# Setup a third party client

This guide will explain how to setup a connection with a third party client and use it everywhere in your code.

In our example we will use the GitHub Node.JS client OctoKit REST.js.

This guide could also be used to setup an Axios client instance.

# Installation

First you will have to install the client package in your application by running one of the following command.

# Create a hook

To init the client, we will use the hooks system. Hooks let you add new features in your Strapi application.

Hooks are loaded one time, at the server start.

Lets create our GitHub hook.

Path — ./hooks/github/index.js

module.exports = strapi => {
  return {
    async initialize() {
      console.log('my hook is loaded');
    },
  };
};

When the hook is created, we have to enable it to say to Strapi to use this hook.

Path — ./config/hook.json

{
  ...
  "github": {
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Now you can start your application, you should see a log my hook is loaded in your terminal.

# Initialize the client

First lets update the config file to add your GitHub token. By following the documentation you will also find the way to use GitHub applications.

Path — ./config/hook.json

{
  ...
  "github": {
    "enabled": true,
    "token": "bf78d4fc3c1767019870476d6d7cc8961383d80f"
  }
}

Now we have to load the GitHub client.

Path — ./hooks/github/index.js

const GitHubAPI = require('@octokit/rest');

module.exports = strapi => {
  return {
    async initialize() {
      const { token } = strapi.config.hook.github;

      strapi.services.github = new GitHubAPI({
        userAgent: `${strapi.config.info.name} v${strapi.config.info.version}`,
        auth: `token ${token}`,
      });
    },
  };
};

And here it is.

You can now use strapi.services.github everywhere in your code to use the GitHub client.

To simply test if it works, lets update the bootstrap.js function to log your GitHub profile.

Path — ./config/functions/bootstrap.js

module.exports = async () => {
  const data = await strapi.services.github.users.getAuthenticated();
  console.log(data);
};

Restart your server and you should see your GitHub profile data.

# Configs by environment

You would probably want specific configurations for development and production environment.

To do so, we will update some configurations.

You have to move your github configs from ./config/hook.json to ./config/environments/development.json, then remove it from the hook.json file.

And in your GitHub hook, you will have to replace strapi.config.hook.github by strapi.config.currentEnvironment.github to access to the configs.

Path — ./config/environments/development.json

{
  "github": {
    "enabled": true,
    "token": "806506ab855a94e8608148315eeb39a44c29aee1"
  }
}

Path — ./hooks/github/index.js

const GitHubAPI = require('@octokit/rest');

module.exports = strapi => {
  return {
    async initialize() {
      const { token } = strapi.config.currentEnvironment.github;

      strapi.services.github = new GitHubAPI({
        userAgent: `${strapi.config.info.name} v${strapi.config.info.version}`,
        auth: `token ${token}`,
      });
    },
  };
};

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