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Find Movies App

css
js
react
api
Create an application that allows users to search for movies and TV series.
Designed by
Milena Ulman
Difficulty
Adobe XD design is free. You can use this design for your portfolio/website without any limitations. Additionally, you can share the completed project wherever you want.
Note: All new designs will be coming through BigDevSoon with Figma. This one is considered a legacy design but will always be here.

Read me first

The goal of this project is to build a Find Movies App similar to the design above.
Technologies & tools will be proposed down below but feel free to use different ones if you're more familiar with them. Have fun along the way.
Project requirements
  • If not using CodeSandbox, boilerplate the application with CRA.
  • Get your free API key from OMDb API, (or any similar movies API you can find). Study the documentation before starting implementation.
  • The website looks similar to the design (Desktop and Mobile) and is available for users through a link.
  • On the initial page load, the "YOU MIGHT LIKE" section should be filled with either random movies or predefined ones. (prepare a list of movies upfront and trigger API request to fetch them before rendering the page)
  • Users can find movies using the search bar, request to the API should trigger after entering a minimum of 2 characters and be debounced to prevent too many requests at once. (no enter click, listen to keypress and fetch data after e.g. 300 milliseconds delay, try to avoid fetch on the first character typed in)
  • When users use the search bar, the "YOU MIGHT LIKE" section should be replaced by search results (movies that were found in the API), if the search bar is cleared, bring back the "YOU MIGHT LIKE" section again.
  • When users click on the movie, a full-page dialog window should show up, hiding the current page content and presenting a particular movie (get details from the API) in a card component. Users should be able to close the dialog by clicking the "X" icon and/or on the background around the card.
  • Handle loading and errors in the code appropriately. (handle error first, then loading, then data)
Additional requirements
  • To avoid working on a real API and burning its daily limits, implement a mock server first (try to recreate original schema/data format), code the app, and when it'll be ready switch to the real movies API (e.g. OMDb) for final testing if all works nicely together.
  • Improve loading and error handling by using e.g. additional components, texts, assets as presented on the last views of the design.
  • Implement more fields from the API, explore, discover what's available and make it as robust as it's possible. Use all the data! 🔥
  • Don't show too many movies at once, limit to e.g. 10 of them, use lazy loading for fetching more.
  • Add API tests to your code, using e.g. jest.
  • Add e2e tests to your code, using e.g. cypress.

How to start

In most cases, CodeSandbox will be the best place for starting out rapidly.
You could also use an IDE, VSCode for example, and create e.g. a GitHub repository with custom deployment. More about it in the "Build & Deploy" section.
First steps
  • Be Agile! Plan your work upfront either with Scrum or Kanban by creating e.g. Trello board for this project.
  • Open the design by clicking the button under the above image.
  • Get familiar with design, it contains all the assets (except icons sometimes - use e.g. fontawesome), CSS properties you'll need to use.
  • After deciding on either CodeSandbox or GitHub repo, set your project with initial files, directory structure (your own preference).
  • Nothing will stop you now. Don't forget to share a link once you completed the project!

Technologies & Tools

Core concepts

Stuck, can't progress?

Take a break, think about all the pieces you need to build for this project.
You can try out the BigDevSoon platform to maximize your learning effectiveness.

Build & Deploy

If you decided on CodeSandbox, there should be a "Share" button that you can use as a link for your completed project.
Otherwise, for simple, static projects (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) you can try GitHub Pages. For more complex deployments (React, etc.), Netlify or Vercel should be good. If the project has a little bit of Backend, try Heroku for it.

Share your solution

It would be amazing if you can tweet @BigsonDev with the link to the completed project and/or GitHub repo. All the mentees would love to see what you've built (and me too).
spread the word
Do you think this project is cool? Share it with someone! 👀