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Building a Random Quotes Generator: A Step-by-Step Guide with Code

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Jan 22, 2025 am 04:46 AM

Building a Random Quotes Generator: A Step-by-Step Guide with Code

This tutorial guides you through building a practical Random Quotes Generator application, perfect for learning coding fundamentals. We'll cover each step with detailed code examples, making it easy for beginners to follow along.

Project Overview

This app retrieves random quotes from a public API, displays them, and lets users copy or share them. Let's break down the process and explore the code logic.

Step 1: HTML Structure

We begin by creating the HTML layout:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Random Quotes Generator</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
</head>
<body>
    <div id="app">
        <!-- Content will be added here -->
    </div>
    <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

This sets up the basic structure, including elements to display the quote, buttons for new quotes, and icons for copying and sharing.

Step 2: CORS Handling with a Proxy

To access the external API, we need a CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) solution. A simple Express.js proxy server handles this:

// proxy.js
const express = require("express");
const fetch = require("node-fetch");
const cors = require("cors");
const app = express();

app.use(cors());

app.get("/api/quote", async (req, res) => {
    try {
        const response = await fetch("https://qapi.vercel.app/api/random");
        const data = await response.json();
        res.json(data);
    } catch (error) {
        res.status(500).json({ error: "API fetch failed" });
    }
});

const PORT = 4000;
app.listen(PORT, () => console.log(`Proxy running on http://localhost:${PORT}`));

This local proxy fetches quotes and avoids CORS issues.

Step 3: Fetching Quotes with JavaScript

The "New Quote" button triggers a quote fetch:

// index.js
const quoteDisplay = document.getElementById("quote");
const authorDisplay = document.getElementById("author");

async function getQuote() {
    try {
        const response = await fetch('http://localhost:4000/api/quote');
        const data = await response.json();
        quoteDisplay.textContent = data.quote || "No quote found.";
        authorDisplay.textContent = data.author || "Unknown";
    } catch (error) {
        console.error("Quote fetch error:", error);
        quoteDisplay.textContent = "Error fetching quote.";
    }
}

This script fetches data, updates the quote and author in the UI.

Step 4: Copy Functionality

The Clipboard API enables quote copying:

// copyQuote.js
async function copyQuote() {
    try {
        const quoteText = `${quoteDisplay.textContent} - ${authorDisplay.textContent}`;
        await navigator.clipboard.writeText(quoteText);
        alert("Copied to clipboard!");
    } catch (error) {
        console.error("Copy failed:", error);
    }
}

Clicking the copy icon copies the quote and author.

The Navigator API facilitates sharing:

// shareQuote.js
async function shareQuote() {
    const quoteText = `${quoteDisplay.textContent} - ${authorDisplay.textContent}`;
    try {
        await navigator.share({ text: quoteText });
    } catch (error) {
        console.error("Share failed:", error);
        // Fallback for unsupported browsers
        alert(`Share this quote: ${quoteText}`);
    }
}

This handles sharing, providing a fallback for browsers lacking navigator.share.

Step 6: Styling with CSS

CSS styles the app for visual appeal and responsiveness (example styles omitted for brevity).

Step 7: Launching the App

Clone the repository: (replace with your actual repository URL)
Install dependencies: npm install
Start the proxy server: node proxy.js
Open index.html in your browser.

Project Structure

index.html: Main UI
proxy.js: CORS proxy server
index.js: Quote fetching and display
copyQuote.js: Copy functionality
shareQuote.js: Share functionality
styles.css: Styling

API Credit

Quotes provided by the Quotes API.

Conclusion

This tutorial covered building a Random Quotes Generator, demonstrating API integration, CORS handling, and browser APIs. It's a great exercise for learning API interaction, JavaScript fundamentals, and browser APIs. Feedback is welcome!

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