<p> <img src="https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/https://i.imgsafe.org/2411b61f27.png" /></p>
<h1>Piston.web - Standalone User Interface</h1>
<p>Many may already know <code>piston</code> as a tool that simplifies interaction with Steem/Steemit. You can read, post, comment, edit, transfer funds and much more, if you are willing to use the command line.This changes <strong>now</strong>. With <code>piston.web</code>, the toolbox now comes with <strong>graphical user interface</strong>that you can access via your browser. It is <strong>fully independent of steemit.com</strong>, which means that you can do what you love doing on Steem, even if steemit.com goes down.</p>
<h1>Available Features</h1>
<ul>
  <li>browsing steem posts</li>
  <li>reading full posts and comments</li>
  <li>reply to topics and comments</li>
  <li>upvote/downvote</li>
  <li>read account details
    <ul>
      <li>recommended posts</li>
      <li>blog posts</li>
      <li>funds</li>
      <li>transaction history</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>integrated wallet</li>
  <li>full encrypted (AES + BIP32) for private keys</li>
  <li>import keys from account name and password</li>
</ul>
<h1>Screenshots</h1>
<h2>Browse:</h2>
<p><img src="https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/https://i.imgsafe.org/219c17ace1.png" /></p>
<h2>Account</h2>
<p><img src="https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/https://i.imgsafe.org/219c1dbdc5.png" /></p>
<h2>Funds:</h2>
<p><img src="https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/https://i.imgsafe.org/219c2ae8a0.png" /></p>
<h2>Post:</h2>
<p><img src="https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/https://i.imgsafe.org/219c26f1d0.png" /></p>
<h2>Wallet:</h2>
<p><img src="https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/https://i.imgsafe.org/219c2e7b58.png" /></p>
<h1>Installation</h1>
<p>Until we leave pre-alpha, piston.web is on a different branch.</p>
<pre><code>git clone https://github.com/xeroc/piston<br />
<br />
cd piston<br />
<br />
git checkout feature/standalone-web<br />
<br />
make install-user<br />
<br />
# install extra requirements for piston.web<br />
<br />
pip install -r requirements-web.txt<br />
<br />
</code></pre>
<h1>Usage</h1>
<pre><code>piston web<br />
<br />
</code></pre>
<p>On first run, you will be asked to provide a passphrase for your new wallet. Empty password are allowed but result in private keys being stored in plain text.After that, you will see</p>
<pre><code>* Running on http://127.0.0.1:5054/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)<br />
<br />
 * Restarting with stat<br />
<br />
 * Debugger is active!<br />
<br />
 * Debugger pin code: 227-869-909<br />
<br />
</code></pre>
<p>Ignore the debugging output and start using piston.web in your browser<br />
by accessing</p>
<pre><code>http://127.0.0.1:5054/<br />
<br />
</code></pre>
<p>NOTE: piston.web will only be reachable from the same machine (localhost).</p>
<h1>Technologies</h1>
<h2>Backend</h2>
<p>The backend is written in python using</p>
<ul>
  <li>Flask (with Jinja2)</li>
  <li>python-steem.</li>
</ul>
<p>It offers the HTML files and a Socket-IO for real-time communications.</p>
<h2>Frontend</h2>
<p>These technologies have been used so far in piston.web:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Bootstrap</li>
  <li>Markdown</li>
  <li>Font-Awesome</li>
  <li>Plain Javascript</li>
</ul>
<h2>Wallet</h2>
<p>The wallet is only accessible from the backend. All keys are encrypted with a random master password that is stored in an SQLite3 database in its AES encrypted form. Each private key is encrypted with the master password using BIP32 and stored in a SQLite3 database. The wallet will make backups of the SQLite3 database every week and keep several weeks of backup.</p>
<h1>Todos</h1>
<ul>
  <li>Transfer of funds</li>
  <li>PowerUp, PowerDown</li>
  <li>Trading</li>
  <li>Account Administration (changing keys etc)</li>
  <li>Allow to attach JSON object to posts</li>
  <li>Secure socket.io with a password</li>
  <li>layout and style improvements</li>
</ul>
<h1>Contributions</h1>
<p>Currently, we are looking for the bravest of the bravest to help us test what is already there and give</p>
<ul>
  <li>bug reports</li>
  <li>improvement proposals</li>
  <li>feature request</li>
</ul>
<p>Please use the <a href="https://github.com/xeroc/piston/issues" rel="noopener">github issue tracker</a> to make it easier for us to remember all the feedback.</p>
<h1>Important Note</h1>
<p>piston.web is alpha software. For that reason, you need to expect it to break at any time. Use at your own risk.</p>
<h1>Update 1</h1>
<p>I'd like to clarify that this GUI is <strong>not</strong> meant to replace steemit.com or be used as a hosted, public site. It rather offers a <em>personal</em>, <em>localhost-only</em> page that you can use to access your wallet. Exposing the piston.web to a publicly accessible port is <strong>not</strong> recommended!</p>
<h1>Update 2</h1>
<p>I fixed the <code>sqlite3.OperationalError: unable to open database file</code> error earlier today so that people can actually take a look.</p>
<h1>Update 3</h1>
<p>More short-term fixes for the weekend-testers:</p>
<pre><code>* [2016-07-23][bf3dae5] | [setup] make sure the user uses python3<br />
<br />
* [2016-07-23][c31eec7] | [web] highlight own posts<br />
<br />
* [2016-07-23][03e0d2f] | [web] fix reply identifier not in the form</code></pre>