js-waku/guides/reactjs-store.md

# Retrieve Messages Using Waku Store With ReactJS

It is easy to use DappConnect with ReactJS.
In this guide, we will demonstrate how your ReactJS dApp can use Waku Store to retrieve messages.

DApps running on a phone or in a browser are often offline:
The browser could be closed or mobile app in the background.

[Waku Relay](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/18/) is a gossip protocol.
As a user, it means that your peers forward you messages they just received.
If you cannot be reached by your peers, then messages are not relayed;
relay peers do **not** save messages for later.

However, [Waku Store](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/13/) peers do save messages they relay,
allowing you to retrieve them at a later time.
The Waku Store protocol is best-effort and does not guarantee data availability.
Waku Relay should still be preferred when online;
Waku Store can be used after resuming connectivity:
For example, when the dApp starts.

In this guide, we'll review how you can use Waku Store to retrieve messages.

Before starting, you need to choose a _Content Topic_ for your dApp.
Check out the [how to choose a content topic guide](choose-content-topic.md) to learn more about content topics.

# Setup

Create a new React app:

```shell
npx create-react-app my-app
cd my-app
```

Then, install [js-waku](https://npmjs.com/package/js-waku):

```shell
npm install js-waku
```

Start the dev server and open the dApp in your browser:

```shell
npm run start
```

Note: We have noticed some issues with React bundling due to `npm` pulling an old version of babel.
If you are getting an error about the [optional chaining (?.)](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Optional_chaining)
character not being valid, try cleaning up and re-installing your dependencies:

```shell
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install
```

# Create Waku Instance

In order to interact with the Waku network, you first need a Waku instance.
Go to `App.js` and modify the `App` function:

```js
import { Waku } from 'js-waku';
import * as React from 'react';

function App() {
  const [waku, setWaku] = React.useState(undefined);
  const [wakuStatus, setWakuStatus] = React.useState('None');

  // Start Waku
  React.useEffect(() => {
    // If Waku status not None, it means we are already starting Waku 
    if (wakuStatus !== 'None') return;

    setWakuStatus('Starting');

    // Create Waku
    Waku.create({ bootstrap: true }).then((waku) => {
      // Once done, put it in the state
      setWaku(waku);
      // And update the status
      setWakuStatus('Connecting');
    });
  }, [waku, wakuStatus]);

  return (
    <div className='App'>
      <header className='App-header'>
        // Display the status on the web page
        <p>{wakuStatus}</p>
      </header>
    </div>
  );
}
```

# Wait to be connected

When using the `bootstrap` option, it may take some time to connect to other peers.
To ensure that you have store peers available to retrieve messages from,
use the `Waku.waitForConnectedPeer()` async function:

```js
React.useEffect(() => {
  if (!waku) return;

  if (wakuStatus === 'Connected') return;

  waku.waitForConnectedPeer().then(() => {
    setWakuStatus('Connected');
  });
}, [waku, wakuStatus]);
```

# Use Protobuf

Waku v2 protocols use [protobuf](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/) [by default](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/10/).

Let's review how you can use protobuf to decode structured data.

First, define a data structure.
For this guide, we will use a simple chat message that contains a timestamp, nick and text:

```js
{
  timestamp: Date;
  nick: string;
  text: string;
}
```

To encode and decode protobuf payloads, you can use the [protons](https://www.npmjs.com/package/protons) package.

## Install Protobuf Library

```shell
npm install protons
```

## Protobuf Definition

Define the data structure with protons:

```js
import protons from 'protons';

const proto = protons(`
message ChatMessage {
  uint64 timestamp = 1;
  string nick = 2;
  bytes text = 3;
}
`);
```

You can learn about protobuf message definitions here:
[Protocol Buffers Language Guide](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/proto).

## Decode Messages

To decode the messages retrieved from a Waku Store node,
you need to extract the protobuf payload and decode it using `protons`.

```js
function decodeMessage(wakuMessage) {
  if (!wakuMessage.payload) return;

  const { timestamp, nick, text } = proto.ChatMessage.decode(
    wakuMessage.payload
  );

  // All fields in protobuf are optional so be sure to check
  if (!timestamp || !text || !nick) return;

  const time = new Date();
  time.setTime(timestamp);

  const utf8Text = Buffer.from(text).toString('utf-8');

  return { text: utf8Text, timestamp: time, nick };
}

```

## Retrieve messages

You now have all the building blocks to retrieve and decode messages for a store node.

Finally, retrieve messages from a store node:

```js
const ContentTopic = '/toy-chat/2/huilong/proto';

function App() {
  // [..]
  // Store messages in the state
  const [messages, setMessages] = React.useState([]);

  React.useEffect(() => {
    if (wakuStatus !== 'Connected') return;

    waku.store
      .queryHistory([ContentTopic])
      .catch((e) => {
        console.log('Failed to retrieve messages', e);
      })
      .then((retrievedMessages) => {
        const messages = retrievedMessages.map(decodeMessage).filter(Boolean);

        setMessages(messages);
      });
  }, [waku, wakuStatus]);

  return (
    <div className='App'>
      <header className='App-header'>
        <h2>{wakuStatus}</h2>
        <h3>Messages</h3>
        <ul>
          <Messages messages={messages} />
        </ul>
      </header>
    </div>
  );
}

```

Note that `WakuStore.queryHistory` select an available store node for you.
However, it can only select a connected node, which is why the bootstrapping is necessary.
It will throw an error if no store node is available.

You can see the complete code in the [Minimal ReactJS Waku Store App](/examples/store-reactjs-chat).