Managing server-side state in today’s web application often is like fighting an uphill war against loading spinners and stale data. Although in order to Become a TanStack Query Master: The Ultimate React Query Guide provides an ideal path to triumph. Most React devs, in fact, begin by fetching data through some useEffect-hook, but they quickly find themselves entangled in cache handling and synchronization.” TanStack Query in React provides an excellent cache handling system in React applications that makes it extremely responsive.
Setup and Installation
Getting started with this library is quite straightforward and takes only a few commands to setup. You need to install the core package to begin your journey toward React JS data management with TanStack Query. Run the following command in your terminal:
npm install @tanstack/react-queryOnce the installation finishes, you must wrap your application with the Query Provider. This step ensures that every component in your tree can access the powerful caching mechanisms.
Why use TanStack Query in React?
- It handles automatic caching so you never fetch the same data twice unnecessarily.
- The library manages loading and error states for you without manual boolean variables.
- It synchronizes your UI with the server data through background refetching.
- You can easily implement pagination and infinite scrolling with minimal code.
- It provides built-in tools for “stale-while-revalidate” data management.
- The small bundle size ensures your application remains lightweight and fast.
Master React Query Data Fetching with Example
Imagine you are building a Customer Help Center. You need to display a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from your database. In a traditional setup, you would write complex logic to handle the fetch request and store the results.
With TanStack Query advanced techniques, you define a “query key” and a “fetcher function.” The library then takes over the heavy lifting. It checks if the FAQs are already in the cache before making a network request.
File: src/hooks/useFaqs.ts
import { useQuery } from '@tanstack/react-query';
export interface FAQItem {
question: string;
answer: string;
id?: string | number;
}
const fetchFAQs = async (): Promise<FAQItem[]> => {
const backendUrl = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_BACKEND_URL;
const response = await fetch(`${backendUrl}/faqs`);
if (!response.ok) {
throw new Error('Failed to fetch FAQs');
}
const result = await response.json();
const data = result.data || result;
return Array.isArray(data) ? data : [];
};
export const useFaqs = () => {
return useQuery({
queryKey: ['faqs'],
queryFn: fetchFAQs,
staleTime: 1000 * 60 * 5,
});
};This hook work as core functionality for fetching data from back to our application. It will call API and get data and store it into state.
Now let’s create component to show data on home page. You can use page for this but it’s idle to create new component for FAQs.
File: src/components/Faq.tsx
'use client';
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { Plus, Minus, Loader2 } from 'lucide-react';
import { useFaqs } from '../hooks/useFaqs';
interface Props {
onOpenContact: () => void;
}
const FAQ = ({ onOpenContact }: Props) => {
const [openIndex, setOpenIndex] = useState<number | null>(null);
const { data: faqData, isLoading, error } = useFaqs();
const toggleFAQ = (index: number) => {
setOpenIndex(openIndex === index ? null : index);
};
return (
<section className="bg-white py-24 px-6" id="faqs">
<div className="max-w-3xl mx-auto">
<div className="text-center mb-16">
<h2 className="text-4xl font-bold tracking-tighter text-black mb-4">
Frequently Asked Questions
</h2>
<p className="text-gray-500">
Everything you need to know about PostPlanify and our 1-month free trial.
</p>
</div>
<div className="space-y-4">
{isLoading ? (
<div className="text-center py-8">
<Loader2 className="animate-spin h-12 w-12 text-black mx-auto" />
<p className="mt-2 text-gray-600">Loading FAQs...</p>
</div>
) : error ? (
<div className="text-center py-8 text-red-500">
{error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'An error occurred'}
</div>
) : !faqData || faqData.length === 0 ? (
<div className="text-center py-8 text-gray-500">
No FAQs available at the moment.
</div>
) : (
faqData.map((item, index) => (
<div key={item.id || index} className="border-b border-gray-100 last:border-0">
<button
onClick={() => toggleFAQ(index)}
aria-expanded={openIndex === index}
className="w-full flex justify-between items-center py-6 text-left group"
>
<span className={`text-lg font-medium transition-colors ${openIndex === index ? 'text-black' : 'text-gray-600 group-hover:text-black'
}`}>
{item.question}
</span>
<span className="ml-6 flex-shrink-0 bg-black text-white rounded-full p-1">
{openIndex === index ? <Minus size={16} strokeWidth={3} /> : <Plus size={16} strokeWidth={3} />}
</span>
</button>
<div
className={`overflow-hidden transition-all duration-300 ease-in-out ${openIndex === index ? 'max-h-[500px] pb-6' : 'max-h-0'
}`}
>
<p className="text-gray-500 leading-relaxed">{item.answer}</p>
</div>
</div>
))
)}
</div>
<div className="mt-16 p-8 bg-gray-50 rounded-2xl flex flex-col md:flex-row items-center justify-between gap-6">
<div>
<h4 className="font-bold text-black">Still have questions?</h4>
<p className="text-sm text-gray-500">We’re here to help you grow your social presence.</p>
</div>
<button className="bg-black text-white px-6 py-3 rounded-md font-bold hover:bg-gray-800 transition-colors whitespace-nowrap" onClick={onOpenContact}>
Contact Support
</button>
</div>
</div>
</section>
);
};
export default FAQ;It will utilize hook for fetching data and display FAQs. It will also manage loader and error placement in case backend is not in sync. The last thing, we need to setup is add this component into any page. I will display this into home page here.
File: src/app/page.tsx
"use client";
import Faq from "./components/Faq";
import { useState } from "react";
export default function Home() {
return (
<>
<Faq />
</>
);
}It will load component and display it to users. It will help you to load data without blocking main thread and when user come back this page it will load data from state instead of requesting data each time to backend.
Basically, it will improve performance as well as make code easy to manage and update.
Conclusion
For any developer, switching to this library is a huge benefit. It offers effective React data caching TanStack Query straight out of the box and relieves the burden of handling global loading states. Your users get a considerably speedier experience, and your code gets cleaner. To notice a significant increase in your workflow, start putting these patterns into practice right now.