Learn JavaScript Day 21-25: Building projects with JavaScript

Congratulations on making it this far in your journey to learn JavaScript! Now it’s time to put all your knowledge into practice by building small projects using JavaScript. Building projects is an excellent way to apply what you’ve learned and gain practical experience.

In this article, we’ll discuss some ideas for small projects you can build using JavaScript. We’ll also explore how to use different APIs and services to enhance your projects.

Ideas for small projects:

Todo list: Create a simple to-do list where users can add, edit, and delete items.
Quiz game: Build a quiz game with multiple-choice questions and a score counter.
Weather app: Use a weather API to create a weather app that shows current weather conditions for a given location.
Calculator: Build a calculator that can perform basic arithmetic operations.
Random quote generator: Use a quote API to create a random quote generator that displays a new quote each time the user clicks a button.
Countdown timer: Create a countdown timer that can be set to a specific time and counts down to zero.
Image carousel: Build an image carousel that displays a set of images and allows the user to navigate between them.
Currency converter: Use a currency conversion API to create a currency converter that converts between different currencies.

Using APIs and services:

APIs and services can enhance the functionality of your projects by providing data and functionality that would otherwise be difficult or time-consuming to implement. Here are some APIs and services you can use to enhance your projects:

OpenWeatherMap: A weather API that provides weather data for any location in the world.
Chuck Norris API: A joke API that provides random jokes about Chuck Norris.
NewsAPI: A news API that provides news articles from various sources.
Firebase: A cloud-based service that provides real-time database functionality, authentication, and hosting.
Twilio: A messaging API that allows you to send SMS and MMS messages.
Stripe: A payment API that allows you to accept credit card payments on your website.

Here are some examples of how to use these APIs in your projects:

Example 1: Weather app using OpenWeatherMap API

HTML:

<div class="weather-container">
  <div class="city-name"></div>
  <div class="weather"></div>
</div>

JavaScript:

const apiKey = 'your-api-key-here';
const city = 'New York';
const apiUrl = `https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=${city}&appid=${apiKey}&units=metric`;

const weatherContainer = document.querySelector('.weather-container');
const cityName = weatherContainer.querySelector('.city-name');
const weather = weatherContainer.querySelector('.weather');

fetch(apiUrl)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(data => {
    cityName.textContent = data.name;
    weather.textContent = `${data.main.temp}°C`;
  });

Example 2: Chuck Norris joke generator using Chuck Norris API

This project will display a new Chuck Norris joke each time the user clicks a button.

First, let’s create a basic HTML structure with a button and a div where the jokes will be displayed:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Chuck Norris Joke Generator</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Chuck Norris Joke Generator</h1>
    <button id="jokeBtn">New Joke</button>
    <div id="joke"></div>
  </body>
</html>

Next, let’s write the JavaScript code to fetch the jokes from the Chuck Norris API and display them on the page:

const jokeBtn = document.querySelector('#jokeBtn');
const jokeDiv = document.querySelector('#joke');

jokeBtn.addEventListener('click', () => {
  fetch('https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random')
    .then(response => response.json())
    .then(data => jokeDiv.innerHTML = data.value);
});

In the code above, we first select the button and the div where the jokes will be displayed using the querySelector method. We then add an event listener to the button which will fetch a random joke from the Chuck Norris API using the fetch method. We use the json method to parse the response into a JavaScript object, and then update the inner HTML of the joke div with the joke value.

With this code, every time the user clicks the button, a new Chuck Norris joke will be fetched and displayed on the page.

This project demonstrates how to use an API to fetch data and display it on a web page. There are many other APIs available on the web for different purposes, and learning how to use them can greatly enhance your web projects.

Conclusion

In conclusion, building projects using JavaScript is a great way to practice and solidify your knowledge of the language. By building small projects and experimenting with different APIs and services, you can learn how to create dynamic and engaging web applications.

Learn JavaScript Day 21-25: Building projects with JavaScript