Octokat.js

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.

Overview

• Key Features
• Usage
• Examples
  • Using Callbacks or Promises
  • Read/Write/Remove a File
• Setup
  • Promises (Optional)
• Advanced
  • Promises or Callbacks
  • Chaining
  • Hypermedia
  • Paged Results
  • Preview new APIs
  • Enterprise APIs
  • Development

Key Features

• 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.

Usage

All asynchronous methods accept a Node.js-style callback and return a Common-JS Promise.

In a browser without RequireJS

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"
});

In a browser using RequireJS

define(['octokat'], function(Octokat) {
  var octo = new Octokat({
    username: "YOU_USER",
    password: "YOUR_PASSWORD"
  });
});

In Node.js

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

Using bower

This file can be included using the bower package manager:

bower install octokat --save

Examples

Here are some examples for using the library.

Using Callbacks or Promises

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!');
});

Read/Write/Remove a File

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');
});

Setup

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>

Promises (Optional)

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>

Testing

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.

Advanced Uses

Overview

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).

Promises or Callbacks

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)

Chaining

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 new foo
• .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

Hypermedia

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!

Paged Results

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)

Preview new APIs

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'
});

Enterprise APIs

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/'
});

Using Generators in Node.js 0.11 (or EcmaScript 6 browsers)

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)();

Development

• 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.