Build a carousel postcard like Instagram with Reactjs, Material-UI, and Swiperjs

Live demo

You can demo the website from here

Video Tutorial

I have already made a video about it on my youtube channel. Check that out for more details.

Note:

The application is built with Material-UI V4. The current version is 5. But don't worry. You can still use the code. You only need to change the import paths of components. Everything else will be the same. Check their docs for more details.

Setup from scratch

Create a create-react-app

npx create-react-app <app>
cd <app>

Install packages

yarn add @material-ui/core @material-ui/icons swiper

Start from minimal setup

git clone git@github.com:thatanjan/insta-carousel-yt.git
cd insta-carousel-yt
git fetch
git checkout scratch

Create the container and title of the application

// App.js
import Grid from '@material-ui/core/Grid'
import Typography from '@material-ui/core/Typography'

import PostCard from './PostCard'

function App() {
    return (
        <div className='App'>
            <Grid container>
                <Grid
                    iem
                    xs={12}
                    style={{ height: '25vh', display: 'grid', placeItems: 'center' }}
                >
                    <Typography variant='h3'>Insta Carousel</Typography>
                </Grid>

                <Grid item container xs={12} justifyContent='center'>
                    <Grid item xs={3}>
                        <PostCard />{' '}
                    </Grid>
                </Grid>
            </Grid>
        </div>
    )
}

export default App

Explanation:

• Created a title that will be centered.
• Made a container containing the post card which will take 3grid space out of 12. If you don't about the Material UI grid you can the following video.

import React from 'react'
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react'
import { makeStyles } from '@material-ui/core/styles'
import Card from '@material-ui/core/Card'
import CardHeader from '@material-ui/core/CardHeader'
import CardMedia from '@material-ui/core/CardMedia'
import CardContent from '@material-ui/core/CardContent'
import CardActions from '@material-ui/core/CardActions'
import Avatar from '@material-ui/core/Avatar'
import IconButton from '@material-ui/core/IconButton'
import Typography from '@material-ui/core/Typography'
import FavoriteIcon from '@material-ui/icons/Favorite'
import ShareIcon from '@material-ui/icons/Share'
import MoreVertIcon from '@material-ui/icons/MoreVert'
import CommentIcon from '@material-ui/icons/Comment'

import SwiperCore, {
    Keyboard,
    Scrollbar,
    Pagination,
    Navigation,
} from 'swiper/core'

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css'
import 'swiper/components/pagination/pagination.min.css'
import 'swiper/components/navigation/navigation.min.css'
import 'swiper/components/scrollbar/scrollbar.min.css'

import avatarImage from './media/postAvatar.jpg'
import ts_1 from './media/carousels/ts_1.jpg'
import ts_2 from './media/carousels/ts_2.jpg'
import ts_3 from './media/carousels/ts_3.jpg'
import ts_4 from './media/carousels/ts_4.jpg'
import ts_5 from './media/carousels/ts_5.jpg'

const useStyles = akeStyles({
    media: {
        height: 0,
        paddingTop: '100%',
    },
    swiperContainer: {
        paddingBottom: '3rem',
        '& .swiper-pagination-bullet': {
            background: 'blue',
        },
        '& .swiper-button-next:after': {
            fontSize: '2rem !important',
        },
        '& .swiper-button-prev:after': {
            fontSize: '2rem !important',
        },
    },
})

SwiperCore.use([Keyboard, Scrollbar, Pagination, Navigation])

const images = [ts_1, ts_2, ts_3, ts_4, ts_5]

const PostCard = () => {
    const { media, swiperContainer } = useStyles()
    return (
        <Card>
            <CardHeader
                avatar={<Avatar src={avatarImage} />}
                title='Just a Carousel'
                subheader={new Date().toDateString()}
                action={
                    <IconButton>
                        <MoreVertIcon />
                    </IconButton>
                }
            />

            <Swiper
                grabCursor
                keyboard={{ enabled: true }}
                pagination={{ clickable: true }}
                navigation
                loop
                className={swiperContainer}
            >
                {images.map((image, index) => (
                    <SwiperSlide key={index}>
                        <CardMedia className={media} image={image} />
                    </SwiperSlide>
                ))}
            </Swiper>

            <CardActions disableSpacing>
                <IconButton>
                    <FavoriteIcon />
                </IconButton>
                <IconButton>
                    <CommentIcon />
                </IconButton>
                <IconButton>
                    <ShareIcon />
                </IconButton>
            </CardActions>

            <CardContent>
                <Typography variant='body2' color='textSecondary' component='p'>
                    Adipisicing eaque temporibus elit incidunt obcaecati. Aut eum excepturi id
                    aut consequatur ex? Incidunt debitis at consequuntur accusamus rerum
                    Tempora veritatis maiores quam molestias aut placeat qui. Iure neque libero
                    voluptas aliquid!
                </Typography>
            </CardContent>
        </Card>
    )
}

export default PostCard

Explaination:

• We have used card, cardHeader, and other components from Material UI.
• CardMedia component will have our image. It has a little bit of custom style so that it stays responsive on every screen size and it will always maintain the aspect ratio.
• We have imported Keyboard, Scrollbar, Pagination, Navigation modules from Swiperjs. To have navigation, navigation with keyboard and so on.
• We added custom styles to the Swiper component to modify the icons of Swiper component.

And the project is ready. Please watch the video for more details.

Shameless Plug

Want to create your own blog? Well, I am creating a video series where you will learn about how to create a JAMstack blog with Nextjs and Chakra-UI.

Lessons

• Intro & Setup
• Build Homepage UI
• How our app will work
• MDX, MongoDB, Static Homepage
• Generate Static Blog Page
• Style Blog page with Chakra-UI and MDX-embed
• Build a real-time view counter
• Autocomplete search form with MongoDB Atlas Search Index
• Deploy application to Vercel

Demo

You can demo the website from here

Features

• Static Blog pages will make the website load faster.
• Blogs will have code blocks with syntax highlighting and many embed components like youtube videos, GitHub gist, Tweets, and so many other things.
• Autocomplete search feature for the blog posts.
• Real-time view counter and so on.

Please like and subscribe to Cules Coding. It motivates me to create more content like this.

That's it for this blog. I have tried to explain things simply. If you get stuck, you can ask me questions.

By the way, I am looking for a new opportunity in a company where I can provide great value with my skills. If you are a recruiter, looking for someone skilled in full-stack web development and passionate about revolutionizing the world, feel free to contact me. Also, I am open to talking about any freelance project. I am available on Upwork

Contacts

• Email: thatanjan@gmail.com
• LinkedIn: @thatanjan
• Portfolio: anjan
• Github: @thatanjan
• Instagram (personal): @thatanjan
• Twitter: @thatanjan
• Upwork: @thatanjan

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Videos might you might want to watch: