valtownGeocities - Custom Website Publisher

A modernized custom website publisher that allows you to store and serve HTML websites via Val Town. Originally designed to work with Glif for AI-generated websites, but now supports any HTML content!

✨ What's New (Modernized Version)

🚀 Large HTML Support: Now handles very large HTML files (up to 10MB)
🛡️ Better Error Handling: Comprehensive validation and user-friendly error messages
🔧 Improved API: RESTful design with proper HTTP status codes
📊 Enhanced Data Storage: Tracks creation/update times and file sizes
🔒 Security: Key validation to prevent malicious inputs
🔄 Legacy Compatibility: Maintains backward compatibility with existing URLs
🐛 Bug Fixes: Fixed the [object Object] display issue

🚀 Quick Start

Basic Usage

Publish a Website

# POST HTML content directly
curl -X POST "https://your-val-url.web.val.run/?key=my-site" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/html" \
  -d "<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>"

# POST JSON with HTML (legacy format)
curl -X POST "https://your-val-url.web.val.run/?key=my-site" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"data": "<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>"}'

View a Website

# View in browser
https://your-val-url.web.val.run/?key=my-site

# Get JSON response with metadata
https://your-val-url.web.val.run/?key=my-site&format=json

🔧 API Reference

Method	URL Pattern	Description
`GET`	`/?key=<key>`	View published website
`POST`	`/?key=<key>`	Publish HTML content
`GET`	`/?key=<key>&format=json`	Get website data as JSON
`GET`	`/`	Admin interface (when no key provided)

Parameters

key (required for publish/view): Website identifier
- Format: Alphanumeric characters, hyphens, underscores only
- Max length: 100 characters
- Examples: my-site, blog_2024, test-page-1
format (optional): Response format
- html (default): Returns rendered HTML
- json: Returns JSON with metadata

Response Formats

HTML Response (default)

Returns the published HTML with a small footer indicating it's hosted by valtownGeocities.

JSON Response

{
  "data": {
    "html": "<html>...</html>",
    "createdAt": "2025-11-21T14:56:57.968Z",
    "updatedAt": "2025-11-21T14:56:57.968Z", 
    "size": 2722
  }
}

📝 Features

Core Features

Large File Support: Handle HTML files up to 10MB
Multiple Input Formats: Accept raw HTML or JSON with data field
Automatic Processing: Strips common formatting artifacts (like ```html blocks)
Metadata Tracking: Automatic creation/update timestamps and size tracking

Security & Validation

Key Validation: Secure key format validation prevents injection attacks
Size Limits: Prevents abuse with 10MB file size limit
Input Sanitization: Processes and cleans HTML input

Developer Experience

Better Error Messages: Clear, actionable error responses
HTTP Status Codes: Proper REST API status codes (400, 413, 500, etc.)
Legacy Support: Backward compatible with existing integrations

🔗 Integration with Glif

You can still use this with Glif for AI-generated websites:

Generate: Run a Glif that generates HTML: https://glif.app/@jamiedubs/glifs/clqecfqdd000tc3vk4i208jl3
Publish: The Glif will POST the generated HTML to your valtownGeocities instance
View: Access your website at: https://your-val-url.web.val.run/?key=YOURKEYHERE

🐛 Bugs Fixed

[object Object] Display: Fixed the major bug where websites showed [object Object] instead of actual HTML content
Large File Handling: Improved handling of large HTML payloads
Error Responses: Better error handling and user feedback
JSON Processing: Fixed JSON input parsing issues

🏗️ Project Structure

├── main.tsx              # Main application (HTTP trigger)
└── README.md            # This documentation

The modernized version consolidates everything into a single, well-structured file for better maintainability while preserving all functionality.

📊 Example Usage

# Test the modernized version
curl -X POST "https://your-val-url.web.val.run/?key=test" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/html" \
  -d "<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title>Test</title></head><body><h1>It works!</h1><p>Large HTML support ✅</p></body></html>"

# View the result
curl "https://your-val-url.web.val.run/?key=test"

# Get JSON metadata
curl "https://your-val-url.web.val.run/?key=test&format=json"

jamiedubs

valtownGeocities