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RXSWIFT

RxSwift is a library for working with asynchronous code for the Swift language. Using RxSwift allows you to represent events as streams and subscribe to them. This makes it easier to process complex sequences of asynchronous events.


It is beneficial to use the library if there are a huge number of simultaneous but unrelated processes in the runtime of your program.


The iOS SDK has many tools for handling asynchronous events, but to combine them to solve real-world problems, you need crutches. RxSwift is the de facto standard for applications with the MVVM architectural pattern, which is often used for iOS development.

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MVVM and RxSwift architecture

You need RxSwift if you are going to develop a complex application based on the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) architecture design pattern. This design pattern is used to separate the user interface (UI) code from the rest of the application, creating a weak connection between them.

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The presence of a ViewModel layer allows the model and the application image to interact with each other without the need to create hard dependencies. Thanks to the separation, MVVM projects are faster and easier to develop, scale, and maintain.

RxSwift converts events into streams. When the user, for example, clicks on a button in the application (View), it will trigger a command to be sent to the ViewModel. It receives data and makes changes to the Model. Thus, the thread reaches the data update and returns to the image with the result.

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How RxSwift works and when to use it

There are three main types of components in RxSwift:

Observables

overview sequences that allow some classes to subscribe to event sequences broadcast by others;

Operators

operators for performing operations on sequence elements;

Schedulers

schedulers that optimize the execution of tasks in threads and queues.

All of them are used to create asynchronous applications when:

  • the application has a lot of data and events to process it;
  • the use of standard observables, notifications, and closures leads to up to 90% of unnecessary code;
  • you need to make the task easier for developers and clearly distinguish between synchronous and asynchronous code.
Conclusion

RxSwift is a library for working with asynchronous code, which is needed when you have a lot of such code. IOS developers will tell you if you need to use RxSwift as soon as you explain to them the desired functionality of the future application. There are other tools for developing asynchronous applications in the iOS SDK, such as Notifications or GCD, but only RxSwift contains everything you need to solve this problem in a simple and competent way.

Mobile applications
Mobile applications

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