React withUtterances Repo
Why use withUtterances as utterances
Lets say all your users are developers and already have a GitHub account so they don’t need to sign up for yet another 3rd party service like Disqus (which will also track their every move through the web 😈) Unlike Staticman that I am using for my Reviews, GitHub Issues are truly dynamic so new comments will show without having to wait for your site to rebuild and deploy You get access to all the features of GitHub Issues out of the box (notifications, moderation, reactions, etc.) Developers care about the appearance of their GitHub accounts, which is likely to result in better (or at least civil) discussion. It’s free and open source!
If your users are more privacy-minded then Disqus may not be the right fit. Software developers, for example, are extremely privacy conscious. As my blog is aimed at other software developers I use Utterances as a comment system. However, remember that your readers will need a GitHub account to leave a comment using Utterances so if your target audience do not work (or play!) within the tech industry this will not be the comment system for you.
React withUtterances
Utterances Utterances
❤️ WithUtterances is a React Higher-Order-Component for Super LightWeight Comments Widget named Utterances.
No need Duplicated DOM Bindings for each react component
Just Wrap It
import withUtterances from 'with-utterances'
- Wrap your react component
- Pass your repo as a String
- Done!
Installation
npm i with-utterances
yarn add with-utterances
Usage
import withUtterances
to the file which has component that you want to show utterances comment widget.
import withUtterances from 'with-utterances'
class PostPage extends React.Component {
//...
}
// Or
const PostPage = () => {
//...
}
export default withUtterances(PostPage, 'YOUR_REPO')
// Or to specify a theme
export default withUtterances(PostPage, 'YOUR_REPO', 'github-dark')
// Or to specfiy an issue term
export default withUtterances(PostPage, 'YOUR_REPO', 'github-light', 'og:title')
It uses your pathname as issue-term
.
Supported Themes
By default Utterances comes with two choices for themes:
github-light
- The normal GitHub stylegithub-dark
- A dark mode in the style of GitHub
More themes can be added with additional stylesheets.
Supported Issue Terms
pathname
- Issue title which contains the path of the current page.url
- Issue title which contains the URL of the current page.title
- Issue title which contains the tab title of the current page.og:title
- Issue title which contains the Open Graph title meta.<serach term>
- Issue title which contains the given String.
PS. preload and prefetch Applied
It will make your Utterances Widget to load slightly faster. <3
PS. DEMO SITE
My withUtterances react Component
Using GitHub pages dark theme. From the SEO component, 'og:title', to set the comment to a specific page. And this component with the specific meta-tags can be used, 'anywhere', not just posts!
import React from 'react'
import withUtterances from 'with-utterances'
class Comments extends React.Component {
render () {
return (
<div>
<withUtterances />
</div>
)
}
}
export default withUtterances(Comments, 'donaldboulton/publiuslogic', 'github-dark', 'og:title')
Or not using withUtterances npm module
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react'
import styled from 'styled-components'
const Container = styled.div`
min-height: 250px;
`
const Comments = ({ title }) => {
let container = useRef()
useEffect(() => {
if (!container.current) return
const config = {
src: 'https://utteranc.es/client.js',
repo: 'donaldboulton/publiuslogic',
label: 'comments',
'issue-term': title,
theme: 'github-dark',
async: true,
crossorigin: 'anonymous',
}
const script = document.createElement('script')
Object.keys(config).forEach(key => {
script.setAttribute(key, config[key])
})
const params = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search)
// If the 'commenting' URL param is present then scroll to the comments
if (params.has('commenting')) {
const commentsScroll = container.current.getBoundingClientRect().top
const scroll = commentsScroll + window.innerHeight
window.scroll(0, scroll)
}
// Briefly set the 'commenting' URL param while the utterances script is created
// This ensures the script is initialized with the correct redirect_uri for GitHub OAuth
params.set('commenting', true)
const redirectUrl = `${window.location.pathname}?${params.toString()}`
window.history.replaceState(null, '', redirectUrl)
// Append the Utterances script to the container
while (container.current.firstChild) container.current.firstChild.remove()
container.current.appendChild(script)
// Once the script has loaded remove the 'commenting' URL param again
script.onload = () => {
params.delete('commenting')
const search = params.toString()
const originalUrl = window.location.pathname + (search && `?${search}`)
window.history.replaceState(null, '', originalUrl)
}
}, [container.current, title])
return <Container ref={container} />
}
export default Comments
Issues total count button
You could add a issues total count button which links to your repo page issues.
Using react-github-btn
Then you can go to Button github.io to configure your buttons.
My new trick to get around window or .document module errors, which this 'react-github-btn' is an offending npm module is to...
First call the offending Module
import GitHubButton from 'react-github-btn'
Then tell React that, window !== undefined
.
// eslint-disable-next-line valid-typeof
if (typeof window !== undefined) { require('react-github-btn') }
The Component for the issues button
import React, { PureComponent } from 'react'
import GitHubButton from 'react-github-btn'
// eslint-disable-next-line valid-typeof
if (typeof window !== undefined) { require('react-github-btn') }
class GitHubIssues extends PureComponent {
render () {
return (
<GitHubButton href='https://github.com/donaldboulton/publiuslogic/issues'
data-size='large'
data-show-count='true'
aria-label='Issue donaldboulton/publiuslogic on GitHub'>
Issue
</GitHubButton>
)
}
}
export default GitHubIssues
If you are a developer and use React this is a cool and logical way to have comments.
In my next post I will tie this component to Google Analytics as GitHub Issues.