GitHub API

Objectives

• Use Ajax to make a get request to an API
• Use Ajax to make a post request to an API
• Parse JSON to get clean API data

Intro

For this lab we will be using the GitHub API to create and view Gists. In this lab you will create a UI that allows users to see a list of their gists and be able to create new ones.

Instructions

You will need to visit Github Tokens and create a personal token to use. This token allows you to request data for your account. Make sure you select "gists" from the checkboxes to allow your token to have access to that part of the Github API. Also, before you begin, visit list a gist guide and create a gist guide and review how to use the gist portion of the GitHub API.

• Create the method myGists(username, token) that returns the gists for a user.
• Create the method createGist(file_name, content, description, token) that creates a public gist.
• Create the method bindCreateButton that will bind the click event for the button that makes our request.

Note: To get the tests to pass, do not use any ES6 syntax (that includes string interpolation ${}, arrow function =>, const, let, ...)

User Interface

With your code ready to go, create the UI.

• Create a form for the user to enter
  • Personal token.
  • Gist file name.
  • Gist description.
  • Gist contents.
• Have a button that when clicked
  • Creates a public gist for a user.
  • Updates the UI to show the list of public gists for the user.
    • Use the html_url for the href and the description from the gist as the link text.

Hint

The GitHub API requires you to send a token as part of the request headers. This token will be the personal token you created in the beginning of the lab. To set the headers, you can pass the options that you need to the headers field in your request options. An example is below:

$.ajax({
  url: 'GITHUB_URL_HERE',
  type: 'POST',
  dataType: 'json',
  headers: {
    Authorization: "token YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"
  }
})

References

• https://developer.github.com/v3/gists/#create-a-gist
• https://developer.github.com/v3/gists/#list-a-users-gists
• http://api.jquery.com/jquery.ajax
• https://developer.github.com/v3/auth/

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