Open-source

This open-source 'digital journal' is a full private app for anniversaries: Live Photos, timed secrets, and a genuine lock

By Amazingzz · Oct 29, 2026

Read original on juejin.cn ↗ Google Translate ↗ Alt translation

For Western developers, this is a complete, MIT-licensed reference for building a private, media-heavy personal web app that runs on a small server. It shows a practical way to handle iPhone Live Photos, timed content, and secure direct-to-OSS uploads without writing a cloud backend.

Summary

The project, called "our little planet," is a pair-only digital journal with cream-paper and Polaroid styling. It handles text, photos, Live Photos, videos, voice, and letters, and every piece of content can be set to public or only-visible-to-her. Beyond the pages, it has a Polaroid wall that processes iPhone Live Photos (HEIC/MOV pairing, .livp splitting), a reply system where she can stamp pages and leave comments, and an easter egg feature with a reveal date and separate password that is not even served by the API until the date arrives.

The stack is Next.js 16, React 19, Tailwind 4, a single SQLite file, sharp for images, ffmpeg for media, and optional Alibaba OSS. It ships with iPhone Shortcuts integration via a separate-token endpoint, a demo mode that resets memory every few minutes, and deployment scripts for a small server. The README includes Nginx config and local-build remote-deploy scripts. The author also released beta codes for the live demo and invites others to clone the repo and adapt it.

Takeaways

— Built with Next.js 16, React 19, Tailwind 4, SQLite via better-sqlite3, sharp for images, ffmpeg for audio/video.

— Media stored locally in data/media or in Alibaba Cloud OSS; backup is copying the data/ folder.

— iPhone Live Photos handled by pairing same-named HEIC and MOV files, automatically splitting .livp archives, and converting HEIC to JPG.

— Easter egg content does not exist in the API response before its reveal date; separate password required to open it.

— iPhone Shortcuts integration uses a separate token with an /api/quick endpoint; videos up to 2GB use presigned direct upload to OSS.

— Includes timed letters, quote wall with voice, timeline with LRC lyrics, video premiere room, per-page visibility, anniversary counters, and warm brown dark mode.

— Demo mode runs entirely in memory, resets every few minutes, and replaces visitor uploads with built-in samples.

Conclusions

Putting the easter egg behind an API-level conditional is a clean way to make a timed surprise actually undiscoverable, not just hidden in the frontend.

The Live Photo handling is the most technically interesting part; most personal projects don't bother with pairing HEIC and MOV or splitting .livp bundles.

The quick-upload iPhone Shortcut with a separate token is a pragmatic pattern for letting a non-technical partner contribute content without exposing the main admin credentials.

Concepts & terms

Live Photo

Apple's animated photo format; a still image plus a short video clip, handled here by pairing HEIC and MOV files or splitting .livp bundles.

Presigned direct upload

A server-issued URL that lets a client upload a file straight to object storage (like OSS) without the file passing through the application server.

Demo mode

A runtime mode where all data lives in memory and resets automatically, so visitors can try the app without making permanent changes.

Source: juejin.cn ↗ Google Translate ↗ Backup ↗