How to create an Avatar generator app in ReactJS ?
In this article, we are going to make a simple avatar generator app that generates random images. In this avatar generator, we have several buttons for different categories to choose from, the next button to generate random images, and a download button to finally download your favorite avatar.
Prerequisites: The pre-requisites for this project are:
- React
- Functional components
- React Hooks
- React Axios & API
- Javascript ES6
Basic setup: Start a project by the following command:
npx create-react-app avatarApp
Now, go to the project folder i.e avatarApp:
cd avatarApp
Now, go to the src folder and create a Components folder and a Styles folder. Under the Components folder, create a file ‘Avatar.jsx‘ and under the Styles folder, create a file ‘Avatar.css‘
- Now, open the console and install the Axios npm package:
npm install axios
- index.js:
Javascript
import React from 'react';import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';import './index.css';import App from './App'; ReactDOM.render( <React.StrictMode> <App /> </React.StrictMode>, document.getElementById('root')); |
- App.js: App component renders a single Avatar component
Javascript
import './App.css';import Avatar from './Components/Avatar'; function App() { return ( <div className="App"> <Avatar /> </div> );}export default App; |
- App.css: This sets the background of our app to a nice CSS gradient
.App {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background-color: #b8c6db;
background-image: linear-gradient(315deg, #b8c6db 0%, #f5f7fa 74%);
}- Avatar.jsx: This file contains all the logic. We will be using a free opensource API (no auth required) called ‘DiceBear Avatars’ to fetch random avatars based on several parameters.
Javascript
import React, { useState } from 'react';import '../Styles/Avatar.css';import Axios from 'axios'; const Avatar = () => { // Setting up the inital states using react hook 'useState' const [sprite, setSprite] = useState("bottts"); const [seed, setSeed] = useState(1000); // Function to set the current sprite type function handleSprite(spritetype) { setSprite(spritetype); } // Function to generate random seeds for the API function handleGenerate() { let x = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000); setSeed(x); } // Function to download image and save it in our computer function downloadImage() { Axios({ method: "get", url: `https://avatars.dicebear.com/api/${sprite}/${seed}.svg`, responseType: "arraybuffer" }) .then((response) => { var link = document.createElement("a"); link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL( new Blob([response.data], { type: "application/octet-stream" }) ); link.download = `${seed}.svg`; document.body.appendChild(link); link.click(); setTimeout(function () { window.URL.revokeObjectURL(link); }, 200); }) .catch((error) => { }); } return ( <div className="container"> <div className="nav"> <p>Random Avatar Generator</p> </div> <div className="home"> <div className="btns"> <button onClick={() => { handleSprite("avataaars") }}>Human</button> <button onClick={() => { handleSprite("human") }}>Pixel</button> <button onClick={() => { handleSprite("bottts") }}>Bots</button> <button onClick={() => { handleSprite("jdenticon") }}>Vector</button> <button onClick={() => { handleSprite("identicon") }}>Identi</button> <button onClick={() => { handleSprite("gridy") }}>Alien</button> <button onClick={() => { handleSprite("micah") }}>Avatars</button> </div> <div className="avatar"> <img src={`https://avatars.dicebear.com/api/${sprite}/${seed}.svg`} alt="Sprite" /> </div> <div className="generate"> <button id="gen" onClick={() => { handleGenerate() }}>Next</button> <button id="down" onClick={() => { downloadImage() }}>Download</button> </div> </div> </div> )} export default Avatar; |
- Avatar.css: Use this file to decorate our app
@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto+Mono:wght@400;600;700&display=swap');
@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Zen+Tokyo+Zoo&display=swap');
.nav{
height: 6vh;
width: 100%;
background-color: #313442;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
color: white;
font-family: 'Zen Tokyo Zoo', cursive;
font-size: 35px;
}
.home{
box-sizing: border-box;
height: 94vh;
width: 100%;
gap: 15px;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
.avatar{
height: 50%;
width: 50%;
max-width: 400px;
max-height: 400px;
margin-top: 40px;
margin-bottom: 45px;
}
.btns{
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
}
button{
width: 6em;
height: 2.5em;
margin: 10px;
font-size: 20px;
font-weight: 600;
font-family: 'Roboto Mono', monospace;
background-color: rgb(231, 231, 231);
box-shadow: 2px 3px 5px rgb(102, 101, 101);
border-radius: 15px;
border: none;
transition: 0.2s;
}
button:active{
box-shadow: none;
}
.btns > button:hover{
background-color: #ffffff;
}
#gen{
background-color: #4361ee;
color: white;
}
#down{
background-color: #EB3349;
color: white;
}- Save all the files and start the server:
npm start
Open http://localhost:3000/ URL in the browser. It will display the result. Our app is now complete and it should be working now.
