Creating a Gist via Github's API

Other Questions Github
1

Hey everyone! I’m working on a small Adobe Air app and I need some help with the Github Gist API. I’m trying to create a new gist programmatically, but I’m running into some issues.

I’ve been using the XMLHttpRequest object for making cross-domain requests (since Adobe Air doesn’t have the same domain restrictions as regular web browsers). However, I’m hitting a wall when it comes to authentication and actually making the POST request to create the gist.

Can anyone walk me through the process of authenticating with the Github API and then creating a new gist? I’m not sure if I need to use OAuth or if there’s a simpler way to do this.

Here’s a basic example of what I’ve tried so far:

let xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('POST', 'https://api.github.com/gists', true);
xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if (xhr.readyState === 4 && xhr.status === 201) {
        console.log('Gist created successfully!');
    }
};

let gistData = {
    description: 'My new gist',
    public: true,
    files: {
        'file1.txt': {
            content: 'Hello, Gist!'
        }
    }
};

xhr.send(JSON.stringify(gistData));

But this doesn’t work because I’m not authenticated. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

2

I’ve encountered similar challenges when working with GitHub’s API. For authentication, using a personal access token is indeed the simplest approach. However, it’s crucial to handle the token securely.

In your XMLHttpRequest, you’ll need to set the ‘Authorization’ header as mentioned. Additionally, consider implementing error handling to manage potential API failures gracefully. Here’s a suggestion:

xhr.onerror = function() {
console.error(‘An error occurred during the request’);
};

Also, remember that the GitHub API has rate limits. If you’re making frequent requests, you might want to implement a mechanism to track and handle these limits to avoid unexpected failures in your Adobe Air app.

3

yo joe, i’ve done this before. u need to use a personal access token for auth. add this header to ur request:

xhr.setRequestHeader(‘Authorization’, ‘token YOUR_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN’);

get the token from github settings. make sure it has the ‘gist’ scope. that should do the trick!