Is there any better way to render the fetched feed data on webpage with infinite scrolling?

Question

I am creating a webpage in ReactJS for post feed (with texts, images, videos) just like Reddit with infinite scrolling. I have created a single post component which will be provided with the required data. I am fetching the multiple posts from MySQL with axios. Also, I have implemented redux store in my project.

I have also added post voting. Currently, I am storing all the posts from db in redux store. If user upvotes or downvotes, that change will be in redux store as well as in database, and web-page is re-rendering the element at ease.

Is it feasible to use redux-store for this, as the data will be increased soon, maybe in millions and more ?

I previously used useState hook to store all the data. But with that I had issue of dynamic re-rendering, as I had to set state every time user votes.

If anyone has any efficient way, please help out.

Answer 1

Seems that this question goes far beyond just one topic. Let's break it down to the main pieces:

1. Client state. You say that you are currently using redux to store posts and update the number of upvotes as it changes. The thing is that this state is not actually a state in your case(or at least most of it). This is a common misconception to treat whatever data that is coming from API a state. In most cases it's not a state, it's a cache. And you need a tool that makes work with cache easier. I would suggest trying something like react-query or swr. This way you will avoid a lot of boilerplate code and hand off server data cache management to a library.
2. Infinite scrolling. There are a few things to consider here. First, you need to figure out how you are going to detect when to preload more posts. You can do it by using the IntersectionObserver. Or you can use some fance library from NPM that does it for you. Second, if you aim for millions of records, you need to think about virtualization. In a nutshell, it removes elements that are outside of the viewport from the DOM so browsers don't eat up all memory and die after some time of doomscrolling(that would be a nice feature tho). This article would be a good starting point: https://levelup.gitconnected.com/how-to-render-your-lists-faster-with-react-virtualization-5e327588c910.
3. Data source. You say that you are storing all posts in database but don't mention any API layer. If you are shooting for millions and this is not a project for just practicing your skills, I would suggest having an API between the client app and database. Here are some good questions where you can find out why it is not the best idea to connect to database directly from client: one, two.