From 944ff91bd6685695353d47e6c70e409bdba20663 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sawaymaan Singh <sawaymas@stud.ntnu.no>
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2026 02:16:25 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] feat: persist display choices in sessionStorage

Add sessionStorage helpers and load/save the region filter and sort option on startup and on change.

Closes #30
---
 country-explorer/src/components/App.tsx      | 31 +++++++++++++++++---
 country-explorer/src/utils/sessionStorage.ts | 29 ++++++++++++++++++
 country-explorer/src/utils/sortCountries.ts  |  6 ++++
 3 files changed, 62 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 country-explorer/src/utils/sessionStorage.ts

diff --git a/country-explorer/src/components/App.tsx b/country-explorer/src/components/App.tsx
index 8bd2705..4b0a541 100644
--- a/country-explorer/src/components/App.tsx
+++ b/country-explorer/src/components/App.tsx
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 import './App.css';
-import { useState } from 'react';
+import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
 import { useCountries } from '../hooks/useCountries';
-import { sortCountries, type SortOption } from '../utils/sortCountries';
+import { isSortOption, sortCountries, type SortOption } from '../utils/sortCountries';
+import { readSessionValue, writeSessionValue } from '../utils/sessionStorage';
 import CountryCard from './CountryCard';
 import CountrySelector from './CountrySelector';
 import RegionFilter from './RegionFilter';
@@ -10,9 +11,17 @@ import Loading from './Loading';
 import ErrorMessage from './ErrorMessage';
 import NavigationControls from './NavigationControls';
 
+// sessionStorage keys for the display choices this component persists.
+const REGION_STORAGE_KEY = 'selectedRegion';
+const SORT_STORAGE_KEY = 'sortOption';
+
 function App() {
   const { countries, isLoading, isError, error, refetch } = useCountries();
-  const [selectedRegion, setSelectedRegion] = useState('');
+  // Lazily read any saved choice on first render, so the page opens already
+  // showing what the user had before reloading within the same session.
+  const [selectedRegion, setSelectedRegion] = useState(
+    () => readSessionValue(REGION_STORAGE_KEY) ?? '',
+  );
   // The fetched countries are European, so filter by their geographic subregion.
   const getRegion = (country: (typeof countries)[number]) =>
     country.subregion?.trim() || country.region?.trim() || 'Unknown region';
@@ -24,7 +33,11 @@ function App() {
   const filteredCountries = selectedRegion
     ? countries.filter((country) => getRegion(country) === selectedRegion)
     : countries;
-  const [sortOption, setSortOption] = useState<SortOption>('name-asc');
+  const [sortOption, setSortOption] = useState<SortOption>(() => {
+    const stored = readSessionValue(SORT_STORAGE_KEY);
+    // A missing or no-longer-valid stored value falls back to the default.
+    return isSortOption(stored) ? stored : 'name-asc';
+  });
   // A fresh, sorted copy — filteredCountries (and the cached query data it
   // derives from) is left untouched.
   const sortedCountries = sortCountries(filteredCountries, sortOption);
@@ -36,6 +49,16 @@ function App() {
     (country) => country.code === activeCountryCode,
   );
 
+  // Persist the display choices (never the fetched country/API data) so a
+  // reload within the same browser session restores them.
+  useEffect(() => {
+    writeSessionValue(REGION_STORAGE_KEY, selectedRegion);
+  }, [selectedRegion]);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    writeSessionValue(SORT_STORAGE_KEY, sortOption);
+  }, [sortOption]);
+
   function navigateCountry(direction: -1 | 1) {
     setSelectedCountryCode((currentCode) => {
       const currentIndex = sortedCountries.findIndex((country) => country.code === currentCode);
diff --git a/country-explorer/src/utils/sessionStorage.ts b/country-explorer/src/utils/sessionStorage.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa187c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/country-explorer/src/utils/sessionStorage.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/**
+ * Thin, defensive wrapper around sessionStorage for small UI display
+ * choices (region filter, sort option) — never the fetched country data
+ * itself. Keys are namespaced so they don't collide with anything else on
+ * the page, and every call is wrapped in a try/catch since storage can be
+ * unavailable or full (e.g. private browsing, quota exceeded) — a failed
+ * read/write should never crash the app.
+ */
+const NAMESPACE = 'country-explorer';
+
+function storageKey(key: string): string {
+  return `${NAMESPACE}:${key}`;
+}
+
+export function readSessionValue(key: string): string | null {
+  try {
+    return window.sessionStorage.getItem(storageKey(key));
+  } catch {
+    return null;
+  }
+}
+
+export function writeSessionValue(key: string, value: string): void {
+  try {
+    window.sessionStorage.setItem(storageKey(key), value);
+  } catch {
+    // Storage unavailable or full — the choice just won't persist.
+  }
+}
diff --git a/country-explorer/src/utils/sortCountries.ts b/country-explorer/src/utils/sortCountries.ts
index 336055c..c209966 100644
--- a/country-explorer/src/utils/sortCountries.ts
+++ b/country-explorer/src/utils/sortCountries.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ export const SORT_OPTIONS: { value: SortOption; label: string }[] = [
   { value: 'population-desc', label: 'Population (high to low)' },
 ];
 
+// Used to validate a sort option loaded from sessionStorage — a stored
+// value that isn't one of these is treated as missing/invalid.
+export function isSortOption(value: string | null): value is SortOption {
+  return SORT_OPTIONS.some((option) => option.value === value);
+}
+
 /**
  * Returns a new, sorted array. The input list (React Query's cached data)
  * is never mutated — callers get a fresh copy to display.