Search Unsplash for Images with React Hooks

Link to React Unsplash App

This application is built in React to search the Unsplash API and return a list of images, utilizing Primitive Hooks & Custom Hooks to fetch data.

The images are displayed in a responsive grid, and rows are calculated on the Image Card Component render.

Hooks: Primitive & Custom

I've used two Primitive Hooks in this application, and here's how they were used:

SearchBar.js - Primitive Hook

• useState()

I used useState() to handle the state of the SearchBar Component input, to track the term that's being entered in the form to search the YouTube API.

const SearchBar = ({ onFormSubmit }) => {
	const [term, setTerm] = useState('')

	const onSubmit = event => {
		event.preventDefault();

		onFormSubmit(term);
	};

Here's the form & input JSX in the return statement of the SearchBar Component function:

<form onSubmit={onSubmit} className='form'>
  <div className='field'>
    <input
      type='text'
      value={term}
      placeholder={'Search free high-resolution photos'}
      onChange={(event) => setTerm(event.target.value)
      
      }
    />
  </div>
</form>

When the input field changes, the term state is updated as well.

App.js - Custom & Primitive Hooks

• useState()
• useEffect()

I also used useState() in the App Component function to handle storing the array of images sent back from the Unsplash API.

const [images, search] = useImages('react js');

useImages() is a Custom Hook that I wrote, to handle fetching images.

By using the Primitive Hooks, useState & useEffect, I wrote a hook that allows us to not only set the default term of the API query by passing in an argument, but also passing in new search terms when another request is made. This makes the custom hook reusable whenever a list of videos are needed from an API.

It's handy to create custom hooks when fetching data. This happens frequently in apps of a larger scale, so I placed useImages in the /hooks directory.

const useImages = (defaultSearchTerm) => {
  const [images, setImages] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
		search(defaultSearchTerm);
	}, [defaultSearchTerm]);
  
  const search = async term => {
		const response = await unsplash
      .get('/search/photos', {
        params: { query: term }
      })
		setImages(response.data.results);
	};

  return [images, search];
};

useEffect() is a Lifecycle Hook that is called when the App Component mounts initially. It submits the default search term we passed as an argument into useImages as the search term to make an API request.

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Available Scripts

In the project directory, you can run:

npm start

Runs the app in the development mode.
Open http://localhost:3000 to view it in the browser.

The page will reload if you make edits.
You will also see any lint errors in the console.

npm test

Launches the test runner in the interactive watch mode.
See the section about running tests for more information.

npm build

Builds the app for production to the build folder.
It correctly bundles React in production mode and optimizes the build for the best performance.

The build is minified and the filenames include the hashes.
Your app is ready to be deployed!

See the section about deployment for more information.

npm eject

Note: this is a one-way operation. Once you eject, you can’t go back!

If you aren’t satisfied with the build tool and configuration choices, you can eject at any time. This command will remove the single build dependency from your project.

Instead, it will copy all the configuration files and the transitive dependencies (webpack, Babel, ESLint, etc) right into your project so you have full control over them. All of the commands except eject will still work, but they will point to the copied scripts so you can tweak them. At this point you’re on your own.

You don’t have to ever use eject. The curated feature set is suitable for small and middle deployments, and you shouldn’t feel obligated to use this feature. However we understand that this tool wouldn’t be useful if you couldn’t customize it when you are ready for it.