Show HN: Frankendash – Create dashboards from web page snippets

[mishu2]

https://frankendash.com

Hello, HN.

I created https://frankendash.com, which lets you arrange web page snippets in a dashboard. It then refreshes them at regular intervals.

I built it for myself because I got tired having to cycle through my tabs to make sure I don't miss anything, and I'm sharing here in case it may be useful to someone else.

No account required.

Tech stack:

  - Django back-end
  - Carbon Design System for CSS
  - htmx, sortable.js, cropper.js, and day.js for some progressive enhancement

It's open-source if you want to self-host: https://gitlab.com/mihai.tarce/frankendash

Please try it out and let me know what you think.

[thatgurjot]

This is a great idea! Love the minimal implementation of it too.

I have struggled with a similar but unrelated problem at my workplace before. This might just help with that. Will dig into the code!

Some questions: 1. Are the “snippets” all just iframes? 2. How do you mitigate CORS issues? 3. Does it run best on the local machine only? If so, what potential issues do you think would crop up if it were hosted on a remote server?

[mishu2 → thatgurjot]

Thank you for the comment, glad to hear it might be useful for you.

1. There's a bit more going on behind the scenes. The back-end opens the web page using Playwright (headless Chromium) and takes a screenshot. It's this image that gets displayed in the dashboard.

2. I also first thought about implementing most of the functionality client-side, using the user's browser to make requests, but like you suspect this quickly runs into CORS issues. Using the server to make requests avoids this, as it's a plain browser request and I then have full access to the rendered page.

3. It's being hosted on a remote server now; the back-end makes all the requests for you. Potential issues:

  - I'm not sure how much load the server will be under (although I suspect HN might help me test this out)
  - You can only use it for public web pages (e.g., nothing behind a login/paywall), as the user's cookies are not used
  - Where the server is may affect the responses you get (blacklists for cheaper VPS, more GDPR cookie banners if you're hosting in Europe, etc.)