How to build a Random Facts App using Random Facts API?

So today, I am building a random facts app that will display different facts to the user. So without any further ado, let’s jump in!

Stack

We need to choose a stack first to build this application. I have decided to go with the Jamstack.

I am going to use Next.js for the frontend and TailwindCSS for the styling.

If you don’t know about Next.js, it is a JavaScript framework built on top of React and provides features like server-side rendering, static site generation, etc. Tailwind is a CSS framework that provides utility classes to speed up the development process.

Choosing The API

Let’s find an API that we can use to find the facts. Go to RapidAPI Hub and create an account if you haven’t already and then search for “facts apis” in the search section.

You will see different search results related to facts APIs. For this piece, I am using Random Facts API.

To use this API, you need to subscribe to it first. You can do this by clicking on Subscribe to Test button.

Subscribe to Random Facts API

Once you click the button, you will be redirected to another page where different available subscription packages will be shown. Let’s go with the free one for now.

After all this, you will be redirected back to the original page. Here you will have a key x-rapidapi-key. Save it. It will be used later in the application.

Building The UI

You can create a Next.js boilerplate with TailwindCSS integrated by running the following command in your terminal. So let’s do that.

sh
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npx create-next-app -e with-tailwindcss random-facts-app

This command is going to take a minute to set everything up. After generating the boilerplate, you will see a folder with the name random-facts-app has been created. Open this folder in your preferred code editor. I will use VSCode for this project.

Project Files

When you open the project in your code editor, you will see the following directories and files in the root directory:

• pages directory: Inside it, you will have files index.js, _app.js, and another directory called - api. You only need to know about the index.js file that is the main entry point in your project.
• public directory: This directory contains icons. You place your static files here to load later in the application.
• node_modules: It’s another directory that contains all the node modules you are using in your application.
• package.json: This file contains the metadata of your project.
• package-lock.json: This file is responsible for tracking the exact version of every installed package.
• postcss.config.js: This file contains PostCSS configurations.
• tailwind.config.js: It contains TailwindCSS configurations.
• readme.md: It’s a markdown file for documentation.

Before we move on to writing the code, open this file, and copy all of its content, then paste it inside the tailwind.config.js file in your project. These are some TailwindCSS configurations I have done specifically for this project. I have added some colors that you do not have by default with TailwindCSS and set some screen sizes.

Now let’s start writing the code. I am going to do it in steps so you can follow along.

→ STEP #1

Open the pages/index.js file and remove all the existing code. After this, copy-paste the following code there:

jsx
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export default function Home() {
	return (
		<div className="flex flex-col items-center relative min-h-screen">
			<h2 className="font-raleway font-bold text-6xl text-primary pt-20 pb-6 md:text-3xl">
				Random <span className="text-active">Facts</span> App
			</h2>
			<h3 className="text-secondary text-2xl font-raleway font-bold uppercase tracking-wide mb-12 md:text-base md:px-4 md:text-center">
				Take A Look At Some Random Interesting Facts
			</h3>
		</div>
	);
}

It will create two headings for you with the text “Random Facts App” and “Take A Look At Some Random Interesting Facts”. You can change it to anything you prefer.

→ STEP #2

Now let’s create an area where the fact will be displayed on the screen. Also, we need to create a button to fetch the next fact.

For this, copy the following code and paste it in pages/index.js:

jsx
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export default function Home() {
	return (
		<div className="flex flex-col items-center relative min-h-screen">
			<h2 className="font-raleway font-bold text-6xl text-primary pt-20 pb-6 md:text-3xl">
				Random <span className="text-active">Facts</span> App
			</h2>
			<h3 className="text-secondary text-2xl font-raleway font-bold uppercase tracking-wide mb-12 md:text-base md:px-4 md:text-center">
				Take A Look At Some Random Interesting Facts
			</h3>
			<div className="flex flex-col mt-4 w-3/6 h-4/5 md:flex-col md:w-4/6 md:h-full md:mb-12">
				<div className="border border-secondary text-secondary font-raleway mb-12 ">
					<p className="px-4 py-4 tracking-wide leading-8"></p>
				</div>
				<button className="outline-none w-48 border border-active font-bold font-raleway ml-4 px-12 py-2 rounded-sm bg-active text-primary transition duration-300 hover:bg-background hover:text-secondary md:ml-0 md:mt-4">
					New Fact
				</button>
			</div>
		</div>
	);
}

I am using TailwindCSS to add CSS to all these HTML elements.

→ STEP #3

Let’s create a state variable to store the fact to display on the screen. For this, copy-paste the following code in pages/index.js.

jsx
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import {useState} from 'react';
export default function Home() {
	const [fact, setFact] = useState();
	return (
		<div className="flex flex-col items-center relative min-h-screen">
			<h2 className="font-raleway font-bold text-6xl text-primary pt-20 pb-6 md:text-3xl">
				Random <span className="text-active">Facts</span> App
			</h2>
			<h3 className="text-secondary text-2xl font-raleway font-bold uppercase tracking-wide mb-12 md:text-base md:px-4 md:text-center">
				Take A Look At Some Random Interesting Facts
			</h3>
			<div className="flex flex-col mt-4 w-3/6 h-4/5 md:flex-col md:w-4/6 md:h-full md:mb-12">
				<div className="border border-secondary text-secondary font-raleway mb-12 ">
					<p className="px-4 py-4 tracking-wide leading-8">{fact}</p>
				</div>
				<button className="outline-none w-48 border border-active font-bold font-raleway ml-4 px-12 py-2 rounded-sm bg-active text-primary transition duration-300 hover:bg-background hover:text-secondary md:ml-0 md:mt-4">
					New Fact
				</button>
			</div>
		</div>
	);
}

You can see in the above code snippet that now I am displaying the fact from the fact state in the paragraph tag.

→ STEP #4

Let’s integrate the API now. For this, first, create a .env.local file and paste the following in it:

sh
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NEXT_PUBLIC_RAPIDAPI_KEY=YOUR-RAPIDAPI-KEY

You need to replace YOUR-RAPIDAPI-KEY here with the API key you got when you subscribed to the Random Facts API. It is the value of x-rapidapi-key that you saved earlier.

Now download and add axios in your project. For this, run the following command in the terminal:

sh
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npm install axios

Now import axios at the top of the pages/index.js.

js
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import axios from 'axios';

→ STEP #5

RapidAPI Hub provides you with code snippets in different languages for integrating the API. I am going to use the (JavaScript) Axios one.

Fetching data using (JavaScript) Axios

Now create a file with fact.js inside the pages/api directory. It is going to create a REST API endpoint for you. The endpoint point will look like this:

sh
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http://localhost:3000/api/fact

Now copy the following code in this file:

js
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import axios from 'axios';
export default async function handler(req, res) {
	if (req.method === 'GET') {
		const options = {
			method: 'GET',
			url: 'https://random-facts2.p.rapidapi.com/getfact',
			headers: {
				'x-rapidapi-host': 'random-facts2.p.rapidapi.com',
				'x-rapidapi-key': process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_RAPIDAPI_KEY
			}
		};
		axios
			.request(options)
			.then(function (response) {
				res.status(200).json(response.data);
			})
			.catch(function (error) {
				console.error(error);
			});
	} else {
		res.status(400);
	}
}

This code makes an API call to the Random Facts API on the server and returns the results to the user. It executes when the user makes an API call to the fact endpoint I mentioned above.

Once you are done, copy the following code in the pages/index.js file:

jsx
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import {useState} from 'react';
import axios from 'axios';
export default function Home({data}) {
	const [fact, setFact] = useState(data.Fact);
	/**
	 *
	 *
	 * get random facts
	 */
	const getFact = async () => {
		try {
			const res = await axios.get(`/api/fact`);
			setFact(res.data.Fact);
		} catch (err) {
			console.log(err);
		}
	};
	return (
		<div className="flex flex-col items-center relative min-h-screen">
			<h2 className="font-raleway font-bold text-6xl text-primary pt-20 pb-6 md:text-3xl">
				Random <span className="text-active">Facts</span> App
			</h2>
			<h3 className="text-secondary text-2xl font-raleway font-bold uppercase tracking-wide mb-12 md:text-base md:px-4 md:text-center">
				Take A Look At Some Random Interesting Facts
			</h3>
			<div className="flex flex-col mt-4 w-3/6 h-4/5 md:flex-col md:w-4/6 md:h-full md:mb-12">
				<div className="border border-secondary text-secondary font-raleway mb-12 ">
					<p className="px-4 py-4 tracking-wide leading-8">{fact}</p>
				</div>
				<button
					className="outline-none w-48 border border-active font-bold font-raleway ml-4 px-12 py-2 rounded-sm bg-active text-primary transition duration-300 hover:bg-background hover:text-secondary md:ml-0 md:mt-4"
					onClick={getFact}
				>
					New Fact
				</button>
			</div>
			<div className="flex flex-col mt-10 justify-end h-36 md:h-24">
				<p className="block mb-10 text-center text-secondary text-xs">
					Made by RapidAPI DevRel Team -{' '}
					<a
						className="hover:text-active"
						href="https://github.com/RapidAPI/DevRel-Examples-External"
					>
						See more examples like this
					</a>
				</p>
			</div>
		</div>
	);
}
export async function getServerSideProps() {
	const res = await axios.get('http://localhost:3000/api/fact');
	const {data} = res;
	if (!data) {
		return {
			notFound: true
		};
	}
	return {
		props: {
			data
		}
	};
}

I am using the Next.js getServerSideProps function to fetch the data from the server. It will make my application server-side, and the user will never see a loading state. You can also use getStaticProps instead of getServerSideProps, and the application will then fetch the data at build time.

I have also created a function, i.e., getFact and set it to execute when the user click on the Next Fact button. It makes an API call to get the new fact.

Wrap Up

That’s it. We have successfully built a Random Facts App using Random Facts API. You can find the source code of this web app here.

In the end, it will look something like this:

Random Facts App built with Next.js and Random Facts API