Effects

Signals are trackable values, but they are only one half of the equation. To complement those are observers that can be updated by those trackable values. An effect is one such observer; it runs a side effect that depends on signals.

An effect can be created by using the Effect class. The effect automatically subscribes to any signal and reruns when any of them change. So let's create an Effect that reruns whenever counter changes:

final disposeFn = Effect((_) {
    print("The count is now ${counter.value}");
});

The effect run immediately and prints The count is now 0;

Try incrementing the counter by 1:

counter.value++;

The effect prints The count is now 1;

The Effect class returns a Dispose callback, invoke it to stop listening and clearing the effect.

final disposeFn = Effect((disposeFn) {
    print("The count is now ${counter.value}");
});

// Somewhere else, dispose the effect
disposeFn();