Algolia – Vue instant search attribute watcher

Question

I have the below component in my app:

<ais-menu attribute="productType"></ais-menu>

I'd like to watch for changes on this attribute and make a global change to my page, when it changes.

For example:

watch:{
  "state.productType": {
    deep: true,
    handler(state){
      console.log("If this text logs, my question is answered!");
    }
  }
}

Is there a way to add a watcher to a search property, or is there a way to trigger an event on the change of an attribute?

The ais-menu docs show the properties you can set to the component, but there don't seem to be any events you can listen for, or an example of setting a watcher.

Similarly, I wondered if there is something available on the overall <ais-instant-search> component but I couldn't find anything in the docs.

This issue refers to a 'searchStore._results' attribute but a later commenter says it no longer works.

watch: {
    'searchStore._results'(val) {
        // Emit event
    }
}

Full code below:

<template>
  <div>
    <ais-instant-search :search-client="searchClient" index-name="galeta_products" :routing="routing">
      <div class="centered-banner text-center">
        <h1 class="h2">{{ taxName }}</h1>
        <p>{{ taxDescription }}</p>
      </div>
      <ais-menu attribute="productType">
        <ul
          slot-scope="{
            items,
            canToggleShowMore,
            isShowingMore,
            toggleShowMore,
            refine,
            createURL,
          }"
        >
          <li v-for="item in items" :key="item.value" :class="{ 'active' : item.isRefined }">
            <a
              :href="createURL(item.value)"
              @click.prevent="refine(item.value)"
            >
              {{ item.label }}
            </a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </ais-menu>

    </ais-instant-search>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import algoliasearch from 'algoliasearch/lite';
import routing from './SearchRouting.js';

export default {
  props: ['taxName', 'taxDescription'],
  data() {
    return {
      liveTaxName: this.taxName,
      liveTaxDescription: this.taxDescription,
      searchClient: algoliasearch(
        'XXXXXXXX',
        'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
      ),
      routing
    };
  },
  watch:{
    // Here is what I want to do
    "state.productType": {
      deep: true,
      handler(state){
        this.liveTaxName = TAXONOMIES.find(tax => tax.slug == state.category).name;
        this.liveTaxDescription = TAXONOMIES.find(tax => tax.slug == state.category).description;
      }
    }
  }
};
</script>

Answer 1

One possible solution is to wrap the call to the refine function. You can then trigger any custom code.

<template>
  <!-- ... -->
  <ais-menu attribute="categories">
    <ul slot-scope="{ items, refine }">
      <li v-for="item in items" :key="item.value">
        <a href="#" @click.prevent="onMenuClick(item.value, refine)">
          {{ item.label }}
        </a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </ais-menu>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  // ...
  methods: {
    onMenuClick(value, refine) {
      console.log(value);
      refine(value);
    }
  }
};
</script>

You can find an example on CodeSandbox.