Creating a Modern Website Using REACT.JS, Tailwind, and Gatsby: A Beginner’s Tutorial – Part 2

Welcome back to Part 2 of our tutorial on building a modern website with React.js, Tailwind, and Gatsby! In this part, we will continue where we left off in Part 1 and dive deeper into building out the different sections of our website.

Before we get started, make sure you have set up your development environment as per instructions from Part 1. If you haven’t gone through Part 1 yet, I highly recommend you to do so as it covers important setup steps.

Now, let’s get started with Part 2!

1. Setting up the Navigation Bar:
   • We will start by setting up a navigation bar for our website. In your src folder, create a new file named Navbar.js.
   • Inside Navbar.js, import React and use the following code to create a basic navigation bar:

import React from 'react';

const Navbar = () => {
    return (
        <nav>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
                <li><a href="/about">About</a></li>
                <li><a href="/services">Services</a></li>
                <li><a href="/contact">Contact</a></li>
            </ul>
        </nav>
    );
}

export default Navbar;

1. Styling the Navigation Bar with Tailwind CSS:
   • To style our navigation bar using Tailwind CSS, import Navbar in your Layout.js file and add Tailwind classes to the elements as needed. Here is an example:

import React from 'react';
import Navbar from './Navbar';

const Layout = ({children}) => {
    return (
        <div className="container mx-auto">
            <Navbar />
            {children}
        </div>
    );
}

export default Layout;

- In the code above, we have wrapped the `Navbar` component and the `children` within a container with Tailwind classes to center the content on the page.

1. Creating Pages:

   • Now, let’s create individual pages for Home, About, Services, and Contact. In the pages folder, create files named index.js, about.js, services.js, and contact.js.
   • In each page file, import React and create a basic component structure. You can add some dummy content for now.
2. Adding Links and Routing with Gatsby:
   • In the Navbar.js file, replace the anchor tags with Gatsby’s Link component for routing between pages. Here’s an example:

import { Link } from 'gatsby';

...

<li><Link to="/">Home</Link></li>
<li><Link to="/about">About</Link></li>
<li><Link to="/services">Services</Link></li>
<li><Link to="/contact">Contact</Link></li>

- Once you have updated the links, save the changes and navigate between pages to ensure the routing is working correctly.

1. Adding Content to Pages:

   • In each page component (Home, About, Services, Contact), you can now add content specific to that page. You can use Tailwind CSS classes to style the content as needed.

2. Adding Images and Styling:

   • You can add images to your pages by importing them in your components and using the img tag in JSX. You can also use Tailwind utility classes for styling images such as w-full for full width.
3. Finishing Touches:
   • Finally, review your website and make any necessary tweaks to the layout, styling, and content to ensure everything looks polished.

Congratulations! You have just completed Part 2 of our tutorial on building a modern website with React.js, Tailwind, and Gatsby. You now have a fully functional website with routing, navigation, and styled components. Feel free to explore more features and customize your website further.

In Part 3 of this tutorial series, we will cover more advanced topics such as animations, forms, and deploying your website. Stay tuned for the next part!