RxJS throttle for AJAX requests - rxjs

Question

I want to create a function that will make AJAX requests to backend. And if this function is called many times at the same time, then it should not make many identical requests to the server. It must make only 1 request.
For example:
doAJAX('http://example-1.com/').subscribe(res => console.log); // must send a request
doAJAX('http://example-1.com/').subscribe(res => console.log); // must NOT send a request
doAJAX('http://example-2.com/').subscribe(res => console.log); // must send a request, bacause of different URL
window.setTimeout(() => {
doAJAX('http://example-2.com/').subscribe(res => console.log); // must send a request because too much time has passed since the last request
}, 3000)
All function calls should return a result, as if the request was actually made.
I think for this purpose I can use RxJS library.
I have done this:
const request$ = new Subject < string > ();
const response$ = request.pipe(
groupBy((url: string) => url),
flatMap(group => group.pipe(auditTime(500))), // make a request no more than once every 500 msec
map((url: string) => [
url,
from(fetch(url))
]),
share()
);
const doAJAX = (url: string): Observable <any> {
return new Observable(observe => {
response$
.pipe(
filter(result => result[0] === url),
first(),
flatMap(result => result[1])
)
.subscribe(
(response: any) => {
observe.next(response);
observe.complete();
},
err => {
observe.error(err);
}
);
request$.next(url);
});
}
I create request$ subject and response$ observable. doAjax function subscribes for response$ and send URL string to request$ subject. Also there are groupBy and auditTime operators in request$ stream. And filter operator in doAJAX function.
This code works but I think it is very difficult. Is there a way to make this task easier? Maybe RxJS scheduler or not use RxJS library at all

Answer 1

As the whole point of this is to memoize Http results and delay repeated calls, you might consider your own memoization. Example:
const memoise = (func) => {
let cache: { [key:string]: Observable<any> } = {};
return (...args): Observable<any> => {
const cacheKey = JSON.stringify(args)
cache[cacheKey] = cache[cacheKey] || func(...args).pipe(share());
return cache[cacheKey].pipe(
tap(() => timer(1000).subscribe(() => delete cache[cacheKey]))
);
}
}
Here is a Stackblitz DEMO