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Building a Dynamic Currency Converter in React
When it comes to ecommerce websites or apps that handle international transactions, a reliable currency converter is essential. It empowers users to make informed decisions and can potentially boost sales by converting product prices to local currencies. In this article, we’ll explore how to create a dynamic currency converter in React, leveraging the power of APIs and libraries to enhance user experience.
Fetching Exchange Rates
To begin, we need to set up an API to fetch the latest currency exchange rates. We’ll use the free Exchange-Rate API, which provides exchange rates for any currency. Simply specify the currency in the API URL, and fetch the rates using a standard fetch request. First, create an API key from the Exchange-Rate API, then replace YOUR_KEY in the URL with your actual key: https://v6.exchangerate-api.com/v6/YOUR_KEY/latest/USD.
Setting Up the API in React
Next, let’s create a new React app and make a fetch request inside a useEffect Hook with an empty array as the dependency. This ensures that we fetch the latest exchange rates every time the page or component re-renders. We’ll also create two empty states: rates and ratesFetched. The rates state will store and update the exchange rates, while the ratesFetched state will indicate whether the rates have been fetched.
Creating the Converter
Now, let’s build the converter itself. Inspired by Google’s currency converter, we’ll create three containers: amount, from, and to. Each container will contain a label and an input field or dropdown. We’ll also add a container to display the output and a button to run the calculation.
Styling the Converter
To enhance the converter’s appearance, we can add some basic CSS to our styles.css file. This is optional but recommended for a visually appealing converter.
Calculating the Output
With the basic converter layout set up, we’ll create three more states to store the input amount and selected currencies. We’ll use an onChange event handler to get the current value of the dropdowns and inputs. When the calculate button is clicked, we’ll fetch the currency conversion API, calculate the converted amount, and store it in a new state called output.
Enhancing the Converter with react-currency-input-field
To take our converter to the next level, we’ll use the react-currency-input-field library to add a currency input field for the amount. This will allow us to handle decimal places and rounding, format the amount as the user types, and show the currency symbol based on the selected from currency.
Input Masking
Input masking is a technique that formats user input according to predefined rules or formats. In our case, we’ll format the user’s input with currency symbols, commas, and decimal limits. This ensures data accuracy and consistency, guides users on the expected input format, and speeds up data entry.
With these features in place, we’ve created a dynamic currency converter in React that’s both functional and user-friendly. By following these steps, you can build your own converter and enhance the user experience of your React app.