Build a Full-Stack React Application

TUTORIAL

Introduction
Deploy and Host React App
Initialize local app
Add authentication
Clean up Resources

Module 3: Build the Frontend

In this module, you will create an app frontend and connect it to the cloud backend you have already built.

Overview

You will learn how to use the Amplify UI component library to scaffold out an entire user authentication flow, allowing users to sign up, sign in, and reset their password with just few lines of code. Additionally, you will build an app frontend that allows users to create, update, and delete their notes. They will also be able to upload an image and associate it with a note.

What you will accomplish

  • Install Amplify libraries
  • Configure your React app to include authentication, data, and storage for the Notes feature

Implementation

 Time to complete

10 minutes

 Get help

Troubleshooting Amplify

Troubleshooting common issues using Amplify UI

  • You will need two Amplify libraries for your project. The main aws-amplify library contains all of the client-side APIs for connecting your app's frontend to your backend and the @aws-amplify/ui-react library contains framework-specific UI components.

    1. Open a new terminal window, navigate to you projects folder (notesapp), and run the following command to install these libraries in the root of the project.

    npm install aws-amplify @aws-amplify/ui-react

  • 1. On your local machine, navigate to the notesapp/src/index.css file, and update it with the following code to set the style of the Notes UI. Then, save the file.

    :root {
  font-family: Inter, system-ui, Avenir, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  line-height: 1.5;
  font-weight: 400;

  color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.87);

  font-synthesis: none;
  text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;
  -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
  -moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;

  max-width: 1280px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  padding: 2rem;

}

.card {
  padding: 2em;
}

.read-the-docs {
  color: #888;
}

.box:nth-child(3n + 1) {
  grid-column: 1;
}
.box:nth-child(3n + 2) {
  grid-column: 2;
}
.box:nth-child(3n + 3) {
  grid-column: 3;
}

  • In this step, you will update the src/App.jsx to configure the Amplify library with the client configuration file (amplify_outputs.json). Then, it will generate a data client using the generateClient() function.

    The code uses the Amplify Authenticator component to scaffold out an entire user authentication flow allowing users to sign up, sign in, reset their password, and confirm sign-in for multifactor authentication (MFA).

    Additionally, the code contains the following:

    •  fetchNotes - Use the data client to list the items in the Notes model.
    • createNote - Get the data from the form and use the data client to create a new note if the user selects an image. Then, the function will upload this image to Amplify storage and associate it with the new note.
    • deleteNote - Use the data client to delete the selected note.

    1. On your local machine, navigate to the notesapp/src/App.jsx file, and update it with the following code.

    import { useState, useEffect } from "react";
import {
  Authenticator,
  Button,
  Text,
  TextField,
  Heading,
  Flex,
  View,
  Image,
  Grid,
  Divider,
} from "@aws-amplify/ui-react";
import { Amplify } from "aws-amplify";
import "@aws-amplify/ui-react/styles.css";
import { getUrl } from "aws-amplify/storage";
import { uploadData } from "aws-amplify/storage";
import { generateClient } from "aws-amplify/data";
import outputs from "../amplify_outputs.json";
/**
 * @type {import('aws-amplify/data').Client<import('../amplify/data/resource').Schema>}
 */

Amplify.configure(outputs);
const client = generateClient({
  authMode: "userPool",
});

export default function App() {
  const [notes, setNotes] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchNotes();
  }, []);

  async function fetchNotes() {
    const { data: notes } = await client.models.Note.list();
    await Promise.all(
      notes.map(async (note) => {
        if (note.image) {
          const linkToStorageFile = await getUrl({
            path: ({ identityId }) => `media/${identityId}/${note.image}`,
          });
          console.log(linkToStorageFile.url);
          note.image = linkToStorageFile.url;
        }
        return note;
      })
    );
    console.log(notes);
    setNotes(notes);
  }

  async function createNote(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    const form = new FormData(event.target);
    console.log(form.get("image").name);

    const { data: newNote } = await client.models.Note.create({
      name: form.get("name"),
      description: form.get("description"),
      image: form.get("image").name,
    });

    console.log(newNote);
    if (newNote.image)
      if (newNote.image)
        await uploadData({
          path: ({ identityId }) => `media/${identityId}/${newNote.image}`,

          data: form.get("image"),
        }).result;

    fetchNotes();
    event.target.reset();
  }

  async function deleteNote({ id }) {
    const toBeDeletedNote = {
      id: id,
    };

    const { data: deletedNote } = await client.models.Note.delete(
      toBeDeletedNote
    );
    console.log(deletedNote);

    fetchNotes();
  }

  return (
    <Authenticator>
      {({ signOut }) => (
        <Flex
          className="App"
          justifyContent="center"
          alignItems="center"
          direction="column"
          width="70%"
          margin="0 auto"
        >
          <Heading level={1}>My Notes App</Heading>
          <View as="form" margin="3rem 0" onSubmit={createNote}>
            <Flex
              direction="column"
              justifyContent="center"
              gap="2rem"
              padding="2rem"
            >
              <TextField
                name="name"
                placeholder="Note Name"
                label="Note Name"
                labelHidden
                variation="quiet"
                required
              />
              <TextField
                name="description"
                placeholder="Note Description"
                label="Note Description"
                labelHidden
                variation="quiet"
                required
              />
              <View
                name="image"
                as="input"
                type="file"
                alignSelf={"end"}
                accept="image/png, image/jpeg"
              />

              <Button type="submit" variation="primary">
                Create Note
              </Button>
            </Flex>
          </View>
          <Divider />
          <Heading level={2}>Current Notes</Heading>
          <Grid
            margin="3rem 0"
            autoFlow="column"
            justifyContent="center"
            gap="2rem"
            alignContent="center"
          >
            {notes.map((note) => (
              <Flex
                key={note.id || note.name}
                direction="column"
                justifyContent="center"
                alignItems="center"
                gap="2rem"
                border="1px solid #ccc"
                padding="2rem"
                borderRadius="5%"
                className="box"
              >
                <View>
                  <Heading level="3">{note.name}</Heading>
                </View>
                <Text fontStyle="italic">{note.description}</Text>
                {note.image && (
                  <Image
                    src={note.image}
                    alt={`visual aid for ${notes.name}`}
                    style={{ width: 400 }}
                  />
                )}
                <Button
                  variation="destructive"
                  onClick={() => deleteNote(note)}
                >
                  Delete note
                </Button>
              </Flex>
            ))}
          </Grid>
          <Button onClick={signOut}>Sign Out</Button>
        </Flex>
      )}
    </Authenticator>
  );
}

    2. Open a new terminal window, navigate to your app's root folder (notesapp), and run the following command to launch the app:

    npm run dev
    3. Select the Local host link to open the application.

    4. Choose the Create Account tab, and use the authentication flow to create a new user by entering your email address and a password. Then, choose Create Account.

    5. You will get a verification code sent to your email. Enter the verification code to log in to the app. When signed in, you can start creating notes and delete them.

    6. Open a new terminal window, navigate to your app's root folder (notesapp), and run the following command to push the changes to GitHub: 

    git add .
git commit -m 'the notes app'
git push origin main

    7. Sign in to the AWS Management console in a new browser window, and open the AWS Amplify console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/amplify/apps.

    8. AWS Amplify automatically builds your source code and deployed your app at https://...amplifyapp.com, and on every git push your deployment instance will update. Select the Visit deployed URL button to see your web app up and running live.

Conclusion

You have now connected your App to the Amplify backend and built a frontend allowing the users to create, edit, and delete notes. Users will also be able to upload an image and associate it with a note.

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Clean up Resources