![Today I finally tackled something that has annoyed me for a while since switching most of my editing/digital gardening/second brain-writing over to Emacs.
Whenever I took 30 minutes and tried to get title fetching of links to work, I couldn't get it to work in this self-allotted time. So I asked Opus to do the dumbest thing possible: Just fetch it via curl, and then apply stuff asynchronously.
(Obviously the other, non-dumb way should work too, but I've spent way to much time on this now either way.)
(And apparently there's also `url-insert-file-contents`, maybe I'gonna try that some other time.)
```elisp
(defun flt--url-at-point ()
"Get URL at point, or nil."
(thing-at-point 'url))
(defun flt--url-from-kill-ring ()
"Get URL from kill ring if it looks like one, or nil."
(let ((text (current-kill 0 t)))
(when (and text (string-match-p "\\`https?://" text))
(string-trim text))))
(defun flt--get-url ()
"Get URL from point first, then kill ring. Nil if neither has one."
(or (flt--url-at-point)
(flt--url-from-kill-ring)))
(defun flt--extract-title (html)
"Extract <title> content from HTML string."
(when (string-match "<title[^>]*>\\([^<]*\\)</title>" html)
(string-trim (match-string 1 html))))
(defun flt--insert-markdown-link (url title marker)
"Replace URL at MARKER with a markdown link, or insert at MARKER."
(with-current-buffer (marker-buffer marker)
(save-excursion
(goto-char marker)
;; If there's a raw URL at point, replace it
(let ((url-bounds (thing-at-point-bounds-of-url-at-point)))
(if url-bounds
(progn
(delete-region (car url-bounds) (cdr url-bounds))
(insert (format "%s" title url)))
(insert (format "%s" title url)))))))
(defun flt-fetch-link-title ()
"Fetch the title of a URL (at point or kill ring) and insert a markdown link.
If point is on a URL, replaces it. Otherwise inserts at point."
(interactive)
(let ((url (flt--get-url)))
(if (not url)
(message "No URL found at point or in kill ring.")
(let ((marker (point-marker))
(buf (generate-new-buffer " *flt-curl*")))
(message "Fetching title for %s..." url)
(make-process
:name "flt-curl"
:buffer buf
:command (list "curl" "-sL" "-m" "10"
"-H" "User-Agent: Emacs"
"--" url)
:sentinel
(lambda (proc _event)
(when (eq (process-status proc) 'exit)
(let ((title
(with-current-buffer (process-buffer proc)
(flt--extract-title (buffer-string)))))
(if title
(progn
(flt--insert-markdown-link url title marker)
(message "Inserted: %s" title url))
(message "Could not extract title from %s" url)))
(kill-buffer (process-buffer proc))
(set-marker marker nil))))))))
(map! :leader
:desc "->title" :nv "d f" #'flt-fetch-link-title)
```
And in the meantime, I also learned that _markers_ exist!
So now, I can fetch link titles again, like I'm used to :)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fzyhtjbjqeoj2pmjajl5ehou/bafkreibd6gt3rjjg3jwc36prm3tew6scsri5wetrfto7jckquw7opoveae)
Today I finally tackled something that has annoyed me for a while since switching most of my editing/digital gardening/second brain-writing over to Emacs. Whenever I took 30 minutes and tried to get title fetching of links to work, I couldn't get it to work in this self-allotted time. So I asked Opus to do the dumbest thing possible: Just fetch it via curl, and then apply stuff asynchronously. (Obviously the other, non-dumb way should work too, but I've spent way to much time on this now either way.) (And apparently there's also `url-insert-file-contents`, maybe I'gonna try that some other time.) ```elisp (defun flt--url-at-point () "Get URL at point, or nil." (thing-at-point 'url)) (defun flt--url-from-kill-ring () "Get URL from kill ring if it looks like one, or nil." (let ((text (current-kill 0 t))) (when (and text (string-match-p "\\`https?://" text)) (string-trim text)))) (defun flt--get-url () "Get URL from point first, then kill ring. Nil if neither has one." (or (flt--url-at-point) (flt--url-from-kill-ring))) (defun flt--extract-title (html) "Extract <title> content from HTML string." (when (string-match "<title[^>]*>\\([^<]*\\)</title>" html) (string-trim (match-string 1 html)))) (defun flt--insert-markdown-link (url title marker) "Replace URL at MARKER with a markdown link, or insert at MARKER." (with-current-buffer (marker-buffer marker) (save-excursion (goto-char marker) ;; If there's a raw URL at point, replace it (let ((url-bounds (thing-at-point-bounds-of-url-at-point))) (if url-bounds (progn (delete-region (car url-bounds) (cdr url-bounds)) (insert (format "%s" title url))) (insert (format "%s" title url))))))) (defun flt-fetch-link-title () "Fetch the title of a URL (at point or kill ring) and insert a markdown link. If point is on a URL, replaces it. Otherwise inserts at point." (interactive) (let ((url (flt--get-url))) (if (not url) (message "No URL found at point or in kill ring.") (let ((marker (point-marker)) (buf (generate-new-buffer " *flt-curl*"))) (message "Fetching title for %s..." url) (make-process :name "flt-curl" :buffer buf :command (list "curl" "-sL" "-m" "10" "-H" "User-Agent: Emacs" "--" url) :sentinel (lambda (proc _event) (when (eq (process-status proc) 'exit) (let ((title (with-current-buffer (process-buffer proc) (flt--extract-title (buffer-string))))) (if title (progn (flt--insert-markdown-link url title marker) (message "Inserted: %s" title url)) (message "Could not extract title from %s" url))) (kill-buffer (process-buffer proc)) (set-marker marker nil)))))))) (map! :leader :desc "->title" :nv "d f" #'flt-fetch-link-title) ``` And in the meantime, I also learned that _markers_ exist! So now, I can fetch link titles again, like I'm used to :)
Async Link Fetching in Emacs
#TIL #Emacs #DoomEmacs
