In this tutorial, we will learn how to use the Axios library to make GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE REST API calls in React App.

Axios is a promise-based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. Axios makes it easy to send asynchronous HTTP requests to REST endpoints and perform CRUD operations.

Read more about Axios library at https://github.com/axios/axios

Features of Axios Library

Make XMLHttpRequests from the browser
Make HTTP requests from node.js
Supports the Promise API
Intercept request and response
Transform request and response data
Cancel requests
Automatic transforms for JSON data
Client-side support for protecting against XSRF

Installing Axios Library

Using npm:

$ npm install axios

Using bower:

$ bower install axios

Using yarn:

$ yarn add axios

Using jsDelivr CDN:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/axios/dist/axios.min.js"></script>

Using unpkg CDN:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/axios/dist/axios.min.js"></script>

Axios Important Methods

Axios also provides a set of shorthand methods for performing different HTTP requests:

axios.request(config)
axios.get(url[, config])
axios.delete(url[, config])
axios.head(url[, config])
axios.options(url[, config])
axios.post(url[, data[, config]])
axios.put(url[, data[, config]])
axios.patch(url[, data[, config]])

In this example, we will make a GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE HTTP request calls using the Axios library.

Backend Application using Spring Boot

In the below tutorial, we have created and exposed GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE REST endpoints. In this tutorial, we will consume CRUD REST APIs in our React Application using the Axios library.

The CRUD Restful web services at Spring boot CRUD with MySQL

Before running React App, make sure that your Spring boot project is up and running.

Build React JS CRUD Application

Let's go ahead and create a React application to consume GET, POST, PUT and DELETE REST APIs.

Following is the screenshot of the final version of our React application -

I suggest you to watch a YouTube video tutorial series to understand more about this full-stack app at ReactJS + Spring Boot CRUD Full Stack Application

As we know, React is a JavaScript-based library that does not have the ability to make HTTP requests; thus, we need to use third-party libraries to achieve this.

There are plenty of libraries available to make HTTP calls into React app. A few of them are listed below.

Axios
Fetch
Superagent
React-axios
Use-HTTP
React-request

We will use the Axios HTTP library to make the GET, POST, PUT and DELETE REST API calls in this example tutorial.

Let's start with creating a React App using create-react-app CLI.

1 - Create a React UI with Create React App

The Create React App CLI tool is an officially supported way to create single-page React applications. It offers a modern build setup with no configuration.

To create a new app, you may choose one of the following methods:

Using npx

npx create-react-app react-frontend

Using npm

npm init react-app react-frontend

npm init is available in npm 6+

Using Yarn

yarn create react-app react-frontend

Running any of these commands will create a directory called react-frontend inside the current folder.

2 - React CRUD App Project Structure

Here is the final project structure of our React App:

3 - Adding Bootstrap in React Using NPM

Open a new terminal window, navigate to your project's folder, and run the following command:

$ npm install bootstrap --save

After installing the bootstrap package, you will need to import it in your React app entry file.

Open the src/index.js file and add the following code:

import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css';

src/index.js

Here is the complete code for index.js file:

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import './index.css';
import App from './App';
import * as serviceWorker from './serviceWorker';
import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css';

ReactDOM.render(
  <React.StrictMode>
    <App />
  </React.StrictMode>,
  document.getElementById('root')
);

// If you want your app to work offline and load faster, you can change
// unregister() to register() below. Note this comes with some pitfalls.
// Learn more about service workers: https://bit.ly/CRA-PWA
serviceWorker.unregister();

4 - EmployeeService - Consume CRUD REST API Call

For our API calls, we will be using Axios. Below is the npm command to install Axios.

$ npm install --save axios

EmployeeService.js

Let's create a services folder inside the src folder and create a Javascript file named EmployeeService.js. Inside this file, create EmployeeService class with the following methods to make our HTTP REST call via Axios:

import axios from 'axios';

const EMPLOYEE_API_BASE_URL = "http://localhost:8080/api/v1/employees";

class EmployeeService {

    getEmployees(){
        return axios.get(EMPLOYEE_API_BASE_URL);
    }

    createEmployee(employee){
        return axios.post(EMPLOYEE_API_BASE_URL, employee);
    }

    getEmployeeById(employeeId){
        return axios.get(EMPLOYEE_API_BASE_URL + '/' + employeeId);
    }

    updateEmployee(employee, employeeId){
        return axios.put(EMPLOYEE_API_BASE_URL + '/' + employeeId, employee);
    }

    deleteEmployee(employeeId){
        return axios.delete(EMPLOYEE_API_BASE_URL + '/' + employeeId);
    }
}

export default new EmployeeService()

In above code, we have used axios.get(), axios.post(), axios.put() and axios.delete() methods to make a HTTP GET, POST, PUT and DELETE requests.

Make sure that you create an object of EmployeService class export it as:

export default new EmployeeService();

Understand more about EmployeeService at ReactJS + Spring Boot CRUD Full Stack Application

5 - package.json

This file contains all the required dependencies for our React JS project. Most importantly, you can check the current version of React that you are using. It has all the scripts to start, build, and eject our React app:

{
  "name": "react-frontend",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "@testing-library/jest-dom": "^4.2.4",
    "@testing-library/react": "^9.5.0",
    "@testing-library/user-event": "^7.2.1",
    "axios": "^0.19.2",
    "bootstrap": "^4.5.0",
    "react": "^16.13.1",
    "react-dom": "^16.13.1",
    "react-router-dom": "^5.2.0",
    "react-scripts": "3.4.1"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "start": "react-scripts start",
    "build": "react-scripts build",
    "test": "react-scripts test",
    "eject": "react-scripts eject"
  },
  "eslintConfig": {
    "extends": "react-app"
  },
  "browserslist": {
    "production": [
      ">0.2%",
      "not dead",
      "not op_mini all"
    ],
    "development": [
      "last 1 chrome version",
      "last 1 firefox version",
      "last 1 safari version"
    ]
  }
}

6 - React List Employee Component

In this section, we will create a new folder called components inside the src folder. Then create a new file called ListUserComponent.jsx. Within this file create a React class component named ListUserComponent with following content:

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import EmployeeService from '../services/EmployeeService'

class ListEmployeeComponent extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props)

        this.state = {
                employees: []
        }
        this.addEmployee = this.addEmployee.bind(this);
        this.editEmployee = this.editEmployee.bind(this);
        this.deleteEmployee = this.deleteEmployee.bind(this);
    }

    deleteEmployee(id){
        EmployeeService.deleteEmployee(id).then( res => {
            this.setState({employees: this.state.employees.filter(employee => employee.id !== id)});
        });
    }
    viewEmployee(id){
        this.props.history.push(`/view-employee/${id}`);
    }
    editEmployee(id){
        this.props.history.push(`/add-employee/${id}`);
    }

    componentDidMount(){
        EmployeeService.getEmployees().then((res) => {
            this.setState({ employees: res.data});
        });
    }

    addEmployee(){
        this.props.history.push('/add-employee/_add');
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                 <h2 className="text-center">Employees List</h2>
                 <div className = "row">
                    <button className="btn btn-primary" onClick={this.addEmployee}> Add Employee</button>
                 </div>
                 <br></br>
                 <div className = "row">
                        <table className = "table table-striped table-bordered">

                            <thead>
                                <tr>
                                    <th> Employee First Name</th>
                                    <th> Employee Last Name</th>
                                    <th> Employee Email Id</th>
                                    <th> Actions</th>
                                </tr>
                            </thead>
                            <tbody>
                                {
                                    this.state.employees.map(
                                        employee => 
                                        <tr key = {employee.id}>
                                             <td> { employee.firstName} </td>   
                                             <td> {employee.lastName}</td>
                                             <td> {employee.emailId}</td>
                                             <td>
                                                 <button onClick={ () => this.editEmployee(employee.id)} className="btn btn-info">Update </button>
                                                 <button style={{marginLeft: "10px"}} onClick={ () => this.deleteEmployee(employee.id)} className="btn btn-danger">Delete </button>
                                                 <button style={{marginLeft: "10px"}} onClick={ () => this.viewEmployee(employee.id)} className="btn btn-info">View </button>
                                             </td>
                                        </tr>
                                    )
                                }
                            </tbody>
                        </table>

                 </div>

            </div>
        )
    }
}

export default ListEmployeeComponent

Let's understand the above code.

The componentDidMount() is executed when the component is mounted for the first time. In the implementation, it actually invokes the service class method to fetch the employees from an API call and populates the state variable employees:

    componentDidMount(){
        EmployeeService.getEmployees().then((res) => {
            this.setState({ employees: res.data});
        });
    }

We are using the ES6 feature that is map operator to loop over our employees list and create the view:

<tbody>
                                {
                                    this.state.employees.map(
                                        employee => 
                                        <tr key = {employee.id}>
                                             <td> { employee.firstName} </td>   
                                             <td> {employee.lastName}</td>
                                             <td> {employee.emailId}</td>
                                             <td>
                                                 <button onClick={ () => this.editEmployee(employee.id)} className="btn btn-info">Update </button>
                                                 <button style={{marginLeft: "10px"}} onClick={ () => this.deleteEmployee(employee.id)} className="btn btn-danger">Delete </button>
                                                 <button style={{marginLeft: "10px"}} onClick={ () => this.viewEmployee(employee.id)} className="btn btn-info">View </button>
                                             </td>
                                        </tr>
                                    )
                                }
                            </tbody>

The constructor() is invoked before the component is mounted. In the constructor, we have declared our state variables and bind the different methods so that they are accessible from the state inside of the render() method.

    constructor(props) {
        super(props)

        this.state = {
                employees: []
        }
        this.addEmployee = this.addEmployee.bind(this);
        this.editEmployee = this.editEmployee.bind(this);
        this.deleteEmployee = this.deleteEmployee.bind(this);
    }

On the click of the Delete button, we use filter() method of an array to filter out the deleted employee:

    deleteEmployee(id){
        EmployeeService.deleteEmployee(id).then( res => {
            this.setState({employees: this.state.employees.filter(employee => employee.id !== id)});
        });
    }

On the click of the Update button, we will navigate to the Update Employee page using the following code:

    editEmployee(id){
        this.props.history.push(`/add-employee/${id}`);
    }

On the click of the View button, we will navigate to View Employee page using the following code:

    viewEmployee(id){
        this.props.history.push(`/view-employee/${id}`);
    }

On the click of the Add Employee button, we will navigate to Add Employee page using the following code:

   addEmployee(){
        this.props.history.push('/add-employee/_add');
    }

Understand more about ListEmployeeComponent at ReactJS + Spring Boot CRUD Full Stack App - 8 - Creating React List Employee Component

7 - Create Header and Footer

7.1 HeaderComponent

Let's create a new file named HeaderComponent.js and within this file, create a component named HeaderComponent with following code:

import React, { Component } from 'react'

class HeaderComponent extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props)

        this.state = {
                 
        }
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <header>
                    <nav className="navbar navbar-expand-md navbar-dark bg-dark">
                    <div><a href="https://javaguides.net" className="navbar-brand">Employee Management App</a></div>
                    </nav>
                </header>
            </div>
        )
    }
}

export default HeaderComponent

7.2 FooterComponent

Let's create a new file named FooterComponent.js and within this file, create a component named FooterComponent with following code:

import React, { Component } from 'react'

class FooterComponent extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props)

        this.state = {
                 
        }
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <footer className = "footer">
                    <span className="text-muted">All Rights Reserved 2020 @JavaGuides</span>
                </footer>
            </div>
        )
    }
}

export default FooterComponent

Understand more about creating Header and Footer in React app at ReactJS + Spring Boot CRUD Full Stack App - 10 - Add Header and Footer to React App

8 - Configure React App Routing

To use React Router, you first have to install it using NPM:

npm install react-router-dom

You'll need to import BrowserRouter, Route, and Switch from react-router-dom package:

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { BrowserRouter, Route, Switch } from 'react-router-dom';

Let's open App component and configure routing. We use the Switch element (open and closing tags) these ensure that only one component is rendered at a time.

Replace App component with following code:

import React from 'react';
import logo from './logo.svg';
import './App.css';
import {BrowserRouter as Router, Route, Switch} from 'react-router-dom'
import ListEmployeeComponent from './components/ListEmployeeComponent';
import HeaderComponent from './components/HeaderComponent';
import FooterComponent from './components/FooterComponent';
import CreateEmployeeComponent from './components/CreateEmployeeComponent';
import ViewEmployeeComponent from './components/ViewEmployeeComponent';

function App() {
  return (
    <div>
        <Router>
              <HeaderComponent />
                <div className="container">
                    <Switch> 
                          <Route path = "/" exact component = {ListEmployeeComponent}></Route>
                          <Route path = "/employees" component = {ListEmployeeComponent}></Route>
                          <Route path = "/add-employee/:id" component = {CreateEmployeeComponent}></Route>
                          <Route path = "/view-employee/:id" component = {ViewEmployeeComponent}></Route>
                          {/* <Route path = "/update-employee/:id" component = {UpdateEmployeeComponent}></Route> */}
                    </Switch>
                </div>
              <FooterComponent />
        </Router>
    </div>
    
  );
}

export default App;

Understand more above routing configuration at ReactJS + Spring Boot CRUD Full Stack App - 11 - Configure Routing

9 - Add and Update Employee Component

In this section, we will implement Add employee and update employee functionality. We will use the same React Component to perform both add and update employee operation.

Let's create a new file called CreateEmployeeComponent.jsx. Within this file create a React class component named CreateEmployeeComponent with following content:

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import EmployeeService from '../services/EmployeeService';

class CreateEmployeeComponent extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props)

        this.state = {
            // step 2
            id: this.props.match.params.id,
            firstName: '',
            lastName: '',
            emailId: ''
        }
        this.changeFirstNameHandler = this.changeFirstNameHandler.bind(this);
        this.changeLastNameHandler = this.changeLastNameHandler.bind(this);
        this.saveOrUpdateEmployee = this.saveOrUpdateEmployee.bind(this);
    }

    // step 3
    componentDidMount(){

        // step 4
        if(this.state.id === '_add'){
            return
        }else{
            EmployeeService.getEmployeeById(this.state.id).then( (res) =>{
                let employee = res.data;
                this.setState({firstName: employee.firstName,
                    lastName: employee.lastName,
                    emailId : employee.emailId
                });
            });
        }        
    }
    saveOrUpdateEmployee = (e) => {
        e.preventDefault();
        let employee = {firstName: this.state.firstName, lastName: this.state.lastName, emailId: this.state.emailId};
        console.log('employee => ' + JSON.stringify(employee));

        // step 5
        if(this.state.id === '_add'){
            EmployeeService.createEmployee(employee).then(res =>{
                this.props.history.push('/employees');
            });
        }else{
            EmployeeService.updateEmployee(employee, this.state.id).then( res => {
                this.props.history.push('/employees');
            });
        }
    }
    
    changeFirstNameHandler= (event) => {
        this.setState({firstName: event.target.value});
    }

    changeLastNameHandler= (event) => {
        this.setState({lastName: event.target.value});
    }

    changeEmailHandler= (event) => {
        this.setState({emailId: event.target.value});
    }

    cancel(){
        this.props.history.push('/employees');
    }

    getTitle(){
        if(this.state.id === '_add'){
            return <h3 className="text-center">Add Employee</h3>
        }else{
            return <h3 className="text-center">Update Employee</h3>
        }
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <br></br>
                   <div className = "container">
                        <div className = "row">
                            <div className = "card col-md-6 offset-md-3 offset-md-3">
                                {
                                    this.getTitle()
                                }
                                <div className = "card-body">
                                    <form>
                                        <div className = "form-group">
                                            <label> First Name: </label>
                                            <input placeholder="First Name" name="firstName" className="form-control" 
                                                value={this.state.firstName} onChange={this.changeFirstNameHandler}/>
                                        </div>
                                        <div className = "form-group">
                                            <label> Last Name: </label>
                                            <input placeholder="Last Name" name="lastName" className="form-control" 
                                                value={this.state.lastName} onChange={this.changeLastNameHandler}/>
                                        </div>
                                        <div className = "form-group">
                                            <label> Email Id: </label>
                                            <input placeholder="Email Address" name="emailId" className="form-control" 
                                                value={this.state.emailId} onChange={this.changeEmailHandler}/>
                                        </div>

                                        <button className="btn btn-success" onClick={this.saveOrUpdateEmployee}>Save</button>
                                        <button className="btn btn-danger" onClick={this.cancel.bind(this)} style={{marginLeft: "10px"}}>Cancel</button>
                                    </form>
                                </div>
                            </div>
                        </div>

                   </div>
            </div>
        )
    }
}

export default CreateEmployeeComponent

Let's understand the above code.

We retrieve employee id from the route using the following line of code:

this.props.match.params.id

In the constructor, we have declared our state variables and bind the different methods so that they are accessible from the state inside of the render() method.

constructor(props) {
        super(props)

        this.state = {
            // step 2
            id: this.props.match.params.id,
            firstName: '',
            lastName: '',
            emailId: ''
        }
        this.changeFirstNameHandler = this.changeFirstNameHandler.bind(this);
        this.changeLastNameHandler = this.changeLastNameHandler.bind(this);
        this.saveOrUpdateEmployee = this.saveOrUpdateEmployee.bind(this);
    }

The componentDidMount() is executed when the component is mounted for the first time. In componentDidMount() method, if the id is '_add' then we don't do anything else we retrieve employee by id using EmployeeService.getEmployeeById() method:

    componentDidMount(){

        // step 4
        if(this.state.id === '_add'){
            return
        }else{
            EmployeeService.getEmployeeById(this.state.id).then( (res) =>{
                let employee = res.data;
                this.setState({firstName: employee.firstName,
                    lastName: employee.lastName,
                    emailId : employee.emailId
                });
            });
        }        
    }

In the saveOrUpdateEmployee () method, we check if the id is _add then we call EmployeeService.createEmployee() method which internally makes a REST API call to store employee data into MySQL database. If id is any positive number then we call EmployeeService.updateEmployee() method which internally makes a REST API call to store updated employee data into MySQL database:

saveOrUpdateEmployee = (e) => {
        e.preventDefault();
        let employee = {firstName: this.state.firstName, lastName: this.state.lastName, emailId: this.state.emailId};
        console.log('employee => ' + JSON.stringify(employee));

        // step 5
        if(this.state.id === '_add'){
            EmployeeService.createEmployee(employee).then(res =>{
                this.props.history.push('/employees');
            });
        }else{
            EmployeeService.updateEmployee(employee, this.state.id).then( res => {
                this.props.history.push('/employees');
            });
        }
    }

We are using a getTitle() method to get the title for Add and Employee page based on id:

getTitle(){
        if(this.state.id === '_add'){
            return <h3 className="text-center">Add Employee</h3>
        }else{
            return <h3 className="text-center">Update Employee</h3>
        }
    }

On click on the Cancel button, the cancel() method called and it will navigate the user to the employees list page:

 cancel(){
        this.props.history.push('/employees');
    }

Understand more about CreateEmployeeConponent at ReactJS + Spring Boot CRUD Full Stack App - 13 - Creating React Add Employee Component.

10 - View Employee Component

Let's create a new file called ViewEmployeeComponent.jsx. Within this file create a React class component named ViewEmployeeComponent with following content:

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import EmployeeService from '../services/EmployeeService'

class ViewEmployeeComponent extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props)

        this.state = {
            id: this.props.match.params.id,
            employee: {}
        }
    }

    componentDidMount(){
        EmployeeService.getEmployeeById(this.state.id).then( res => {
            this.setState({employee: res.data});
        })
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <br></br>
                <div className = "card col-md-6 offset-md-3">
                    <h3 className = "text-center"> View Employee Details</h3>
                    <div className = "card-body">
                        <div className = "row">
                            <label> Employee First Name: </label>
                            <div> { this.state.employee.firstName }</div>
                        </div>
                        <div className = "row">
                            <label> Employee Last Name: </label>
                            <div> { this.state.employee.lastName }</div>
                        </div>
                        <div className = "row">
                            <label> Employee Email ID: </label>
                            <div> { this.state.employee.emailId }</div>
                        </div>
                    </div>

                </div>
            </div>
        )
    }
}

export default ViewEmployeeComponent

Understand more about ViewEmployeeConponent at ReactJS + Spring Boot CRUD Full Stack App - 13 - Creating React Add Employee Component.

11 - Run React App

Before running React App, make sure that your Spring boot project is up and running.

Use below command to start the project:

npm start

Use yarn to start the project:

yarn start

Runs the app in development mode. Open http://localhost:3000 to view it in the browser.

12 - Demo of Full-Stack App

The demo of this project in below YouTube video tutorial series:

Source code on GitHub

https://github.com/RameshMF/ReactJS-Spring-Boot-CRUD-Full-Stack-App

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have learned how to use the Axios library to make GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE REST API calls in React App.

Check out the complete tutorial at https://www.javaguides.net/2020/07/spring-boot-react-js-crud-example-tutorial.html

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