A cross-platform news aggregation and social platform that pulls articles from multiple global sources (NewsAPI, GNews, NewsData.io), translates them seamlessly using DeepL, and lets users share and discuss content.
The Web version (Flask) and iOS version (SwiftUI) run in parallel, sharing data in real time via Firebase as a unified backend.
The UI adopts a Liquid Glass design inspired by publicly available implementations, with a performance-optimized lightweight mode also included. Most of the coding was directed through AI agents.
- Multi-source: Fetches articles from NewsAPI, GNews, and NewsData.io for broad coverage.
- Parallel fetching: Uses
ThreadPoolExecutorto query multiple APIs concurrently, reducing response time. - Intelligent deduplication: Automatically removes duplicate articles across different sources.
- DeepL integration: High-quality translation between English and Japanese.
- Bidirectional: Supports both EN→JA and JA→EN for titles and descriptions.
- Fallback mechanism: If DeepL is unavailable, only articles in the target language are served (no broken translations).
- Firebase integration: Secure login via Firebase Authentication and real-time data sync via Firestore.
- Shared data: Posts created on Web are visible on iOS and vice versa. Accounts are unified across platforms.
- User posts: Users can create posts with a title, description, and image.
- Likes & Comments: Like and comment on both news articles and user posts, with optimistic UI updates.
- Liquid Glass design: Distinctive glassmorphism with transparency and blur effects.
- Lightweight mode (Clean Glass): Animation-free, performance-first design mode to prevent slowdowns in Chrome and similar browsers. Switchable from settings.
- Responsive: Card-based layout that adapts to various screen sizes.
- Native Liquid Glass: Glassmorphism using iOS standard
UltraThinMaterialfor a fully native feel. - Unified feed: News articles and user posts displayed seamlessly in a single timeline.
- Image optimization: Automatic resize and aspect-ratio-preserving display for post images.
- Auth security flows: Email verification, password reset, re-authentication, account deletion, and email address change.
- Theme & language switching: Light / Dark / System theme and JA / EN language toggle.
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Backend | Python 3.11+, Flask, Firebase Admin SDK |
| Database | Google Cloud Firestore (NoSQL) |
| Authentication | Firebase Authentication (Email/Password) |
| HTTP | requests, httpx |
| Web Frontend | HTML5, CSS3, Vanilla JS, Firebase JS SDK |
| iOS | SwiftUI, Firebase iOS SDK |
| News APIs | NewsAPI, GNews, NewsData.io |
| Translation | DeepL API |
| Deploy | gunicorn |
- Python 3.11+
- API keys for NewsAPI, GNews, NewsData.io, and DeepL
- A Firebase project with Authentication (Email/Password) and Firestore enabled
- Firebase Admin SDK credentials JSON file
git clone <repository-url>
cd flaskdev
pip install -r requirements.txtCreate a .env file in the project root:
# Flask
SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key_here
# News APIs
NEWSAPI_KEY=your_newsapi_key_here
GNEWS_API_KEY=your_gnews_api_key_here
NEWSDATA_IO_API_KEY=your_newsdata_io_api_key_here
# Translation
DEEPL_AUTH_KEY=your_deepl_auth_key_here
# Firebase (Admin SDK)
FIREBASE_CREDENTIALS_PATH=path/to/firebase-adminsdk.jsonpython run.py
# or
flask run --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8000Open http://localhost:8000 in your browser.
flaskdev/
├── app/
│ ├── __init__.py # App factory & Firebase Admin SDK init
│ ├── routes/
│ │ ├── main.py # News fetch & search endpoints
│ │ ├── auth.py # Authentication (session management)
│ │ └── posts.py # Posts API (Firestore CRUD, likes, comments)
│ ├── services/
│ │ ├── aggregator.py # Parallel news fetching & deduplication
│ │ ├── deepl.py # DeepL translation wrapper
│ │ ├── gnews.py # GNews API wrapper
│ │ ├── newsapi.py # NewsAPI wrapper
│ │ └── newsdata.py # NewsData.io wrapper
│ ├── static/ # CSS (glassUI.css, lightweightUI.css), images
│ └── templates/ # Jinja2 HTML (includes Firebase JS SDK init)
├── News-Mobile/ # iOS SwiftUI project (Firebase-integrated)
│ └── News-Mobile/
│ ├── ContentView.swift # Main view (unified feed)
│ ├── PostViewModel.swift # Firestore logic
│ ├── NewsService.swift # Flask API client
│ └── CommentView.swift # Comment sheet
├── docs/ # Project documentation & implementation plans
├── requirements.txt
└── run.py # Entry point
Client (Web/iOS)
→ GET /api/update
→ Flask aggregator.py (parallel fetch from NewsAPI, GNews, NewsData.io)
→ DeepL translation
→ JSON response (not stored in DB — fetched on demand)
Web ←→ Firebase JS SDK ←→ Firestore `posts` collection
iOS ←→ Firebase iOS SDK ←→ Firestore `posts` collection
(real-time sync across platforms)
Client → Firebase Auth (Client SDK) → ID Token
Token → Flask Backend (Admin SDK verification) → Session established
- Dual Web themes: Heavy "Liquid Glass" and lightweight "Clean Glass" — users choose based on their hardware.
- iOS native feel:
UltraThinMaterialthroughout, matching Apple's design language. - On-demand news fetching: No scheduled jobs needed; news is fetched when the user requests it, saving API quota.
- Base64 image storage: Since Firebase Storage (Blaze plan) is not used, iOS post images are resized to ≤800px, JPEG-compressed, and stored as Base64 strings directly in Firestore.
- Multi-source news aggregation with parallel fetch
- DeepL translation with fallback
- Firebase Auth + Firestore cross-platform sync
- iOS Native Liquid Glass UI
- Likes & comments (Web)
- Likes & comments (iOS)
- User profile pages (display name, avatar)
- Push notifications via FCM
- Full-text search (Algolia or similar)
- Firestore pagination
- iOS home screen widget