1 yr. ago • 100%

Alexandrite is a Beautiful Web Frontend for Lemmy

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Alexandrite @lemmy.world Alexandrite is a Beautiful Web Frontend for Lemmy

Fediverse @lemmy.ml Alexandrite is a Beautiful Web Frontend for Lemmy

53 comments

I'm using it right now on new.endlesstalk.org

It's beautiful yes, but it's also kinda dumb. Lots of page elements (like the community banner and notifications section) need manually refreshing to show anything, and I need to press 'Go' after changing view (like Subscribed/All or Hot/New) like the web of ancient times. This may just be how it's implemented at endlesstalk, but there's other irritations like not having the option to upload a picture when creating posts, and it not actually doing anything if I change my settings to toggle 'Show NSFW'

24
- It looks like that instance isn't using the most up-to-date version since the "press go" issue has been fixed. Try to keep in mind that the initial commit was on June 24 and it's still very early in the development stage. If you look at the commits, you can see the developer has been very active.
  
  14
- To be fair, according to the article this project is less than a month old! I'm sure it will continue to improve.
  
  10
I don't like webui's for lemmy. This means they're getting all your traffic. It's a mitm situation again, much like google's amp links.

If I'm running a dedicated app, I can validate that my traffic is going directly to my instance and not being farmed and sold by a 3rd party behind the scenes.

14
- Uhh.. not clear on what you're claiming here... you can validate the traffic is going to the expected instance using a web app, without requiring any special software by running Developer tools and heading to the network tab.
  
  10
  
  Web front ends currently require a backend service that then routes to your intended destination because Lemmy servers by default are configured with cors to only allow requests from their intended domain. There is a PR to fix it but I don't believe it's been merged in. This may be out of date but that was true as of a few weeks ago per the dev of Voyager which is the web frontend I use
  
  edit: this is no longer true. A PR 2 weeks ago fixed this issue and web front ends are able to work just as well as a native app now.
  
  9
  
  That checks it only for the current session, though. The app might do nefarious things only on new moons, or on a specific date. It might also get updated at any point with completely new code without you noticing.
  
  1
- Not unless the app is open source.
  
  2
  
  Not only does the app not have to be open source, your don't even need root access on the device it's running on. As long as you can see the packets being sent, you can see what servers it's talking to.
  
  Not so when going though someone else' website tho. It does look like there are direct connections to the selected instance happening, but also obviously there is data being sent and received from alexandrite, and there's no way to know what they're doing with that info. For all you know, they're fingerprinting you for Meta. (I don't think that's happening, but there's no way to know).
  
  4
- 100%
  
  1
I've been planning a frontend a bit like this. I'm glad I'm not the only one that wanted a solid, widescreen friendly, single tab interface... because I was unlikely to ever work on the one I was thinking of.

10
Using it right now and I'm astounded by how smooth it is. Will be using this for the desktop from now on.

8
This looks amazing. I'm currently using Dracula for Lemmy but I might switch to this.

Can someone let me know if the login is using Oauth? Or is it submitted directly to the server? I'm not saying it's malicious or anything but I just want to be vigilant and check.

7
- It's not exactly OAuth, but the webapp logs in at the chosen instance via its API and gets issued a JWT it uses for all subsequent requests.
  
  2
  
  Thanks! I was hesitant because it had me put in the 2FA code right on the log on page but I guess that's not a big deal since it changes ever 30 seconds or so.
  
  1
- Where might I find this Dracula for Lemmy you speak of?
  
  0
  
  It's at: https://userstyles.world/style/10759/draculemmy-a-dracula-theme-for-lemmy
  
  https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/665490
  
  (I don't know how to link to the original post or the one in your own instance sorry but the original post to credit the author is here: https://userstyles.world/style/10759/draculemmy-a-dracula-theme-for-lemmy - it's in !Fediverse@lemmy.world and the title is "I created a Dracula theme for Lemmy" by sillyhatsonly)
  
  2
Wow, that is much nicer. Though I would have settled just for "default opening links in new tabs"

6
- you can do that with a userscript if you want to keep the lemmy interface
  
  although i do not understand why people like this. just middle click instead?
  
  7
  
  It's such a sensible and common default that I'm unused to being required to middle click.
  
  2
  
  I don’t use mouse so no middle click.
  
  Where is the userscript option? Using a browser extension?
  
  2
nice! this might just become my daily driver

5
This is neat, but I'm not really comfortable putting my password in for a separate front end

5
- Same thing you do on an app.
  
  10
I've been using it for the last day or so on a separate account and I like it so far. It's a new app and there's plenty of stuff planned for it, but the ability to open comments in a separate column instead of another tab is fantastic. There's already a request for light mode in the repo, which is my biggest issue right now.

5
- Same
  
  1
Looks great, but I can't seen any installation doco in the repo. How are people using it? Via alexandrite's own website?

4
- You can, and I'm doing that right now. Logged into lemmy.ml through their site. However, I can see how one might be hesitant to log in through a 3rd party like this. It does look really nice, but I do wish it had a light mode as well.
  
  1
  
  Yeah, after looking around, it seems that's the only option. I'd rather self-host something like this, if possible. I'll look into contacting the dev and ask.
  
  5
Wow, truly amazing compared to the native lemmy UI. Won’t use it much since I mostly browse on mobile with an app I like, but definitely bookmarked for pc lemmy browsing

4
Does anyone have an opinion about how it compares to Wefwef/Voyager?

Edit: Nevermind, just noticed it's desktop first, so no real comparison to Voyager, which is mobile first.

4
Kinda looks like kbin

3
That does look pretty!

3
Can confirm

2
Looks nice but I wouldn't mind a light mode..

2
Looks like it's strictly one server. Too bad I can't connect to multiple servers and switch between them.

2
Its horrible

1

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