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Using Inferencer

Refine's @refinedev/inferencer package can be used to scaffold initial code for your resource pages based on API responses.

Generated code aren't guaranteed to work perfectly. This tool meant to be used locally to speed up the development process by generating the initial code and shouldn't be used on production.

Installation

Let's start by installing the @refinedev/inferencer package. Inferencer package can generate views with multiple UI libraries that Refine provides a built-in support for. To generate a view with a UI library, you need to install their dependencies as well (e.g. @refinedev/mui and Material UI packages for Material UI).

Supported UI libraries for Inferencer are:

npm i @refinedev/inferencer

Usage

Inferencer package exports UI specific inferencer components with sub-paths for each UI library. For example, to use Inferencer with Material UI, you need to import MuiInferencer from @refinedev/inferencer/mui.

import { MuiInferencer } from "@refinedev/inferencer/mui";

export const MyPage = () => {
return <MuiInferencer resource="products" action="list" />;
};

In the example above, we are using MuiInferencer to generate a list view for the products resource. The action prop is used to specify the type of view to be generated. The available actions are list, show, edit, and create.

After you have mounted the Inferencer component, you will get a preview of the generated view for the specified action of the resource and provided with the source code of the generated component. You can copy & paste the generated code and customize it to fit your application's needs.

Using Inferencer for the Categories Resource

In our application, we've used the categories resource in relation to the products resource. Now we will use inferencer component to generate a list view for the categories resource.

Let's start by creating a new file called src/pages/categories/list.tsx file.

Then let's create a route at /categories to render the ListCategories component.

Update your src/App.tsx file by adding the following lines:

src/App.tsx
import { Refine, Authenticated } from "@refinedev/core";
import routerProvider, { NavigateToResource } from "@refinedev/react-router-v6";

import { BrowserRouter, Routes, Route, Outlet } from "react-router-dom";

import {
RefineThemes,
ThemedLayoutV2,
ThemedTitleV2,
RefineSnackbarProvider,
useNotificationProvider,
} from "@refinedev/mui";

import CssBaseline from "@mui/material/CssBaseline";
import GlobalStyles from "@mui/material/GlobalStyles";
import { ThemeProvider } from "@mui/material/styles";

import { dataProvider } from "./providers/data-provider";
import { authProvider } from "./providers/auth-provider";

import { ShowProduct } from "./pages/products/show";
import { EditProduct } from "./pages/products/edit";
import { ListProducts } from "./pages/products/list";
import { CreateProduct } from "./pages/products/create";

import { ListCategories } from "./pages/categories/list";

import { Login } from "./pages/login";

export default function App(): JSX.Element {
return (
<BrowserRouter>
<ThemeProvider theme={RefineThemes.Blue}>
<CssBaseline />
<GlobalStyles styles={{ html: { WebkitFontSmoothing: "auto" } }} />
<RefineSnackbarProvider>
<Refine
dataProvider={dataProvider}
authProvider={authProvider}
routerProvider={routerProvider}
notificationProvider={useNotificationProvider}
resources={[
{
name: "protected-products",
list: "/products",
show: "/products/:id",
edit: "/products/:id/edit",
create: "/products/create",
meta: { label: "Products" },
},
// We're adding the categories resource to the resources array
// This way, there will be a link to the categories list in the sidebar
{
name: "categories",
list: "/categories",
meta: { label: "Categories" },
},
]}
>
<Routes>
<Route
element={
<Authenticated
key="authenticated-routes"
redirectOnFail="/login"
>
<ThemedLayoutV2
Title={(props) => (
<ThemedTitleV2 {...props} text="Awesome Project" />
)}
>
<Outlet />
</ThemedLayoutV2>
</Authenticated>
}
>
<Route
index
element={<NavigateToResource resource="protected-products" />}
/>
<Route path="/products">
<Route index element={<ListProducts />} />
<Route path=":id" element={<ShowProduct />} />
<Route path=":id/edit" element={<EditProduct />} />
<Route path="create" element={<CreateProduct />} />
</Route>
<Route path="/categories">
<Route index element={<ListCategories />} />
</Route>
</Route>
<Route
element={
<Authenticated key="auth-pages" fallback={<Outlet />}>
<NavigateToResource resource="protected-products" />
</Authenticated>
}
>
<Route path="/login" element={<Login />} />
</Route>
</Routes>
</Refine>
</RefineSnackbarProvider>
</ThemeProvider>
</BrowserRouter>
);
}

We've mounted the ListCategories component to the /categories route and added the categories resource to the resources array, which enables the sidebar will automatically have a link to the categories list.

Now let's add Inferencer to the ListCategories component.

Update your src/pages/categories/list.tsx file by adding the following lines:

src/pages/categories/list.tsx
import { MuiInferencer } from "@refinedev/inferencer/mui";

export const ListCategories = () => {
return (
<MuiInferencer
// resource="categories" // We're omitting this prop because it's inferred from the route
// action="list" // We're omitting this prop because it's inferred from the route
/>
);
};

Notice that we've not provided the resource and action props to the MuiInferencer component because they are inferred from the route.

Now, if you navigate to the /categories route, you will see the generated list view for the categories resource. Then you can copy & paste the generated code and customize it to fit your application's needs.

In this step, we've covered the basics of using Inferencer to generate views for resources. In the next step, we'll be learning about the Refine's CLI and its features.

Was this helpful?
import React from "react";
import { AuthPage } from "@refinedev/mui";

export const Login = () => {
  return (
    <AuthPage
      type="login"
      formProps={{
        defaultValues: {
          email: "demo@demo.com",
          password: "demodemo",
        },
      }}
    />
  );
};
installing dependencies
installing dependencies