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

import './App.css';

import Avatar from './Components/Avatar';

function App() {

return (

</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/css2family=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.

#viastudy