Sharing Gists with Fish Shell and Python

What You Will Learn Here

In this blog post, you'll learn how to automate the process of sharing GitHub gists using a Fish shell function combined with a Python script. We'll cover:

How to fetch and manage public gists from GitHub.
How to integrate Python with shell scripting to create a user-friendly menu.
How to handle user input and clipboard operations programmatically.

Problem

Managing and sharing GitHub gists can be cumbersome if done manually. You often need to:

Fetch a list of your gists.
Identify the one you want to share.
Copy its URL to your clipboard for sharing.

This process can be tedious, especially when dealing with a large number of gists or when frequent sharing is required.

Proposed Solution

We propose a solution that automates the process using a Fish shell function and a Python script. The function will:

Fetch your public gists from GitHub using the GitHub API.
Use Python to present a menu of gists in a readable format.
Allow you to select a gist and copy its URL to the clipboard for easy sharing.

Tools Needed

To implement this solution, you'll need the following tools:

Fish Shell: For scripting and executing shell commands.
cURL: For fetching data from the GitHub API.
Python 3: For processing data and generating a user interface.
Python Libraries: pyfiglet for ASCII art, pyperclip for clipboard operations.
GitHub API Token: For authenticating requests to GitHub.

The Function

Here's the Fish shell function used to share a gist, followed by a line-by-line explanation:

# Shares a gist.
function share_gist
    # Check if the GITHUB_TOKEN variable is set
    if test -z "$GITHUB_TOKEN"
        echo "Error: GITHUB_TOKEN is not set. Please set your GitHub token as an environment variable."
        return 1
    end

    # Fetch the user's public gists using GitHub API and token authentication
    set response (curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
                        -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
                        "https://api.github.com/gists")

    # Check if response is empty or contains an error
    if test -z "$response" -o "$response" = "* Not Found *"
        echo "Error: Failed to fetch gists or no gists found."
        return 1
    end

    # Use Python to create a menu of public gists
    python3 -c "
import json
import sys
import pyfiglet
import pyperclip

def print_ascii_title(title):
    ascii_art = pyfiglet.figlet_format(title, font='slant')  # You can choose different fonts
    print(ascii_art)

response = json.loads(sys.argv[1])

# Create a dictionary with description as key and html_url as value for public gists
gist_dict = {
    i.get('description', 'No Description'): i.get('html_url', 'No URL')
    for i in response
    if i.get('public', False)
}

# Print the ASCII title
print_ascii_title('* Select Gist *')

# Print a numbered menu
if not gist_dict:
    print('No public gists available.')
    sys.exit()

for idx, (description, url) in enumerate(gist_dict.items(), start=1):
    print(f'{idx}. {description}')

# Read user input
try:
    selected_index = int(input('Enter the number of the gist to copy the URL: '))
    if selected_index < 1 or selected_index > len(gist_dict):
        print('Error: Invalid selection.')
        sys.exit()
except ValueError:
    print('Error: Invalid input. Please enter a number.')
    sys.exit()

# Get the URL of the selected gist
selected_description = list(gist_dict.keys())[selected_index - 1]
selected_url = gist_dict[selected_description]

# Copy the URL to the clipboard
pyperclip.copy(selected_url)
print(f'Selected URL copied to clipboard: {selected_url}')
" "$response"
end

Line-by-Line Explanation

Function Definition: fish function share_gist Defines a new Fish shell function named share_gist.
Check for GITHUB_TOKEN: fish if test -z "$GITHUB_TOKEN" echo "Error: GITHUB_TOKEN is not set. Please set your GitHub token as an environment variable." return 1 end Checks if the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable is set. If not, prints an error message and exits.
Fetch Gists Using cURL: fish set response (curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \ "https://api.github.com/gists") Uses cURL to fetch public gists from GitHub's API.
Check for API Errors: fish if test -z "$response" -o "$response" = "* Not Found *" echo "Error: Failed to fetch gists or no gists found." return 1 end Checks if the response is empty or contains an error message.
Python Script Execution: fish python3 -c " import json import sys import pyfiglet import pyperclip Executes a Python script to process and display the gists. It uses pyfiglet to print an ASCII title and pyperclip to copy the selected URL to the clipboard.
Generate ASCII Title: python def print_ascii_title(title): ascii_art = pyfiglet.figlet_format(title, font='slant') # You can choose different fonts print(ascii_art) Defines a function to generate and print ASCII art for the title.
Process Gist Data: python gist_dict = { i.get('description', 'No Description'): i.get('html_url', 'No URL') for i in response if i.get('public', False) } Creates a dictionary of public gists with descriptions and URLs.
Display Gist Menu: python for idx, (description, url) in enumerate(gist_dict.items(), start=1): print(f'{idx}. {description}') Prints a numbered list of gists.
Handle User Input: python selected_index = int(input('Enter the number of the gist to copy the URL: ')) Reads and validates user input for selecting a gist.
Copy URL to Clipboard: python pyperclip.copy(selected_url) print(f'Selected URL copied to clipboard: {selected_url}') Copies the selected gist URL to the clipboard and prints a confirmation message.

Conclusion

By combining Fish shell scripting with Python, you can efficiently manage and share your GitHub gists. This approach simplifies the process of interacting with the GitHub API, provides a user-friendly interface for selecting and copying gists, and integrates various tools to enhance your workflow. Automating repetitive tasks like these can save time and improve productivity, making it easier to focus on your code rather than on administrative tasks.