Client side reply contexts with JavaScript

Reply contexts are an IndieWeb feature that displays a short summary view of a post that you’re replying to, liking, reposting, or RSVPing to.

Most reply context implementations run on the server, when publishing or updating a post. They fetch the original post, extract the useful parts, store them locally, and include them when rendering the reply post.

This is fine, but there’s another option. You could write a JavaScript library that injects reply contexts into a post after it’s rendered on the client, in the browser. The interesting part is that this library could work on any CMS; all you need to do is serve it!

Here are the steps it would take after a document is loaded:

Thoughts?

I’ve long avoided implementing reply contexts here on snarfed.org. I very much enjoy using WordPress, but I don’t particularly enjoy hacking on it. Having said that, I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind for a while now, and mentioned it to enough people, so I decided it was time to write it up.

Also on IndieNews.

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