How Tanstack Query improves data fetching capabilities in our mapping applications significantly

While working on Explore-VN, an application that heavily relies on data, we decided to explore the capabilities of Tanstack Query. Explore-VN leverages multiple data sources, fetching information from various servers through APIs. Concretely, in the Explore-VN application, we are among others things combining user data, metadata and data to visualize time series. This collection of data, known as server state, introduces complexities compared to client state. Server state is stored remotely, requires asynchronous APIs, can be modified by others, and can become outdated. These characteristics bring challenges such as caching, deduping requests, updating outdated data, detecting data staleness and reflecting updates efficiently.

Tanstack Query offers an intuitive and zero-configuration approach, making it straightforward to implement in your application. By abstracting away the complexities, Tanstack Query empowers developers to focus more on building and enhancing their application's core functionalities. This is the reason that the library has become so popular in recent years. A minimal setup in React to start taking advantage of the benefits that Tanstack Query has to offer looks as follows:

One of the remarkable features of Tanstack Query is its high level of customization. Whether it's at the level of individual requests or the application as a whole, you have the flexibility to override the default configurations to suit the specific requirements of your data sources.

Our developers at Nazka Mapps really enjoyed working with Tanstack Query during the implementation phase of Explore-VN. Its well-documented API made it a breeze to get started. The simplicity and clarity of its design allowed us to rapidly fetch and manage data, significantly reducing development time and effort. More importantly, Tanstack Query's optimized data-fetching capabilities greatly enhanced the user experience of the application we built. Users could seamlessly interact with the application, experiencing minimal delays, thanks to the efficient data handling provided by Tanstack Query.

In conclusion, Tanstack Query helped us tackle the complexities associated with managing server state. Its intuitive nature, customizable features, and positive impact on the user experience make it a highly recommended choice for developers working with data-driven applications. With Tanstack Query, you can streamline your data-fetching process and deliver a robust and efficient application to your users.