README.md

Fetch + React lab

Prerequisite knowledge

• React
• Getting data using fetch()
• API keys
• How to load environment variables from .env (see create-react-app documentation on this)
• How to .gitignore secrets (such as your API keys)

Getting started

• Fork and clone repo
• cd fetch-react-lab
• Get an NewsAPI API key here (Click on the 'Get API key' button on the top right)
• In your browser, make a GET request for the following URL: https://newsapi.org/v2/everything?sources=hacker-news&apiKey=REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_API_KEY (you should see a JSON response with news articles)
• Create a new file in the project directory and name it .env.local. Place the following snippet in the file:

REACT_APP_NEWSAPI_API_KEY=REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_API_KEY

• Note: Because this .env.local file contains secrets, it is listed in .gitignore and will not be committed in git

• Run npm start (If you have started the application before you save the API key into .env.local, you need to stop the application and start it again so that the API key in .env.local is loaded).

Tasks

• In NewsFeed.js#componentDidMount(), start by making a GET request to the defined URL using fetch(). Here's a short snippet to get your started. You can also use async/await syntax if you like.

fetch(URL)
  .then(response => {
    return response.json();
  })
  .then(responseBody => console.log(responseBody))

• In NewsFeed.js#componentDidMount(), call setState to store the articles returned from the fetch request in the state object of the NewsFeed component.

• Incrementally flesh out the data in this.state.articles. Try to create new components (e.g. an Article component) as you see fit.

• Bonus: implement the following features in your app

  • allow users to upvote / downvote articles