Previously, GitHub gists were embedded. The gist url would be detected
in a paragraph and the page would render a script like:
```html
<script src="https://gist.github.com/user/gist_id.js"></script>
```
The script would then embed the gist on the page. However, gists contain
multiple files. It's technically possible to embed a single file in the
same way by appending a `file` query param:
```html
<script
src="https://gist.github.com/user/gist_id.js?file=foo.txt"></script>
```
I wanted to try and tackle proxying gists instead.
Overview
--------
At a high level the PageConverter kicks off the work of fetching and
storing the gist content, then sends that content down to the
`ParagraphConverter`. When a paragraph comes up that contains a gist
embed, it retrieves the previously fetched content. This allows all the
necessary content to be fetched up front so the minimum number of
requests need to be made.
Fetching Gists
--------------
There is now a `GithubClient` class that gets gist content from GitHub's
ReST API. The gist API response looks something like this (non-relevant
keys removed):
```json
{
"files": {
"file-one.txt": {
"filename": "file-one.txt",
"raw_url":
"https://gist.githubusercontent.com/<username>/<id>/raw/<file_id>/file-o
ne.txt",
"content": "..."
},
"file-two.txt": {
"filename": "file-two.txt",
"raw_url":
"https://gist.githubusercontent.com/<username>/<id>/raw/<file_id>/file-t
wo.txt",
"content": "..."
}
}
}
```
That response gets turned into a bunch of `GistFile` objects that are
then stored in a request-level `GistStore`. Crystal's JSON parsing does
not make it easy to parse json with arbitrary keys into objects. This is
because each key corresponds to an object property, like `property name
: String`. If Crystal doesn't know the keys ahead of time, there's no
way to know what methods to create.
That's a problem here because the key for each gist file is the unique
filename. Fortunately, the keys for each _file_ follows the same pattern
and are easy to parse into a `GistFile` object. To turn gist file JSON
into Crystal objects, the `GithubClient` turns the whole response into a
`JSON::Any` which is like a Hash. Then it extracts just the file data
objects and parses those into `GistFile` objects.
Those `GistFile` objects are then cached in a `GistStore` that is shared
for the page, which means one gist cache per request/article. `GistFile`
objects can be fetched out of the store by file, or if no file is
specified, it returns all files in the gist.
The GistFile is rendered as a link of the file's name to the file in
the gist on GitHub, and then a code block of the contents of the file.
In summary, the `PageConverter`:
* Scans the paragraphs for GitHub gists using `GistScanner`
* Requests their data from GitHub using the `GithubClient`
* Parses the response into `GistFile`s and populates the `GistStore`
* Passes that `GistStore` to the `ParagraphConverter` to use when
constructing the page nodes
Caching
-------
GitHub limits API requests to 5000/hour with a valid api token and
60/hour without. 60 is pretty tight for the usage that scribe.rip gets,
but 5000 is reasonable most of the time. Not every article has an
embedded gist, but some articles have multiple gists. A viral article
(of which Scribe has seen two at the time of this commit) might receive
a little over 127k hits/day, which is an average of over 5300/hour. If
that article had a gist, Scribe would reach the API limit during parts
of the day with high traffic. If it had multiple gists, it would hit it
even more. However, average traffic is around 30k visits/day which would
be well under the limit, assuming average load.
To help not hit that limit, a `GistStore` holds all the `GistFile`
objects per gist. The logic in `GistScanner` is smart enough to only
return unique gist URLs so each gist is only requested once even if
multiple files from one gist exist in an article. This limits the number
of times Scribe hits the GitHub API.
If Scribe is rate-limited, instead of populating a `GistCache` the
`PageConverter` will create a `RateLimitedGistStore`. This is an object
that acts like the `GistStore` but returns `RateLimitedGistFile` objects
instead of `GistFile` objects. This allows Scribe to gracefully degrade
in the event of reaching the rate limit.
If rate-limiting becomes a regular problem, Scribe could also be
reworked to fallback to the embedded gists again.
API Credentials
---------------
API credentials are in the form of a GitHub username and a personal
access token attached to that username. To get a token, visit
https://github.com/settings/tokens and create a new token. The only
permission it needs is `gist`.
This token is set via the `GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN` environment
variable. The username also needs to be set via `GITHUB_USERNAME`. When
developing locally, these can both be set in the .env file.
Authentication is probably not necessary locally, but it's there if you
want to test. If either token is missing, unauthenticated requests are
made.
Rendering
---------
The node tree itself holds a `GithubGist` object. It has a reference to
the `GistStore` and the original gist URL. When it renders the page
requests the gist's `files`. The gist ID and optional file are detected,
and then used to request the file(s) from the `GistStore`. Gists render
as a list of each files contents and a link to the file on GitHub.
If the requests were rate limited, the store is a
`RateLimitedGistStore` and the files are `RateLimitedGistFile`s. These
rate-limited objects rendered with a link to the gist on GitHub and text
saying that Scribe has been rate-limited.
If somehow the file requested doesn't exist in the store, it displays
similarly to the rate-limited file but with "file missing" text instead
of "rate limited" text.
GitHub API docs: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/gists
Rate Limiting docs:
https://docs.github.com/en/rest/overview/resources-in-the-rest-api#rate-
limiting
The API responds with a bunch of paragraphs which the client converts
into Paragraph objects.
This turns the paragraphs in a PostResponse's Paragraph objects into the
form needed to render them on a page. This includes converting flat list
elements into list elements nested by a UL. And adding a limited markups
along the way.
The array of paragraphs is passed to a recursive function. The function
takes the first paragraph and either wraps the (marked up) contents in a
container tag (like Paragraph or Heading3), and then moves onto the next
tag. If it finds a list, it starts parsing the next paragraphs as a list
instead.
Originally, this was implemented like so:
```crystal
paragraph = paragraphs.shift
if list?
convert_list([paragraph] + paragraphs)
end
```
However, passing the `paragraphs` after adding it to the already shifted
`paragraph` creates a new object. This means `paragraphs` won't be
mutated and once the list is parsed, it starts with the next element of
the list. Instead, the element is `shift`ed inside each converter.
```crystal
if paragraphs.first == list?
convert_list(paragraphs)
end
def convert_list(paragraphs)
paragraph = paragraphs.shift
# ...
end
```
When rendering, there is an Empty and Container object. These represent
a kind of "null object" for both leafs and parent objects respectively.
They should never actually render. Emptys are filtered out, and
Containers are never created explicitly but this will make the types
pass.
IFrames are a bit of a special case. Each IFrame has custom data on it
that this system would need to be aware of. For now, instead of trying
to parse the seemingly large number of iframe variations and dealing
with embedded iframe problems, this will just keep track of the source
page URL and send the user there with a link.
Edward Loveall