emojificate 0.1.2

A Python implementation of a concept of using fallback images, alt text, title text and aria labels to represent emoji in HTML code in a more accessible method.

Emojificate is a Python implementation of a concept of using fallback images, alt text, title text and aria labels to represent emoji in HTML code in a more accessible method.

Usage

To convert a string from the command line:

$ python3 -m emojificate "I 💜 emoji 😊"
I <img src="https://twemoji.maxcdn.com/36x36/1f49c.png" alt="💜" title="Purple Heart"
aria-label="Emoji: Purple Heart"> emoji <img src="https://twemoji.maxcdn.com/36x36/1f60a.png"
alt="😊" title="Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes" aria-label="Emoji: Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes">

Or, if you’ve got a Django project, put emojificate into your INSTALLED_APPS, and then use the following in a template:

{% load emojificate %}
This is some {{ user_content|emojificate }} that has emoji in it.

{% emojified %}
This is some template content that 💜 emoji as well.
{% endemojified %}

Implementation

TL;DR: Take a string, split it into token, and if a token is emoji, process it into a nice format.

Splitting the string is a problem, because at the moment it does not handle Zero Width Joining sequences. However, native Python string tokenization does work for the most part.

Given a list of tokens, we can leverage the native unicodedata to:

• see if a token is a unicode Symbol (an emoji)

• get the codepoint for the emoji, and

• get the name of the emoji

From there, we construct an <img> replacement for the emoji:

• Use images from twemoji, Twitter’s emoji set

• Have an alt parameter containing the original emoji. This allows for copying-pasting.

• Use the name of the emoji in the title parameter. This allows for hover-tooltips.

• Add an aria-label for screen-reader accessibility.

For more information, see Solve For Emoji.

Limitations

• Does not handle Zero Width Join Sequences; for example: 🖐🏽, 👩‍👩‍👧