🔁 re.are.na

A web app that enables spaced repetition for Are.na blocks -- serving up three random blocks from your profile.

How to install

1. Clone this repository.
2. Create an application on Are.na's developer page. When you're done, you should have a personal access token on the application's page, the link to which should look like this: dev.are.na/oauth/applications/{APPLICATION NUMBER}.
3. Create the file re.are.na/.env, as below:

ACCESS_TOKEN='your are.na personal access token here'
ARENA_USERNAME = 'your are.na username here'

4. Run the following instructions:

• make venv to set up a virtual environment.
• source venv/bin/activate to activate the virtual environment.
• make install to install the application.

How to run the web app

1. make server to run the back-end / Flask server.
2. make client (in a separate terminal window) to run the front-end / React portion of this application.

How to run the (unsecure) email service

1. Assuming you would like to schedule a job where you get three blocks sent to your email every day (for the sake of simplicity, sent to and from your own email), first open re.are.na/.env and add the following info:

EMAIL_FUNCTION_ID='your email ID'
EMAIL_FUNCTION_PW='your email password'

2. Once you've added the above info to your .env file, run make email.

(this should go without saying, but do not commit .env to any public repositories, and consider using a throwaway email ID/address for this particular project)

Background

The idea for this app comes from using Readwise -- a service that allows you to easily revisit Kindle highlights. Readwise claims to use the Spaced Repetition technique by resurfacing 3-5 highlights to you via a daily email.

For the sake of context, I've used Are.na for close to two years now. I've created ~100 channels, saved 6000+ blocks, and use it to organize all sorts of content and resources.

My use cases for Are.na generally involve:

1. storing digital content, and
2. finding content I've stored -- particularly when I'm either looking for a resource I've saved before, or when I'm looking for something in-depth to read or peruse.

My second use case has a nice side-effect, viz., looking for specific blocks leads to me stumbling into blocks that I'd forgotten about. Some are interesting to stumble into because I may force myself to actually spend the time, say, reading that PDF I'd been putting off. Others are interesting to stumble into to come back to a block months after adding it to a channel.

TL;DR -- I figured I could use a Readwise for are.na blocks, which led me to building this.

Other notes + bugs:

As of 9/25/2019, the docker-compose.yml file may not work as expected due to proxy issues that need to be fixed. I would recommend either running the web application locally, or explicitly defining your access token, are.na username, etc. in the config.py file as opposed to in your .env file -- this seems to be a temporary fix for now.