Netflix Clone to Level Up Your Frontend Skills

As a developer primarily focused on backend, I've always felt that my frontend skills could use some polishing. To test this, I decided to challenge myself by building a Netflix clone using Vue.js 3 and Vite. In this article, I'll break down the project structure, key components, and share my learning experience.

Project Overview

The goal was to create a responsive web application that mimics the core features of Netflix's user interface. Here's what I initially set out to build:

• A homepage with multiple rows of movies, categorized by genre
• Smooth horizontal scrolling for movie rows
• Lazy loading of images for better performance
• A search functionality to find movies

More to be added in the future.

Tech Stack

For this project, I chose the following tools:

• Vue.js 3: For its reactivity system and component-based architecture
• Vite: As a fast build tool and development server
• Vue Router: For handling navigation
• Pinia: For state management
• Axios: For making API requests to TMDB
• @vueuse/motion: For adding smooth animations

Project Structure

Here's an overview of the project structure:

netflix-clone/
├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── MovieCard.vue
│   │   ├── MovieList.vue
│   │   ├── MovieRow.vue
│   │   └── NavBar.vue
│   ├── views/
│   │   ├── HomeView.vue
│   │   ├── MovieDetailView.vue
│   │   └── SearchView.vue
│   ├── router/
│   │   └── index.js
│   ├── services/
│   │   └── tmdb.js
│   ├── stores/
│   │   └── movies.js
│   ├── App.vue
│   └── main.js
├── .env.example
├── vite.config.js
└── package.json

Key Components Breakdown

MovieCard.vue

This component represents an individual movie. It displays the movie poster and, on hover, shows additional information like the title, rating, and release year.

<template>
  <div class="movie-card" @mouseenter="startHoverTimer" @mouseleave="resetHover">
    <img :src="posterUrl" :alt="movie.title" @load="imageLoaded = true" :class="{ 'loaded': imageLoaded }">
    <div v-if="isHovered" class="movie-info">
      <h3>{{ movie.title }}</h3>
      <p>Rating: {{ movie.vote_average }}/10</p>
      <p>{{ releaseYear }}</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup>
import { ref, computed } from 'vue';

const props = defineProps(['movie']);
const imageLoaded = ref(false);
const isHovered = ref(false);

const posterUrl = computed(() => `https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500${props.movie.poster_path}`);
const releaseYear = computed(() => new Date(props.movie.release_date).getFullYear());

// ... hover logic
</script>

Key learnings:

• Using computed properties for derived data
• Implementing hover effects with CSS transitions
• Lazy loading images for better performance

MovieRow.vue

This component creates a horizontally scrollable row of movies, typically grouped by genre.

<template>
  <div class="movie-row">
    <h2>{{ title }}</h2>
    <div class="movie-list" ref="movieList">
      <MovieCard v-for="movie in movies" :key="movie.id" :movie="movie" />
    </div>
    <button @click="scroll('left')" class="scroll-btn left">&lt;</button>
    <button @click="scroll('right')" class="scroll-btn right">&gt;</button>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup>
import { ref } from 'vue';
import MovieCard from './MovieCard.vue';

const props = defineProps(['title', 'movies']);
const movieList = ref(null);

const scroll = (direction) => {
  const scrollAmount = direction === 'left' ? -300 : 300;
  movieList.value.scrollBy({ left: scrollAmount, behavior: 'smooth' });
};
</script>

### tmdb.js (API Service)

This service handles all API calls to The Movie Database (TMDB) using Axios.

import axios from 'axios';

const API_KEY = import.meta.env.VITE_TMDB_API_KEY;
const BASE_URL = 'https://api.themoviedb.org/3';

const tmdbApi = axios.create({
  baseURL: BASE_URL,
  params: { api_key: API_KEY },
});

export const getTrending = () => tmdbApi.get('/trending/all/week');
export const getMoviesByGenre = (genreId) => tmdbApi.get('/discover/movie', { params: { with_genres: genreId } });
export const searchMovies = (query) => tmdbApi.get('/search/movie', { params: { query } });

NavBar.vue

The NavBar component provides navigation for the application and includes a search input for finding movies.

<template>
  <nav class="navbar">
    <router-link to="/" class="navbar-brand">NetflixClone</router-link>
    <div class="navbar-links">
      <router-link to="/">Home</router-link>
      <div class="search-container">
        <input v-model="searchQuery" @input="debounceSearch" placeholder="Search movies...">
      </div>
    </div>
  </nav>
</template>

<script setup>
import { ref } from 'vue';
import { useRouter } from 'vue-router';
import debounce from 'lodash/debounce';

const router = useRouter();
const searchQuery = ref('');

const debounceSearch = debounce(() => {
  if (searchQuery.value) {
    router.push({ name: 'search', query: { q: searchQuery.value } });
  }
}, 300);
</script>

HomeView.vue

The HomeView component serves as the main page of the application, displaying multiple MovieRow components with different genres.

<template>
  <div class="home-view">
    <MovieRow title="Trending" :movies="trendingMovies" />
    <MovieRow v-for="genre in genres" :key="genre.id" :title="genre.name" :movies="moviesByGenre[genre.id]" />
  </div>
</template>

<script setup>
import { ref, onMounted } from 'vue';
import MovieRow from '@/components/MovieRow.vue';
import { getTrending, getGenres, getMoviesByGenre } from '@/services/tmdb';

const trendingMovies = ref([]);
const genres = ref([]);
const moviesByGenre = ref({});

onMounted(async () => {
  const [trendingResponse, genresResponse] = await Promise.all([
    getTrending(),
    getGenres()
  ]);

  trendingMovies.value = trendingResponse.data.results;
  genres.value = genresResponse.data.genres.slice(0, 5); // Limit to 5 genres for this example

  for (const genre of genres.value) {
    const response = await getMoviesByGenre(genre.id);
    moviesByGenre.value[genre.id] = response.data.results;
  }
});
</script>

SearchView.vue

The SearchView component displays search results based on the user's query.

<template>
  <div class="search-view">
    <h2>Search Results for "{{ searchQuery }}"</h2>
    <div class="search-results">
      <MovieCard v-for="movie in searchResults" :key="movie.id" :movie="movie" />
    </div>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup>
import { ref, watch } from 'vue';
import { useRoute } from 'vue-router';
import MovieCard from '@/components/MovieCard.vue';
import { searchMovies } from '@/services/tmdb';

const route = useRoute();
const searchQuery = ref('');
const searchResults = ref([]);

const performSearch = async () => {
  const response = await searchMovies(searchQuery.value);
  searchResults.value = response.data.results;
};

watch(() => route.query.q, (newQuery) => {
  searchQuery.value = newQuery;
  performSearch();
}, { immediate: true });
</script>

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You can find the full source code for this project on GitHub.