How to make a sequence of http requests in Angular 6 using RxJS

Question

I've been looking for a solution all over the web, but couldn't find anything that fits my user case. I'm using the MEAN stack (Angular 6) and I have a registration form. I'm looking for a way to execute multiple HTTP calls to the API and each one is dependent on the returned result from the previous one. I need something that looks like this:

firstPOSTCallToAPI('url', data).pipe(
    result1 => secondPOSTCallToAPI('url', result1)
    result2 => thirdPOSTCallToAPI('url', result2)
    result3 => fourthPOSTCallToAPI('url', result3)
    ....
).subscribe(
    success => { /* display success msg */ },
    errorData => { /* display error msg */ }
);

What combination of RxJS operators do I need to use to achieve this? One possible solution would be to nest multiple subscriptions, but I want to avoid that and do it better with RxJS. Also need to think about error handling.

Answer 1

For calls that depend on previous result you should use concatMap

firstPOSTCallToAPI('url', data).pipe(
    concatMap(result1 => secondPOSTCallToAPI('url', result1))
      concatMap( result2 => thirdPOSTCallToAPI('url', result2))
       concatMap(result3 => fourthPOSTCallToAPI('url', result3))
    ....
).subscribe(
    success => { /* display success msg */ },
    errorData => { /* display error msg */ }
);

if your async method does not depend on return value of the precedent async call you can use

   concat(method(),method2(),method3()).subscribe(console.log)

Answer 2

MergeMap

is exact what you are looking for

firstPOSTCallToAPI('url', data).pipe(
    mergeMap(result1 => secondPOSTCallToAPI('url', result1)),
    mergeMap(result2 => thirdPOSTCallToAPI('url', result2)),
    mergeMap(result3 => fourthPOSTCallToAPI('url', result3)),
    // ...
).subscribe(
    success => { 
      // here you will get response of LAST request (fourthPOSTCallToAPI)
    },
    errorData => { /* display error msg */ }
);


// I assume that
// secondPOSTCallToAPI, thirdPOSTCallToAPI and fourthPOSTCallToAPI
// returns obserwable eg. return this.http.get<Book>(apiUrl);