Teem link preview is the independent node server that built as part of Google Summer of Code 2017 for the Project Teem. Below is some information about the functions and working of the server:
- The first task for which this server was built was to provide a way for the Teem app to fetch the opengraph meta data from the sites, links of whose users add in the link annotations in the Teem pad.
- The server basically gets the request from the Teem Application about the page for which meta data is to be fetched.
- Server makes a GET request to the given url and parses the response in order to get the meta data.
- The data is then sent back to the Teem App and it displays the data in the form of a popover that comes in the bottom of the given link.
This server was further extended for covering the second goal , which was to allow social sharing of Teems by proivding other bots with rich meta data content of the Teem being shared!
- We are using nginx to redirect the specific user agents to this server! Normal users are redirected to the Teem app whereas the bots are redirected to this server.
- When a bot hits this server, we basically grab the
urlIdof the Teem its trying to fetch. We then query the SwellRT server for the project model and render this meta data in the form of html and give it back to the bot.
Below is a screenshot of the preview that a whatsapp gets now vs. the preview with gnusocial used to get before the implementation.
Before
After
