search

Creating and Styling a ClCamera Component

To put Webcam to use, create a Cloudinary Camera component called ClCamera. First, create a new ClCamera folder in your src/componentsfolder:

    mkdir ClCamera
    cd ClCamera
    touch index.js ClCamera.css # on Windows, run the command
    # copy NUL index.js
    # copy NUL ClCamera.css

Install axios, which enables you to make HTTP requests in the app:

    yarn add axios # or npm install axios

Afterwards, edit the ClCamera/index.js file to read like this:

    // src/components/ClCamera.js

    import React, { Component } from 'react';
    import { Webcam } from '../../webcam';
    import './ClCamera.css';
    import axios from 'axios';

    class ClCamera extends Component {
      constructor() {
        super();
        this.webcam = null;
        this.state = {
          capturedImage: null,
          captured: false,
          uploading: false
        }
      }

      componentDidMount() {
        // initialize the camera
        this.canvasElement = document.createElement('canvas');
        this.webcam = new Webcam(
            document.getElementById('webcam'),
            this.canvasElement
        );
        this.webcam.setup().catch(() => {
            alert('Error getting access to your camera');
        });
      }

      componentDidUpdate(prevProps) {
        if (!this.props.offline && (prevProps.offline === true)) {
          // if its online
          this.batchUploads();
        }
      }

      render() {
            const imageDisplay = this.state.capturedImage ?
                <img src={this.state.capturedImage} alt="captured" width="350" />
                :
                <span />;

            const buttons = this.state.captured ?
                <div>
                    <button className="deleteButton" onClick={this.discardImage} > Delete Photo </button>
                    <button className="captureButton" onClick={this.uploadImage} > Upload Photo </button>
                </div> :
                <button className="captureButton" onClick={this.captureImage} > Take Picture </button>

            const uploading = this.state.uploading ?
                <div><p> Uploading Image, please wait ... </p></div>
                :
                <span />

            return (
                <div>
                    {uploading}
                    <video autoPlay playsInline muted id="webcam" width="100%" height="200" />
                    <br />
                    <div className="imageCanvas">
                        {imageDisplay}
                    </div>
                    {buttons}
                </div>
            )
        }

    [...]

The ClCamera component contains three states:

  • The capturedImage state, which holds a Base64 version of an image.

  • A boolean captured state, which specifies whether an image has been captured.

  • An uploading state, which specifies if an image is being uploaded to Cloudinary.

When the ClCamera component is mounted, the componentDidMount()function creates a canvas element and a Webcam object, passing the videoElement and canvasElement elements as parameters. Afterwards, you initialize the camera feed.

When the app goes from offline to online mode, the componentDidUpdatemethod calls the batchUpload() method for uploading the images that were saved in the browser’s cache while the app was offline.

Here are the other methods that perform tasks in your app:

  • When the captureImage() function is clicked, the takeBase64Photo() method is called to capture the image.

  • The Base64 image is stored in the capturedImage state of ClCamera with the captured state of the component set to true.

  • Two buttons are displayed, which trigger the discardImage method and the uploadImage method, prompting you to either discard or upload the image, respectively. The discardImage() method discards the image from the state of ClCamera and then sets the captured state to false.

The uploadImage function checks your connection status and then does the following:

  • If the connection is offline, uploadImage creates a new unique string with the prefix cloudy_pwa_ and then stores your Base64 image in the component’s this.state.capturedImage state in the browser’s localStorage. Finally, uploadImage calls the discardImage()method.

  • If the connection is online, uploadImage makes a POST request to upload your Base64 image along with a Cloudinary Preset as a parameter.

Note: Cloudinary Upload Presets are described in depth later in this tutorial.

Note: Be sure to replace CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME and CLOUDINARY_UPLOAD_PRESET with the actual values in your setup. See the next section for how to obtain those values.

When ClCamera detects that your Internet connection has been restored, the batchUploads method is called, which searches localStorage for any previously stored images with the findLocalItems method. If no images are found, the function exits. Otherwise, the images are uploaded to the Cloudinary media library through a POST request to the upload endpoint with the image and preset as parameters. The checkUploadStatus method accepts the data response from Cloudinary’s API and then checks if the upload succeeded. In case of an error, checkUploadStatus displays a message to the effect that the image remains in localStorage for the next batch upload.

Note: Again, replace CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME and CLOUDINARY_UPLOAD_PRESET with the actual values in your setup. See the next section for how to obtain those values.

The ClCamera component contains these style properties:

Feel free to edit the properties as you see fit.

PreviousUsing the Notifier ComponentNextSetting Up a Cloudinary Account

Last updated

Was this helpful?