RxJS, how to poll an API to continuously check for updated records using a dynamic timestamp

Question

I am new to RxJS and I am trying to write an app that will accomplish the following things:

1. On load, make an AJAX request (faked as fetchItems() f

Answer 1

Here is another solution which does not use closure or 'external state'.

I made the following hypothesis :

• fetchItems returns a Rx.Observable of items, i.e. not an array of items

It makes use of the expand operator which allows to emit values which follow a recursive relationship of the type x_n+1 = f(x_n). You pass x_n+1 by returning an observable which emits that value, for instance Rx.Observable.return(x_n+1) and you can finish the recursion by returning Rx.Observable.empty(). Here it seems that you don't have an ending condition so this will run forever.

scan also allows to emit values following a recursive relationship (x_n+1 = f(x_n, y_n)). The difference is that scan forces you to use a syncronous function (so x_n+1 is synchronized with y_n), while with expand you can use an asynchronous function in the form of an observable.

Code is not tested, so keep me updated if this works or not.

Relevant documentation : expand, combineLatest

var modifiedSinceInitValue = // put your date here
var polling_frequency = // put your value here
var initial_state = {modifiedSince: modifiedSinceInitValue, itemArray : []}
function max(property) {
  return function (acc, current) {
    acc = current[property] > acc ? current[property] : acc;
  }
}    
var data$ = Rx.Observable.return(initial_state)
  .expand (function(state){
             return fetchItem(state.modifiedSince)
                   .toArray()
                   .combineLatest(Rx.Observable.interval(polling_frequency).take(1), 
                     function (itemArray, _) {
                       return {
                         modifiedSince : itemArray.reduce(max('updatedAt'), modifiedSinceInitValue), 
                         itemArray : itemArray
                       }
                     }

  })