Option to cancel / limit / throttle / debounce outgoing queries

[joepio]

First off, thanks for this awesome library! I really like working with your tooling.

But I'd like to have more control over when queries are performed.

My use case

Depending on user input, I want to change how results are sorted (i.e. when a user entered a number in their query, use a different type of sort). For me, this means using useSortBy and calling it's refine function. I'm having trouble preventing that this function isn't called too often.

I had a similar problem when I wanted to debounce / throttle search queries whenver user input changes. I have toyed a bit with using useDebounce and useThrottle type of custom hooks to use a throttled / debounced version of the query, but this approach keeps bringing up complications.

Another example, is that I want to reset the GeoBounds when the user updates the text field. In my current implementation, I have to do two separate refine calls, both resulting in a fetch. These should be batched.

The problem

The core issue is performance problems when doing many simultaneous search requests in a fraction of a second. That is just inherently a performance bottleneck if you have large objects.

Possible solutions

I'd love to have some options to help deal with this. Some ideas:

• Prevent calls that have already been done, maybe memoize the response. Now I can sometimes see some queries being run twice wit the exact same payload.
• When instantiating instantMeilisearch, give an option to debounce or throttle with a bunch of milliseconds.
• Have some internal state that tracks outgoing requests, and prevent multiple fetch calls from being active at the same time (e.g. cancel the previous one if a new one is called). Possibly allow users to set a limit of maxConcurrentSearches
• Give useX hooks instead of only refine calls, also refineWithoutUpdate or something. Could also be an option on the hook instantiation.
• Instead of doing the search reactively, only perform it when the user calls some function, e.g. the search from useSearch. (might relate to Extract query from instant-meilisearch #952) Perhaps users could set noReactiveSearch in the instantMeiliSearch opts.

[bidoubiwa]

Hey @joepio
This is a great suggestion. I need to dig deeper into it to see how easily it can be implemented.

Meanwhile, can you check this documentation and see if it helps you out?