Unlock the Power of JSON Animations in Your React Applications
Getting Started with Next.js
Building a React application from scratch can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to incorporating JSON animations. In this tutorial, we’ll explore the process of rendering JSON animations in a React application using Next.js.
To begin, let’s create a new Next.js project using the command npx create-next-app my-app. This will set up a boilerplate Next.js app that can be accessed via the dev server on port 3000.
Configuring Next.js with Lottie and Cloudinary
Most JSON animations on the web are created using Lottie, an online platform for making and hosting animations. To get started, sign up for a free Lottie account and upload your JSON animation. We’ll also be using Cloudinary, a cloud-based service for managing images, to host our book collection.
Let’s replace the default page with a collection of books, including details about each book as well as some photos. The code snippet below shows how to set up the book collection:
Rendering Next.js Animations with Lottie
Now, let’s render an animation with Lottie. First, add Lottie’s web component to your app by inserting a script tag into the Head section of your app’s pages/index.js file. Next, obtain your animation’s URL by uploading your JSON animation to your Lottie account.
Use Lottie’s <lottie-player> element in your code to render the animation, and ensure that your animation’s URL appears in the src property. You can also configure preconfigured settings to change the dimensions of the animation as you see fit.
Limitations of Working with Lottie and Next.js
Although Lottie is great to work with, it has some drawbacks. One major limitation is that you need to host your animation publicly, making it available to everyone. This prompted us to look for an alternative solution while still retaining the framework of our choice.
react-lottie: Working with JSON Animations and React
An undeniable advantage of the React ecosystem is the large amount of support it gets, seen by the number of third-party packages developed for React applications. Working with animations in React is possible thanks to a package called react-lottie, which wraps the Bodymovin plugin from Adobe to export or convert animations to JSON format.
Let’s create a new React project from scratch and install react-lottie. Next, let’s add the JSON animation to our React project and create a component that handles our animation.
Configuring react-lottie
We’ll import our JSON animation and configure the options used to render this animation. Our configuration settings consist of loop, autoplay, and renderer. We’ll also import a Lottie component, which we used to handle the animation to be displayed.
Adding the Book Collection
Let’s add our book collection to the newly created React project by creating a functional component to include our book details. Now, save and refresh your app. It should look similar to the Next.js application.
The Power of React’s Ecosystem
React has a very healthy ecosystem that supports frontend engineers to thrive immensely. Developers can typically solve problems in niche use cases with help from a variety of tools, plugins, and packages. In this tutorial, we solved an issue that occurs when rendering JSON animations in Lottie using react-lottie.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and be sure to leave a comment if you have any questions.