Panoptikos is an image viewer for Reddit. You can see it in action at panoptikos.com.
The server-side code is written in Go, the client-side heavily relies on JavaScript. The JavaScript library used is Closure Library. Panoptikos is hosted on Google App Engine.
- You can select any subreddits you want.
- You can save the URL to save your selection of subreddits.
- By default, you see content from Reddit's ”Hot” section instead of from the ”New” section. This protects us largely from trolls that post NSFL content.
- High memory usage on clients because images outside the visible screen area are not removed from the page. Possible browser crashes if browser runs out of memory.
- Jerky scrolling because sometimes only high-resolution images can be used in previews.
- You can't switch between Reddit's "Hot", "New", "Controversial", "Top" sections. (Current default is "Hot".)
Install the Google App Engine SDK for Go if you haven't done so already. Then:
$ go get github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos
This operation may take a while.
Start the App Engine development server and tell it to serve Panoptikos:
$ /path/to/google_appengine/dev_appserver.py $GOPATH/src/github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos/app
Then, open your browser and go to http://localhost:8080/.
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Create a new application on appengine.google.com.
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Change the application id in
$GOPATH/src/github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos/app/app.yamlto the one you just used when you created the new application. -
Upload the app:
$ /path/to/google_appengine/appcfg.py update $GOPATH/src/github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos/app -
You can now access Panoptikos at
http://your_app_id.appspot.com.
Simply run:
$ /path/to/google_appengine/appcfg.py update $GOPATH/src/github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos/app
This replaces your already deployed version. If you want to keep your deployed version, change the version string in app.yaml before you run the command.
This project uses Closure Library as JavaScript library. Stylesheets are compiled into a single file with Closure Stylesheets. JavaScript is compiled into a single file with Closure Compiler.
If you add or remove custom JavaScript classes, i.e. any non-goog class, you have to generate the Closure Library dependency tree again. You can do this by changing to the Panoptikos project directory and executing Closure Library's Dependency Writer:
$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos/app
$ ./libraries/closure-library-20120710-r2029/closure/bin/build/depswriter.py \
--output_file=./webroot/dev-js/dependencies.js \
--root_with_prefix="./webroot/dev-js/ ../../"
This overwrites the existing $GOPATH/src/github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos/app/webroot/dev-js/dependencies.js file.
This repository contains two programs, app and assetcompiler. app is the actual Panoptikos app, and assetcompiler is responsible for compiling JavaScript and stylesheet files into a single file each.
In general, to compile assets, we have to call Java programs, namely Closure Stylesheets and Closure Compiler. Since Java programs can't be called in a Google App Engine Go sandbox, the asset compiler can't be a part of the actual Google App Engine Panoptikos app and had to be moved to a normal, standalone Go program.
The rules are for compiling assets are:
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If you modify a CSS or JavaScript file, you don't have to run the asset compiler as long as you test the code in your development environment.
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If you deploy the app to Google App Engine, you must run the asset compiler before deployment to create a single, new CSS or JavaScript file that contains the updated code:
$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos $ /usr/local/go/bin/go run assetcompiler/main.go -compile-css=true$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/ChristianSiegert/panoptikos $ /usr/local/go/bin/go run assetcompiler/main.go -compile-js=true
You may have to adjust the path to the standard Go binary if you don't develop on a Mac.