jaimedavid01 / react-hooks-project-requirements

Phase 4 React Project

You've made it! You're ready to build a React application! Before you start ideating, think about some of the project requirements.

Requirements

You've been through quite a few Project Modes by now and should have some idea how to think about scoping a project, what you can accomplish in the designated time, and what is expected of you in terms of meeting complexity requirements.

The guidelines here are minimal but be sure that you:

1. Use a Rails API backend with a separate React frontend that are created in two different Github repositories.
2. Have at least three resources (three DB tables) on the backend. Your application must have full CRUD actions for at least one resource.
3. Have at least two different client-side routes (i.e. use react-router). Ex: even if your whole app is mostly a single page app, have the form to signup be found at /signup
4. Optional: Your application can have authentication/authorization. You are welcome to use an auth template as discussed in class.

Backend Setup

To create your Rails API, run:

rails new <my-project> --api -T --database=postgresql

Let's go through this in detail:

• --api: Make a Rails API, basically you're telling Rails you don't want any of the stuff you wouldn't need for an application where Rails is not rendering views. Think the ActionView library (form_for, link_to, etc..), ERB, Security protections that ensure forms were rendered by the Rails app, things like that.
• -T: don't generate tests for this app
• --database=postgresql: Set this up to use a Postgres (as opposed to SQLite) database. If you ever want to push this to Heroku, Heroku requires a Postgres database. There won't be too much difference in how you have to write your code. You'll have to be sure to run rails db:create and make sure you have Postgres running (i.e you can see the elephant)

Be sure to do the necessary setup for the rack-cors-gem!

You may also want to use active-model-serializers.

Frontend Setup

To create your React project, you should use Create React App. To use this, run:

npx create-react-app my-app

It will generate your project structure along with all the necessary dependencies for working with React. It will also initialize a Git repository in your project directory.

We'd recommend to begin by removing any of the default stuff given to you by Create React App that you do not understand or won't be using.

Working with APIs

It is highly suggested that any calls to 3rd party APIs are made through your backend.

Example: A user clicks a button that says 'Get Gifs'

• React makes a request to Rails
• Rails makes a request to the Giphy API
• Rails receives the response from Giphy and sends to React
• React receives the response from Rails and you do something with it on the client

// src/components/GifSearch.js
fetch("http://localhost:3000/gifs?q=dogs")
  .then((r) => r.json())
  .then((gifs) => console.log(gifs));

# app/controllers/gifs_controller.rb
def search
  response = RestClient.get "giphy.com/search?q=#{params[:q]}"
  gifs = JSON.parse(response.body)
  # you could add serialization here if you like!
  render json: gifs
end

This is so you can avoid any CORS issues. If you are unable to hit an API from your React app due to a CORS restriction, it is very likely that it is impossible to do so.

Brief Refresher on CORS: the idea is that from one domain (the port your webpack development server is running on) you are not allowed to access another domain. You must make the request from a server (i.e. Rails), so the request is exempt from the Same-Origin Policy restriction.

Running Client and Server Code

By default, both your React app and your Rails app will run on port 3000. You'll have to specify one or the other to run on a separate port.

• Rails: rails s -p <some_number_thats_not_3000>
• React: Check out this issue

Resources

• How DHH organizes his controllers in Rails
• React Docs on File Structure
• The 100% Correct Way to Structure a React App (or why there’s no such thing)