Js

Implementation and Code

To implement React Redux notification middleware with Toastify, follow these steps:

Install the required dependencies:

npm install react-redux redux redux-thunk react-toastify

Step 1. After installing the dependencies create the notification reducer which will store and handle the notifications states.

Step 2. Then create a notification middleware file that contains the function that will be executed in the middle of state changes to redux.

Step 3. Configure the redux store with the notification middleware.

Step 4. Use the notification component in your application.

Advantages of React Redux Notification Middleware

✅ A centralized and scalable approach to manage and display notifications throughout the application.

✅ Separation of concerns by isolating notification logic in the middleware layer.

✅ Easily extendable and customizable with the flexibility of using different notification libraries or building custom notification components.

✅ Provides a consistent and uniform way of handling notifications across different parts of your application.

✅ Simplifies code by reducing the need to pass down notification data as props.