Canvas is a cross-platform desktop overlay to help organize my work / workflows and data - regardless of its type and location - into separate "contexts".
Contexts are represented by a tree structure resembling a file-system hierarchy; every tree node represents a separate layer filtering down all the unstructured information fighting for my attention on a default desktop setup(emails, notifications, chat messages, always growing number of random browser tabs and ad-hoc download-extract-test-forget endeavors).
A Canvas context tree is designed to be dynamic, supporting frequent changes to accommodate whatever structure is needed to get more productive:
universe://
/Work
/AirBnB
/Atlas Apartment
/Fountainhead Apartment
/Cu$tomer A
/Dev
/JIRA-1234
/JIRA-1237
/Reports
/Compliance
/2022
/2023
/SaaS Startup FOO
/DC Frankfurt
/network
/hv
/Billing
/acme llc
/2022
/2023
/acme inc
/2023
/08
/Home
/Music
/Podcasts
/Physics
/Medicine
/Library
/Physics
/Math
/Medicine
/Our new house
/Heating
/Electricity
/Kitchen
/Sinks
/Materials
/Shinnoki
/Egger
/..
/Project docs
/Archicad
/Sketchup
/Twinmotion
/Edu
/AIT
/Physics
Context URL
universe://work/customer-a/reports
will (presumably) return all reports for Customer A,
universe://reports
will return all reports indexed ("linked") by the bitmap index of the "reports" layer for your entire universe.
You want to prevent having multiple layers representing the same data. "Reports", "reports_new", "reports2", "customera-reports" should be represented by one layer ("reports" for example), leaving the larger context(layer order) handle the filtering for you.
This setup enables having the same data accessible through different, even ad-hoc and/or temporary "filesystem-like" context trees:
universe://photos/2023/06
universe://home/inspirations/kitchens
universe://travel/Spain/2023
universe://tasks/data-cleanup/2023/09
For the above example, all contexts return (among other data) the same file IMG_1234.jpg - a picture of a nice kitchen from an airbnb we stayed at. As a bonus - regardless of where it is stored(the storage part is abstracted away via storeD). Same goes for tabs, notes or any other documents - including the entropy-rich content of your ~/Downloads and ~/Desktop folders.
There are 5 layer types:
-
Workspace: Exportable, shareable collection of data sources and layers. By default, you start with an undifferentiated "universe". Workspaces in Canvas can have a primary color assigned. If they do, Canvas will automatically use gradients [of the primary workspace color] for individual data abstractions. This visual hint makes searching through your universe easier .. and more fun. As you might have guessed, the default primary color of the universe is white(dispersive prisms are cool :)
-
Canvas: A layer with multiple context, feature and/or filter bitmaps assigned that can optionally store Canvas UI layout and UI applet data.
-
Context: The default layer type that links a context url part to one and only one context bitmap.
-
Filter: Represents a single filter or feature bitmap*; example:
universe://customer_a/:emails/:today, where :emails represents the "data/abstraction/email" feature bitmap, :today represents the "filter/datetime/today" filter. -
Label: A noop layer with no context or feature bitmap links
Some of the technologies used in no particular order:
- Roaring bitmaps
- lmdb
- nedb (to keep part of the data easily readable and editable as local JSON files)
- FlexSearch
- express.js
- socket.io
- webdavd
- cacache
- vLLM
- electron
Install the developer-friendly and currently the only version
$ git clone git@github.com:idncsk/canvas.git
$ cd canvas/app
$ npm install
$ npm run canvas # Electron UI
$ npm run server # Server backend only
$ npm run repl(Optional): Add canvas/bin to your $PATH
(Optional): For a bare-bones bash client, source extensions/shell/context.sh
(Optional): To install the firefox browser extension:
- Open your browser and navigate to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
- Click on "Load Temporary Add-on"
- Navigate to canvas/ext/browser/firefox
For portable use, download and extract nodejs and electron into the canvas/runtime folder
- Symlink electron-vNN-linux-x64 to electron-linux-x64
- Symlink node-vNN-linux-x64 to node-linux-x64
- Remove user/.ignore
Global app config: canvas/config
Default user home for portable use: canvas/user
default user home: $HOME/.canvas
Environment variables:
- CANVAS_USER_HOME
- CANVAS_USER_CACHE: Remnant from my custom linux distro times [iolinux]portable containerized "roaming" user env you'd "dock" to a iolinux host system with an optional per-user zfs data-set for cache
- CANVAS_USER_CONFIG
- CANVAS_USER_DATA
- CANVAS_USER_VAR
- NODE_ENV
- LOG_LEVEL
TODO
TODO
TODO
I'm trying to motivate myself to do daily code updates by doing not-yet-but-soon-to-be live coding sessions(~~usually ~5AM - 6AM CEST~~). Wouldn't watch any of the existing videos yet, mostly OBS audio tests and a showcase of sleep deprivation, but you can subscribe for updates nevertheless.
YT Channel + Some (royalty-free) music used in my videos
- By contributing to the codebase
- By testing the application and reporting bugs
- By subscribing to the YT channel above
- By sponsoring some quality coffee via
- Or, since I need ~200EUR/MD to work on this project in a official part-time setup, by a monthly recurring payment of 10EUR (I tolerate some margin of error:) to IBAN: SK95 8330 0000 0023 0250 2806
For enterprise features (AAD integration, custom storage backends, integration with github, jira, msteams) there is always a one-time setup + a monthly maintenance cost involved to cover the added overhead.
Any suggestions welcome ("you should use <module> to do <stuff> instead of <whatever nightmare you have currently implemented>"), as a non-programmer this is really appreciated!
Thank you!