React GitHub Comments Utterances

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 style
github-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

Demo Using withUtterance

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!

react

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

non

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

react

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