javascriptajaxgithub

How work with github api to retrieve a repository's readme file?

I am trying to work with github api to get access to raw README.md file using /repos/{owner}/{repo}/readme, I am able to make the call using thunderclient in vscode and seeing the raw file. enter image description here

but when I am making the same call from within my react application I am receiving a json object of this form

{
  "name": "README.md",
  "path": "README.md",
  "sha": "...",
  "size": 9,
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/anubhavadarsh/Litaci/contents/README.md?ref=master",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/anubhavadarsh/Litaci/blob/master/README.md",
  "git_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/anubhavadarsh/Litaci/git/blobs/592c92302634be24522f96f3ed6649f389f1aa0d",
  "download_url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anubhavadarsh/Litaci/master/README.md",
  "type": "file",
  "content": "IyBMaXRhY2kK\n",
  "encoding": "base64",
  "_links": {
    "self": "https://api.github.com/repos/anubhavadarsh/Litaci/contents/README.md?ref=master",
    "git": "https://api.github.com/repos/anubhavadarsh/Litaci/git/blobs/592c92302634be24522f96f3ed6649f389f1aa0d",
    "html": "https://github.com/anubhavadarsh/Litaci/blob/master/README.md"
  }
}

PS: I tried with a public repository that is not mine and I am able to get the raw readme, but my own repository still returns this.

Solution

  • According to GitHub API docs, the content of the file is returned encoded in base64. So basically you need to decode it in base64:

    1. First install the package js-base64 (run npm i js-base64)

    2. Add the following code to the file where you're doing the GET request:

    const base64 = require('js-base64').Base64;
// Some code
const contents = base64.decode(res.content);