Octokat.js provides a minimal higher-level wrapper around GitHub's API. It is being developed in the context of github-bookeditor, an EPUB3 Textbook editor for GitHub.
This package can also be used in nodejs
or in the browser as an AMD module or using browserify.
- Works in
nodejs
, an AMD module in the browser, and as a bower library - Handles text and binary files
- Exposes everything available via the GitHub API (repos, teams, events, hooks, emojis, etc.)
- Supports
ETag
caching - Paged results
- Node-style callbacks as well as optional Promises (to avoid those debates)
- 100% of the GitHub API
- Starring and Following repositories, users, and organizations
- Editing Team and Organization Membership
- User/Org/Repo events and notifications
- Listeners for rate limit changes
- Public Keys
- Hooks (commit, comment, etc.)
- Uses Angular, jQuery, or native promises if available
- Markdown generation
- Preview APIs (Deployments, Teams, etc)
- Enterprise APIs
For the full list of supported methods see the Travis tests, the ./test directory, or ./src/grammar.coffee.
All asynchronous methods accept a Node.js-style callback and return a Common-JS Promise.
Create an Octokat instance.
var octo = new Octokat({
username: "USER_NAME",
password: "PASSWORD"
});
var cb = function (err, val) { console.log(val); };
octo.zen.read(cb);
octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js').fetch(cb); // Fetch repo info
octo.me.starred('philschatz', 'octokat.js').add(cb); // Star a repo
Or if you prefer OAuth:
var octo = new Octokat({
token: "OAUTH_TOKEN"
});
define(['octokat'], function(Octokat) {
var octo = new Octokat({
username: "YOU_USER",
password: "YOUR_PASSWORD"
});
});
Install instructions:
npm install octokat --save
var Octokat = require('octokat');
var octo = new Octokat({
username: "YOU_USER",
password: "YOUR_PASSWORD"
});
var cb = function (err, val) { console.log(val); };
octo.zen.read(cb);
octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js').fetch(cb); // Fetch repo info
octo.me.starred('philschatz', 'octokat.js').add(cb); // Star a repo
octo.me.starred('philschatz', 'octokat.js').remove(cb); // Un-Star a repo
This file can be included using the bower package manager:
bower install octokat --save
Here are some examples for using the library.
var octo = new Octokat();
// Starring a repository using callbacks
var cb = function (err, val) { console.log(val); };
octo.me.starred('philschatz', 'octokat.js').add(cb);
// Starring a repository using Promises
octo.me.starred('philschatz', 'octokat.js').add()
.then(function(val) {
console.log('Starred!');
});
To read the contents of a file:
var octo = new Octokat();
var repo = octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js');
repo.contents('README.md').read() // Use `.read` to get the raw file.
.then(function(contents) { // `.fetch` is used for getting JSON
console.log(contents);
});
To read the contents of a binary file:
var octo = new Octokat();
var repo = octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js');
repo.contents('README.md').readBinary() // Decodes the Base64-encoded content
.then(function(contents) {
console.log(contents);
});
To read the contents of a file and JSON metadata:
var octo = new Octokat();
var repo = octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js');
repo.contents('README.md').fetch()
.then(function(info) {
console.log(info.sha, info.content);
});
To update a file you need the blob SHA of the previous commit:
var octo = new Octokat({token: 'API_TOKEN'});
var repo = octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js');
var config = {
message: 'Updating file',
content: base64encode('New file contents'),
sha: '123456789abcdef', // the blob SHA
// branch: 'gh-pages'
};
repo.contents('README.md').add(config)
.then(function(info) {
console.log('File Updated. new sha is ', info.commit.sha);
});
Creating a new file is the same as updating a file but the sha
field in the config is omitted.
To remove a file:
var octo = new Octokat({token: 'API_TOKEN'});
var repo = octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js');
var config = {
message: 'Removing file',
sha: '123456789abcdef',
// branch: 'gh-pages'
};
repo.contents('README.md').remove(config)
.then(function() {
console.log('File Updated');
});
This is all you need to get up and running:
<script src="../dist/octokat.js"></script>
<script>
var octo = new Octokat();
octo.zen.read(function(err, message) {
if (err) { throw new Error(err); }
alert(message);
});
</script>
octokat.js
has the following optional dependencies when used in a browser:
- A Promise API (supports jQuery, AngularJS, or a Promise polyfill)
If you are already using jQuery or AngularJS in your project just be sure to include them before Octokat and it will use their Promise API.
Otherwise, you can include a Promise polyfill like jakearchibald/es6-promise:
<script src="./node_modules/es6-promise/dist/promise-0.1.2.js"></script>
<script src="./octokat.js"></script>
npm test
will run the mocha tests for Node.js and the browser.
Additionally, they can be run in the browser by starting a web server
and going to ./test/index.html.
This library closely mirrors the https://developer.github.com/v3 documentation.
For example, GET /repos/:owner/:repo
becomes octo.repos(owner, repo).fetch()
and POST /repos/:owner/:repo/issues/:number/comments
becomes octo.repos(owner, repo).issues(number).comments.create(params)
.
This library supports Node.js-style callbacks as well as Promises.
To use a callback, just specify it as the last argument to a method. To use a Promise, do not specify a callback and the return value will be a Promise.
Example (get information on a repo):
# Using callbacks
octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js').fetch (err, repo) ->
console.error(err) if err
# Do fancy stuff...
# Using Promises
octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js').fetch()
.then (repo) ->
# Do fancy stuff
.then null, (err) -> console.error(err)
You construct the URL by chaining properties and methods together and an async call is made once a verb method is called (see below).
Example:
octo = new Octokat()
repo = octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js')
# Check if the current user is a collaborator on a repo
repo.collaborators.contains(USER)
.then (isCollaborator) ->
# If not, then star the Repo
unless isCollaborator
repo.star.add()
.then () ->
# Done!
Or, update a specific comment:
octo = new Octokat(token: ...)
octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js').issues(1).comments(123123).update(body: 'Hello')
.then () ->
# Done!
The basic structure of these methods is:
.foos.fetch({optionalStuff:...})
yields a list of items (possibly paginated).foos(id).fetch(...)
yields a single item (issue, repo, user).foos.contains(id)
tests membership in a list (yields true/false).foos.create(...)
creates a newfoo
.foos(id).add()
adds an existing User/Repo to the list.foos(id).remove()
removes a member from a list or deletes the object and yields a boolean indicating success
GitHub provides URL patterns in its JSON responses. These are automatically converted into methods. For example:
octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js').fetch()
.then (repo) ->
# GitHub returns a JSON which contains something like compare_url: 'https://..../compare/{head}...{base}
# This is converted to a method that accepts 2 arguments
repo.compare(sha1, sha2).fetch()
.then (comparison) -> # Done!
If a .fetch()
returns paged results then nextPage()
, previousPage()
, firstPage()
and lastPage()
are added to the returned Object. For example:
octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js').commits.fetch()
.then (someCommits) ->
someCommits.nextPage()
.then (moreCommits) ->
console.log('2nd page of results', moreCommits)
To use the APIs available for preview just add a acceptHeader
when instantiating Octokat.
For example:
var octo = new Octokat({
token: 'API_TOKEN',
acceptHeader: 'application/vnd.github.cannonball-preview+json'
});
To use the Enterprise APIs add the root URL when instantiating Octokat:
var octo = new Octokat({
token: 'API_TOKEN',
rootUrl: 'https://example.com/api/v3/'
});
This requires Node.js 0.11 with the --harmony-generators
flag:
var co = require('co');
var Octokat = require('octokat');
var octo = new Octokat();
var fn = function *() {
var zen = yield octo.zen.read();
var info = yield octo.repos('philschatz', 'octokat.js').fetch();
console.log(zen);
console.log(info);
};
co(fn)();
- Run
npm install
- Run
grunt dist
to generate the files in the./dist
directory
The unit tests are named to illustrate examples of using the API.
See Travis tests or run npm test
to see them.
linkedin/sepia is used to generate recorded HTTP fixtures from GitHub and philschatz/sepia.js uses them in the browser. If you are adding tests be sure to include the updated fixtures in the Pull Request.