Lightning Events: why force:refreshView is fired 4 times when a record is updated via standard Record Detail on Flexipage?

Question

I need to detect record-updates by different sources as stated here: Lightning Components: how to use events to detect record updates?

For this example, I'm using the standard Record Detail compo on a Flexipage.

I don't like it, but unfortunately the only viable approach seems to handle the force:refreshView seem to be the only way to detect updates. I handle them like like that:

Markup

<aura:handler event="force:refreshView" action="{!c.events}" />

Controller

events : function(cmp, evt, hlp){
    console.log('HANDLER');
},

Result

Now 'HANDLER' appears exactly 4 times in my console per subscribing component I have on the Flexipage. Why that?

Expected

Each handler should get called once per subscribing component.

Answer 1

I just created a new custom object, and created a handler component with your code above. Hitting the standard edit action, and then hitting save, I have one "HANDLER" in my javascript console, and the Lightning Inspector plugin only shows one force:refreshView being fired.

I would recommend recording your interaction in the Inspector plugin and viewing the event log to identify when and what components specifically are firing the event. I suspect something more complicated is going on that a simple record save.

Additional reading on how to use the events inspector can be found here: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.lightning.meta/lightning/inspector_events.htm.

Answer 2

Only workaround I found so far is building a throttle

<aura:attribute name="refreshTimestamp" type="Integer" default="0" />

forceRefreshViewHandler : function(cmp, evt, hlp){
    var lastRefresh             = cmp.get("v.refreshTimestamp")
    if( hlp.ts() - lastRefresh > 1000 ) {
        // doing my stuff here
        cmp.set("v.refreshTimestamp" , hlp.ts() );
    }
}   

The standard component is hammering usually it's 4 bullets within less than 50ms so it seems to work. But hackish as hell and still no explanation why it's necessary at all.