Practical examples

In this section, we will go through two examples of using public REST APIs in your React apps. In the first example, we use the OpenWeather API to fetch the current weather for London and render it in the component. In the second example, we use the GitHub API and allow the user to fetch repositories by keyword.

OpenWeather API

First, we will make a React app that shows the current weather in London. We will show the temperature, description, and weather icon in our app. This weather data will be fetched from OpenWeather (https://openweathermap.org/).

You need to register with OpenWeather to get an API key. A free account will be sufficient for our needs. Once you have registered, navigate to your account information to find the API keys tab. There, you’ll see the API key that you need for your React weather app:

Figure 10.1: The OpenWeather API key

Your API key will be activated automatically, up to 2 hours after your successful...