Follow Along: Phoenix Counter App

Mix.install([
  {:jason, "~> 1.4"},
  {:kino, "~> 0.9", override: true},
  {:youtube, github: "brooklinjazz/youtube"},
  {:hidden_cell, github: "brooklinjazz/hidden_cell"}
])

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Follow Along Tutorial: Build A Counter Application

We’re going to build a Counter application to learn the basics of phoenix. Users will click a button that increments a count on the page.

If you have not already, ensure you follow the Phoenix Installation Guide to setup Phoenix 1.7 onto your system.

For reference, see the completed curriculum/demos/counter application.

Initialize The Phoenix Project

Create A Phoenix Project

Run the following in the curriculum/projects/ folder to create a mix project without Ecto using the --no-ecto flag.

$ mix phx.new counter --no-ecto

Start The Server

Start the server, which you can visit on http://localhost:4000.

$ mix phx.server

Troubleshooting

It’s common to encounter issues when starting Phoenix for the first time. For example, typically, students run into problems with Postgres.

Linux users will often encounter an issue where the postgresql service is not running. You can solve this problem with the following command.

$ sudo service postgresql start

Alternatively, you may have a permissions issue where the PostgreSQL user does not have the default username and password. You can resolve this by ensuring there is a postgres user with a postgres password.

While not a magic solution, the following may solve your problem.

$ sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER postgres PASSWORD 'postgres';"
$ sudo server postgresql restart

These are two very common issues, however you may encounter an unexpected error. Please speak with your instructor if you encounter any issues to get support.

Returning A Response

To return a response when the user visits a page, we need to do the following.

1. Create the route.
2. Create the controller.
3. Create the component.
4. Create the template.

Create The Route.

In lib/counter_web/router.ex modify the existing scope with the following. We’re going to replace the PageController boilerplate that Phoenix generates.

scope "/", CounterWeb do
  pipe_through :browser

  get "/", CounterController, :count
end

Create The Controller

Create a lib/counter_web/controllers/counter_controller.ex file with the following content.

defmodule CounterWeb.CounterController do
  use CounterWeb, :controller

  def count(conn, _params) do
    render(conn, :count, count: 0)
  end
end

Create The Component

Create a lib/counter_web/controllers/counter_html.ex file with the following content.

defmodule CounterWeb.CounterHTML do
  use CounterWeb, :html

  embed_templates "counter_html/*"
end

Create The Template

Create a lib/counter_web/controllers/counter_html/count.html.heex file with the following content.

<h1>The current count is: <%= @count %></h1>

Visit http://localhost:4000 and you should see our counter initialized to 0.

Connect The Counter

We can use query parameters to control the counter’s value.

Modify the controller in counter_web/controllers/counter_controller.ex to use the params parameter to set the count.

defmodule CounterWeb.CounterController do
  use CounterWeb, :controller

  def count(conn, params) do
    render(conn, :count, count: params["count"] || 0)
  end
end

Visit http://localhost:4000?count=1 and the count should be set by the query parameter.

Increment The Count

Now to increment the count, we have to send a get request with the incremented count as part of the url.

To send a get request from the browser, we can use the Phoenix.Component.link/1 component.

Add the link to the template in counter_web/controllers/counter_html/count.html.heex.

<h1>The current count is: <%= @count %></h1>

<.link
  navigate={~p"/?count=#{@count + 1}"}
  class="inline-block p-4 mt-4 text-2xl rounded-full bg-cyan-500 hover:bg-cyan-400"
>
  Increment

Count Form

Let’s connect the counter to a form. We’re going to enter a value in a number input, and increment the count by that value.

Create The Form

Create the form in counter_web/controllers/counter_html/count.html.heex.

<.form :let={f} for={%{}} action={~p"/"}>
  <.input type="number" field={f[:increment_by]} value={1} />
  <.input type="hidden" field={f[:count]} value={@count} />
  <.button class="mt-2">Increment

This form sends a POST request to the "/" route with the count and the increment by value.

Create The post Route

Modify the scope in our router.ex file to handle the POST request sent by the form.

scope "/", CounterWeb do
  pipe_through :browser

  get "/", CounterController, :count
  post "/", CounterController, :increment
end

Create The Controller increment/2 Action

Add an increment/2 action in the counter_web/controllers/counter_controller.ex controller file. We’ll need to send the current count and the value to increment by in the params.

def increment(conn, params) do
  current_count = String.to_integer(params["count"])
  increment_by = String.to_integer(params["increment_by"])
  render(conn, :count, count: current_count + increment_by)
end

Further Reading

For more on Phoenix, consider the following resources.

• Phoenix HexDocs
• Plug HexDocs
• Phoenix a Web Framework for the New Web • José Valim • GOTO 2016

Commit Your Progress

DockYard Academy now recommends you use the latest Release rather than forking or cloning our repository.

Run git status to ensure there are no undesirable changes. Then run the following in your command line from the curriculum folder to commit your progress.

$ git add .
$ git commit -m "finish Follow Along: Phoenix Counter App exercise"
$ git push

We’re proud to offer our open-source curriculum free of charge for anyone to learn from at their own pace.

We also offer a paid course where you can learn from an instructor alongside a cohort of your peers. We will accept applications for the June-August 2023 cohort soon.

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