How to flatten nested Observables in Angular 2

Question

I'm new to Observables. I'm using them to check if the user is logged in or not in the constructor of my root page.

I have nested many Observables in order to do this, and they are working fine, but I think that there is a way to flatten all of these nested Observables.

I just want you to review the code and let me know what could be improved, and if I can flatten these Observables in login-page.ts

pages/login-page/login-page.ts

export class LoginPage {
  constructor(public navCtrl: NavController, private userService: UserService, private storage: Storage) {
        this.userService.getStoredToken().subscribe(
            data => {
                console.log('Token and username are stored.')
                this.userService.checkTokenValidity(data[0], data[1]).subscribe(
                    () => {
                        console.log('Token and username and valid.')
                        // Go to the homepage
                        this.navCtrl.push(TabsPage)
                    }, err => {
                        console.log("Invalid token, trying the stored username and password.")
                        this.userService.getStoredUserAndPassFromStorage().subscribe(data => {
                            console.log('Successfuly retrieved the username and password')
                            this.userService.login(data[0], data[1]).subscribe((res) => {
                                console.log('Username and password are valid.')
                                // Go to the homepage
                                this.navCtrl.push(TabsPage)
                                // Save new user data to local storage
                                this.userService.authSuccess(res.access_token, data[0], data[1])
                            }, err => {
                                console.log("Failed to login using the stored username and password.")
                                //Remove the loading and show login form
                            })
                        }, err => {
                            console.log("No stored token.")
                            //Remove the loading the and login form
                        })
                    }
                )
            },
            err => {
                //Remove the loading the show login form
            }
        )
    }

providers/user-service.ts

export class UserService {
    loginDetails: ILogin
    headers: any
    error: string
    
    apiUrl = global.apiUrl
    loginUrl = api.loginUrl
    
    contentHeader: Headers = new Headers({'Content-Type': 'application/json'})
    
    constructor(public http: Http, private storage: Storage) {
    }
    
    logout() {
        this.storage.remove('_user')
        this.storage.remove('_pass')
        this.storage.remove('_token')
    }
    
    login(username: string, password: string): Observable<IAccessToken> {
        this.loginDetails = {
            client_id: global.clientId,
            client_secret: global.clientSecret,
            grant_type: 'password',
            username: username,
            password: password,
        }
        let body = JSON.stringify(this.loginDetails)
        let options = new RequestOptions({headers: this.contentHeader})
        
        return this.http
                   .post(this.loginUrl, body, options)
                   .map(response => response.json())
    }
    
    getStoredToken(): Observable<string[]> {
        return Observable.forkJoin(
            this.storage.get('_token'),
            this.storage.get('_user')
        )
    }
    
    getStoredUserAndPassFromStorage(): Observable<string[]> {
        return Observable.forkJoin(
            this.storage.get('_user'),
            this.storage.get('_pass')
        )
    }
    
    checkTokenValidity(token: any, username: any): Observable<IAccessToken> {
        let params = new URLSearchParams()
        params.set('access_token', token)
        params.set('_format', 'json')
        return this.http.get(api.userInfoUrl(username), {
            search: params
        }).map(response => response.json())
    }
    
    authSuccess(access_token, username, password) {
        this.error = null
        this.storage.set("_user", username)
        this.storage.set("_pass", password)
        this.storage.set("_token", access_token)
    }
}

Alexander Ciesielski · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-23 15:29:15Z

1

To pass parameters and start a new Observable from an Observable you can use the switchMap operator. In your case this would be

this.userService.getStoredToken().switchMap(data =>

   this.userService.checkTokenValidity(data[0], data[1]).switchMap(isvalid =>

      this.userService.getStoredUserAndPassFromStorage().switchMap(data =>

          this.userService.login(data[0], data[1]).subscribe((res) => {
                                console.log('Username and password are valid.')
                                // Go to the homepage
                                this.navCtrl.push(TabsPage)
                                // Save new user data to local storage
                                this.userService.authSuccess(res.access_token, data[0], data[1])
                            }, err => {
                                console.log("Failed to login using the stored username and password.")
                                //Remove the loading and show login form
                            })

answered Oct 23, 2016 at 15:29

Alexander Ciesielski

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1 Comment

KarimMesallam Over a year ago

Thanks for the answer, it has helped me come up with the best practice IMHO, I will post it now as the answer.

KarimMesallam · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-23 19:49:29Z

Thanks Alexander for pointing out the benefit of switchMap in this case.

I've used your solution, and I have done some refactoring on top of it to make sure it's as readable as possible.

export class LoginPage {
    login: ILogin
    
    constructor(public navCtrl: NavController, private userService: UserService, private storage: Storage) {
        this.forgotPasswordPage = ForgotPasswordPage
        this.checkIfUserIsLoggedIn();
    }
    
    checkIfUserIsLoggedIn() {
        const storedToken$ = this.userService.getStoredToken()
        const checkTokenValidity$ = (data) => this.userService.checkTokenValidity(data[0], data[1])
        const storedUserAndPass$ = this.userService.getStoredUserAndPassFromStorage();
        const login$ = (data) => this.userService.login(data)
        
        const checkStoredTokenValidity$ = storedToken$.switchMap(data => checkTokenValidity$(data))
        const loginUsingStoredUsernameAndPass$ = storedUserAndPass$.switchMap(data => login$(data))
        
        checkStoredTokenValidity$.subscribe(() => {
            this.navCtrl.push(TabsPage)
        }, () => {
            console.log('Invalid token, now trying the saved username and password');
            loginUsingStoredUsernameAndPass$.subscribe(res => {
                this.navCtrl.push(TabsPage)
                this.userService.updateToken(res.access_token)
            }, () => {
                console.log('Invalid stored username and pass, they possibly just got changed.')
                //Remove the loading animation to show the login form.
            })
        })
    }
}

IMHO this is the best version of code I was able to generate based on switchMap If someone can think of a better version, please suggest it.

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