iptvnator/apps/website

IPTVnator Website

The website is an Astro static site deployed to GitHub Pages at https://4gray.github.io/iptvnator/.

Blog Comments

Blog posts render Giscus comments from apps/website/src/components/GiscusComments.astro. Giscus stores comments in GitHub Discussions for 4gray/iptvnator and maps each page to a discussion by pathname, including the GitHub Pages base path such as /iptvnator/blog/why-external-players-help/.

The embed is click-to-load: the configuration sits as data-* attributes on a "Show comments" button and the giscus.app script is created only when a reader presses it, so opening a post requests nothing from giscus.app or github.com. Keep it that way — pasting the upstream <script src="https://giscus.app/client.js"> snippet back into the component would contact both for every reader, and tools/testing/website-giscus-comments.test.mjs fails when that script tag appears in the delivered HTML.

The embed is wired to the dedicated Blog comments discussion category:

• Repository id: MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkyMTMxOTQ3Mzg=
• Category id: DIC_kwDODLUX8s4C9eBJ
• Mapping: pathname
• Theme: transparent_dark

If the category is recreated, query the new category id:

gh api graphql \
  -f owner=4gray \
  -f name=iptvnator \
  -f query='query($owner:String!, $name:String!) { repository(owner:$owner, name:$name) { discussionCategories(first:25) { nodes { id name slug isAnswerable } } } }'

Then update data-category-id in GiscusComments.astro.

Moderation happens in GitHub Discussions. Maintainers can hide, delete, lock, or move discussions and comments from the repository Discussions UI.

Fonts And Third-Party Requests

A delivered page must make no third-party request. The build is checked against this: fonts come from the @fontsource packages imported in src/layouts/BaseLayout.astro and are emitted as .woff2 beside the site (never from a font CDN), the author avatar is public/author-4gray.jpg rather than a githubusercontent.com URL, and comments are click-to-load as described above.

The display family is the variable package, which declares itself as Bricolage Grotesque Variable — that exact name leads the display stack in tailwind.config.mjs, with the static Bricolage Grotesque kept behind it as a fallback. Adding a weight or style means adding its @fontsource import; nothing is fetched at runtime.

Before adding any embed (analytics, a video, a widget, a webfont), check what it loads. Keeping the page free of outside requests is what keeps it fast and keeps the site from needing a consent banner.

Download Pages

/download/ plus /download/windows/, /download/macos/, /download/linux/ and /download/docker/ (the self-hosted browser version: quick start, variables, tags, FAQ, with docker/README.md as the reference behind it) are landing pages (apps/website/src/pages/download/). They exist for search visibility on "IPTVnator download" style queries and to spare users the 27-asset GitHub release page; each carries OS-specific install steps, requirements, an FAQ and SoftwareApplication / FAQPage / BreadcrumbList structured data. Shared pieces live in src/components/download/ and reuse the blog components (StepRail, Alert, FaqAccordion, CopyCommand).

Latest-release resolution

Direct asset links need the release version, so src/lib/downloads.ts resolves it at build time:

1. GET https://api.github.com/repos/4gray/iptvnator/releases/latest (8 s timeout). The asset list from the published release is authoritative: options whose file is missing are dropped, sizes and the publish date come from the API. deploy-website.yml passes GITHUB_TOKEN to the build so the call is authenticated.
2. Fallback: the root package.json version with the asset naming pattern from electron-builder.json. This is deterministic but cannot prove the files exist yet (a version bump lands on master before the release is published), so a warning is printed. Set WEBSITE_SKIP_RELEASE_FETCH=1 to force it for offline or reproducible builds.

Both paths produce the same page structure. Adding an artifact means adding a DownloadOption (matcher + fallback name) in downloads.ts; the pages and the hub pick it up. The homepage SoftwareApplication schema reads the same resolved version.

pnpm nx test website builds the site and runs tools/testing/website-download-pages.test.mjs, which checks titles, canonicals, direct asset links, JSON-LD, cross-links and sitemap entries without depending on a specific version.

Two of the suites drive the built site in a real browser: tools/testing/website-screenshot-showcase.test.mjs (the home page channel switcher: autoplay, hover/focus pausing, keyboard navigation, deferred frame sources) and tools/testing/website-home-sections.test.mjs (the hero and download panel following the visitor's OS, the copy buttons). They share tools/testing/website-browser-support.mjs, which serves dist/apps/website on a loopback port and launches Chromium from the Playwright download or, failing that, the system Chrome/Chromium channel. Without any Chromium the browser half is skipped locally (the structural checks still run) and fails in CI, so a green local run only proves the interactions when a browser was found — run pnpm exec playwright install chromium once if the skip shows up in your output.

Guides

Evergreen how-to posts live in the blog collection next to release notes (xtream-codes-setup-guide.mdx, stalker-portal-setup-guide.mdx, m3u-playlist-epg-setup-guide.mdx, offline-downloads-guide.mdx, alternative-sources-guide.mdx, remote-control-guide.mdx and epg-wrong-program-fix.mdx in apps/website/src/content/blog/). Three conventions set them apart:

• ContentDisclaimer. Every guide opens with src/components/blog/ContentDisclaimer.astro right after its intro: the general variant states that IPTVnator ships no content, the offline variant (downloads, recordings) adds what the feature is for and that keeping a copy is governed by the provider's terms and local law. Reuse it instead of rewriting the notice per post, and keep the surrounding prose to "content you already stream", never "download from your provider".

• faq frontmatter. An optional list of { q, a } entries. BlogPost.astro renders it as an accordion after the body and emits a FAQPage JSON-LD block next to the BlogPosting one, so the answers can surface as rich results.

• Screenshots from the capture script. Guide frames are captured by pnpm release:screenshots --group guides into apps/website/public/blog/guides/screenshots/<slug>-<theme>.png; the shots are declared in tools/release/screenshots.manifest.json with "group": "guides" and never appear in a release run. The download-manager shots need real transfers, so the Xtream mock's marketing scenario serves movies and episodes from generated local bytes (downloadStreamFixture: 'local-media') instead of redirecting to the public HLS stub, and the capture stubs Electron's folder dialog so "Change Folder" authorizes a folder inside the isolated data dir rather than the real OS Downloads folder (installDownloadFolderDialogStub in tools/release/capture-app-driver.ts). The alternative-sources shots seed a second Xtream source from the mock's marketing2 scenario (identical catalog, "Fictional Xtream Backup"), which is what makes the Sources chip appear; like the Stalker portal it is added only for shots that walk into it, because it adds a card to the dashboard. The remote-control phone view is a browser shot: the manifest entry names a loopback URL and a mobile viewport, and the capture frames it in a separate Chromium page instead of the Electron window, behind the same network and content guards (captureBrowserShot in tools/release/capture-release-screenshots.ts). Its setup selects a live channel and saves the remote-control setting, so the app's own server answers on port 8765 for the duration of the run. The EPG-mapping shots import the mock's XMLTV guide (/demo/guide.xml, channel ids that match no playlist tvg-id on purpose) into the isolated database through the settings, then right-click a channel of the M3U fixture and search the dialog.

tools/testing/website-guides.test.mjs (part of pnpm nx test website) checks each guide for the FAQPage schema, a link to the download hub and the presence of every referenced screenshot in the build output.

Blog Tags

Blog tags are a closed vocabulary in apps/website/src/lib/blog-tags.ts (release, guide, troubleshooting, playback, m3u, xtream-codes, stalker-portal, epg, macos, security). The content collection schema only accepts those slugs, so a typo in a post's tags: fails the build. Every tag with at least one published post gets a hub page at /blog/tag/<tag>/ (src/pages/blog/tag/[tag].astro, CollectionPage + BreadcrumbList JSON-LD), the blog index and the hubs show a "Topics" rail with post counts (BlogTagRail.astro), and every chip on a card or a post header links to its hub (BlogTagChip.astro). The cards are <article> elements with the title link stretched over the whole card, because a card that is one big <a> cannot hold chip links.

Add a tag only when it will hold more than one post for good: each tag is an indexable page, and a hub with a single post is a thin page. Add the slug to the registry with a label and a one-sentence description; nothing else needs to change. tools/testing/website-blog-tags.test.mjs checks the rail, every hub, the chip targets, the sitemap and the absence of nested anchors.

Feature Pages

/features/ plus one page per feature (m3u-player, xtream-codes-player, stalker-portal-player, epg, remote-control) live in apps/website/src/pages/features/. They target " player" style searches, reuse the download-page sections, and each carries SoftwareApplication (with featureList) / FAQPage / BreadcrumbList structured data. The registry in src/lib/features.ts drives the hub, the per-page switcher, the homepage feature cards and tools/testing/website-feature-pages.test.mjs; adding a page means adding one registry entry and one .astro file. Screenshots come only from the mock-backed guide and release captures, never from the older homepage screenshots that show real channel names.

Comparison Pages

/compare/ plus one page per decision the app asks users to make (m3u-vs-xtream-vs-stalker, playback-engines, desktop-vs-browser, iptvnator-vs-vlc, iptvnator-vs-kodi, computer-vs-tv-box) live in apps/website/src/pages/compare/; the registry is src/lib/comparisons.ts. Most of them compare IPTVnator's own options against each other, so every claim is checkable against this repository.

Each page opens with a one-paragraph verdict (CompareHero), carries at least one ComparisonTable (cells are true, false or a qualifying string) and emits WebPage / FAQPage / BreadcrumbList JSON-LD from src/lib/comparison-schema.ts — deliberately not SoftwareApplication, since these pages are guidance rather than a product listing, and tools/testing/website-compare-pages.test.mjs asserts that.

Pages that name other software

Naming another project is a product decision the maintainer makes, not a technical one. Where it has been made, the page follows stricter rules, and website-compare-pages.test.mjs enforces the first two through its NAMES_THIRD_PARTY_SOFTWARE set:

• a dated ThirdPartyNote (src/components/compare/ThirdPartyNote.astro) stating that the other project is independent and endorses nothing,
• claims carrying the month they were checked, because another project can add a feature the day after the page is written,
• only stable, publicly documented platform and feature facts — never a claim that something is missing unless it was actually checked,
• no third-party logos, brand styling, download links or affiliate links.

Prefer describing what IPTVnator does and letting the difference speak. The comparison that works best is the one where the other project is a partner rather than a rival: iptvnator-vs-vlc ends on the external-player integration, because that is the honest answer.