Pixela, a service for generating GitHub-like graphs

4 min readOct 24, 2018

I have launched “Pixela,” a service for generating GitHub-like graphs without using VCS Commit. I am writing this post to spread the word to everyone in the world. Of course, it is provided free of charge. I want every lover of visualization of life logs and data to try it out!

Pixela | Record and Track your habits or effort. All by API.

Pixela, Record and Track your habits or effort. All by API. | Pixela is the Pixelation API service. With this service…

pixe.la

What is “Pixela”?

Pixela is a service that allows you to register any set of values or quantities you want and pixelizes the data to generate GitHub-like graphs!

For example, it can easily visualize the following:

Number of tweets per day
Number of deployments of your product
Changes in your body weight (in comparison to the previous day)

How do we use it?

Pixela consists only of REST-like Web APIs except its top page! Therefore, everything from user registration to graph generation can be done through APIs.

$ curl -X POST https://pixe.la/v1/users -d '{"token":"thisissecret", "username":"a-know", "agreeTermsOfService":"no", "notMinor":"yes"}'{"message":"In order to use this service, you must agree to the terms of service. Japanese version terms of service: https://github.com/a-know/Pixela/wiki/%E5%88%A9%E7%94%A8%E8%A6%8F%E7%B4%84%EF%BC%88Terms-of-Service-Japanese-Version%EF%BC%89 , English version terms of service: https://github.com/a-know/Pixela/wiki/Terms-of-Service .","isSuccess":false}

Before I forget, let me remind you to read the terms of service (just in case, that is).

$ curl -X POST https://pixe.la/v1/users -d '{"token":"thisissecret", "username":"a-know", "agreeTermsOfService":"yes", "notMinor":"yes"}'{"message":"Success.","isSuccess":true}
$ curl -X POST https://pixe.la/v1/users/a-know/graphs -H 'X-USER-TOKEN:thisissecret' -d '{"id":"test-graph","name":"graph-name","unit":"commit","type":"int","color":"shibafu"}'
{"message":"Success.","isSuccess":true}

Now you are ready to look at the graph!

To register values……

$ curl -X POST https://pixe.la/v1/users/a-know/graphs/test-graph -H 'X-USER-TOKEN:thisissecret' -d '{"date":"20180915","quantity":"5"}'{"message":"Success.","isSuccess":true}

all you need to do is this.

Please check the API reference for information on other APIs.

How can we utilize it?

Of course, you can request Pixela APIs by something like cron, but let me show you some other interesting ways to use it.

Use it from “Shortcut” on iOS12!

This iOS app was renamed to “Shortcut” from iOS12. It can send HTTP requests, so you can do something like this.

This app can acquire the number of your steps or distance covered from “Healthcare,” so you can create a shortcut and update the graph with just one tap before you go to bed. How do you like it? Isn’t that interesting?

Integrate it to a CI/CD flow!

Pixela has an API endpoint /increment, so just by integrating this API call to your product's CI/CD flow, you can create a graph showing something like "the number of product's deployments." Wouldn't it be nice to paste that graph onto your GitHub README? Exciting, isn't it?

Link it to an IoT gadget

Pixela can create a Webhook. Using this, you can do an increment or decrement of a value without setting authentication data in the request header.

This Webhook is extremely IoT-gadget-friendly. Examples that support it include Google Home, Amazon Echo, Amazon Dash button, etc.

An increment for every beer you drink. An increment for every stray cat you see on the street. Why not take just a second to record these valuable little things in your life every day?

Use a third-party library

I published this service in Japanese on October 14th, and in just a week, many third-party developers came up with their own libraries.

You will be able to use Pixela even easier using them. Of course you can make your own library and I will be very happy about that!

I will be looking forward to your feedback!

I use my handle “a-know” online. I love to develop Web services myself. I currently work in Japan.

I am always looking for a way to make the Internet even more interesting. I hope Pixela will contribute to that cause among other projects that I am working on. Please give me any feedback. “Wouldn’t it be more interesting if…,” “I found this bug,” any feedback is welcome. Please feel free to contact me through my GitHub Public Repository below or my Twitter account.

Thank you for reading thus far!