Day-13: Getting started with Discover Feeds API for ShowwcaseXS

Today is May 6, 2023, and as I mentioned in my previous blog I have finalized and completed the main layout for ShowwcaseXS. I am now able to navigate to different tabs on the navigation bar, and the corresponding layout for each tab is displayed. Additionally, I have built the headers and footers in the main layout. It’s time to get started with integrating the APIs for ShowwcaseXS access.

I have chosen to proceed with using the Discover Feeds API because it does not require a secret key to obtain a response. I also tested the API's response using Postman, which allowed me to understand the structure of the API response and the type of response that I will be receiving. I am currently working on figuring out the best way to show all the details. While designing the wireframe, I didn’t know about the different edge cases to show the feeds, but I have to make some changes in thread cards while making the UI.

messages

As I began creating the UI for thread cards and integrating the responses received from the API, I discovered several new things. I found that API gives different types of details based on user posts. All the threads are not uniform in nature. They have different fields like titles, messages, links, code, images, video links, blog links, and much more. It was essential to incorporate all of these types of threads and show them in a visually appealing manner so that It feels different while scrolling through in ShowwcaseXS. Additionally, the API's messages were in Markdown format, so I had to install the React Markdown library to convert the Markdown to normal text for display purposes. A lot of work to do....

I have completed most of the UI development for the view feed section. It took a little long but it is done now. Along with things I discussed previously I also implemented various validations for different responses. For example, if I am unable to retrieve the user profile image link due to an API issue or an invalid image link, I included a fallback to prevent the display of a blank image. Overall, I am impressed with the final design of the feed section. It successfully shows all the different types of threads, including code, videos, photos, blogs, and more. Let me quickly show you how it's looking.

Need to do some minor fixes here, post then will move to the auth for ShowwcaseXS. That is the most important part now. Need to hurry up!!!