now we have an official page about our policy on security disclosures - please submit them when you find them 🙏 https://docs.val.town/security-responsible-disclosure

How I let other users mutate @myhandle.state: I consistently want to write functions for other people to use like:

jsx
const notifyIfResourceChanged = () => {
  const data = await checkSomeResource();
  if(data !== @me.lastData) console.email('Something changed!');
  @me.lastData = data;
}

Sadly, ^this is no longer possible due to the recent security updates : https://blog.val.town/blog/restricted-library-mode Instead, I achieve the same thing API mode:

jsx
// public state val
const PUBLIC_STATE = {};

// public state updater, called via API mode
const setPublicState = (key: string, value: any) => {
  const keys = key.split("/");
  let current = @joey.PUBLIC_STATE;
  for (let i = 0; i < keys.length - 1; i++) {
    const key = keys[i];
    if (!current[key]) {
      current[key] = {};
    }
    current = current[key];
  }
  current[keys[keys.length - 1]] = value;
};

^ This allows users to update update PUBLIC_STATE deeply:

api(@joey.setPublicState, 'a/b/c', 5)

, which would result in

{ a: { b: { c: 5 } } }

Here’s an example that will email you whenever your repo get’s a new star on Github, you can just call this function directly (and schedule if desired), without having to fork it to get state setters working: https://www.val.town/v/joey.emailOnGithubStar

jsx
// edited for brevity
const emailOnGithubStar = (userName:string, projectName:string) => {
  const stars = await @joey.getGithubStarsForRepo(userName, projectName);
  if (stars !== @joey.PUBLIC_STATE.STAR_COUNTS[project]) console.email('New star!');
  await api(@joey.setPublicState, `STAR_COUNTS/${project}`, stars);
}

UI suggestion: multiple unexecuted draft vals on the homepage

Hey friends! I bunch of you have asked us about our migration away from Supabase, so @tmcw wrote a blog about it! @everyone https://blog.val.town/blog/migrating-from-supabase

Thread automatically created by ballingt in #1020432421243592717

hey, I can't find anything about pricing - how does it work?

what have I done

It would be nice to provide a properly documented API — the current documentation is at https://docs.val.town/vals#7a2b1483634045fb9977cf39dd182bae > Included API > Vals are evaluated on a limited subset of deno. It includes: > -

fetch

to make HTTP requests > -

Buffer

- to encode/decode strings > - dynamic

import

from npm and https > - [Contact us](https://docs.val.town/01c8eb9c534b4899802f3a9e31d540ab) if you’d like something else added 😊 However, there are other non-ECMAScript APIs which are indeed present, but are unrecognized according to the compiler diagnostic emitter — for example

TextEncoder

(see screenshot):

ts
const untitled_nmb5TU39 = (text: string): Uint8Array => {
  return new TextEncoder().encode(text); /* Error
             ~~~~~~~~~~~
  Cannot find name 'TextEncoder'. */
};

Using it in another val:

ts
const untitled_zu6PjEPZ = [...@me.untitled_nmb5TU39("hello world")];

outputs:

[
  104,
  101,
  108,
  108,
  111,
  32,
  119,
  111,
  114,
  108,
  100
]

The documentation currently shows a mix of using the

export

keyword and not using it, which is confusing. It doesn't appear to be necessary, and the auto-wrapped IIFEs (https://docs.val.town/vals#37b420a14a6141b093c193580dee145a) don't include it. Perhaps this can become more consistent in the future.

Thread automatically created by darrinm in #1020432421243592717

@stevekrouse Unless you’ve intentionally not created Discord forum channels for things like ideas/features/etc., it might be useful to have them for organizing feedback and keeping the bugs channel on-topic

The docs don't explain: why is

setTimeout

unavailable? If we need to implement a short-delayed retry behavior, it would be useful. This alternative hack works, but surely you don't want that kind of wasted CPU usage...

ts
// Not allowed:
function delay(ms: number): Promise<void> {
  return new Promise((res) => setTimeout(res, ms));
}

// But this works 😈:
async function delay(ms: number): Promise<void> {
  const futureTime = Date.now() + ms;
  while (Date.now() < futureTime) {/* Warm the CPU 🫠 */}
}

Hi everyone. So I export a val

getValues

that returns an object

@me.values

and fetch

getValues

from a web page. I'm seeing response times in the range from 2.2-6.1s. Is this what I should expect?

Thread automatically created by darrinm in #1020432421243592717

@everyone - (randomly) we have four launches today, so hang onto your hats! First two: #1 - replyTo in

console.email

https://twitter.com/stevekrouse/status/1661000255523913729?s=20 #2 - folder & full code search https://twitter.com/stevekrouse/status/1661006102664998915?s=20

Thread automatically created by gautam1808 in #1020432421243592717

@everyone launch #3 - you can now RENAME VALS https://twitter.com/stevekrouse/status/1661092538160168972?s=20

@everyone the 4th & final launch today is really just a little teaser. hopefully we launch the real thing tomorrow: hnFollow, the "app", version 6! https://twitter.com/stevekrouse/status/1661120328775467008?s=20

Thread automatically created by quasor in #1020432421243592717

Thread automatically created by darrinm in #1020432421243592717

Since Github's API treats unauthenticated coming from the same IP address towards one rate limit, does that mean every valtown github api call (https://www.val.town/search?q=api.github.com) is grouped together from github's perspective?

Thread automatically created by stevekrouse in #1020432421243592717

Re-launching hnFollow: email notifications when authors you follow post in Hacker News @everyone The idea is that we want to make it as easy as installing an app to get started with vals made by the community. Under the hood, it's just a normal val, with a readme, and a couple other superficial niceties. Would love your feedback 🙏 https://www.val.town/v/rodrigotello.hnFollow

I want function type search (like hoogle https://hoogle.haskell.org/) for vals

I see the vals doc got some improvements. nice!

2-click, jerry-rigged night mode if you're using Arc: https://arc.net/boost/0C2FA225-3CA6-4273-B755-217691B5F9B5 Now you just need a little pixelized night skyline in the background

Why do I keep seeing this? https://www.val.town/v/alp.confession It's almost always at the top of the "explore" page

Hi! Wanted to say that I really enjoy val.town! I have managed to setup some nice counters on my site with it but for the love of God I can't manage to do a form submittion. Is there anybody here willing and able to assist me? Here is the code I'm trying to run :

let body = { email: email };
  const response = await fetch(
        "https://api.val.town/v1/run/politelyinvinciblepointer.handleForm",
        {
          method: "POST",
          body: JSON.stringify(body),
        }
      );
      console.log(response);

I get HTTP 500. The email variable is a simple string. Thanks

⚡️ Launching Val Town Pro (beta) @everyone Val Town will always provide a generous free plan. Now you can now upgrade to run longer evaluations, make more fetches, store more data, and retain tracings longer. https://docs.val.town/pricing

Thread automatically created by Clare in #1020432421243592717