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* Newsletter form improvement * Apply suggestions from code review * Changing image and copy * Image change * Copy tweak * Tweak * Tweaks * another try * Apply suggestions from code review Co-authored-by: Lior539 <lneuner@gmail.com> * Update index.tsx * Image tweak * putting engineer post back --------- Co-authored-by: Lior539 <lneuner@gmail.com>
64 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
64 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: How to track GitHub stars in PostHog
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date: 2024-03-27
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author: ["ian-vanagas"]
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tags:
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- events
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---
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GitHub stars are a popular way to track the success of open-sourced projects. Beyond seeing how many stars a repo has, GitHub does little to help you track or analyze these stars.
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To help you make better use of stars, this tutorial shows you how to capture them using a combination of PostHog, GitHub webhooks, and [Val Town](https://val.town/), a platform for writing, running, and scheduling JavaScript functions in your browser.
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## Creating a webhook handler in Val Town
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Our webhook handler will accept a `POST` request and capture a PostHog event with the data from the request. Val Town is great for doing this because you can reuse [the code I already wrote here](https://www.val.town/v/ianvph/posthogGitHubStarCapture) (just click **Fork** in the three-dot menu beside **Save**):
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<iframe src="https://www.val.town/embed/ianvph/posthogGitHubStarCapture" height="630" frameBorder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>
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Now create a `phProjectAPIKey` environment variable in [your Val Town settings](https://www.val.town/settings/environment-variables). Set this value to your PostHog project API key, which you can find in [your project settings](https://us.posthog.com/settings/project#variables). Finally, click the three-dot menu next to the**Save** button then copy the HTTP endpoint link.
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## Setting up your webhook in GitHub
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With the HTTP endpoint link from Val Town, go the settings page of the repository you want to track. Once there:
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1. Click **Webhooks** in the sidebar and then **Add webhook**.
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2. Paste your HTTP endpoint link into the Payload URL and choose `application/json` as the content type.
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3. Change events that trigger the webhook to selected events, then unselect **Pushes** and select **Stars**.
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4. Click **Add webhook**.
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> **Note:** You can also choose other GitHub events like deployments, forks, issues, pushes, pull requests, releases, and more.
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Now, go to your repo and star it. You should see an event with the relevant information captured in PostHog.
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<ProductScreenshot
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imageLight="https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/v1711401484/posthog.com/contents/images/tutorials/github-star-tracker/event-light.png"
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imageDark="https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/v1711401485/posthog.com/contents/images/tutorials/github-star-tracker/event-dark.png"
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alt="Event in PostHog"
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classes="rounded"
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/>
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## Analyzing GitHub stars in PostHog
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To visualize star data in PostHog, create an insight by going to the [product analytics tab](https://us.posthog.com/insights) and clicking **New insight**. Select `GitHub Star` as the event for your series and visualize it using a time series line chart or total value number.
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<ProductScreenshot
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imageLight="https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/v1711472788/posthog.com/contents/images/tutorials/github-star-tracker/stars-insight-light.png"
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imageDark="https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/v1711472789/posthog.com/contents/images/tutorials/github-star-tracker/stars-insight-dark.png"
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alt="GitHub Stars insight in PostHog"
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classes="rounded"
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/>
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You can also [set up up the Slack destination](/docs/cdp/destinations/slack) to send a message every time you receive a new star.
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## Further reading
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- [How to capture events from Calendly webhooks](/tutorials/calendly-webhooks)
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- [How to capture new RSS items in PostHog (releases, blogs, status)](/tutorials/rss-item-capture)
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- [Using the PostHog API to capture events](/tutorials/api-capture-events)
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