[SOLVED] How do I get and download the contents of a file in GitHub using the REST API?

Issue

I am trying to use the GitHub API to retrieve and download the contents of a file in my GitHub repository to mimic how I am using the Azure DevOps REST API.

My ADO URL is:

https://dev.azure.com/<Org>/<Project>/_apis/git/repositories/<Repository>/items?versionType=branch&version=develop&path=<Path to file>/DEV1.yml&download=true

Above works perfectly fine and if I type that into my browser, it immediately downloads the DEV1.yml file.

I am trying to mimic this implementation using GitHub's REST API. My URL looks like:

https://api.github.com/repos/<Org>/<Repository>/contents/<Path to file>/DEV1.yml&download=true

This GitHub URL does not work in the browser, I assume it's because the repo is private and I need a token. However when I use curl:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <PAT>" https://api.github.com/repos/<Org>/<Repository>/contents/<Path to file>/DEV1.yml&download=true

This returns a large base64 encoded JSON object. I attempted to use the URL in place of the existing ADO one and it failed.

Are the 2 above URLs not the same?

Solution

Yes, it is different.

Github REST API download files has two steps.

1, The first step is get the download url.

The url format like this:

https://api.github.com/repos/<Project Name>/<Repository Name>/contents/<File Name>

The response format like this:

2, The second step is using the download url to get the file content.

The url format like this:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<Project Name>/<Repository Name>/main/<File Name>?token=<Random Token that related to Revision Version>

Please notice that the first step can't skip, otherwise you will be unable to get the revision token.

I can achieve your requirement using python:

import requests

#Define required information
project_name = "xxx"
repository_name = "xxx"
# repository_name = "xxx"
branch_name = "xxx"
File_name = "xxx"
PAT = "xxx"
url = "https://api.github.com/repos/"+project_name+"/"+repository_name+"/contents/"+File_name

#downoad file from github
payload = {}
headers = {
    'Authorization': 'token '+PAT
}

#download file
file_content = requests.request("GET", ((requests.request("GET", url, headers=headers, data=payload)).json())['download_url'], headers=headers, data=payload)
print(file_content.text)

Successfully get the latest contents(I am also based on private repository):

Answered By - Bowman Zhu-MSFT

Answer Checked By - David Goodson (WPSolving Volunteer)