Enhance Documentation of Cells

[dthyresson]

While the Cell tutorial is quite good, as @peterp noted in:

https://community.redwoodjs.com/t/can-i-use-a-different-value-in-the-component-cell-so-that-it-is-not-used-in-the-request-but-used-in-success/1075/6

We definitely need some docs on Cells.

The Discourse forums latest have had a number of question related to cells. Some are more React-related, but others show that a more in-depth explanation of cells would be helpful.

I think cells are one of RedwoodJS most amazing and time-saving features and really needs to be highlighted.

Here's a list of possible topics to address:

• explain withCell
• can withCell it be used in other components, even pages?
• demonstrate that that a GraphQL query can pass into Success multiple properties, thus a Cell is not tied to one model and can render complex results
• not just for HTML markup. can render other components too like Charts and Graphs
• demo a "skeleton" for loading state
• where should security go? cell, service?
• explain that when logged in, the currentUser's accessToken is sent along so can be used in other services
• explain how the schema, services an resolvers "just work" under the convers when making a cell query
• draw query lifecycle w/in the api

Please add to this list :)

[dthyresson]

Also see: https://github.com/redwoodjs/redwoodjs.com/pull/202

[jtoar]

@dthyresson Thanks for this! The plan is to merge #202 as soon as possible and use subsequent PRs to enhance it (so I'm going to unlink #202 to prevent it from closing this issue). Let's use this issue to track those enhancements. I'll add to what you said:

• [ ] useQuery—Assure users that this is still an option. Possibly make a "But I don't want to use Cells section".
• [ ] Suspense—Maybe add a section on our plans for how we plan to (of if we plan to) make cells work with Suspense
• [ ] QUERY as a function example—QUERY can be a function; we need an example showing how and an explanation of when you'd want to
• [ ] How to "force a refresh"—This is a commonly asked question; can be in the FAQ section

[jtoar]

532's definitely in the same spirit here. The more examples we provide of Cells the better I think.