🗺 Roadmap: Features & Docs

[davidkpiano]

Proposed Features & Enhancements

• Relative deep targets Discussion around possible target patterns #554
• Generic XState Dev Tool support Re-implementation of DevTools integration in XState #709
• (V5) Combine activities & invoked services Combine activities & invoked services #628
• Expand @xstate/test plan strategies @xstate/test test plan strategy #694
• Microstep listener [FeatureRequest] onTransition that get's every transition change #692 Transition on 'final' states not picked up by transitionListener #251
• Relative paths for in-state guards Relative paths for In State Guards  #349
• @xstate/react snapshot testing [Feature] @xstate/react : snapshot testing of components by state #432
• Deep initial targets Initial should accept deeply nested IDs #675
• Actions for initial (full config) initial actions #466
• Abort controller support for invoke [Feature] AbortController support for invoke #418
• @xstate/scxml SCXML import [feature] SCXML import? #411 Suggestion about tools that could help #101
• Split StateMachine and StateNode Split StateMachine & StateNode #655
• Visualizer: cache-bust fetching of gists Improve visualizer editing UX, or at least cache-bust fetching of gists #635
• Expose invoked services [Feature] Expose Invoked Services #424
• sketch.systems to XState convert sketch systems to xstate #479
• Visualizer: support displaying multiple machines Visualizer: Support displaying and interacting with multiple machines #625
• Visualizer: TypeScript support Add typescript support in visualizer #429
• XState Storybook addon xstate as a storybook addon? #30
• Design by contract Feature: design by contract #183
• @xstate/graph Initial transition Return initial state transition from getEdges function #266
• Tooling for gradual statechart specification Question: tooling for gradual statechart specification #287
• state.done Detecting Final State without starting #328
• Visualizer: XState JSON support Vizualizer with functionality to generate xstate json #401
• Visualizer: SVG, ASCII output support Visualize in ascii diagrams #90
• Context replace context replace  #262
• Visualizer: validation Add validation to xState visualizer #122
• Visualizer: meta data [Feature] Descriptions for Visualizer #447
• Restoring services Restoring services #332
• Visualizer: CLI tool Visualizer as a CLI tool #528
• Array conditions Array conditions #414
• Visualize variables of custom guards [Visualizer] Visualize variables of custom guards #881
• Visualizer: SSO without GitHub Login/signup without connecting to github to use visualizer #751
• @xstate/react React-specific interpreter for concurrent mode Proposal: a React-specific interpreter hook #1094
• Action arrays Support arrays for actions in machine options #1104

Planned Documentation

• Using SimulatedClock with @xstate/test Question: How to use SimulatedClock with @xstate/test when machine uses delays? #642
• Transition execution sequence timing Add documentation about timing of transition execution #621
• Improve docs on invoking services Question / feature request: invoking a service onExit from a state? #268
• Pattern for next/back navigation Can't transition back in history #188 Dealing with history #481
• Using XState in other frameworks (Svelte, Angular, etc.) Improve contribution documentation for implementing xstate in other frameworks #1149
• Stopping spawned actors Cleaning and stopping spawned actors #1116
• When to use actors XState: actors, downsides, conceptual barrier?  #906

[CodingDive]

I'm most excited about the browser extension and visualizing actors 🎉

[CodingDive]

Are there any plans for a typed matching API? Whenever I'm refactoring my machines and move state nodes around, I usually need to Ctrl+Shift+F every moved state node to ensure I'm still matching against the correct state structure. It would be great if TypeScript could catch those sort of errors since I'm already defining a state schema for every machine. 😊

Inspired by @christianalfoni video on how this works in overmind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDS159mWJ58

[semopz]

Going forward, could you link us to to a relevant announcement as you complete these tasks? If the link is to a release notes section where multiple features have been introduced, it should be made clear which roadmap item the feature relates to.

So when I visit this page, I'd like to know

1. Has the feature been implemented (available now via checkboxes 👍)
2. Deps for the feature (e.g., you need xstate v4.7+ AND @xstate/react v1.0+)
3. How to use the feature (examples, API docs link, etc...)
4. The name of the implemented feature. For example Visualizer: support displaying multiple machines #625 will probably become the Support for the Actors model in viz feature (or something to that effect)

[ThaddeusJiang]

Hi @davidkpiano
Could we writing a real world Testing Example.
like your talking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpNmPKjPSFQ

[andria-dev]

Any news on "Abort controller support for invoke" being worked on as #418 has been closed, @davidkpiano?

[CodingDive]

Can't speak for David but I believe the tasks of this issue/discussion thread is the sole and primary way to track feature requests until they'll be implemented.

I also think AbortController support is expected to be supported out of the box in v5. 😍 I'd too be interested how the final API will look like. The best thing would be to just transition into another state node and have XState do the promise cleanup of a service src behind the scenes. However, since promises can't natively be cancelled, some additional code may be needed to cancel a particularly fetch request in user land.

[Andarist]

IMHO AbortController case will just require a special invoke/spawn wrapper - currently in v5 we have builtin invokePromise, invokeCallback etc. So we could quite easily introduce invokeAbortablePromise or something like that.

[danielkcz]

Is there some ETA on V5? It's just that we are starting a new project roughly in 2 weeks and it would be nice to go with that right away.

All are those roadmap items expected to be done before V5 hits or is there some plan for alpha version soon?

[davidkpiano]

is there some plan for alpha version soon?

Yes, there is.

I think we can ship an alpha within the next two weeks (cc. @Andarist)

[danielkcz]

I don't want to be annoying or anything, but any chance to get alpha version out soon?

[Andarist]

We’ll talk this through with @davidkpiano and probably gonna release something - bear the mind its alpha status though 😉

[noor-tg]

hey, any ETA for the v5 ?

[davidkpiano]

It's still a slow-but-steady work in progress. Hope to have a release candidate out by December, though.

[danielkcz]

So not even some alpha unstable as I was asking 3 months ago here? :) Just to get the feel for changes, not some serious work.

[davidkpiano]

@FredyC Feel free to play with the next branch! It's fully working and available. It's just not on npm yet, but that shouldn't stop you from getting a feel for the changes.

Also, keep in mind that the definition of "3 months ago" has wildly changed in 2020. Might as well be 3 days ago.

[mikestopcontinues]

Are you doing anything to tackle the bundle size? For all the features, it's understandably heavy. But what if the baseline was similar to fsm (or less!), and you could opt into all of the additional features as plugins? If the plugins were limited to only those provided by xstate, you could still easily control ordering and adherence to the state charts spec.

I worry that as the library grows, it's going to become so large that only really big apps (games, graphics editors, etc) can justify it.

[UnknownH]

From previous experience there is nothing that large corporations hate more than 1) Framework migrations (ex from angular to react, or from class components to hooks). 2) Library adoption when another major version is to be released "soon". Reason being because an effort (=time =money) will need to be put into upgrading instead of focusing on features. Beyond that, and also from experience, when a framework/library operates in a "will be released when it's ready"-basis, that usually raises major red flags among stakeholders and upper management. In my opinion is not a bad way to operate, but maybe more for a startup environment 🙂.

[davidkpiano]

@UnknownH Thanks for the feedback. A more accurate timeline is this:

• XState v5 is currently in alpha (you can install it via xstate@alpha), but there are many major changes still expected.
• We hope to have an XState v5 beta released by the end of the year/early next year. There are a few big moving parts that need to go in for this; namely, invoking/spawning actor refactor, system architecture, input/output, type safety.
• XState v5 will not deviate much from XState v4, and there should be a very straightforward migration path.
• XState v4 will continue to be supported for a long time, especially since it has been around for 4+ years now and is used in production at many companies.
• XState v4 is currently in feature freeze. We will fix bugs and make improvements but the majority of development effort will be for v5.

[bmadone]

@davidkpiano it would be great, thanks!

[UnknownH]

Thank you very much @davidkpiano for bringing some clarity regarding the timelines! Should I understand then that, if we were to start implementing the project using XState 4, a very simple migration path (in terms of time) to XState 5 would be expected? Let's say one week or less, depending on the size of the project of course, but granted that we will be starting in the following weeks, and with Christmas right around the corner, there won't be much time to get really far... That would make it so much easy to explain and get approval from the upper echelon

[davidkpiano]

@UnknownH Yes, the migration path is expected to be straightforward, and we have talked about automating it with a codemod. The machine structure will be largely unchanged.

[NoriSte]

A generic question about this roadmap: it is still valid? 😊
I see the last time it's been updated is October 2020 (even if there are more recent comments in this discussion and even if the issues could have been updated more recently) 😊

[davidkpiano]

This roadmap isn't up to date - the most up to date future feature list/roadmap would be at https://feedback.stately.ai

[NoriSte]

Nice, thank you 😊