Building a Metric/Imperial Unit Conversion Web Application

3 min readAug 6, 2023

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the process of building a user-friendly Metric/Imperial Unit Conversion web application similar to Dr-Hachami/Metric-Imperial_Unit_Conversion. This web application allows users to effortlessly convert between metric and imperial units for length, volume, and mass.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure you have the following tools and technologies installed on your computer:

Text Editor: Use any code editor of your choice. Popular options include Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, or Atom.
Git: Install Git to manage version control and clone the project repository.
Web Browser: Choose a web browser for testing your web application. Recommended browsers include Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge.

Getting Started

Let’s get started by creating a new project and setting up the basic structure of the web application.

Create a New Project Folder: Create a new folder on your computer and name it as desired (e.g., metric-imperial-conversion).
Clone the Repository: To use Dr-Hachami/Metric-Imperial_Unit_Conversion as a starting point, open a terminal or command prompt and navigate to your project folder. Then, run the following command to clone the repository:

bashCopy code
git clone https://github.com/Dr-Hachami/Metric-Imperial_Unit_Conversion.git .

This will copy all the files from the repository into your project folder.
Clean Up Unnecessary Files: Remove any unnecessary files from the cloned repository that are not required for the web application.

Project Structure

Before we start coding, let’s take a quick look at the project structure:

luaCopy codemetric-imperial-conversion/
|-- index.html
|-- index.js
|-- index.css
|-- LICENSE
|-- README.md

The primary files for the web application are index.html, index.js, and index.css. The LICENSE and README.md files are for licensing and documentation purposes, respectively.

HTML Markup

Open the index.html file in your text editor and set up the basic HTML structure:

htmlCopy code<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
    <!-- Web application content goes here -->
    <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Styling with CSS

Next, let’s define the styling for the web application. Open the index.css file and add the following CSS code:

cssCopy code/* Add your CSS styles here */

You can use the existing CSS styles from the cloned repository or create your custom styles to customize the look and feel of the application.

JavaScript Functionality

The core functionality of the Metric/Imperial Unit Conversion web application is handled by JavaScript. Open the index.js file and add the following code:

javascriptCopy c// Add your JavaScript code here

This is where you will implement the logic for unit conversions based on user input.

Adding Conversion Logic

Now comes the exciting part — implementing the conversion logic! In the index.js file, let's create a function that handles the conversion:

// Conversion function for length units
function convertLength(inputValue) {
    const feetToMeters = 0.3048;
    const metersToFeet = 3.28084;

    const convertedToFeet = inputValue * metersToFeet;
    const convertedToMeters = inputValue * feetToMeters;    return {
        feet: convertedToFeet.toFixed(2),
        meters: convertedToMeters.toFixed(2),
    };
}

We’re using a simple conversion factor for length units (feet and meters) in this example. You can customize the conversion factors based on your specific requirements.

Handling User Input and Displaying Results

Now, let’s update the event listener for the “Convert” button to handle user input and display the conversion results:

const button = document.getElementById('btn');
const lengthResult = document.getElementById('length-result');

button.addEventListener('click', function () {
    const inputField = document.getElementById('input');
    const inputValue = parseFloat(inputField.value);    if (!isNaN(inputValue)) {
        const conversions = convertLength(inputValue);
        lengthResult.textContent = `${inputValue} Meters = ${conversions.feet} Feet | ${inputValue} Feet = ${conversions.meters} Meters`;
    } else {
        lengthResult.textContent = 'Please enter a valid number for conversion.';
    }
});

We’ve added an element with the id length-result in the index.html file to display the length conversion results.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve successfully built a basic Metric/Imperial Unit Conversion web application. This application allows users to convert between metric and imperial units for length. You can extend this project to include conversions for volume and mass as well.

Feel free to customize the styling, improve the user interface, and add more conversion options to suit your specific needs. Happy coding!

Note: The complete project code and instructions for adding volume and mass conversions are available in the Dr-Hachami/Metric-Imperial_Unit_Conversion repository. This tutorial serves as a starting point for your own Metric/Imperial Unit Conversion web application. Remember to refer to the original repository for more features and improvements.