What is the correct way to share the result of an Angular Http network call in RxJs 5?

Question

By using Http, we call a method that does a network call and returns an http observable:

getCustomer() {
    return          


        

Answer 1

Cache the data and if available cached, return this otherwise make the HTTP request.

import {Injectable} from '@angular/core';
import {Http, Headers} from '@angular/http';
import {Observable} from 'rxjs/Observable';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/of'; //proper way to import the 'of' operator
import 'rxjs/add/operator/share';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/map';
import {Data} from './data';

@Injectable()
export class DataService {
  private url: string = 'https://cors-test.appspot.com/test';

  private data: Data;
  private observable: Observable;

  constructor(private http: Http) {}

  getData() {
    if(this.data) {
      // if `data` is available just return it as `Observable`
      return Observable.of(this.data); 
    } else if(this.observable) {
      // if `this.observable` is set then the request is in progress
      // return the `Observable` for the ongoing request
      return this.observable;
    } else {
      // example header (not necessary)
      let headers = new Headers();
      headers.append('Content-Type', 'application/json');
      // create the request, store the `Observable` for subsequent subscribers
      this.observable = this.http.get(this.url, {
        headers: headers
      })
      .map(response =>  {
        // when the cached data is available we don't need the `Observable` reference anymore
        this.observable = null;

        if(response.status == 400) {
          return "FAILURE";
        } else if(response.status == 200) {
          this.data = new Data(response.json());
          return this.data;
        }
        // make it shared so more than one subscriber can get the result
      })
      .share();
      return this.observable;
    }
  }
}

Plunker example

This article https://blog.thoughtram.io/angular/2018/03/05/advanced-caching-with-rxjs.html is a great explanation how to cache with shareReplay.