loremIpsum.js

// this code is from a personal lorem ipsum text generation project I built for fun on my own time. The app focuses heavily on the UI and creating a fun experience for the user. The getIpsum() function below creates paragraphs of themed ipsum for the application.
// github: https://github.com/PatrickCLipscomb/react-rails-wordplay
// heroku: https://railswordplay.herokuapp.com/

getIpsum(paraNum) {
    // sets the number of paragraphs of ipsum to return
    var paragraphNumber = parseInt(paraNum);
    var ipsumParagraphArray = [];
    // pulls in the phrases from the selected ipsum. the phrases exist as an array of strings somethimes with several words per phrase
    var phrases = this.state.activeIpsum.phrases
    var _this = this;
    // will loop to create ipsum paragraphs for a given number of paragraphs
    for (var paraNum = 0; paraNum < paragraphNumber; paraNum++) {
      var ipsumStringArray = []
      // this is currently set to create ipsum paragraphs proportional to the number of phrases in an ipsum theme and can be easily changed to return paragraphs of any given length. The length will be augmented by the randomly ocurring fillerWord()and punctuation()functions below
      for (var i = 0; i < phrases.length; i++) {
        ipsumStringArray.push(phrases[Math.floor(Math.random() * phrases.length)] + ' ');
        // gives a 35% chance that a fillerWord will be added to the ipsum and then a random phrase from the selected ipsum theme
        if (Math.floor(Math.random() * 100) < 35) {
          ipsumStringArray.push(_this.fillerWord());
          ipsumStringArray.push(phrases[Math.floor(Math.random() * phrases.length)] + ' ');
        }
        // gives a 22% chance that punctuation and then a capitalized ipsum phrase will be added following a standard ipsum phrase
        if (ipsumStringArray.length > 3 && Math.floor(Math.random() * 100) < 22) {
          ipsumStringArray.push(phrases[Math.floor(Math.random() * phrases.length)]);
          ipsumStringArray.push(_this.punctuation())
          ipsumStringArray.push(_this.capitalize(phrases[Math.floor(Math.random() * phrases.length)]) + ' ');
        }
      }
      ipsumStringArray.push(phrases[Math.floor(Math.random() * phrases.length)]);
      // this finishes off the paragraph with punctuation and removes any white space
      ipsumStringArray.push(_this.punctuation().trim())
      // this takes the first ipsum phrase in the paragraph and capitalizes it
      var firstWord = _this.capitalize(ipsumStringArray.shift());
      ipsumStringArray.unshift(firstWord);
      // joins the phrases and punctuation from an array into a string
      let ipsumString = ipsumStringArray.join("");
      ipsumParagraphArray.push(ipsumString)
    }
    this.setState({currentIpsum: ipsumParagraphArray});
  }

  // capitalization method
  capitalize(word) {
    return word.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + word.slice(1);
  }

  // this method provides gatIpsum()with random punctuation
  punctuation() {
    var puncArray = ['. ', '! ', '? ', '. '];
    return puncArray[Math.floor(Math.random() * 4)];
  }

  // this method provides gatIpsum() with a random filler word
  fillerWord() {
    var theFiller;
    var fillerWords = ['and', 'or', 'while', 'then', 'and', 'where']
    if (Math.floor(Math.random() * 100) < 40) {
      theFiller = fillerWords[Math.floor(Math.random() * 6)]
      theFiller = theFiller.concat(', ');
    } else {
      theFiller = fillerWords[Math.floor(Math.random() * 6)] + ' ';
    }
    return theFiller;
  }