Interesting Widget code, but can't fetch API

[Panda]

To eliminate any confusion I made a simpler widget which just does hardcoded API call for image of a cat. No user input etc
Again it runs stand alone, but returns quickly, empty, as a widget
This example sits on aignite.nodebb.com category 8 (‘Diamond’)
First example is still in category 10 (‘3d’)

[phenomlab]

@Panda the result=undefined says it all. It still returns null and we need to see the error in the browser console.

[phenomlab]

@Panda Just looking at this, and it seems that the service expects authentication

I also see the below in the console

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 401 (Unauthorized)
GET data:image/png;base64,undefined net::ERR_INVALID_URL
{"code":401,"message":"error occurred during proxy authentication: no token in request"}

[Panda]

Yes. There is a key included and the exact code works as stand-alone, thats why Im wonderinging why not working in a widget

[phenomlab]

@Panda I think this might have something to do with the reverse proxy that nginx runs for NodeBB. Do you use this, or are you using something else?

[Panda]

@phenomlab ah! Its nodebb hosted site, so they do all that

[Panda]

@phenomlab
Two things

1. this particular forum had plans to integrate tools which use API calls into widgets.
   Now we reached the point of finding possible reason why API calls dont work, is there anyway round that?

2. General forum question: because there were few ‘Red Herrings’ while exploring this issue, I was tempted to tidy up this thread by deleting some of the erroneous comments.
   I noticed before this forum has tight restriction times on editing / removing comments. I guess this is intentional. Is your experience that it is better to have this on a forum rather than unlimited edit / delete timer?

[phenomlab]

@Panda said in Interesting Widget code, but can’t fetch API:

this particular forum had plans to integrate tools which use API calls into widgets.
Now we reached the point of finding possible reason why API calls dont work, is there anyway round that?

Actually, yes. I had a similar issue with the below (which you might enjoy also) when running in a page widget

https://sudonix.org/cbg

For this to work, I needed to call the script externally, and so used the below widget code as a guide

<head>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.7.0/jquery.min.js" integrity="sha512-3gJwYpMe3QewGELv8k/BX9vcqhryRdzRMxVfq6ngyWXwo03GFEzjsUm8Q7RZcHPHksttq7/GFoxjCVUjkjvPdw==" crossorigin="anonymous" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></script>
</head>
<style>
.cbgresult {
    margin: 10px 0 15px 0;
    padding: 15px;
    border-radius: 6px;
    font-family: "Source Code Pro", Menlo,Monaco,Consolas,"Courier New",monospace;
    font-size: 2rem;
    text-align: center;
    background: var(--bs-code-block) !important;
}
.cbgresult:after {
content: '"';
}
.cbgresult:before {
content: '"';
}
.cbgheader {
    margin-top: 40px;
    text-align: center;
}
.generate {
    text-align: center;
}
</style>
<script src="/assets/js/cbg.js"></script>
<div class="cbgheader">
<h2>Corporate BS Generator</h2>
<p>
Need a better sounding line? Just click the "Generate Another" button to get another killer phrase.
</p>
</div>
<div id="cbg" class="cbgresult"></div>
<div class="generate">
<button id="reloadme" class="btn btn-primary">Generate Another</button>
</div>
<script>
$(function() { // after page load
    $('.cbgresult').fadeOut(0, function() {
    $("#cbg").show();
        $(this).html(phrase());
   });
});
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#cbg").show();
    $('#reloadme').click(function(){
 $("#cbg").html(phrase());
    });
});
</script>

@Panda said in Interesting Widget code, but can't fetch API:

I noticed before this forum has tight restriction times on editing / removing comments. I guess this is intentional. Is your experience that it is better to have this on a forum rather than unlimited edit / delete timer?

This is correct. Posts can only be deleted before a set time period elapses, which is 30 minutes

The intention here is to give you sufficient time to remove something you feel wasn’t relevant, or you really shouldn’t have posted (see policies), but for the sake of conversational flow, posts are then indelible because they add weight and value to the overall thread. For example, if you reference a comment in the thread, but that particular post is deleted, then the discussion becomes diluted.

Using this approach, it makes it easier for anyone else with a similar issue to see how we resolved it.

[Panda]

@phenomlab
That is interesting code example!
It raises new question
How did you drop that widget into the post there?
I hadnt seen this BSgenerator anywhere on sudonix site, do you use it somewhere already?

Also can you explain more what you mean by calling the code externally. In my API call example, how would I go about doing that?

[phenomlab]

@Panda said in Interesting Widget code, but can’t fetch API:

How did you drop that widget into the post there?
I hadnt seen this BSgenerator anywhere on sudonix site, do you use it somewhere already?

Yes, here

https://sudonix.org/topic/414/corporate-bullshit-generator?_=1687774393044

It’s not a “post” or “topic” in the common sense. It is actually a page in it’s own right and leverages nodebb-plugin-custom-pages. This in turn creates a new “route” which behaves like a page, meaning it is then exposed for widgets.

@Panda said in Interesting Widget code, but can’t fetch API:

Also can you explain more what you mean by calling the code externally. In my API call example, how would I go about doing that?

By this, I mean create all the required code in an external JS file that is reachable by the NodeBB instance - so, in “public” for example - or in my case /public/js. The widget then “calls” that file and because it runs outside of the scope of NodeBB, you just need to return the values to the widget.

Hope this makes sense?