Creating code editor app

Creating code editor app

     Create a code editor app using React JS can be a great way to enhance your skills and learn more about building web applications. In this tutorial, we'll walk through the steps of building a code editor app from scratch using React JS.

Prerequisites

    Before getting started, you should have a basic understanding of React JS and JavaScript. You should also have a development environment set up, including Node.js and a code editor like Visual Studio Code.

Step 1: Create a new React project

    To create a new React project, you'll need to use the create-react-app command. Open a terminal window and enter the following command:

npx create-react-app code-editor

    This will create a new directory called code-editor and set up a basic React project for you. You can then navigate to the project directory by entering cd code-editor in the terminal.

Step 2: Install dependencies

    Next, you'll need to install a few dependencies that will be used in the code editor app. These include the react-ace library, which provides a code editor component for React, and the brace library, which is a code editor library that react-ace is built on top of.

To install these dependencies, enter the following command in the terminal:

npm install react-ace brace

Step 3: Create the code editor component

    Now that you have the necessary dependencies installed, you can create a code editor component in your React project.

    To do this, create a new file called CodeEditor.js in the src directory of your project. In this file, import the AceEditor component from the react-ace library and add it to your code editor component.

Here's an example of what the CodeEditor component might look like:

import React from 'react';

import AceEditor from 'react-ace';

import 'brace/mode/javascript';

import 'brace/theme/monokai';

function CodeEditor(props) {

  return (

    <AceEditor

      mode="javascript"

      theme="monokai"

      onChange={props.onChange}

      value={props.code}

      name="code-editor"

      editorProps={{ $blockScrolling: true }}

    />

  );

}

export default CodeEditor;

    In this example, we've imported the javascript mode and monokai theme from the brace library and passed them to the AceEditor component. We've also added an onChange prop to the component, which will allow us to handle changes to the code in the editor.

Step 4: Use the code editor component in your app

    Now that you have the CodeEditor component set up, you can use it in your app.

    To do this, open the App.js file in the src directory and import the CodeEditor component. Then, add the CodeEditor component to the render method of your app.

Here's an example of what the App component might look like:

import React, { useState } from 'react';

import CodeEditor from './CodeEditor';

function App() {

  const [code, setCode] = useState('');

    To continue, you'll need to define a function to handle changes to the code in the editor. You can do this by adding an onChange prop to the CodeEditor component and passing in a function that updates the state with the new code.

import React, { useState } from 'react';

import CodeEditor from './CodeEditor';

function App() {

  const [code, setCode] = useState('');

  const handleChange = (newCode) => {

    setCode(newCode);

  }

  return (

    <div className="App">

      <CodeEditor code={code} onChange={handleChange} />

    </div>

  );

}

export default App;

With this setup, any changes to the code in the editor will be reflected in the state of the app and displayed in the CodeEditor component.

Step 5: Customize the code editor

    The react-ace library provides many customization options for the code editor, including the ability to change the language mode, theme, font size, and more. You can find a full list of options in the react-ace documentation.

<AceEditor

  mode="html"

  theme="monokai"

  onChange={props.onChange}

  value={props.code}

  name="code-editor"

  editorProps={{ $blockScrolling: true }}

/>

    You can also use the setOptions method of the AceEditor component to dynamically change the options based on user input or other conditions.

Conclusion

    In this tutorial, we've walked through the steps of creating a code editor app using React JS. With the react-ace library, it's easy to build a code editor that is fully customizable and integrates seamlessly with your React app.

I hope this tutorial was helpful in getting you started with building a code editor app using React JS. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy coding!

To customize the code editor, simply pass the desired options as props to the AceEditor component. For example, to change the language mode to HTML, you would add a mode prop like this: