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DataLogix

datalogix

Image by: Sébastien Thibault Data brokers’ millions of dollars in lobbying spending in 2020 rivaled that of some Big Tech firms By Alfred Ng and Maddy Varner The data brokers who’ve made fortunes from collecting and sharing millions of people’s personal information tend to fly under the radar. Names like LiveRamp or RELX might not be familiar to most Americans, but they’re making themselves known on Capitol Hill. Collectively, data broker spending on lobbying in 2020 rivaled the spending of individual Big Tech firms like Facebook and Google. The Markup searched lobbying disclosures in the U.S. Senate’s database and the watchdog Center for Responsive Politics’ tool for the names of companies that registered as data brokers in or . Those states are the only two that require companies to annually disclose that they collect, sell, or share people’s personal information without having a direct relationship to them. Lobbying Disclosure Act OpenSecrets Vermont California All in all, we found 25 companies whose combined spending on federal lobbying totaled $29 million in 2020. Many of the top spenders were not pure data brokers but companies that nonetheless have massive data operations. Oracle, which has spent the past decade acquiring companies that collect data, spent the most by far, with disclosure documents showing $9,570,000 spent on federal lobbying. For comparison, of the Big Tech firms with heavy lobbying presences, Facebook spent $19,680,000, Amazon $18,725,000, and Google $8,850,000 in the same period, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, found that Big Tech spent . $108 million collectively on lobbying in 2020 Oracle has its own data collection arm but has also built its portfolio by buying up companies like , Compendium, and Crosswise. The companies, which were acquired in 2012, 2013, and 2016, respectively, take data from a variety of sources. DataRaker gets data from millions of smart meters and sensors for utilities companies, while Compendium delivers targeted ads. Crosswise allows Oracle to track people across devices, claiming to process data from billions of devices every month. DataRaker Oracle also acquired , in 2014, which connected offline purchases to online profiles. Additionally, Oracle combines datasets from more than 75 other data brokers, which it calls “the world’s largest collection of third-party data.” Datalogix Our report comes as the data broker industry is not only growing but also facing scrutiny for the first time. California recently passed a statewide privacy law that establishes an agency focused on regulating data privacy issues. Virginia and Maine have also passed regulations to protect people’s online information. California’s and Virginia’s privacy laws hit at the core of what data brokers do by requiring companies to delete data collected about people upon request and allowing people to prevent their personal information from being used for targeted advertising. Maine’s privacy law prevents internet service providers from sharing personal information with data brokers until people give “express, affirmative consent.” And the past year also saw concerns raised about how well these brokers protect their massive troves of data—Oracle, for instance, after security researchers found were left exposed on a server. suffered a data breach billions of records from its BlueKai data collection The Markup contacted all 25 companies for comment on their lobbying activities. Several companies, like Inmar Intelligence and LiveRamp denied being data brokers, though they had self-identified as such to California and/or Vermont regulators. “Inmar Intelligence does not generally consider itself a data broker though one of our entities, Inmar-OIQ, LLC, is registered as such in a couple of states,” Holly Pavlika, a corporate marketing senior vice president for Inmar Intelligence, said. The industry itself is hard to define—many companies, including tech giants, make money off of personal data, though the technical details of how they use that data vary. So The Markup relied on companies that self-reported to and as members of the industry. The list, 480 companies long, shows just how pervasive it has become for companies to traffic in personal information. Vermont California The list includes businesses that are primarily data brokers, like CoreLogic, which claims to have collected data on 99 percent of property and homeowners in the U.S. and spent $215,000 on lobbying in 2020; and Acxiom, which spent $360,000 on lobbying in 2020 for issues related to data security and privacy. Acxiom’s InfoBase boasts of datasets on more than 250 million people and collects information including location data, purchases, interests, life events, and behaviors, according to its marketing material. Our list also includes credit monitoring services like TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, which each spent about $1.4 million lobbying in 2020 on issues related to credit score reform, like the of 2020, the Credit Access and Inclusion Act of 2019, and the of 2019. TransUnion also owns subsidiaries like Callcredit, Iovation, and Signal, which has been used for collecting and profiling users for gambling apps, . Protecting Your Credit Score Act Clarity in Credit Score Formation Act according to The New York Times Notably, our tally also does not include lobbying by trade associations that data brokers are a part of, such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Digital Advertising Alliance. Of the data brokers who spent the most on lobbying, Oracle far outspent its peers Oracle, the biggest spender, used lobbyists to advocate on issues like annual defense and intelligence budgets and “competition and antitrust in the mobile telecommunications and digital advertising industries,” according to . public records The company didn’t respond to requests for comment. The second largest spender was Accenture—a technology and consulting company that boasts a marketing and analytics branch called . According to its , the company can combine datasets from sources including people’s purchase history and location to help its clients build customer profiles for advertising. Accenture Interactive marketing materials In 2020, the company spent $3,250,000 lobbying on issues like artificial intelligence, the , and COVID-19 contact tracing, according to public records. Digital Dollar When The Markup reached out to Accenture, the company pointed us to two statements CEO Julie Sweet made on data privacy legislation in 2018. The statements called for a federal privacy law that would preempt state laws. PricewaterhouseCoopers, a major accounting firm, spent $2,820,000 lobbying the federal government in 2020, third most among registered data brokers. The total amount 25 data brokers spent on federal lobbying in 2020. $29M PWC collects data from advertising networks and data analytics partners including personal information like names and addresses, which it uses to help clients personalize advertising campaigns, . according to the company’s privacy statement Spending went to monitoring privacy legislation and accounting and auditing issues. PWC didn’t respond to a request for comment. Other big spenders included Deloitte, which was awarded a $106 million contract to build a development environment for the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center this summer. The company spent $2,400,000 on federal lobbying in 2020, including on bills like the and the . Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence in Government Act Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act Deloitte is an auditing and advisory company but provides services like , which uses information including people’s hobbies, interests, and financial data to generate a health risk prediction score and help life insurance companies figure out how likely people are to buy their products. PredictRisk provided by data brokers And RELX, which spent $2,375,000 on federal lobbying in 2020, including on data privacy bills like the , the , and the ; and on bills related to data privacy and COVID-19, including the and the . Data Accountability and Trust Act Information Transparency & Personal Data Control Act Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act Covid-19 Consumer Data Protection Act Exposure Notification Privacy Act RELX is a major data broker that owns companies like LexisNexis and ThreatMetrix, which has customers in law enforcement, insurance, and financial services. ThreatMetrix alone boasts tracking on 4.5 billion devices, from RELX in 2018. according to a statement Deloitte and RELX didn’t respond to a request for comment. In addition, many other data brokers spent lower amounts on lobbying efforts An Industry Increasingly Under Fire Some of the bills targeted by lobbyists would have regulated the data broker industry, though disclosures do not specify whether they lobbied for or against the bills. The Data Accountability and Trust Act looked to establish security standards and require postbreach audits for data brokers and also prohibit collecting information under false pretenses. The Information Transparency & Personal Data Control Act would have required data brokers to get consent to collect sensitive data and go through an annual privacy audit. The Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act of 2020 wanted to mandate opt-outs from data brokers and for the FTC to create a national list of data brokers. While lobbying records don’t always list specific bills, filings show that RELX paid lobbyists to address all three bills. Deloitte records show that some of its lobbying efforts went toward addressing the Data Accountability and Trust Act. Both COVID-19 data privacy bills looked to provide stronger controls over data related to contact tracing. None of the bills named in this story passed Congress, except for the National Defense Authorization Act, which was enacted. Some of the companies that showed up in lobbying records faced other sorts of pressure during 2020. For instance, Apple and Google from their app stores last December following a series of reports from on how the location data broker was providing information to contractors who passed that information to the U.S. military. X-Mode spent $30,000 on lobbying in the last quarter of 2020, during the height of the public pressure. banned X-Mode’s trackers Motherboard Both and , another location data broker, which spent $160,000 on lobbying, are facing scrutiny from Congress over their location data sales. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon who signed on to , called the data broker industry “out of control,” in a statement to The Markup. X-Mode Venntel a letter calling for an investigation on Venntel “Americans are learning more every day about the secretive and shady data broker industry and they’re demanding new laws to protect our privacy,” Wyden said in the email to The Markup. “It’s no surprise data brokers are trying every avenue they can think of to ward off the common sense protections Americans desperately need.” -Sen. Ron Wyden X-Mode and Venntel didn’t respond to a request for comment. Some companies said they were lobbying to have a voice on legislation, including potential federal laws on privacy. “With increased momentum, attention and legislative activity in multiple states, we support a federal data privacy law that can rebalance the system and set standards that rebuild trust with the people providing the data—consumers,” Christine Travis, a senior communications director for LiveRamp, said in an email. “A federal approach to data privacy and security is better than a patchwork of state laws for all stakeholders.” When somebody shows up on the lobbying records, it just tells me they see a real threat to their business model. -Hayley Tsukayama, Electronic Frontier Foundation LiveRamp was the top lobbying spender among companies whose for advertising purposes. The company, which connects people’s activity across the web and from offline purchases for advertisers, spent $630,000 on lobbying in 2020 on issues such as the and Privacy Shield. primary focus is collecting data Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act Privacy Shield was a framework for transferring data between the European Union and the U.S. but was declared . invalid last July for failing to meet the EU’s privacy regulations Travis denied that LiveRamp is a data broker despite being listed on , insisting instead that the company is a “data connectivity platform.” California’s data broker registry Experts said scrutiny and oversight is fairly new to the data broker industry. “When somebody shows up on the lobbying records, or in meetings or in trade associations, it just tells me they’ve probably recently woken up to this issue and they see a real threat to their business model by privacy regulations,” Hayley Tsukayama, a legislative activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said. Others, however, said Congress is not doing nearly enough to regulate the unwieldy industry. “What is widely understood now in Congress and among independent agencies like the FTC are the ways in which large tech companies like Facebook and Google are extracting data from consumers and using that to monopolize markets like the advertising industry,” Jane Chung, a Big Tech accountability advocate at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said. “What a lot of people don’t understand is how data brokers fit into that ecosystem.” Originally published as " “ with the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license The Little-Known Data Broker Industry Is Spending Big Bucks LobbyingCongress

Who are the Data Brokers Spending Big Bucks to Lobby Congress?

TLdR What social good do Cryptocurrencies serve? They enable us to store and trade our personal data using decentralized applications. With no corruptible middlemen to lose or abuse our data, we are free to use it to fuel Artificial Intelligence for humanity’s benefit. Silence Congressman Sherman demanded the answer to a simple question: “Is there some great social purpose, that cannot be met in any other way?” Why should we put up with the fraud, the money laundering, the rampant speculation. Why is it worth it? Faced with the congressman’s question, the assembled panelists at the Financial Services Committee hearing sat in silence. I’ve watched the scene several times and everytime I think to myself: What a missed opportunity! Why didn’t they have an answer at the ready? Why did they just sit there? I think I would have answered the Congressman’s question with another question: How else can you build a Company where no one is in charge? The Corporation Many people cite the Internet when comparing Cryptocurrencies to previous innovations, but a better comparison is the Corporation. In , Niall Ferguson writes about the Corporation: Ascent of Money Looking at the Andes, it is hard to imagine that any kind of human organization could overcome such a vast natural barrier. But for one American company, their jagged peaks were no more daunting than the dense Amazonian rainforests that lie to the east of them. That company set out to construct a gas pipeline from Bolivia across the continent to the Atlantic coast of Brazil, and another — the longest in the world — from the tip of Patagonia to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. Such grand schemes, exemplifying the vaulting ambition of modern capitalism, were made possible by the invention of one of the most fundamental institutions of the modern world: the company. It is the company that enables thousands of individuals to pool their resources for risky, long-term projects that require the investment of vast sums of capital before profits can be realized. The company allows a large network of people to organize themselves by submitting control of their resources to the company’s corporate leadership. This new economic organization quickly grew to rival and exceed the State in the size and scope of its economic achievements. Unlike the State, the Corporation was a network one joined willingly, through investment or employment; this enabled it to draw resources from anywhere in the world. Unlike the State, the Corporation deployed resources in response to the Market price of its products and shares instead of the directives of fallible central planners. In a final face-off, the corporate economy of the United States simply out-produced the state-run economy of the Soviet Union, driving it into collapse like a persistence hunter running his prey to exhaustion. But both the State and the Corporation have a fatal flaw: centralized governance and operations. The Chief Executive Officer often reigns over a vast technical and security infrastructure, which houses financial and intellectual assets accrued by the Company over the course of its operations. Inevitably, this includes everything there is to know about its customers. Surveillance Capitalism Surveillance Capitalism is when companies collect any and all information they can about their customers so they can more effectively advertise to them. Companies like Google and Facebook provide a free service to consumers to harvest their personal data and then use it to power dead-accurate advertising to their real customers: businesses selling products. Everytime we use a “free” online service we are actually buying it with information about ourselves. An interesting implication of this is that, just by existing, you are generating a valuable resource: personal data. For example, Facebook might want to predict which ad to show in your news feed given that it knows you recently bought a can of paint. Should Facebook show an ad for a cheap paintbrush, or an expensive chandelier? Which are you likely to click on so Facebook can charge more for its targeted ads? Well, where was your last vacation and what hotel did you stay at? Which restaurant did you go to recently? By knowing these things about you and seeing what people like you clicked in the past, Facebook can predict what you will do. The more people it knows about, and the more things it knows about those people, the better its predictions will be. The amount of data Facebook collects is directly proportional to the amount of money it makes, because the amount of data it collects is directly proportional to how good Facebook’s AI algorithms are. The Perfect AI Artificial Intelligence is not only about advertising, it has massive benefits for consumers, which is why we willingly submit ourselves to a level of surveillance that Adolf Stalin could only dream of. The same technology, which is so good at predicting the brand of cereal to advertise to you, is also great at figuring out that you want to go see a movie when you type “get out” into a search engine. It’s the same tech that powers speech recognition so that Siri can translate the noises coming out of your face-hole into something useful like requesting an Uber. The same tech will chauffeur you around in that Uber without a driver, relieving you of performing the most dangerous activity any of us do on any particular day. AI will enhance all aspects of our economic system and all of it will run on data, Data, DATA. The reason data is such a valuable resource is because of the way that Artificial Intelligence works. All AI algorithms make predictions about the future based on patterns learned from digesting vast amounts of relevant historical data. Consider how AI diagnoses lung cancer using x-ray images. An AI model is trained by processing hundreds of thousands of x-ray images each labeled with the correct diagnosis. The model learns that when particular pixels, or groups of pixels, are a certain level of darkness, then this implies the presence of a tumor with some level of probability. When a new image arrives with no label, the model runs all the pixel values through the model it has learned and assigns a probability that the x-ray contains a tumor. The more examples an AI model has trained on the better its predictions will be. The Perfect AI algorithm would need to have seen everything to make the best possible prediction. Because of this, Corporations are in a data arms race, and your privacy is the collateral damage. Costs of Centralization All of the smart devices in your home log data back to the servers of their manufacturer. Your Amazon Echo records your commands, your Nest thermostat records the temperature at your house. Your self-driving car records everywhere you drive. All of this data is needed to improve the product, but at the cost of your privacy. Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress that Facebook collects data about people that aren’t even Facebook users and until recently Facebook bought financial data about you from data brokers like Datalogix, which collects financial information about consumers. The more data the more profit. Another such broker of financial data is Equifax. They were hacked allowing information that can be used to impersonate the identity of millions of Americans out into the wild. The question then becomes: How can we get the best movie recommendations, and see the most relevant advertisements without every detail of our lives being stored in poorly secured data warehouses that are constantly at risk of being hacked. How can we harness the benefits of smart homes, self-driving cars, and intelligent assistants without a handful of fallible CEOs peering into every relationship we have, every purchase we make, and every book we read and as a result wielding enormous power over us? Must we choose between our privacy and our convenience? Must we give up our digital sovereignty so we can wield the sum of human knowledge for our benefit? Trust Minimization Cryptocurrencies’ primary innovation is the decentralized digital ledger. It allows an arbitrary network of people (through their computers) to maintain and secure a written record without having to know or trust each other. These participants are rewarded for contributing to the network by the automatic issuance of a digital currency. This currency is written into existence on the very same ledger the network secures. The consequence of this is that large groups of people can pursue a shared cause using the ledger to coordinate amongst each other. This is analogous to a Corporation which directs the efforts of a large number of people and resources, but, in the case of a cryptocurrency, there is no trust required for a central authority like a Chief Executive Officer. Not having a Dear Leader poses some challenges and various governance models are being experimented within the cryptocurrency community, however there are some very important advantages:Network functions and governance models are implemented through open source code, auditable by anyone who can read it, automating away a lot of politics and uncertainty.The ledger, which keeps track of network participants’ contributions, is immutable and therefore impervious to political manipulation.The data in the ledger is cryptographically secured by default so it cannot be hacked and provides various levels of pseudonymity or anonymity. No central point of control means it is difficult for external forces to shut down the network, making it resilient against outside influence. These features make it practical to launch decentralized versions of your favorite applications also known as dApps. dApps greatly reduce the costs of centralization. One of the most impactful uses of dApps can be to harness the world’s data to train powerful AI algorithms without incurring the costs of centralization described above. AI is a compelling use case for cryptocurrencies because at its best it needs to know everything about you, and it is dangerous to concede this personal data to a handful of executives, as we blindly do today. The Decentralized AI Future Let’s run through an example of how it might work. Let’s say I want to build an application that recommends books for you to read. To make the most relevant recommendations the AI algorithm needs as much information as possible. Everything you’ve ever read before, and how much you liked it, everywhere you’ve been, the movies, shows, and plays you’ve seen and enjoyed, your political orientation, etc. Today this data is collected by a few companies and then sold, or rented out, to the highest bidder to manipulate you into buying products or electing politicians. A superior approach would be to install audited, open source software to spy on yourself. Instead of sending your personal data to a Corporation, the software would encrypt it and track it on a decentralized network. Interested companies would bid on your anonymized data using the network’s native coin: DataCoin. DataCoin would be traded against other currencies, including the US dollar, on the open market; DataCoin’s value would reflect the value that your personal data has to the Companies bidding for it. The DataCoin software would encrypt your personal data and splinter it across thousands of servers, so no single computer could be exploited by hackers. The software would aggregate the data, so as not to reveal your identity to the Companies using it. The DataCoin network will remove Facebook and Google as intermediaries and allow you to profit from trading your personal data directly to the Companies building AI algorithms for product recommendations, medical diagnosis, self-driving cars. Even advertisers who wish to monopolize your consciousness can do so by paying you a fee for the privilege. Facebook and Google might then become services that users pay for, using the money they earned through the DataCoin network. Users would then be served as customers, instead of harvested as a commodity. The Social Good The data arms-race is happening because the entities who control the most data will have the smartest AIs, make the best decisions, and have the most power. The power of AI is the power to predict the future. Power corrupts. In 2006, mathematician Clive Humby declared: “Data is the new Oil.” Imagine if the energy needs of the industrial revolution were met not by the Oil companies but by peers, you and me, willingly participating in an open network to do the work of providing energy and being compensated for our efforts. How would the world be different? Would there be as many wars? As much pollution? Cryptocurrencies’ social good is the ability to decentralize the large-scale endeavors of man, so that we may benefit from them without empowering a new generation of tyrants. AI is only one application used to demonstrate this concept. There are many other applications conceived of already, and ones that we haven’t been able to fathom yet. Anytime there is a valuable resource which needs to be harnessed, without having to rely on a middleman, a cryptocurrency can be deployed. Think unused computer storage which can be shared among everyone without having to trust a company not to access your files. Think sharing idle internet bandwidth so that an Internet Service Providers can’t censor or throttle content. Think sharing your idle solar electricity so everyone pays lower prices and becomes less dependent on our aging power infrastructure. Still Silent Maybe the most powerful application of cryptocurrencies is the decentralization of money. The same innovations which allow us to cut out the middleman from many of the described use cases will work to limit the role of governments and banks in the creation, distribution, and control of money. So maybe, when the Congressman asked the panel what the social good that cryptocurrencies provided was, they didn’t have the nerve to tell him to his face that the social good was to limit his power… but that’s a story for another time. Please sign up for our newsletter below, if you’d like to hear it. by @metamitya Originally published at cryptograf.io on April 16, 2018.

Crypto, Ai, and the Social Good

Long before Facebook, your personal information was bought and sold, just less effectively “Two CCTV cameras on a gray wall” by on Scott Webb Unsplash What did you think was happening? Here is the truth about our personal data, it’s everywhere, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. Data collection and data sharing have long been apart of our lives. We agreed to Facebook’s terms of service; we joined the loyalty programs, we spent our days posting and sharing our likes and dislikes online. We gave up freedom long ago, and we did so willingly. Loyalty programs were the first big step. Points for things? The occasional discount? We signed up in droves. We also ignored the small type saying that the information, the data, they collect from our usage of said card doesn’t belong to us. Who amongst us doesn’t have a credit card? Hard to get by without one these days. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express all collect and sell your demographic and purchase data. We love our social platforms and mobile apps. Every web service you use that is free has and exists to . Twitter, , Instagram, Reddit and every inch of are advertising businesses wrapped in platform services. made you the product give your data to other companies Facebook Google Even when you’re protective of your privacy, minimizing your exposure on social media, or using alternatives to Google, you still live in a world of constant data collection. Ever hear of Acxiom, Datalogix, eBureau, CoreLogic, PeekYou, or Rapleaf. They’re all data brokers, and I guarantee they know almost as much, if not more about you than Google or Facebook. Data brokers collect information about your subscriptions from magazine publishers and newspapers; they know whether you prefer dogs or cats by skimming purchase history from pet supply chains. From public records, they can tell what kind of car you drive or if you’ve declared bankruptcy. Funny, just as I was searching for information, I found this exact headline: https://qz.com/213900/the-nine-companies-that-know-more-about-you-than-google-or-facebook/ If you want to freak out over data collection and it’s usage against us, search the name Palantir and read what comes up about Predictive policing and their other government initiatives. What Facebook is guilty of, and this hasn’t been allowed since 2015, is of building a better mousetrap when it comes to data accessibility. They made it easy, too easy to get access to massive data sets and Cambridge Analytica took advantage. Cambridge Analytica used Facebook. They exploited the system. While Facebook has a lot of work to do when it comes to transparency, protecting users and having a soul, they are not responsible for what happened next. Cambridge Analytica took what everyone else is doing to sell us more crap, then…well…they sold us more crap. They used the power of data and machine learning to craft and optimize messaging ( targeted but at scale ) to sway the opinions of poor, uneducated white men ( others too, but this was the prime demographic they had the most effect on ). Only a mouth breather would see the ads Cambridge Analytica were propagating, then look at a future with Donald Trump and think, yep that’s the way to go. It’s going to come out that all the major, digital media platforms were used to spread Cambridge Analytica’s messaging, so will we be dragging them in front of congress as well? Of course we shouldn’t and i’m not sure we should do much about any of this, from a government or regulatory perspective. Cambridge Analytica should be punished for stealing user data: they’re guilty of that. But we can’t punish them for using machine learning to test the efficiency of messaging simply because their end result was Donald Trump? We also can’t put the pyschographic profiling genie back in the bottle either, Cambridge Analytica aren’t the first group to use this kind of targeting, and they most definitely won’t be the last. Would we blame Nike for using these same tactics to sell us shoes? Because they are. As I’ve been reading up on this “scandal”, there seem to be two schools of thought; either we are easily manipulated and are fucked, or we actually aren’t that malleable ( especially when it comes to our political leanings ) and this is overblown. Quite frankly I don’t know which of those ideas I believe more. What I do know is that we’re in an age of broad reach, more effective messaging and political polarization. None of which is going away, nor is easily solved for. What I do know is that rhetoric and pitchforks don’t help us. So how about less knee jerk and more deep thought? In the short term, what we do need is more transparency and to better educate ourselves as to what we’re seeing and where it comes from. For consumers: Understand that what you see online, from anyone other than your immediate friends and family, is trying to sell you something. There is nothing wrong with that if you understand the transactional nature of the relationship and proceed accordingly. You wouldn’t listen to some random stranger on the street telling you to do almost anything, so why would you do it online? Do the research, track down sources, get a bunch of opinions and then most important of all…think for yourself and make decisions that are best for you, your family and your needs. For Facebook ( and all digital platforms ): Be up front. Tell us what you are doing. Tell us in big, bright, accessible language. Protect your users first. Your business models are predicated on being able to help sell us stuff, that’s fine, but put in the work to verify that both you and your “trusted” partners aren’t taking advantage of people. Here’s a hint, if companies think they can get away with something, they’ll probably try it, so be diligent. Commerce is one thing, but democracy is something altogether more important. If that means far stricter regulations on spending for political groups or political messaging, then so be it. These groups are crafty, so when they are caught trying to circumvent the system, make the punishment harsh.

You’ve always been the product

Hello everyone. In this project, we are going to build a GitHub user search app using Github API. We will design the UI of the app using Tailwind CSS, with Next.js as a framework. We will use Github API to pull profile data and display it. Here is the image of the application that we are going to build: This is a challenge, and our goal is to make this design as close as possible to the given design. frontendmentor.io It will be fully responsive, and also have unctionality. dark mode f Demo Link of the Project Github Link of the Project So let's start building 🚀 : Create a Next.js app with tailwind CSS: npx create-next-app my-project // without Tailwind CSS installed
or
npx create-next-app -e with-tailwindcss my-project //with Tailwind CSS Install the necessary npm packages: Install @heroicons/react. Install next-themes. npm install next-themes @heroicons/react To Create the Components and Add the Dark Mode Functionality First of all, create a folder in the root of the directory and add these files: components Avatar.js Loading.js Logo.js Navbar.js GithubUser.js SearchBar.js UserBio.js UserData.js UserProfile.js UserStats.js Don’t be worried about seeing so many components, I have purposely created these components so that it will be easy for you to manage the code. One important point before that, open the _app.js file inside the pages directory, and add the following code: Inside _app.js: import 'tailwindcss/tailwind.css'
import '../styles/globals.css'
import { ThemeProvider } from 'next-themes'

function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return (
    <ThemeProvider attribute="class">
      <Component {...pageProps} />
    </ThemeProvider>
  )
}

export default MyApp Then, open the file, and add the Key with the value of like this: tailwind.config.js darkMode class Inside tailwind.config.js: module.exports = {
  content: [
    './pages/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}',
    './components/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}',
  ],
  theme: {
    extend: {
      animation: {
        wiggle: 'wiggle 1s ease-in-out ',
        wiggle_reverse:'wiggle_reverse 0.3s ease-in'
      },

      keyframes: {
        wiggle: {
          '0%, 100%': { transform: 'rotate(-60deg)' },
          '50%': { transform: 'rotate(60deg)' },
        },
        wiggle_reverse:{
          '0%': { transform: 'rotate(90deg)' },
          '100%': { transform: 'rotate(0deg)' },
        }
      }
    },
  },
  darkMode:"class",
  plugins: [],
} And then file, and add the domains for the images like this: next.config.js Inside next.config.js: /** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
module.exports = {
  images: {
    domains:["nextjsdev.com","avatars.githubusercontent.com"]
},
  reactStrictMode: true,
} I have added two custom animations that I am using in this application. Now, paste this code one by one in each component: Inside Avatar.js: import Image from "next/image";
import Vercel from "../public/vercel.svg"
const Avatar = ({imageURL}) => {
  return (
    <div className=" w-[120px] h-[120px] ml-8 ring-[5px] ring-[#3b52d4] dark:ring-[#053bff] rounded-full ">
    {imageURL ? (
      <Image 
        src={imageURL ? imageURL : Vercel}
        width="120"
        height="120"
        objectFit="cover"
        className="rounded-full "
    />
    ): (
      <p className="text-lg font-bold font-mono text-center pt-8 text-gray-800 dark:text-gray-200">No Image Found</p>
    )

    }
    </div>
  )
}

export default Avatar Inside Loading.js: export const Loading = () => {
  return (
    <div className=" w-28 mx-auto mt-40">
     <svg className="animate-spin -ml-1 mr-3 h-10 w-10 text-blue-500" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24">
        <circle className="opacity-25" cx="12" cy="12" r="10" stroke="currentColor" strokeWidth="4"></circle>
        <path className="opacity-75" fill="currentColor" d="M4 12a8 8 0 018-8V0C5.373 0 0 5.373 0 12h4zm2 5.291A7.962 7.962 0 014 12H0c0 3.042 1.135 5.824 3 7.938l3-2.647z"></path>
      </svg>
    </div>
  )
} Inside Logo.js: import Link from 'next/link'

const Logo = () => {
  return (
    <Link href="/">
      <div className="p-3 rounded-xl cursor-pointer">
        <p className="font-mono text-xl font-semibold text-gray-800 dark:text-gray-50 md:text-xl lg:text-2xl">
          devfinder
        </p>
      </div>
    </Link>
  )
}

export default Logo Inside Navbar.js: import { SunIcon } from '@heroicons/react/outline'
import { MoonIcon } from '@heroicons/react/solid'
import Logo from './Logo'
import { useTheme } from 'next-themes'
import { useState, useEffect } from 'react'

const Navbar = () => {
  const { systemTheme, theme, setTheme } = useTheme();

  const [mounted, setMounted] = useState(false);

  useEffect(() => {
    setMounted(true);
  }, [])

  const renderThemeChanger = () => {
    const currentTheme = theme === 'system' ? systemTheme : theme
    if (!mounted) return null;

    if (currentTheme === 'dark') {
      return (
        <div className="flex cursor-pointer items-center ">
          <h2 className="text-md font-mono font-semibold uppercase tracking-wider dark:text-gray-50">
            Light
            <SunIcon
              className="ml-1 inline-block h-8 w-8 text-amber-400 animate-wiggle "
              onClick={() => setTheme('light')}
            />
          </h2>
        </div>
      )
    } else {
      return (
        <div className="flex cursor-pointer items-center">
          <h2 className="text-md font-mono font-semibold uppercase tracking-wider text-slate-500 ">
            Dark
            <MoonIcon
              className="ml-1 inline-block h-8 w-8 text-gray-600 animate-wiggle_reverse"
              onClick={() => setTheme('dark')}
            />
          </h2>
        </div>
      )
    }
  }

  return (
    <header className="align-items mx-auto mt-4 flex max-w-md justify-between space-x-4 rounded-md p-2 md:max-w-2xl">
      <div>
        <Logo />
      </div>

      {renderThemeChanger()}
    </header>
  )
}

export default Navbar Inside GithubUser.js: import UserProfile from './UserProfile'
import UserBio from './UserBio'
import UserStats from './UserStats'
import UserData from './UserData'

const GithubUser = (props) => {
  const date = new Date(props.data.created_at)
  const newDate = date.toDateString(4, 10).slice(4, 15)

  return (
    <div className="mx-auto mt-6 flex max-w-md min-h-[470px] flex-col items-end justify-between space-y-4 rounded-lg bg-gray-200 py-6 transition duration-300 ease-in dark:bg-[#2b365e] md:min-h-fit md:max-w-2xl">
       <UserProfile
        name={props.data.name}
        date={newDate}
        username={props.data.login}
        imageURL={props.data.avatar_url}
      />

      <div className=" flex w-full md:max-w-lg flex-col space-y-6 px-6 py-3">
        <UserBio bio={props.data.bio} />
        <UserStats
          repos={props.data.public_repos}
          followers={props.data.followers}
          following={props.data.following}
        />

        <UserData
          location={props.data.location}
          twitterUsername={props.data.twitter_username}
          blog={props.data.blog}
          company={props.data.company}
        />
      </div> 
    </div>
  )
}

export default GithubUser Inside SearchBar.js: import { SearchIcon } from '@heroicons/react/outline'

const SearchBar = ({userName, handleClick , userRef}) => {

  return (
    <div className=" align-items mx-auto mt-4 flex max-w-md justify-between space-x-2 rounded-lg bg-gray-200 p-2 pb-2 transition duration-300 ease-in dark:bg-[#2b365e] md:max-w-2xl">
      <SearchIcon className="mt-3 ml-2 h-6 w-6 text-[#5176ff] dark:text-blue-600" />
      <input
        name="search"
        ref={userRef}
        placeholder="Search GitHub username....."
        className="text-md mt-1 w-[400px] rounded-md bg-gray-200 px-2 py-2 font-mono leading-6 text-slate-500 placeholder-neutral-400 transition duration-300 ease-in focus:outline-none dark:bg-[#2b365e] dark:text-gray-50 dark:placeholder-slate-500"
      />
      <button
        onClick={handleClick}
        className=" text-md mx-auto h-10 rounded-md bg-gray-50 px-4 font-mono font-medium text-blue-600 shadow-xl transition duration-300 ease-in hover:bg-blue-500 hover:text-blue-100 dark:bg-[#5176ff] dark:text-white dark:hover:bg-blue-600 "
      >
        Search
      </button>
    </div>
  )
}

export default SearchBar Inside UserBio.js: import React from 'react'

const UserBio = ({bio}) => {
  return (
    <p className="font-mono text-sm font-medium text-gray-800 dark:text-gray-300 text-center ">
          Bio-{bio === null ? 'Not Available' :bio}
    </p>
  )
}

export default UserBio Inside UserData.js: import {
    LocationMarkerIcon,
    LinkIcon,
    OfficeBuildingIcon,
  } from '@heroicons/react/solid'

const UserData = ({location, twitterUsername,blog, company}) => {
  return (
    <div className="grid grid-cols-1 gap-6 px-2 py-4 md:grid-cols-2 md:gap-x-10">
          <div className="flex items-center space-x-2 font-semibold text-white transition-colors duration-150 hover:text-blue-400">
            <LocationMarkerIcon className="h-5 w-5 text-slate-500 dark:text-gray-100" />
            <p className="font-mono text-sm font-medium text-gray-900 dark:text-gray-300">
              {location ? location : "Not Available"}
            </p>
          </div>

          <div className="flex items-center space-x-2 font-semibold text-white transition-colors duration-150 hover:text-blue-400">
            <svg
              width="20"
              height="20"
              fill="currentColor"
              className="text-sky-400 opacity-100"
            >
              <path d="M6.29 18.251c7.547 0 11.675-6.253 11.675-11.675 0-.178 0-.355-.012-.53A8.348 8.348 0 0020 3.92a8.19 8.19 0 01-2.357.646 4.118 4.118 0 001.804-2.27 8.224 8.224 0 01-2.605.996 4.107 4.107 0 00-6.993 3.743 11.65 11.65 0 01-8.457-4.287 4.106 4.106 0 001.27 5.477A4.073 4.073 0 01.8 7.713v.052a4.105 4.105 0 003.292 4.022 4.095 4.095 0 01-1.853.07 4.108 4.108 0 003.834 2.85A8.233 8.233 0 010 16.407a11.616 11.616 0 006.29 1.84"></path>
            </svg>
            <p className="font-mono text-sm font-medium text-gray-900 dark:text-gray-300">
              <a
                href={`https://twitter.com/${twitterUsername}`}
                target="_blank"
              >
                {twitterUsername ? twitterUsername : "Not Available"}
              </a>
            </p>
          </div>

          <div className="flex items-center space-x-2 font-semibold text-white transition-colors duration-150 hover:text-blue-400">
            <LinkIcon className="h-5 w-5 text-slate-500 dark:text-gray-100 " />
            <p className="decoration-3 font-sm font-mono text-sm font-medium text-gray-900 underline dark:text-gray-300">
              <a href={`https://${blog}`} target="_blank">
                {blog ? blog :"Not Available"}
              </a>
            </p>
          </div>

          <div className="flex items-center space-x-2 font-semibold text-white transition-colors duration-150 hover:text-blue-400">
            <OfficeBuildingIcon className="h-5 w-5 text-slate-500 dark:text-gray-100 " />
            <p className="font-sm font-mono text-sm font-medium text-gray-900 dark:text-gray-300">
              {company ? company : "Not Available"}
            </p>
          </div>
        </div>
  )
}

export default UserData Inside UserProfile.js: import Avatar from './Avatar'

const UserProfile = ({ name, date, username ,imageURL}) => {
  return (
    <div className=" flex w-full items-center space-x-4 md:justify-evenly md:space-x-6">
      <Avatar imageURL={imageURL} />
      <div className="flex flex-1 items-center space-x-6 px-2 md:flex-1 md:items-start md:justify-between">
        <h2 className="w-32 md:w-44 font-mono text-lg font-bold text-gray-800 dark:text-gray-50 md:text-2xl">
          {name}{' '}
          <span className="inline-block font-mono text-sm text-blue-400">
            {username && `@${username ? username :'Not Available'}`}
          </span>
        </h2>
        {username && <p className=" md:text-md -mt-2 pl-6 font-mono text-sm font-[400] text-slate-600 dark:text-gray-300 md:mt-0 md:p-6 md:pt-2">
          Joined{' '}
          <span className="flex font-mono text-xs font-semibold md:inline-block md:text-sm">
            {date ? date :"Not Available"}
          </span>
        </p>}
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}

export default UserProfile Inside UserStats.js: import React from 'react'

const UserStats = ({repos,followers ,following}) => {
  return (
    <div className=" grid grid-cols-3 gap-6 divide-x divide-gray-700 rounded-xl bg-gray-50 py-4 dark:divide-gray-50 dark:bg-[#1e253f]">
    <div className="align-items flex flex-col px-4 text-center">
      <h4 className="font-mono text-xs font-semibold text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-400 ">
        Repos
      </h4>
      <p className="font-mono text-lg font-extrabold text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-50 ">
        {repos ? repos :"Not Available"}
      </p>
    </div>

    <div className="align-items flex flex-col text-center">
      <h4 className="font-mono text-xs font-semibold text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-400 ">
        Followers
      </h4>
      <p className="font-mono text-lg font-extrabold text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-50 ">
        {followers ? followers :"Not Available"}
      </p>
    </div>

    <div className="align-items flex flex-col text-center">
      <h4 className="font-mono text-xs font-semibold text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-400 ">
        Following
      </h4>
      <p className="font-mono text-lg font-extrabold text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-50 ">
        {following? following : "Not Available"}
      </p>
    </div>
  </div>
  )
}

export default UserStats Now, open up the terminal, and start the application by running the command: npm run dev The application might be working, or it may be showing some error because we haven't completed the application yet, so don't worry about it. To fetch the Github API and Display the data Now, the final step has come. Go to inside the pages directory, delete all the code inside it, and then paste this code inside: index.js, Inside the index.js: import Head from 'next/head'
import SearchBar from '../components/SearchBar'
import Navbar from '../components/Navbar'
import GithubUser from '../components/GithubUser'
import { useState, useRef, useEffect } from 'react'
import { Loading } from '../components/Loading'

export default function Home() {
  let API = 'https://api.github.com/users/octocat'

  const userRef = useRef(null)
  const [userName, setUserName] = useState('')
  const [data, setData] = useState('')
  const [isLoading, setLoading] = useState(false)

  function handleClick() {
    setUserName(userRef.current.value)
  }
  useEffect(() => {
    setLoading(true)
    if (userName) {
      API = `https://api.github.com/users/${userName}`
    }

    fetch(API)
      .then((res) => res.json())
      .then((data) => {
        setData(data)
        setLoading(false)
      })
  }, [userName]);

  if(!data) (
  <p>No Profile data.</p>
  )

  return (
    <div className="min-h-screen bg-gray-50 py-7 dark:bg-[#1e253f]">
      <Head>
        <title>GitHub User Finder App</title>
        <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" />
      </Head>
      <Navbar />

      {isLoading ? <Loading /> :
      <>
      <SearchBar
        userName={userName}
        handleClick={handleClick}
        userRef={userRef}
      />
      <GithubUser data={data} />
      </>
      }
    </div>
  )
} After pasting the code, save the application, restart the server, and visit and you will see the application working. localhost:3000 You can type any valid GitHub and you will see the data get displayed on the front-end. username Conclusion Hope you were able to build this amazing Github User finder App for your next project. Feel free to follow me on and share this if you liked this project 😉. Twitter It took me 4-5 days to build this project, and I would appreciate ✌️ it if you could share this blog post. If you think that this was helpful, then please do consider visiting my blog website and do follow me on and connect with me on . nextjsdev.com Twitter, LinkedIn If you were stuck somewhere and were not able to find the solution, you can check out my completed here. Github Repo I will see you in my next blog ✌️. Till then take care and keep building projects. Some Useful Links: Next.js and Tailwind Installation Docs Github link for project Connect with me: Twitter Link LinkedIn link Facebook Link Github Link Also Published Here

How to Build a Github User Finder App With Next.js & Tailwind CSS

This is a step by step article on how to build a analytics tool for profiles, using . The emphasis was placed on achieving functionality quickly, therefore the end result does require further code refactoring and styling. The article is formed of two parts ( , ) and is based on the following repository. It is also hosted in this . Please note that both the repository and the website will evolve beyond these two articles. basic GitHub React Part 1 Part 2 GitHub website This articles continues from , where we built a basic page that is capable of taking a user input, using it to request data from GitHub’s API and then display the response on the web page once it has been received. Part 1 In this part we will add 3 different sections: basic information, list of most popular and starred repos and, finally, analyse most common languages of user’s own repos and generate keywords to starred repos. Lets begin by running which is necessary to adjust the date for one of the variables. Next we will need to create a new component called with the following code: npm install --save moment react-moment ProfileDetails.jsx import React from 'react';import Moment from 'react-moment'; const imgStye = {borderRadius: "50%",width: "250px",height: "250px"}; const ProfileDetails = (props) => {return (<div><div>{props.infoclean.avatar_url ?<img src={props.infoclean.avatar_url}alt="Profile"style={imgStye}/> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.name ? <div><p>Name:</p><p>{props.infoclean.name}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.bio ? <div><p>Bio:</p><p>{props.infoclean.bio}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.created_at ? <div><p>Joined:</p><p>{<Moment from={new Date()}>{props.infoclean.created_at}</Moment>}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.blog ? <div><p>Blog:</p><p><a href={props.infoclean.blog.search("http") !== -1 ? props.infoclean.blog: "http://" +  props.infoclean.blog } target="_blank">{props.infoclean.blog}</a></p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.location ? <div><p>Location:</p><p>{props.infoclean.location}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.company ? <div><p>Company:</p><p>{props.infoclean.company}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.public_repos ? <div><p>Public Repos:</p><p>{props.infoclean.public_repos}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.followers ? <div><p>Followers:</p><p>{props.infoclean.followers}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.following ? <div><p>Following:</p><p>{props.infoclean.following}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.html_url ? <div><p><a href={props.infoclean.html_url} target="_blank">View on GitHub</a></p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.login ? <div>{ <img src={" "+props.infoclean.login} alt="Github chart" />}<br/><a href=" " target="_blank">Source for GitHub Chart API</a></div> : null }</div></div>) http://ghchart.rshah.org/ https://ghchart.rshah.org/ }; export default ProfileDetails; Similarly, , will need to be imported changed accordingly. App.jsx import React, { Component } from 'react';import axios from 'axios'; import Form from './components/Form.jsx';import ProfileDetails from './components/ProfileDetails.jsx'; class App extends Component {constructor() {super();this.state = {gitun: 'No username',infoclean : '',formData: {username: '',}, }this.handleUserFormSubmit = this.handleUserFormSubmit.bind(this);this.handleFormChange= this.handleFormChange.bind(this);} handleUserFormSubmit(event) {event.preventDefault();axios.get(' ).then(response => this.setState({gitun: response.data.login,infoclean: response.data,})).catch((err) => { console.log(err); });}; https://api.github.com/users/'+this.state.formData.username handleFormChange(event) {const obj = this.state.formData;obj[event.target.name] = event.target.value;this.setState(obj);}; render() {return (<div className="App"><header className="App-header"><h1 className="App-title">GitHub Analytics</h1></header><p className="App-intro">Watch this space...</p><hr></hr><FormformData={this.state.formData}handleUserFormSubmit={this.handleUserFormSubmit}handleFormChange={this.handleFormChange}/><hr></hr>Profile Details:<ProfileDetails infoclean={this.state.infoclean}/> </div>);}} export default App; These changes allow us to pull in together various data points of the profile. Such as Name, Bio, Location, number of repos, followers and some others. Overall, the section will look something like this. Now we will begin working on the list of own and starred repositories. To do this we first create a new component called : SortedList.jsx import React from 'react';import Moment from 'react-moment'; const SortedList = (props) => {if (props.repitems) {return (<ul>{props.repitems.map((repitem) =><li key={repitem.id}><div><div><a href={repitem.html_url} target="_blank">{repitem.name}</a> || Started <Moment from={new Date()}>{repitem.created_at}</Moment></div><div><i>{repitem.description}</i></div><div>Language: {repitem.language} || Watchers: {repitem.watchers_count} || Forks: {repitem.forks_count}</div></div></li>)}</ul>)} else { return null;}}; export default SortedList; We then update accordingly: App.jsx import React, { Component } from 'react';import axios from 'axios'; import Form from './components/Form.jsx';import SortedList from './components/SortedList.jsx';import ProfileDetails from './components/ProfileDetails.jsx'; class App extends Component {constructor() {super();this.state = {gitun: 'No username',infoclean : '',formData: {username: '',},repitems: null,staritems: null, }this.handleUserFormSubmit = this.handleUserFormSubmit.bind(this);this.handleFormChange= this.handleFormChange.bind(this);} handleUserFormSubmit(event) {event.preventDefault();axios.get(' ).then(response => this.setState({gitun: response.data.login,infoclean: response.data,})).catch((err) => { console.log(err); }); https://api.github.com/users/'+this.state.formData.username axios.get(' ).then(response => this.setState({repitems : response.data.filter(({fork}) => fork === false).sort((b, a) => (a.watchers_count + a.forks_count) - (b.watchers_count + b.forks_count)).slice(0,10)})).catch((err) => { console.log(err); }); https://api.github.com/users/'+this.state.formData.username+'/repos' axios.get(' ).then(response => this.setState({staritems : response.data.filter(({fork}) => fork === false).sort((b, a) => (a.watchers_count + a.forks_count) - (b.watchers_count + b.forks_count)).slice(0,10)})).catch((err) => { console.log(err); });}; https://api.github.com/users/'+this.state.formData.username+'/starred' handleFormChange(event) {const obj = this.state.formData;obj[event.target.name] = event.target.value;this.setState(obj);}; render() {return (<div className="App"><header className="App-header"><h1 className="App-title">GitHub Analytics</h1></header><p className="App-intro">Watch this space...</p><hr></hr><FormformData={this.state.formData}handleUserFormSubmit={this.handleUserFormSubmit}handleFormChange={this.handleFormChange}/><hr></hr>Profile Details:<ProfileDetails infoclean={this.state.infoclean}/><hr></hr>Own Repositories:<SortedList repitems={this.state.repitems}/><hr></hr>Starred Repositories:<SortedList repitems={this.state.staritems}/> </div>);}} export default App; The page should now be able to show items for each of the repositories lists: Finally, we can run some basic analysis on received information for repositaries. For example, for user’s own repositaries we will count the number of repositaries for each programming language. This would be an indication of the most preferred language for each user. Similarly, we will extract the description for starred repositaries and produce a list of keywords, indicating preferred topics. This topic modelling process will be done using . Latent Dirichlet Allocation Let’s begin by running , which will install the required package. In order to allow for building process to happen, we will need to move folder in to folder. As a result, 's new path becomes . This will also allow us to import into . npm install lda --save lda node_modules src lda src/lda lda App.jsx Next we will need to create a new component. LanguageList.jsx import React from 'react'; const LanguageList = (props) => {if (props.langslist) {return (<ul>{Object.entries(props.langslist).map(([key,value]) =><li key={key}>{key} - {value}</li>)}</ul>)} else { return null;}}; export default LanguageList; Finally, we can update as follows: App.jsx import React, { Component } from 'react';import axios from 'axios'; import Form from './components/Form.jsx';import SortedList from './components/SortedList.jsx';import ProfileDetails from './components/ProfileDetails.jsx';import LanguageList from './components/LanguageList.jsx'; import lda from './lda'; class App extends Component {constructor() {super();this.state = {gitun: 'No username',infoclean : '',info: '',formData: {username: '',},repitems: null,staritems: null,replanguagecount: {},keywords: null] }this.handleUserFormSubmit = this.handleUserFormSubmit.bind(this);this.handleFormChange= this.handleFormChange.bind(this);} handleUserFormSubmit(event) {event.preventDefault();axios.get(' ).then(response => this.setState({gitun: response.data.login,infoclean: response.data,info : JSON.stringify(response.data, undefined, 2)})).catch((err) => { console.log(err); }); https://api.github.com/users/'+this.state.formData.username axios.get(' ).then(response => { https://api.github.com/users/'+this.state.formData.username+'/repos' var itemsWithFalseForks = response.data.filter(item => item.fork === false) var sortedItems = itemsWithFalseForks.sort((b,a) => {if((a.watchers_count +  a.forks_count) < (b.forks_count + b.watchers_count)){return -1}else if ((a.watchers_count +  a.forks_count) > (b.forks_count + b.watchers_count)){return 1}else {return 0}}) let dictrlc = Object.assign({}, this.state.replanguagecount);for (var i = 0; i < itemsWithFalseForks.length; i++) {dictrlc[itemsWithFalseForks[i]['language']] = -~ dictrlc[itemsWithFalseForks[i]['language']]} this.setState({repitems: sortedItems.slice(0,10),replanguagecount: dictrlc,}) }).catch((err) => { console.log(err); }) axios.get(' ).then(response => { https://api.github.com/users/'+this.state.formData.username+'/starred' var itemsWithFalseForks = response.data.filter(item => item.fork === false) var sortedItems = itemsWithFalseForks.sort((b,a) => {if((a.watchers_count +  a.forks_count) < (b.forks_count + b.watchers_count)){return -1}else if ((a.watchers_count +  a.forks_count) > (b.forks_count + b.watchers_count)){return 1}else {return 0}}) var documents = []for (var i = 0; i < response.data.length; i++) {var descr = response.data[i]['description']if (descr != null) {var newtext = descr.match(/[^.!?]+[.!?]+/g)if (newtext != null) {documents = documents.concat(newtext)}}}var result = lda(documents, 3, 3);var keywords = new Set()for (var k = 0; k < 3; k++) {for (var j = 0; j < 3; j++) {keywords = keywords.add(result[k][j]['term']);}} this.setState({staritems: sortedItems.slice(0,10),keywords: Array.from(keywords).join(', ')}) }).catch((err) => { console.log(err); }) }; handleFormChange(event) {const obj = this.state.formData;obj[event.target.name] = event.target.value;this.setState(obj);}; render() {return (<div className="App"><header className="App-header"><h1 className="App-title">GitHub Analytics</h1></header><p className="App-intro">Watch this space...</p><hr></hr><FormformData={this.state.formData}handleUserFormSubmit={this.handleUserFormSubmit}handleFormChange={this.handleFormChange}/><hr></hr>Profile Details:<ProfileDetails infoclean={this.state.infoclean}/><hr></hr>Own Repositories:<SortedList repitems={this.state.repitems}/><hr></hr>Starred Repositories:<SortedList repitems={this.state.staritems}/><hr></hr>Own Repos Language Count:<LanguageList langslist={this.state.replanguagecount}/>Keywords:  {this.state.keywords}</div>);}} To ensure GitHub Chart is also visible, change to the following: ProfileDetails.jsx import React from 'react';import Moment from 'react-moment'; const imgStye = {borderRadius: "50%",width: "250px",height: "250px"}; const ProfileDetails = (props) => {return (<div><div>{props.infoclean.avatar_url ?<img src={props.infoclean.avatar_url}alt="Profile"style={imgStye}/> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.name ? <div><p>Name:</p><p>{props.infoclean.name}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.bio ? <div><p>Bio:</p><p>{props.infoclean.bio}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.created_at ? <div><p>Joined:</p><p>{<Moment from={new Date()}>{props.infoclean.created_at}</Moment>}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.blog ? <div><p>Blog:</p><p><a href={props.infoclean.blog.search("http") !== -1 ? props.infoclean.blog: "http://" +  props.infoclean.blog } target="_blank">{props.infoclean.blog}</a></p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.location ? <div><p>Location:</p><p>{props.infoclean.location}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.company ? <div><p>Company:</p><p>{props.infoclean.company}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.public_repos ? <div><p>Public Repos:</p><p>{props.infoclean.public_repos}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.followers ? <div><p>Followers:</p><p>{props.infoclean.followers}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.following ? <div><p>Following:</p><p>{props.infoclean.following}</p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.html_url ? <div><p><a href={props.infoclean.html_url} target="_blank">View on GitHub</a></p></div> : null }</div><div>{props.infoclean.login ? <div>{ <img src={" "+props.infoclean.login} alt="Github chart" />}<br/><a href=" " target="_blank">Source for GitHub Chart API</a></div> : null }</div></div>) http://ghchart.rshah.org/ https://ghchart.rshah.org/ }; export default ProfileDetails; As a result, this produces the following output for my . GitHub profile Further opportunities for improvement in this project, include adding styling, code refactoring and testing. Feel free to track the progress of this project on and on its . GitHub website

Building GitHub Profile Analytics using React || PART 2

This is a step by step article on how to build a analytics tool for profiles, using . The emphasis was placed on achieving functionality quickly, therefore the end result does require further code refactoring and styling. The article is formed of two parts ( , ) and is based on the following repository. It is also hosted in this . Please note that both the repository and the website will evolve beyond these two articles. basic GitHub React Part 1 Part 2 GitHub website To begin load create-react-app (this is assuming npm and create react app are already installed) create-react-app github_analytics Once this has been completed , change directories with and enter to check that everything is working fine. You should see the following page in the browser. cd github_analytics npm start Begin by deleting the following files: , , . Change name to (don’t forget its imports in and ). Also chance its content to the following: logo.svg index.css App.css App.js App.jsx App.test.jsx index.js import React, { Component } from 'react'; class App extends Component {render() {return (<div className="App"><header className="App-header"><h1 className="App-title">GitHub Analytics</h1></header><p className="App-intro">Watch this space...</p></div>);}} export default App; Create sub-folder in . Here lets create our first component as follows: components src Button.jsx import React from 'react'; const Button = (props) => {return (<button className='button' onClick={()=>{props.handleClick()}}>Search</button>)}; export default Button; Adjust to the following: App.jsx import React, { Component } from 'react';import Button from './components/Button.jsx'; class App extends Component {constructor() {super();this.handleClick = this.handleClick.bind(this)} handleClick(e) {alert("The button was clicked");} render() {return (<div className="App"><header className="App-header"><h1 className="App-title">GitHub Analytics</h1></header><p className="App-intro">Watch this space...</p><Button handleClick={this.handleClick}/></div>);}} export default App; This should result in alert, when pressing on button. The button was clicked! Search Next we will need to run . This installs axios, which allows to make HTTP requests. Once it has been installed, will need to be changed to: npm install axios -save App.jsx import React, { Component } from 'react';import Button from './components/Button.jsx';import axios from 'axios'; class App extends Component {constructor() {super();this.state = {username: 'No username',info: ''}this.handleClick = this.handleClick.bind(this)} handleClick(e) {axios.get(' ).then(response => this.setState({username: response.data.login,info : JSON.stringify(response.data, undefined, 2)}));} https://api.github.com/users/drastorguev' render() {return (<div className="App"><header className="App-header"><h1 className="App-title">GitHub Analytics</h1></header><p className="App-intro">Watch this space...</p><Button handleClick={this.handleClick}/><p><b>Username:</b></p><p>{this.state.username}</p><b>Information:</b><pre>{this.state.info}</pre></div>);}} export default App; This results in data being automatically collected for my GitHub account. Finally, we will replace button with a form to allow users to search GitHub by username. To do this, we first need to create component. Search Form.jsx import React from 'react'; const Form = (props) => {return ( <form onSubmit={(event) => props.handleUserFormSubmit(event)}><label><p>Search:</p><input name="username"type="text"placeholder="GitHub username"requiredvalue={props.formData.username}onChange={props.handleFormChange}/></label><div><inputtype="submit"value="Submit"/></div></form> )}; export default Form; Similarly, will need to be replaced as follows: App.jsx import React, { Component } from 'react';import axios from 'axios'; import Form from './components/Form.jsx'; class App extends Component {constructor() {super();this.state = {gitun: 'No username',info: '',formData: {username: '',}}this.handleUserFormSubmit = this.handleUserFormSubmit.bind(this);this.handleFormChange= this.handleFormChange.bind(this);} handleUserFormSubmit(event) {event.preventDefault();axios.get(' ).then(response => this.setState({gitun: response.data.login,info : JSON.stringify(response.data, undefined, 2)})).catch((err) => { console.log(err); });}; https://api.github.com/users/'+this.state.formData.username handleFormChange(event) {const obj = this.state.formData;obj[event.target.name] = event.target.value;this.setState(obj);}; render() {return (<div className="App"><header className="App-header"><h1 className="App-title">GitHub Analytics</h1></header><p className="App-intro">Watch this space...</p><FormformData={this.state.formData}handleUserFormSubmit={this.handleUserFormSubmit}handleFormChange={this.handleFormChange}/><p><b>Username:</b></p><p>{this.state.gitun}</p><b>Information:</b><pre>{this.state.info}</pre> </div>);}} export default App; Your page should look some similar to a screenshot below. We are now able to to request any data from GitHub API and display it on our webpage. Therefore, this concludes . In we will add 3 different sections: basic information, list of most popular and starred repos and, finally, analyse most common languages of user’s own repos and generate keywords to starred repos. Part 1 Part 2 Feel free to track the progress of this project on and on its . GitHub website

Building GitHub Profile Analytics using React || PART 1

Follow along with the video tutorial: https://youtu.be/6W2rIyUdmas?embedable=true We are launching our first hackathon next week, and giving away over $1K in prizes! Join us in building a cool project and winning any of the following prizes 🏆 Top submission for use for notifications and demonstration of proper app-to-user notifications with the Courier API will receive $1000 via Zelle or PayPal. Courier Hacks 1st Place: 2nd Place submission for use for notifications and demonstration of proper app-to-user notifications with the Courier API will receive the Apple AirPods Pro. Courier Hacks 2nd Place: Public favorite winner will receive a Keychron Keyboard. Public Favorite: Runners-up submissions will receive a Hydro Flask. Runners-Up: Additionally, everyone who submits a project successfully integrating the Courier API will receive a $20 Amazon gift card! Not sure where to start? In this tutorial, we will be building a Node.js app that sends multi-channel notifications in morse code. What’s going on? We are secret agents today, and our goal is to send encoded messages to our spy network. Some spies prefer reading emails, and others prefer reading texts, so we need to ensure that our app can accommodate all spy preferences. The first five secret agents to successfully complete this tutorial and this task will receive a gift from Courier. Note: In Chapter 1, we will first integrate the Gmail and Twilio APIs, which Courier will use to send emails and text messages. In Chapter 2, we will demonstrate how to send single messages and setup routing to send multi-channel notifications. In Chapter 3, we will integrate a translation API to convert our messages into Morse code. We are hosting our first hackathon next month, starting September 5th until September 30th. Register now to submit this project for a chance to win some cool prizes. Register for the Hackathon: https://courier-hacks.devpost.com/ Instructions Chapter 1: Authorize Courier to send messages using Gmail and Twilio APIs In this first Chapter, we will need to authorize our API to send the secret messages. Let’s get started by integrating the Gmail and Twilio APIs, enabling Courier to send emails and messages from a single API call. Log in to your Courier accountLog in to your Courier account and create a new secret workspace. Log in to your Courier account For onboarding, select the email channel and let Courier build with Node.js. Start with the Gmail API since it only takes seconds to set up. All we need to do to authorize is log in via Gmail. Now the API is ready to send messages. Copy the starter code, a basic API call using cURL, and paste it in a new terminal. It already has saved your API key and knows which email address you want to send to, and has a message already built in. Once you can see the dancing pigeon, you are ready to use Courier to send more notifications. Before we build out our application, we need to set up the Twilio provider to enable text messages. Head over to “Channels" in the left menu and search for Twilio. You will need an Account SID, Auth Token, and a Messaging Service SID to authorize Twilio. Open , login and open the Console, and find the first two tokens on that page. Save the Account SID and Auth Token in Courier. twilio.com Lastly, you need to locate the Messaging Service SID, which you create in the Messaging tab on the left menu. Checkout Twilio’s docs on , linked in the description. how to create a Messaging Service SID Once we have all three pieces of information, install the provider. Now your Courier account is authorized to send any email or SMS within one API call. Chapter 2: Send single and multi-channel notifications In this next Chapter, you will start sending messages. To send the secret messages, head to the . Here you can find everything related to sending messages. Send API documentation On the right, you will see some starter code and can select a language of your choice from cURL, Node.js, Ruby, Python, Go, or PHP. Selection Node.js to get started // Dependencies to install:
// $ npm install node-fetch --save

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Accept: 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "message": {
      "template": "NOTIFICATION_TEMPLATE"
    }
  })
};

fetch('https://api.courier.com/send', options)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(response => console.log(response))
  .catch(err => console.error(err)); This basic POST request can be edited to include the spies’ data such as how to contact them and the message you need to send. The “Notification Template” can be replaced with your own template. Add an email address in the email field on the left, which you will notice automatically appears in the code snippet on the right. // Dependencies to install:
// $ npm install node-fetch --save

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Accept: 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "message": {
      "template": "NOTIFICATION_TEMPLATE",
      "to": {
        "email": "courier.demos+secretmessage@gmail.com"
      }
    }
  })
};

fetch('https://api.courier.com/send', options)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(response => console.log(response))
  .catch(err => console.error(err)); Next, you need to add the actual message you are sending. These messages are pretty simple, so you can write them directly into the API call instead of creating a template. Write in a subject in the title object (this can be changed anytime). In the email body, write your message. // Dependencies to install:
// $ npm install node-fetch --save

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Accept: 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "message": {
      "to": {
        "email": "courier.demos+secretmessage@gmail.com"
      },
      "content": {
        "title": "new subject",
        "body": "message"
      }
    }
  })
};

fetch('https://api.courier.com/send', options)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(response => console.log(response))
  .catch(err => console.error(err)); As before, the data on the left automatically appears in the code snippet on the right. There is a content object that encompasses the title and body parameters. Now you just need to make sure that this API call has access to your Courier account, which links to the Gmail and Twilio APIs. Replace the Auth Token with the Courier API Key (stored in Courier account settings under API Keys)[ ]. https://www.courier.com/docs/guides/getting-started/nodejs/#getting-your-api-keys // Dependencies to install:
// $ npm install node-fetch --save

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Accept: 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    Authorization: 'Bearer apikey'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "message": {
      "to": {
        "email": "courier.demos+secretmessage@gmail.com"
      },
      "content": {
        "title": "new subject",
        "body": "message"
      }
    }
  })
};

fetch('https://api.courier.com/send', options)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(response => console.log(response))
  .catch(err => console.error(err)); Send this code out from here to test that the API call works (click "Try it" above the code snippet). Go to your and click on the latest log for more information. You should be able to view how it is rendered for the user receiving the message. If there was an error, you should also be able to access an error code there. Courier logs Now you can integrate this code into our own Node.js application. Open VS Code and open a new project with a file called . index.js Past the code into the file. index.js Install the node-fetch npm package, enabling you to make API calls. Open a terminal and paste the command to install the package. $ npm install node-fetch --save Run the program in the terminal. $ node index.js Here, you may run into a node-fetch error, which is caused by the require statement on line 4. To fix this, install a different version of the package found on the node-fetch documentation: . https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-fetch#class-response npm install node-fetch@2 Now when you run this program, you should get a response from Courier that includes the in the VS Code console. This indicates that the API call was made successfully, and you can head over to the Courier datalog to determine if the message was also sent successfully. requestID Since you are a Secret Agent, you should probably protect the API key in case our code gets into the wrong hands. Create a new file called . .env Store the API Key as a variable in the .env file. APIKEY="fksdjfgjsdkfgndfsmn" Install the dotenv npm package, allowing you to access the variable in the file. index.js Once the package is installed, access the key by referring to it as . process.env.APIKEY Add to the top of the file. require('dotenv').config() index.js Run this program to confirm that it still works the same. At this point, you can send a single message to the spies via email. However, you know that some spies prefer to use text messages, so you will need to enable multi-channel notifications. Let’s head back to the Courier docs and scroll down to the object, which contains the and . Two types of methods are available - and . ‘All’ means that Courier will attempt to send the message to every channel listed. “Single” means that Courier will attempt to send it to the first channel that works. Let’s integrate this into our program. routing method channels all single Add the object anywhere within the object, at the same level as and . routing message to content Define the channels within the same object - you can choose SMS or email, in this case, since you already have an email address defined. routing "message": {
    "to": {
      "email": process.env.EMAIL
    },
    "content": {
      "title": "new subject",
      "body": "message"
    },
    "routing": {
      "method": "single",
      "channels": "email"
    },
} Convert the property into an array to define multiple channels and list both email and SMS. channels "channels": ["email", "sms"] You now have two different channels that this message can be sent to. methods would send this message to both email and SMS. method would try to send this to the first that works. Since you have the user’s email address but not their phone number, this program can only send it via email. All Single If the two channels were reversed, Courier would try to send an SMS, fail to do so, and then default to sending an email. "channels": ["sms", "email"] Add the user’s phone number to make the SMS channel work. Now this program should be able to send text messages via Twilio. "message": {
    "to": {
      "email": process.env.EMAIL,
      "phone_number": process.env.PHONENUMBER
    },
    "content": {
      "title": "new subject",
      "body": "message"
    },
    "routing": {
      "method": "single",
      "channels": ["sms", "email"]
    },
} Change the single method to and run the program again. all "message": {
    "to": {
      "email": process.env.EMAIL,
      "phone_number": process.env.PHONENUMBER
    },
    "content": {
      "title": "new subject",
      "body": "message"
    },
    "routing": {
      "method": "all",
      "channels": ["sms", "email"]
    },
} Courier can now send via Twilio and Gmail within the same API call. Chapter 3: Integrate a translation API to convert messages to Morse code NOTE: The Morse API has a rate limit, which may give you an error if you run it too many times within the hour. In this case, you will have to wait for some time before continuing. In this last Chapter, you will integrate the Fun Translations Morse API to encode the secret messages and send them over to the spies. You can search for documentation on the Morse API on the Fun Translations website.. Here you have access to all the information you need to make the call - you have an endpoint and an example demonstrating that the original message is a parameter for the endpoint. 🔗 Fun Translations: https://funtranslations.com/api/#morse 🔗 Fun Translations API: https://api.funtranslations.com/ Start by encasing the Courier API call in a function. Add a call to that function below the async function definition. Refactor to . options courier_options // Dependencies to install:
// $ npm install node-fetch --save

const fetch = require('node-fetch');
require('dotenv').config()

async function send_secret_message() {

    const courier_options = {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
          Accept: 'application/json',
          'Content-Type': 'application/json',
          Authorization: 'Bearer ' + process.env.APIKEY
        },
        body: JSON.stringify({
          "message": {
            "to": {
              "email": process.env.EMAIL,
              "phone_number": process.env.PHONENUMBER
            },
            "content": {
              "title": "new subject",
              "body": "message"
            },
            "routing": {
              "method": "all",
              "channels": ["sms", "email"]
            },
          }
        })
      };

      fetch('https://api.courier.com/send', courier_options)
        .then(response => response.json())
        .then(response => console.log(response))
        .catch(err => console.error(err));

}

send_secret_message() Before sending the message, you first need to make a call to the Morse API to translate the message. You can use node-fetch in the same way as you did for Courier to make this call. Copy the code within the async function to make the new API call. Paste the code above the Courier API call. Update the endpoint to the Morse API endpoint. Refactor to for the first call. options morse_options Remove the authorization token in the Morse API call since it does not require an API Key. Remove the object. body Add the message - “hey secret agent x this is your message” - as a parameter within the endpoint and replace all spaces in the message with its url-encode (%20). // Dependencies to install:
// $ npm install node-fetch --save

const fetch = require('node-fetch');
require('dotenv').config()

async function send_secret_message() {

    const morse_options = {
        method: 'GET',
        headers: {
          Accept: 'application/json',
          'Content-Type': 'application/json'
        }
      };

      const original_message = "hey%20secret%20agent%20x%20this%20is%20your%20message"
      const morse_endpoint = "https://api.funtranslations.com/translate/morse.json?text="+original_message

      fetch(morse_endpoint, morse_options)
        .then(response => response.json())
        .then(response => console.log(response))
        .catch(err => console.error(err));

    const courier_options = {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
          Accept: 'application/json',
          'Content-Type': 'application/json',
          Authorization: 'Bearer ' + process.env.APIKEY
        },
        body: JSON.stringify({
          "message": {
            "to": {
              "email": process.env.EMAIL,
              "phone_number": process.env.PHONENUMBER
            },
            "content": {
              "title": "new subject",
              "body": "message"
            },
            "routing": {
              "method": "all",
              "channels": ["sms", "email"]
            },
          }
        })
      };

      fetch('https://api.courier.com/send', courier_options)
        .then(response => response.json())
        .then(response => console.log(response))
        .catch(err => console.error(err));

}

send_secret_message() Comment out the Courier API call, since you only need to test the code you just added. When you run this program, we may receive an error that states that there is an error parsing the JSON. This issue is caused by an error in the documentation, which here states that it should be a request. However, on a separate API documentation, it is written as a request. Update the call type to and you should see the translated message within the response. POST GET GET, ObviouslyClearly, you don’t want to send all of this information to the spies, y. You only need the secret message. Isolate the message by logging . response.contents.translated fetch(morse_endpoint, morse_options)
    .then(response => response.json())
    .then(response => console.log(response.contents.translated))
    .catch(err => console.error(err)); You need to be able to access the translation from this API call in the body of the Courier API call. Create a variable called , which will hold the entire response from this call. morse_response Convert the JSON object into a JavaScript object so that you can read it within your code. Get the translated message out of that object and save it in a new variable called . message Log this variable to confirm that it works. const morse_response = await fetch(morse_endpoint, morse_options)
    // .then(response => response.json())
    // .then(response => console.log(response.contents.translated))
    // .catch(err => console.error(err));
const translation = await morse_response.json();
const message = translation.contents.translated
console.log(message) Replace the message within the body of the Courier API call with the encoded message you just saved in the variable. message "message": {
    "to": {
      "email": process.env.EMAIL,
      "phone_number": process.env.PHONENUMBER
    },
    "content": {
      "title": "new secret message",
      "body": message
    },
    "routing": {
      "method": "all",
      "channels": ["sms", "email"]
    },
} The Courier datalog should show that the messages were successfully encoded and sent via both SMS and email. Here’s what the email looks like: Conclusion Our spies are now ready to receive their secret encoded messages. Try changing the body of the content to your own secret message and send it over to ,and we will send a gift to the first five Secret Agents who complete this task! Don’t forget to submit your project to our for a chance to win over $1000 in cash and prizes!XYZ. courier.demos+secretmessage@gmail.com Hackathon Quick Links 🔗 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/shreythecray/secret-messages 🔗 Video tutorial: https://www.youtu.be/6W2rIyUdmas Log in to your Courier accountLog in to your Courier account 🔗 Courier: https://app.courier.com/signup?utm_campaign=Developer Relations&utm_source=secret-message app.courier.com app.courier.com 🔗 Register for the Hackathon: https://courier-hacks.devpost.com/ 🔗 Courier's Get Started with Node.js: https://www.courier.com/docs/guides/getting-started/nodejs/ 🔗 Courier Send API Docs: https://www.courier.com/docs/reference/send/message/ 🔗 Twilio Messaging Service SID Docs: https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223181308-Getting-started-with-Messaging-Services 🔗 Node-fetch: https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-fetch 🔗 Dotenv: https://www.npmjs.com/package/dotenv 🔗 Fun Translations: https://funtranslations.com/api/#morse 🔗 Fun Translations API: https://api.funtranslations.com/ Also published . here

Sending Secret Messages with the Courier API and Node.js

Envío de mensajes secretos con Courier API y Node.js

We’ve got a pretty great resource for people getting started with rego, originally posted . Sharing here as well in-case it helps anyone. here uses the (OPA) as the decision engine for evaluating authorization decisions. is the policy language for defining rules that are evaluated by the OPA engine. Aserto Open Policy Agent Rego For engineers that are used to imperative languages like Javascript or Python, Rego can look a bit foreign. In this post, we give a few tips for how to get started with reading and writing Rego policies. More like SQL than like a programming language Rego isn’t a language for writing arbitrary programs. Rather, it’s a declarative language for defining rules - and can be thought of in the same way you think of a query language (like SQL). For all you language geeks, Rego is based on (a subset of Prolog), and contains some simplifying assumptions that make it easier to learn, easier to implement an evaluator for, and faster to execute. Turing-complete Datalog Packages are namespaces package aserto.InviteUser Every Rego file is in a . This defines the scope for the policy. Policy files that use the same package name are in the same namespace. package Decisions The result of a policy evaluation is a set of named decisions and their values.  Each decision is a header in a block. For example, allowed {
  true
} returns for the decision. true allowed Input documents The inputs to a policy are all keyed in an variable. Aserto automatically maps to the properties of the user in the context of which the policy is evaluated, and to the resource that is passed in as an optional resource context. input input.user input.resource Using values from the input document in the policy In the policy below, returns only if the attribute on the input map is equal to the string . allowed true foo "bar" allowed {
  input.foo == "bar"
} Multiple decision outputs You can have more than one named decision in a policy. For example, in the policy below, there are two decisions ( and ), and enabled takes the value of . allowed enabled allowed allowed {
  input.foo == "bar"
}

enabled {
  allowed
} Expressions inside a decision block are “AND-ed” together In the policy below, both conditions must be for the allowed decision to evaluate to . true true allowed {
  input.foo == "bar"
  input.bar == "baz"
} Note that the conditions can be listed in any order - Rego doesn’t care about order when it comes to evaluation. Blocks with the same name are “OR-ed” together In the policy below, is if is , OR if is . allowed true foo "bar" bar "baz" allowed {
  input.foo == "bar"
}

allowed {
  input.bar == "baz"
} Data documents You can embed a data document named in a Rego policy. This document is namespaced based on the directory it is in. For example, will show up as an object called in the policy evaluation context. data.json roles/data.json data.roles With the document below, : mydata/data.json {
  "hello": "world"
} You could write a policy that accesses it in the following way: allowed {
  input.hello == data.mydata.hello
} The decision would evaluate to if was equal to . allowed true input.hello "world" Expressions over arrays Rego has set operators that make it easy to construct expressions over each value in an array. For example, if is an array that can contain one or more roles, the following policy will return for the decision if any of the roles in the array is equal to : input.user.roles true allowed "viewer" allowed {
  some i
  input.user.roles[i] == "viewer"
} Note that writing an expression over an array means iterating over every value of that array - a bit like a database table scan. That’s why at Aserto we prefer Rego objects over arrays, since indexing into an object using a key is a constant-time operation. Summary Rego is an expressive policy language that can be used to construct a wide variety of RBAC and ABAC-style policies. We’ve gone through the most common patterns to get you started on writing authorization policies in Rego. Happy hacking! Also Published Here

Getting Started With Rego

We’re excited to announce a powerful new feature for the Courier platform: Courier Automations. Courier Automations is a toolset that includes both an API and a visual builder that allows anyone to easily configure logic for notification workflows. Need to send a reminder to class attendees 10 minutes before the class starts? Need to page an on-call engineer on multiple channels until they respond? These use cases and more can be achieved quickly and easily with Automations. Why we built Automations As developers, notifications are the primary way that the applications we build communicate with our end-users and the use cases vary widely. Some use cases are very straightforward and simply require that a single message goes to a single user once. Many notifications however require more sophisticated orchestration in order to deliver the desired user experience. Most developers today end up building a separate service to manage this logic. This results in additional infrastructure and development overhead and often in a less than ideal end-user experience. We built Automations so that developers can deliver the ideal notification experience without needing to build and maintain yet another service. What are product and engineering teams doing with Courier Automations today? While today marks the official release of Automations, many of our customers are already using Automation to power key parts of their product experience. The engineering team at , a feature management platform, uses Automations to define the logic for notifications associated with approvals for their customers' feature releases. Any time approval is requested or granted, an Automation is triggered to ensure all the relevant stakeholders are alerted. You can read more about their use case here. LaunchDarkly , which is an employee experience platform, regularly sends out Slack notifications on behalf of their customers asking employees to complete a brief survey. Their engineering team utilizes the Automations API to create lists of users for whom the Slack survey could not be delivered and send them an email survey instead. Officevibe For , an online Yoga platform, it's essential that they deliver a seamless experience to their customers from the time they register for a live class through to the start of class. Their engineering team utilizes the Automations API to send timely reminders to class attendees for each live class that happens on their platform. Yoga International “Meetings Reminder” Let's build a meeting reminder that sends an email reminder 10 minutes before the meeting and a link to the meeting notes two hours after the meeting. Design the Messages: Log into and navigate to the Courier Notifications Designer Design an email reminder that will  be sent 10 minutes before the meeting with the Gmail provider (or any email provider of your choice) Access the template ID in the settings of that notification and save it for future reference Design an SMS reminder that will be sent two hours after the meeting with the Twilio provider (or any email provider of your choice) Access the template ID in the settings of that notification and save it for future reference How To Create an Automation Using the API (Node.js Example) Within your Node.js app, install node-fetch npm install node-fetch Navigate to the and copy the starter code Automations API Reference Add an object with an array of objects called automations steps "automation": {
      "steps": [
        {
          "action": "send",
          "template": "template_id",
        }
      ]
    }, Automations API Reference Automations Docs For this example, we will need three steps: send, delay, and another send. The first send step will send the 10-minute reminder. The delay step will wait for two hours after the meeting. The third step will send an SMS with a link to the meeting notes. "automation": {
    "steps": [
      {
        "action": "send",
        "template": "template_id_1"
      },
      {
        "action": "delay",
        "duration": "130 minutes"
      },
      {
        "action": "send",
        "template": "template_id_2"
      }
    ]
  }, Update with the notification template from Step 3 of “Design the Message” and update with the notification template from Step 5 of “Design the Message” template_id_1 template_id_2 Update the and attributes with your preferred and IDs brand recipient brand recipient If your steps reference any Notification Templates, update the ID attribute template Run your code to trigger the Automation // Dependencies to install:
// $ npm install node-fetch --save

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Accept: 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    Authorization: 'Bearer replace-token'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "automation": {
      "steps": [
        {
          "action": "send",
          "template": "template_id_1"
        },
        {
          "action": "delay",
          "duration": "130 minutes"
        },
        {
          "action": "send",
          "template": "template_id_2"
        }
      ]
    },
    "brand": "W50NC77P524K14M5300PGPEK4JMJ",
    "template": "EXAMPLE_NOTIFICATION",
    "recipient": "8ec8c99a-c5f7-455b-9f60-8222b8a27056",
    "data": {
      "name": "Jane Doe",
      "age": 27
    },
    "profile": {
      "phone_number": "2025550125",
      "email": "hello@example.com"
    }
  })
};

fetch('https://api.courier.com/automations/invoke', options)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(response => console.log(response))
  .catch(err => console.error(err)); Check the for delivery status and error messages Datalog How To Create An Automation Using the Studio This example demonstrates integrating an API V2 notification send call (Step 5 of "Design the Message"). Navigate to the page Automations Create an Automation Template from scratch Add a send step and select the “10-minute reminder” for the Notification Add a delay step and update the length to 130 minutes Switch over to code mode (top right, under the the “Publish Changes” button) and add an API V2 notification send call for the SMS with a link to the meeting notes {
      "action": "send",
      "message": {
        "to": {
      		"email": "example@email.com"
    	},
    	"content": {
    		"title": "Meeting Notes",
    		"body": "Link to meeting notes: ..."
    	}
      }
    } This step can be done within the designer by following Step 3 Select a trigger for the Automation (if no trigger is selected, the Automation can be triggered manually with a curl command) Publish changes to save your Automation Create a Test Event to test your Automation {
  "data": {},
  "profile": {
  	"email": "example@email.com",
	“name”: “Your Name”
  }
} 9. Invoke your Automation in the Designer or copy the starter code and run it in a terminal Getting Started to get started with Automation. Courier’s Free Tier includes Automations and up to 10,000 notifications per month. Sign up for a free Courier account Originally published here.

Application Logic for Notifications with Courier Automations

Lógica de aplicación para notificaciones con automatizaciones de mensajería

Combining 3 Arduino boards to create a GPS tracker & data logger. I had an idea to combine the new Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense with an SD card and GPS module for a side project that logs GPS and IMU data. I decided to purchase the , the , and the and connect them all together. Unbeknownst to me at the time, these boards aren’t footprint-compatible, so I combined them with a breadboard 😐. Nano 33 MKR Mem Shield MKR GPS Shield It took a little while to get all the libraries installed and everything connected appropriately. The biggest challenge was the GPS module. It really helps to start debugging the GPS’ example code outside; where satellite signal is available 😉. Prototype Code The full Arduino sketch for the above connected system . But, might as well have a quick overview of the code. Throwing the imports and definitions below: is here dataFile; chipSelect = ; SFE_UBLOX_GPS myGPS; latitude = ; longitude = ; speed = ; satellites = ; timeout = ; lastGPSTime = ; ax, ay, az; gx, gy, gz; DEBUG = true; counter = ; # include <SparkFun_Ublox_Arduino_Library.h> # include <Arduino_LSM9DS1.h> # include <Arduino_APDS9960.h> # include <SPI.h> # include <SD.h> // SD Vars File int 4 // GPS Vars // Connected via UART long 0 long 0 long 0 byte 0 int 50 long 0 // IMU Vars float float // Misc bool int 0 # LEDR        (22u) define # LEDG        (23u) define # LEDB        (24u) define Next, we need to do all the GPS and SD card setup. The tricky part here was making sure to remove the DATALOG.csv file every time we start up. ()
{ . ( ); (! );
  Serial1. ( ); (!Serial1); ( , ); (LEDR, ); (LEDB, ); (LEDG, ); (LEDR, ); (LEDG, ); (LEDB, ); (!myGPS. (Serial1)) { . (F( )); ( );
  } . ( ); (! . (chipSelect)) { . ( ); ( );
  } ( . ( )) { . ( );
    dataFile = . ( , FILE_WRITE);
    dataFile. ();
  } ( ); dataFile = . ( , FILE_WRITE);
  dataFile. ( ); . ( ); (!APDS. ()) { . ( );
  }
  APDS.setGestureSensitivity( ); . ( ); (!IMU. ()) { . ( ); ( );
  } . ( );
} void setup // Setup User Terminal Serial begin 115200 // UART to PC/Mac while Serial begin 9600 // UART to GPS while // Initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output. pinMode LED_BUILTIN OUTPUT pinMode OUTPUT pinMode OUTPUT pinMode OUTPUT digitalWrite HIGH // LOW triggered LED.... digitalWrite HIGH digitalWrite HIGH // Setup GPS if begin Serial println "GPS not detected!" while 1 Serial println "GPS Started!" // Setup SD Card if SD begin Serial println "SD Card failed or not present!" while 1 // Remove Existing DATALOG.CSV file if SD exists "DATALOG.CSV" SD remove "DATALOG.CSV" SD open "DATALOG.CSV" close delay 500 // Make sure existing DATALOG.CSV file is gone // Create new CSV file with appropriate headers SD open "DATALOG.CSV" println "Count,AccX,AccY,AccZ,GyrX,GyrY,GyrZ,Lat,Long,Speed" // Done with SD Card Init Serial println "SD Card Initialized!" // Setup Gesture Sensor if begin Serial println "Error initializing gesture sensor!" 85 Serial println "Gesture sensor initialized!" // Setup IMU if begin Serial println "Failed to initialize IMU!" while 1 Serial println "IMU initialized!" Now we can log all of the data to the SD Card. Note that we could use the Gesture sensor to stop and start recording (in the main loop). ()
{ ( () - lastGPSTime > ) {
    lastGPSTime = (); latitude = myGPS.getLatitude(timeout);
    longitude = myGPS.getLongitude(timeout);
    speed = myGPS.getGroundSpeed(timeout);
    satellites = myGPS.getSIV(timeout); (DEBUG) { . (F( )); . (latitude); . (F( )); . (longitude); . (F( )); . (F( )); . (speed); . (F( )); . (F( )); . (satellites);
    }
  } (IMU.accelerationAvailable()) {
    IMU.readAcceleration(ax, ay, az); (DEBUG) { . (F( )); . (ax); . (F( )); . (ay); . (F( )); . (az);
    }
  } (IMU.gyroscopeAvailable()) {
    IMU.readGyroscope(gx, gy, gz); (DEBUG) { . (F( )); . (gx); . (F( )); . (gy); . (F( )); . (gz);
    }
  } (APDS.gestureAvailable()) { (APDS.readGesture()) { GESTURE_UP: . ( ); ; GESTURE_DOWN: . ( ); ; GESTURE_LEFT: . ( ); ; GESTURE_RIGHT: . ( ); ; : ;
    }
  } (dataFile) {
    counter += ; dataString = ;
    dataString += (counter) + ;
    dataString += (ax) + ;
    dataString += (ay) + ;
    dataString += (az) + ;
    dataString += (gx) + ;
    dataString += (gy) + ;
    dataString += (gz) + ;
    dataString += (latitude) + ;
    dataString += (longitude) + ;
    dataString += (speed);
    dataFile. (dataString);
  } ( ); } void loop if millis 500 millis // Update the timer if Serial print "Lat: " Serial print Serial print " Long: " Serial print Serial print " (degrees * 10^-7)" Serial print " Speed: " Serial print Serial print " (mm/s)" Serial print " satellites: " Serial println if if Serial print "Accel x: " Serial print Serial print " y: " Serial print Serial print " z: " Serial println if if Serial print "Gyro x: " Serial print Serial print " y: " Serial print Serial print " z: " Serial println if // A gesture was detected, read and print to serial monitor switch case Serial println "Detected UP gesture" break case Serial println "Detected DOWN gesture" break case Serial println "Detected LEFT gesture" break case Serial println "Detected RIGHT gesture" break default // ignore break if 1 String "" String "," String "," String "," String "," String "," String "," String "," String "," String "," String println delay 150 // Don't pound too hard So this is all fine and good. Prototype concept has been vetted! Time to build a custom PCB with the same functionality. PCB Design PCB design was definitely an experience, with a decent learning curve. I used . My first step was obtaining the schematics from the Nano 33, the MKR Mem Shield and the MKR GPS Shield. These were easy enough to find in the tech links and via Github. As they are Eagle schematic files, I downloaded the Eagle trial version to analyze in depth. easyeda to build my custom PCB I basically copied the whole Nano 33 BLE schematic as is, including matching up the component names and numbers. I then added the GPS module (top center) and had to think about how to program via J-Link (top right): Hoping for the best, I went ahead and sent off the design to to be built and assembled. It was a decently smooth process, with some questions about a part name and orientation. PCBWay After a couple of weeks I got the plain PCB boards in the mail: And a few more weeks later (6 weeks) I got the fully assembled PCB boards back! Flashing the Arduino bootloader I bought the to be able to program the custom board. I also installed all the J-Link drivers, etc. . J-Link EDU Mini cable A similar tutorial can be found here You can find the Arduino binary file here: bootloader.bin <username> Arduino15 arduino bed bootloaders bootloader.bin /Users/ /Library/ /packages/ /hardware/m /1.1.4/ /nano33ble/ I ended up flashing the bootloader via . Fingers crossed everything would work🤞. nRF Connect And it did! An Arduino Nano would pop up and connect to my MacBook when I plugged in the USB cable. Turns out I had made a few mistakes in my though reverse engineering, . The Nano 33 schematic has a Do Not Populate (DNP) for a pull up resistor on the RESET pin. I should have added test points for this resistor as well. I ended up hand-soldering a 4.7K. This stopped my board from auto-resetting every second (could also adjust the UICR to disable the RESET pin).The schematic shows a 1M Ohm resistor connecting the USB shield to ground. But the Eagle file shows 330 Ohm — should be 330 Ohms. There is tons of debate and trade-offs here.I messed up a wire with the gesture sensor, so that didn’t work. However it still measured RGB colors. I ended up fixing these issues. To make this device portable, I added a battery connection and LiPo charging, as well as load sharing. I also added a 5V and 3.3V power rail to power external devices. Having learned from more research, I decided to add more decoupling capacitors and various connectors (including GPIO). I sent the new design with a more compact PCB layout to PCBWay! Currently waiting on those boards to get back 😎.

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