Reminders

A to-do list web app focusing on robust offline and multi-device operation, and taking advantage of modern web technologies.

Hosted at https://reminders.thjread.com on Google Cloud Platform Free Tier (see https://github.com/thjread/thjread for full NGINX and Docker Compose configuration), using CloudFlare to cache static content.

Features

• Progressive web application -- uses service workers to work offline, and can use as a standalone application on mobile (click 'Add to Home Screen')
• Push notifications
• Responsive design on desktop and mobile
• Enter deadlines in human-readable form e.g. "tomorrow", "3pm Tuesday" "in 10 minutes" with Sugar
• Pin to-dos to the top of the list to mark them as needing attention
• Touch gestures on mobile -- swipe right to mark as done, long press to pin
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Undo last action
• Maths rendering with KaTeX
• Fluid CSS animations
• Uses modern web security technologies such as a restrictive Content Security Policy

Technologies

Frontend:

• Written in TypeScript and packaged using webpack
• State management with Redux
• Uses the lightweight Mithril Single Page Application framework
• Offline user actions stored in localStorage

Backend:

• Application server written in Rust using the actix-web framework
• PostgreSQL integration with the diesel ORM
• Stateless authentication using JSON Web Tokens
• Push notifications with the Web Push API
• Automated database backups to an Amazon S3 bucket

Running

Requires:

• npm
• Rust
• A local PostgreSQL database
• Diesel CLI (cargo install diesel_cli --no-default-features --features "postgres")

Frontend:

cd Frontend/reminders
npm install && npm start # start an npm server on localhost:8000

Backend:

cd Backend/reminders-server
sh keygen.sh # create a JSON Web Token secret key, and a VAPID keypair for web push notifications
diesel setup # create a database named db, and set up the schema.
cargo run    # start the backend server on localhost:3000

Screenshots