How To: Fetch GitHub Updates in Jekyll

Fetching recent commits from the GitHub API during Jekyll build with Ruby and Peter Murach’s GitHub API gem.

1. Install Peter Murach's GitHub API Ruby gem.

   gem install github_api

2. Check out the happy unicorn/rainbow.

3. Get recent commits to a given repo like so:

   commit_coll = Github.repos.commits.all 'myusername', 'myrepo'

4. Create a Jekyll collection on the fly.

   jekyll_coll = Jekyll::Collection.new(site, 'commits')
   site.collections['commits'] = jekyll_coll

5. Add some fake/virtual documents to the collection:

   commit_coll.each do |commit|
   msg = commit[:commit][:message]
   sha = commit['sha']
   path = "_blurbs/" + sha + ".md"
   path = site.in_source_dir(path)
   doc = Jekyll::Document.new(path, 
      { :site => site, :collection => jekyll_coll })
   doc.data['title'] = msg
   doc.data['exturl'] = commit[:html_url]
   if msg.lines.count > 1
      doc.data['title'] = msg.lines.first
      doc.content = msg.lines.drop(1).join()
   end
   jekyll_coll.docs << doc

6. Access the collection from the template:

   {% for blurb in site.collections['commits'].docs limit: 5 %}
   <div class="post-card github">
     <h2>{{ blurb.title }}</h2>
     <p>{{ blurb.content }}</p>
   </div>
   {% endfor %}