Unleash Your Inner Quizmaster: Node.js Trivia App Using Express and Open Trivia API

If you are looking to test your knowledge and have some fun, building a trivia app using Node.js and the Open Trivia API is a great way to do so. In this article, we will walk you through the process of creating your own trivia app using the popular Node.js framework Express and the Open Trivia API.

What You Will Need

Before we get started, you will need to have Node.js and npm installed on your computer. If you don’t already have them, you can download and install them from the official Node.js website.

Setting Up the Project

First, open your terminal and create a new directory for your project. Then, navigate to the newly created directory and run the following command to initialize a new Node.js project:

npm init -y

Next, install Express and Axios (a promise-based HTTP client for making API calls) using the following command:

npm install express axios

Creating the Trivia App

Now that we have our project set up, we can start building our trivia app. Create a new file named app.js and add the following code to set up a basic server using Express:

  const express = require('express');
  const app = express();
  const port = 3000;

  app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    res.send('Welcome to the Trivia App!');
  });

  app.listen(port, () => {
    console.log(`App listening at http://localhost:${port}`);
  });
  

With the basic server set up, we can now make a request to the Open Trivia API to fetch trivia questions. Add the following code to the app.js file to make a request to the API and retrieve the trivia questions:

  const axios = require('axios');
  const API_URL = 'https://opentdb.com/api.php?amount=10';

  app.get('/trivia', async (req, res) => {
    try {
      const response = await axios.get(API_URL);
      const questions = response.data.results;
      res.json(questions);
    } catch (error) {
      res.status(500).json({ message: 'Failed to fetch trivia questions' });
    }
  });
  

Testing the Trivia App

To test the trivia app, run the following command in the terminal to start the server:

node app.js

Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000/trivia. You should see a JSON response containing a list of trivia questions from the Open Trivia API.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully created a trivia app using Node.js and the Open Trivia API. From here, you can further customize and enhance the app by adding features such as user authentication, scoring, and more. Have fun testing your knowledge and challenging your friends with your very own trivia app!