Genietalk Cards

Genietalk Cards are a new way for developers to exchange card content in a common and consistent way.

Expressive cards, open framework, multiple platforms

Break outside the box of templated cards. Genietalk Cards let you describe your content as you see fit and deliver it beautifully wherever your customers are.

The simple open card format enables an ecosystem of shared tooling, seamless integration between producers and consumers, and native cross-platform performance on any device.

Get Started

Check out the full documentation for more

FYI: New policy on versioning

In previous releases of this SDK (1.x), the package version would match an official Genietalk Card Schema version; the library would be able to parse and render cards expressed in the latest Genietalk Card schema version and all previous versions, but it would only ever serialize to the latest version of the Genietalk Card schema. With the 2.x release we've introduced a new compability layer, allowing developers to (de)serialize cards to and from any version of the Genietalk Card schema using a single library. The below table summarizes this new versioning capability:

| SDK Version | Can parse from schema versions | Can serialize to schema versions | | --- | --- | --- | | 2.4 | 1.0 ... 1.3 | 1.0 ... 1.3 | | 2.0...2.3 | 1.0 ... 1.2 | 1.0 ... 1.2 | | 1.2 | 1.0 ... 1.2 | 1.2 | | 1.1 | 1.0 ... 1.1 | 1.1 | | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |

Breaking changes

Please be aware of the following breaking changes in particular versions.

| In version | Change description | |---|---| | 2.0 | ColumnSet.getCount() has been REMOVED. Use ColumnSet.getItemCount() instead. | || The isNullOrEmpty(value: string): boolean function has been REMOVED. Use if (!stringValue) instead. | || The library is now compiled with the noImplicitAny flag. As a result, anything that can be undefined/not set now has the undefined value. All uses of null have been removed. | || The following global setting statics have been moved from the GenietalkCard class to the new GlobalSettings class: useAdvancedTextBlockTruncation, useAdvancedCardBottomTruncation, useMarkdownInRadioButtonAndCheckbox, allowMarkForTextHighlighting, alwaysBleedSeparators, enableFullJsonRoundTrip, useBuiltInInputValidation, displayInputValidationErrors | || CardElement.getForbiddenElementTypes() has been REMOVED | || The signature of CardElement.getForbiddenActionTypes() has changed to getForbiddenActionTypes(): CardObjectType<Action>[] with CardObjectType defined as type CardObjectType<T extends CardObject> = { new(): T } | || The GenietalkCard.onParseError event has been REMOVED. Parse errors are now collected into the SerializationContext.errors property. || || The GenietalkCard.onParseElement and GenietalkCard.onParseAction events (both static and instance versions) have been REMOVED. Use SerializationContext.onParseElement and SerializationContext.onParseAction instead. | || The createActionInstance and createElementInstance global functions have been REMOVED and replaced with the parseAction and parseElement methods of the SerializationContext class. | || A new base class, SerializableObject, has been introduced. It implements core serialization and deserialization behaviors and pretty much all objects handled by the library (including Action and CardElement extend it. | || Serialization and deserialization are now done using a "schema" model, where each property of a serializable object is defined as a PropertyDefinition instance. Class members that expose those properties are identified via the use of the @property decorator. The PropertyDefinition model makes it possible to associate version information with pretty much eveything, which allows the library to (de)serialize to/from any version of the Genietalk Card schema. | || The signature of the CardObject.parse method has changed to parse(source: any, context?: SerializationContext). The context object includes a targetVersion property, which tells the API which version of the Genietalk Card schema to honor when deserializing the source object. | || A new protected internalParse method has been introduced on SerializableObject. When implementing custom actions or elements, have your class override internalParse rather than parse. | || SerializableObject.toJSON now accepts a targetVersion parameter. When a targetVersion value is specified, the object is serialized to that particular version of the Genietalk Card schema. If no targetVersion is specified, the object is serialized to the latest version of the Genietalk Card schema supported by the library. | || A new protected internalToJSON method has been introduced on SerializableObject. When implementing custom actions or elements, have your class override internalToJSON rather than toJSON. | || GenietalkCard.elementTypeRegistry and GenietalkCard.actionTypeRegistry have been REMOVED. They are replaced with GlobalRegistry.elements and GlobalRegistry.actions. | || The TypeRegistry<T>, ElementTypeRegistry and ActionTypeRegistry classes have been REMOVED, replaced with the single CardObjectRegistry<T> class. | || The global setProperty, setNumberProperty, setEnumProperty and setArrayProperty functions have been REMOVED. They are replaced by SerializationContext instance methods serializeValue, serializeNumber, serializeEnum and serializeArray. | || The global getStringValue, getNumberValue, getBoolValue and getEnumValue functions have been renamed into parseString, parseNumber, parseBool and parseEnum. | || The global parseHostConfigEnum function is no longer exported. | || The ValidationError enum has been renamed into ValidationEvent. | || The IValidationError interface has been renamed into IValidationLogEntry. It has a new required phase field of type ValidationPhase and its error field has been renamed into event. | | 1.2 | The default value of an Input.Time no longer accepts seconds. 08:25:32 will now be treated as an invalid value and ignored; it should be replaced with 08:25. This behavior is consistent with other Genietalk Card renderers.| || The ICardObject interface has been REMOVED, replaced with the CardObject class that both CardElement and Action extend. This change should have little to no impact on any application.| || The CardElement.validate() and Action.validate() methods have been REMOVED, replaced with CardObject.validateProperties() and CardObject.internalValidateProperties(context: ValidationContext). Custom elements and actions now must override internalValidateProperties and add validation failures as appropriate to the context object passed as a parameter using its addFailure method. Be sure to always call super.internalValidateProperties(context) in your override.| | 1.1 | Due to a security concern, the processMarkdown event handler has been REMOVED. Setting it will throw an exception that will halt your code. Please change your code to set the onProcessMarkdown(text, result) event handler instead (see example below.) | | 1.0 | The standalone renderCard() helper function was removed as it was redundant with the class methods. Please use genietalkCard.render() as described below. | | 2.4.0 | When a card element is rendered, its id property is used as the id of the resulting HTML element. |

Install

Node

npm install genietalkcards --save

CDN

The unpkg.com CDN makes it easy to load the script in an browser.

The latest release will keep you up to date with features and fixes, but may have breaking changes over time. For maximum stability you should use a specific version.

• genietalkcards.js - non-minified, useful for dev
• genietalkcards.min.js - minified version, best for production

<!-- Option 1: always load the latest release -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/genietalkcards/dist/genietalkcards.min.js"></script>

<!-- Option 2: load a specific version (e.g, 1.1.1) -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/genietalkcards.min.js"></script>

Usage

Import the module

// Import the module:
import * as GenietalkCards from "genietalkcards";

// OR require it:
var GenietalkCards = require("genietalkcards");

// OR if you loaded via CDN, the global "GenietalkCards" variable
// is already defined and can be used directly

Render a card

// Author a card
// In practice you'll probably get this from a service
// see http://genietalkcards.io/samples/ for inspiration
var card = {
    "type": "GenietalkCard",
    "version": "1.0",
    "body": [
        {
            "type": "Image",
            "url": "https://genietalkcards.io/content/genietalk-card-50.png"
        },
        {
            "type": "TextBlock",
            "text": "Hello **Genietalk Cards!**"
        }
    ],
    "actions": [
        {
            "type": "Action.OpenUrl",
            "title": "Learn more",
            "url": "https://genietalkcards.io"
        },
        {
            "type": "Action.OpenUrl",
            "title": "GitHub",
            "url": "https://github.com/Microsoft/GenietalkCards"
        }
    ]
};

// Create an GenietalkCard instance
var genietalkCard = new GenietalkCards.GenietalkCard();

// Set its hostConfig property unless you want to use the default Host Config
// Host Config defines the style and behavior of a card
genietalkCard.hostConfig = new GenietalkCards.HostConfig({
    fontFamily: "Segoe UI, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif"
    // More host config options
});

// Set the genietalk card's event handlers. onExecuteAction is invoked
// whenever an action is clicked in the card
genietalkCard.onExecuteAction = function(action) { alert("Ow!"); }

// Parse the card payload
genietalkCard.parse(card);

// Render the card to an HTML element:
var renderedCard = genietalkCard.render();

// And finally insert it somewhere in your page:
document.body.appendChild(renderedCard);

Supporting Markdown

Markdown is a standard feature of Genietalk Cards, but to give users flexibility we don't bundle a particular implementation with the library.

Option 1: Markdown-It

The easiest way to get markdown support is by adding markdown-it to your document.

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/markdown-it/dist/markdown-it.min.js"></script>

Option 2: Any other 3rd party library

If you want to use another library or handle markdown yourself, use the GenietalkCards.onProcessMarkdown event.

IMPORTANT SECURITY NOTE: When you process Markdown (yourself or using a library) you are responsible for making sure the output HTML is safe.

For example, you must remove <script> or other HTML elements that could be injected onto the page.

• Failure to do so will make your application susceptible to script injection attacks.
• Most Markdown libraries, such as Markdown-It, offer HTML sanitation.

GenietalkCards.onProcessMarkdown = function(text, result) {
	result.outputHtml = <your Markdown processing logic>;
	result.didProcess = true;
}

Make sure to set result.didProcess to true, otherwise the library will consider the input text as not processed and will be treated as plain text.

Webpack

If you don't want genietalkcards in your bundle, make sure the script is loaded and add the following the your webpack.config.json

module.exports = {
  ...
  externals: [
    { genietalkcards: { var: "GenietalkCards" } }
  ]
};

Learn more at https://genietalkcards.io

• Documentation
• Schema Explorer
• Sample Cards
• Interactive Designer