status-react/doc/new-guidelines.md

Guidelines

The goal of this document is to help all contributors (core and external) to write code in unison and help establish good practices that serve the Status Mobile contributors well.

We don't want to turn this document into an exhaustive list of rules to be followed that nobody will read. As much as possible, we'll try to document only what we consider important for Status Mobile. In other words, we don't want to maintain a general Clojure convention/style guide, nor do we want to turn this document into a long tutorial.

This is a work in progress, and not all conventions are properly implemented in the codebase yet. The project structure is also going over major changes (as of Nov/2022), and it'll take a considerable amount of time until we migrate the existing code to the new structure.

If you find out anything is outdated or missing, please, share with us or even better, create a pull-request! 🤸

Style guide

We mostly follow the Clojure Style Guide, so it's recommended to get familiar with it.

As of Nov/2022, running make lint should fix the most basic formatting issues, and we are in the process of integrating a tool to format non-trivial code according to the Clojure Style Guide. This should greatly reduce noise in pull-request reviews and it'll simplify the life of all contributors.

Pay special attention to:

• Align let bindings https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide#bindings-alignment
• Align map keys https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide#map-keys-alignment

Dos and don'ts

Component styles

Prefer to define styles in separate files named style.cljs, usually colocated with the source file using it. For a real example, see src/status_im/ui2/screens/chat/messages/style.cljs.

;; bad
(defn animated-checkbox-view [{:keys [size]}]
  [animated/view
   {:style {:width           size
            :height          size
            :border-radius   4
            :justify-content :center
            :align-items     :center}}
   [animated/view
    (do-something)]])

;; good
(defn animated-checkbox-view [{:keys [size]}]
  [animated/view
   {:style (style/animated-checkbox-style size)}
   [animated/view
    (do-something)]])

Styles def vs defn

Always use def over defn, unless the style relies on dynamic values, such as deref'ed atoms.

;; bad
(defn title-column []
  {:height 56})

;; good
(def title-column
  {:height 56})

;; bad
(def community-card
  {:background-color (colors/theme-colors colors/white colors/neutral-90)})

;; good
(defn community-card []
  {:background-color (colors/theme-colors colors/white colors/neutral-90)})

Using TODOs comments

TODO comments are used extensively in the codebase, but prefer to use them only when strictly necessary and when an issue is not enough to track the work left to be done.

These are all good examples:

;; TODO(@username): <message>
;; TODO(@username): <message>, <issue URL>
;; TODO(YYYY-MM-DD): <message>
;; TODO(@username,YYYY-MM-DD): <message>

Subscription names and event names

Always register events and subscriptions using a meaningful namespace, but don't namespace them with ::. We understand it's a controversial decision because there are both pros and cons to such practice.

Whenever appropriate, it's also recommended to use fake namespaces to convey more knowledge in the keyword about which bounded context (domain) it refers to. You may also use dots to convey hierarchical structures.

;; bad
;; Don't use real namespaced keywords.
(re-frame/reg-sub
 ::profile-pictures-visibility
 :<- [:multiaccount]
 (fn [multiaccount]
   (:profile-pictures-visibility multiaccount)))

;; good
;; Uses a fake namespaced keyword.
(re-frame/reg-sub
 :profile/pictures-visibility
 :<- [:multiaccount]
 (fn [multiaccount]
   (:profile-pictures-visibility multiaccount)))

;; better
;; Uses a fake namespaced keyword with a parent namespace (multiaccount).
(re-frame/reg-sub
 :multiaccount.profile/pictures-visibility
 :<- [:multiaccount]
 (fn [multiaccount]
   (:profile-pictures-visibility multiaccount)))

Declaring view components

Use the simple defn to declare components. Don't use utils.views/defview and utils.views/letsubs.

;; bad
(utils.views/defview browser []
  (utils.views/letsubs [window-width [:dimensions/window-width]]
    (do-something window-width)))

;; good
(defn browser []
  (let [window-width (rf/sub [:dimensions/window-width])]
    (do-something window-width)))

Using re-frame subscriptions and dispatching events

Use the utils.re-frame namespace instead of re-frame.core to subscribe and dispatch.

;; bad
(ns my-namespace
  (:require [re-frame.core :as rf]))

(let [username @(rf/subscribe [:username])]
  [pressable/pressable {:on-press #(rf/dispatch [:do-something])}
   [rn/view
    (str "Hello " username)]])

;; good
(ns my-namespace
  (:require [utils.re-frame :as rf]))

(let [username (rf/sub [:username])]
  [pressable/pressable {:on-press #(rf/dispatch [:do-something])}
   [rn/view
    (str "Hello " username)]])

Registering event handlers

Events must always be declared with the utils.fx/defn macro. Also, don't use re-frame.core/reg-event-db.

;; bad
(re-frame/reg-event-fx
 :wakuv2.ui/save-all-confirmed
 (fn [{:keys [db] :as cofx}]
   ...))

;; good
(fx/defn save-all
  {:events [:wakuv2.ui/save-all-confirmed]}
  [{:keys [db] :as cofx}]
  ...)

Registering top-level re-frame subscriptions

Use subs.root/reg-root-key-sub to register top-level (root) subscriptions. Additionally, register root subscriptions in the subs.root namespace.

;; bad
(re-frame/reg-sub
 :view-id
 (fn [db]
   (:view-id db)))

;; good
(reg-root-key-sub :view-id :view-id)

Registering layer-3 subscriptions

The majority of the subscriptions should be defined as layer-3 subscriptions due to performance constraints.

;; bad
(re-frame/reg-sub
 :ens/preferred-name
 (fn [db]
   (get-in db [:multiaccount :preferred-name])))

;; good
(re-frame/reg-sub
 :ens/preferred-name
 :<- [:multiaccount]
 (fn [multiaccount]
   (:preferred-name multiaccount)))

Requiring quo2 components

Consume quo2 components from quo2.core, unless the namespace is also inside the quo2/ directory.

;; bad
(ns my-namespace
  (:require [quo2.components.icon :as icon]))

(icon/icon :i/verified)

;; good
(ns my-namespace
  (:require [quo2.core :as quo2]))

(quo2/icon :i/verified)

;; also good because both namespaces are inside quo2/
(ns quo2.components.tabs.account-selector
  (:require [quo2.components.markdown.text :as text]))

Require/import

Prefer :as instead of :refer. There are exceptions to this rule, e.g. the test macros deftest and is, which are ubiquitous in the Clojure community.

;; bad
(ns status-im.utils.datetime
  (:require [cljs-time.coerce :refer [from-long]]))

;; good
(ns status-im.utils.datetime
  (:require [cljs-time.coerce :as time.coerce]))

Javascript interop

Use binaryage/oops macros instead of core interop macros.

;; bad
(fn [^js event]
  (.-width (.-nativeEvent event)))

;; good
(require '[oops.core :as  oops])
(fn [event]
  (oops/oget event "nativeEvent.width"))

Accessibility labels

Use keywords instead of strings. As a bonus, remember keywords are cached in memory.

;; bad
[text/text {:accessibility-label "profile-nickname"}
 "Markov"]

;; good
[text/text {:accessibility-label :profile-nickname}
 "Markov"]

Icons

Use the appropriate keyword qualification/namespace and don't directly require namespaces inside quo2/components/.

;; bad
(require '[quo2.components.icon :as icons])
(icons/icon :main-icons2/verified)

;; good
(require '[quo2.core :as quo2])
(quo2/icon :i/verified)

Translations

Prefer to use translation placeholders instead of creating multiple translation keywords and concatenating them into a single string.

;; bad
;; Assume the translation key is:
;;   "biometric-auth-error": "Unable perform biometric authentication"
(str (i18n/label :t/biometric-auth-error) "(" error-code ")")

;; good
;; Assume the translation key is:
;;   "biometric-auth-error": "Unable perform biometric authentication ({{code}})"
(i18n/label :t/biometric-auth-error {:code error-code})

Tests

Subscription tests

Test layer-3 subscriptions by actually subscribing to them, so reframe's signal graph gets validated too.

;; bad
(defn user-recipes
  [[current-user all-recipes location]]
  ...)

(re-frame/reg-sub
 :user/recipes
 :<- [:current-user]
 :<- [:all-recipes]
 :<- [:location]
 user-recipes)

(deftest user-recipes-test
  (testing "builds list of recipes"
    (let [current-user {...}
          all-recipes  {...}
          location     [...]]
      (is (= expected (recipes [current-user all-recipes location]))))))

;; good
(require '[test-helpers.unit :as h])

(re-frame/reg-sub
 :user/recipes
 :<- [:current-user]
 :<- [:all-recipes]
 :<- [:location]
 (fn [[current-user all-recipes location]]
   ...))

(h/deftest-sub :user/recipes
  [sub-name]
  (testing "builds list of recipes"
    (swap! rf-db/app-db assoc
           :current-user {...}
           :all-recipes {...}
           :location [...])
    (is (= expected (rf/sub [sub-name])))))

Project Structure

First, the bird's-eye view with some example ClojureScript files:

src
├── js/
├── mocks/
├── quo2
│   ├── components/
│   ├── foundations/
│   └── theme.cljs
├── react_native
│   ├── gesture.cljs
│   └── platform.cljs
├── status_im/
├── status_im2
│   ├── common
│   │   └── components
│   │       └── bottom_sheet.cljs
│   ├── contexts/
│   ├── setup/
│   └── subs/
├── test_helpers/
└── utils.cljs

• src/js: Raw Javascript files, e.g. React Native Reanimated worklets.
• src/mocks: Plumbing configuration to be able to run tests.
• src/quo2/: The component library for Status Mobile.
• src/react_native/: Contains only low-level constructs to help React Native work in tandem with Clojure(Script).
• src/status_im2/: Directory where we try to be as strict as possible about our guidelines and where we prefer to write code for the new, redesigned mobile app.
• src/status_im/: Directory containing what we call "old code", not yet migrated to new guidelines for the new mobile app.
• src/status_im2/common/: Directories named common can appear at any level of the directory tree. Just like directories named utils, their directory nesting level communicates their applicable limits.
• src/status_im2/common/components/: Contains reusable components that are not part of the design system (quo2).
• src/status_im2/contexts/: Contains bounded contexts, like browser/, messaging/, etc. As much as possible, bounded contexts should not directly require each other's namespaces.
• src/status_im2/setup/: Contains namespaces that are mostly used to initialize the application, configure test runners, etc. In general, such namespaces should not be required from the outside.
• src/test_helpers/: Reusable utilities for writing all kinds of tests.
• src/status_im/subs/: All subscriptions should live inside it.

Directories named utils/ can appear at any level of the directory tree. The directory nesting level precisely indicates its boundaries. For example, a contexts/user_settings/utils/datetime.cljs file communicates that it should only be used in the user_settings context.

src/quo2

The src/quo2/ directory holds all components for the new design system. As much as possible, its sub-directories and component names should reflect the same language used by designers.

Even though the directory lives alongside the rest of the codebase, we should think of it as an external entity that abstracts away particular Status domain knowledge.

Components inside src/quo2/ should not rely on re-frame, i.e. they should not dispatch events or use subscriptions.

Example structure:

src
└── quo2
    ├── components
    │   └── dropdown
    │       ├── style.cljs
    │       ├── test.cljs
    │       └── view.cljs
    └── screens
        └── dropdown
            └── view.cljs

Re-frame events

Event handlers should be defined in files named events.cljs, and they should be close to other things, like view files, components, etc.

For example:

src
└── contexts
    └── browser
        ├── bookmarks/
        ├── options/
        ├── permissions/
        ├── events.cljs
        ├── events_test.cljs
        ├── style.cljs
        └── view.cljs

Test structure

Unit tests should be created alongside their respective source implementation. We prefer them colocated with the source and not like most Clojure (JVM) codebases which mirror the sources in a top-level test directory.

├── models
│   ├── message.cljs
│   └── message_test.cljs
├── models.cljs
└── models_test.cljs

Component tests should be created in a separate directory __tests__, colocated with the source. When the entire component implementation is isolated under a single directory, create a test file named component_spec.cljs instead.

└── filter
    ├── component_spec.cljs
    ├── style.cljs
    └── view.cljs

There's no hard rule on how integration test namespaces should be split, but we're at least striving to define them under appropriate bounded contexts that mirror the source code.

test
├── appium/
└── integration
    ├── browser/
    ├── communities/
    ├── messaging/
    ├── user_settings/
    └── wallet
        └── payment_test.cljs

Glossary

Unit test: The smallest atomic unit that's meaningful to test. For example, tests for utility functions and event handlers are considered unit tests in the mobile codebase. They should be completely deterministic, fast, and they should work flawlessly in the REPL.

Bounded context: A logical separation between different domains. It's an important concept in the Domain-Driven Design literature. See Bounded Context, by Martin Fowler for an introduction to the topic.