Making Four-In-A-Row Using JavaScript

Intro

First of all, great job following along with this series! You've completed the first 50% of this tutorial so far!

In the previous blog post, you reorganised the project in preparation for work on the front end of the game. This is the post where the work starts.

Here's your expected outcome at the end of this tutorial:

A four-in-a-row game where the yellow player has won with a diagonal win

Here's a breakdown of the image above:

Top part: Status Area - Displays the colour of the current player's turn as well as a status message explaining what's happening in the game.
Middle part: Game Board - Displays where players have placed their tokens in the game.
Bottom Part: Play Again Button: Restarts the game. Shows up when the game is over.

This post will be focused on setting up the canvas - where each part of the game will be displayed on.

Setting Up Constants (Again)

In the same way that you created a constants file for the game logic, you'll also need to create one for the front end.

Create a new directory in src called constants then, inside the directory you've just created (src/constants), create a called index.js with these contents:

export const FrontEndConfig = {
  GAME_BACKGROUND_COLOR: "#122A67",
};

export const StatusMessages = {
  DRAW: "DRAW!",
  YELLOW_TURN: "YELLOW PLAYER'S TURN",
  RED_TURN: "RED PLAYER'S TURN",
  YELLOW_WIN: "YELLOW PLAYER WINS!",
  RED_WIN: "RED PLAYER WINS!",
};

export const StatusAreaConfig = {
  HEIGHT: 100,
  PADDING_TOP: 40,
  INNER_MARGIN: 28,
  INDICATOR_WIDTH: 16,
};

export const BoardConfig = {
  WIDTH: 284,
  HEIGHT: 242,
  MARGIN_TOP: 20,
  MARGIN_LEFT: 18,
  HORIZONTAL_PADDING: 18,
  VERTICAL_PADDING: 16,
  SLOT_MARGIN: 8,
  SLOT_WIDTH: 28,
  BACKGROUND_COLOR: "#1D48B8",
  SLOT_OUTLINE_COLOR: "#225FFD",
};

export const TokenColor = {
  NONE: "#D9D9D9",
  YELLOW: "#EAC02B",
  RED: "#EA2B2B",
};

export const PlayAgainButtonConfig = {
  WIDTH: 128,
  HEIGHT: 40,
  TEXT: "Play Again",
  MARGIN_BOTTOM: 80,
  BORDER_WIDTH: 1,
  BACKGROUND_START_COLOR: "#225FFD",
  BACKGROUND_END_COLOR: "#1D48B8",
};

Setting Up The Canvas

Adding Canvas To The Body

First, you'll need to add the <canvas> element to the <body> of the page. It'll need to have a width of 320, a height of 480, and an id of "canvas". You do this in index.html. It should look like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <title>Four in a row</title>
  </head>

  <body>
    <canvas id="canvas" width="320" height="480"></canvas>
    <script src="src/index.js" type="module"></script>
  </body>
</html>

Referencing The Canvas In Javascript

Next, you'll reference the <canvas> element that you've added to the page from JavaScript.

Create a new file called in the src directory called FrontEnd.js. This will handle the front-end logic of the game.

Add the following code to the file you've just created:

export default class FrontEnd {
  constructor(game) {
    this.game = game;
  }
}

The constructor of the FrontEnd class has a parameter called game which contains an instance of the FourInARowGame class. The FourInARowGame instance will be stored in the FrontEnd class in the game field. This will be used to update and retrieve the core game's state.

Next, you'll set up the canvas.

In the FrontEnd class's constructor, obtain a reference to the canvas element on the page and store it in a class field called canvas:

export default class FrontEnd {
  game;
  canvas;

  constructor(game) {
    this.game = game;
    this.canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
  }
}

Next, set 2 more fields called width and height to the canvas' width and height respectively:

export default class FrontEnd {
  game;
  canvas;
  width;
  height;

  constructor(game) {
    this.game = game;
    this.canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
    this.width = canvas.width;
    this.height = canvas.height;
  }
}

This will come in handy later once you start drawing on the canvas.

Lastly, set the background of the canvas:

import { FrontEndConfig } from "./constants/index.js";

export default class FrontEnd {
  game;
  canvas;
  width;
  height;

  constructor(game) {
    this.game = game;
    this.canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
    this.canvas.style.background = FrontEndConfig.GAME_BACKGROUND_COLOR;
    this.width = canvas.width;
    this.height = canvas.height;
  }
}

Now let's see if you've referenced the canvas element properly.

In src/index.js, update the code to create a new instance of the FrontEnd class:

import { FourInARowGame } from "./gameLogic/index.js";
import FrontEnd from "./FrontEnd.js";

let frontEnd = new FrontEnd(new FourInARowGame());

If you run an HTTP server and check the address it's pointing to, you should see a blue rectangle (That's the canvas you've created!):

Image of canvas with blue background

Drawing on the canvas

Let's proceed to draw on the canvas. To do this you'll need to get a 2D canvas rendering context. Another way to think about this is that you're getting a set of art supplies (paints, paintbrushes, stencils, etc.) made for creating 2D drawings.

You'll set this rendering context object in the context field of your FrontEnd class:

import { FrontEndConfig } from "./constants/index.js";

export default class FrontEnd {
  game;
  canvas;
  width;
  height;
  context;

  constructor(game) {
    this.game = game;
    this.canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
    this.canvas.style.background = FrontEndConfig.GAME_BACKGROUND_COLOR;
    this.width = canvas.width;
    this.height = canvas.height;
    this.context = this.canvas.getContext("2d");
  }
}

Next up, you'll need to scale the canvas for high-resolution displays to prevent issues with blurry drawings.

First, create a method called enableHiDPIDisplaySupport() in the FrontEnd class:

export default class FrontEnd {
  // ...
  enableHiDPISupport() {
    // Get the DPR and size of the canvas
    const dpr = window.devicePixelRatio;
    const rect = this.canvas.getBoundingClientRect();

    // Set the "actual" size of the canvas
    this.canvas.width = rect.width * dpr;
    this.canvas.height = rect.height * dpr;

    // Scale the context to ensure correct drawing operations
    this.context.scale(dpr, dpr);

    // Set the "drawn" size of the canvas
    this.canvas.style.width = `${rect.width}px`;
    this.canvas.style.height = `${rect.height}px`;
  }
}

Now call the enableHiDPIDisplaySupport() method in the FrontEnd class constructor:

export default class FrontEnd {
  constructor(game) {
    this.game = game;
    this.canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
    this.canvas.style.background = FrontEndConfig.GAME_BACKGROUND_COLOR;
    this.width = canvas.width;
    this.height = canvas.height;
    this.context = this.canvas.getContext("2d");

    this.enableHiDPIDisplaySupport();
  }

  // ...
}

You're now ready to start drawing on the canvas.

Create a method called start() in the FrontEnd class and draw a white rectangle with a width of 50 and a height of 100:

export default class FrontEnd {
  constructor(game) {
    // ...
  }

  start() {
    this.context.fillStyle = "white";
    this.context.fillRect(20, 20, 50, 100); // fillRect(x, y, width, height);
  }
}

Now go back to src/index.js and call the start() method on the FrontEnd class instance that you created:

import { FourInARowGame } from "./gameLogic/index.js";
import FrontEnd from "./FrontEnd.js";

let frontEnd = new FrontEnd(new FourInARowGame());
frontEnd.start();

Now, if you check your project with an HTTP server, in your browser, you'll see a blue canvas with a white rectangle drawn on it:

Image of canvas drawing with a white rectangle over a blue background

Congratulations, you've covered the basics of drawing using the HTML5 Canvas API!

In the next post, you'll draw the game board on the canvas.

Thanks for reading!

Making Four-In-A-Row Using JavaScript - Part 6: Blank Canvas

Start working on the front-end of your Four-In-A-Row game!

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