Yet Another Hacker News Clone

YAHNC is a FastAPI-based web application that fetches and displays top stories from Hacker News with additional features like trend indicators when a story is trending and images fetched from Open Graph metadata.

Features

• Fetches top 30 stories from Hacker News API
• Displays stories with images, descriptions, and metadata
• Shows trending information for trending stories
• Dark mode toggle
• Responsive design using Tailwind CSS
• Automatic page refresh every 15 minutes

Tech Stack

• Backend: Python 3.10+, FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, aiohttp
• Frontend: HTML, Tailwind CSS, JavaScript
• Database: SQLite (with aiosqlite for async operations)
• Other: BeautifulSoup4, Pillow

Setup and Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ilyaizen/hn-clone.git
   cd hn-clone

2. Create a virtual environment and activate it:

   python -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows, use `.venv\Scripts\activate`

3. Install the required packages:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the application:

   uvicorn main:app --reload

5. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000

Project Structure

• main.py: FastAPI application and main route
• hn_scraper.py: Hacker News API scraper
• database.py: Database operations and ORM setup
• metadata.py: Metadata fetching and image processing
• models.py: SQLAlchemy models
• templates/: HTML templates
• static/: Static files (CSS, images)
• install-service.ps1: PowerShell script to install YAHNC as a Windows service
• remove-service.ps1: PowerShell script to remove the YAHNC Windows service

Running as a Windows Service

You can run YAHNC as a Windows service, which allows it to start automatically when your computer boots and handle system sleep/wake cycles.

Prerequisites

1. Install NSSM (Non-Sucking Service Manager):
   • Download from NSSM website
   • Extract and place nssm.exe in "C:\Program Files\nssm" (create this directory if it doesn't exist)

Installing the Service

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator

2. Navigate to the project directory

3. Run the installation script:

   .\install-service.ps1

This script will:

• Create a Python virtual environment if it doesn't exist
• Install required dependencies
• Configure YAHNC as a Windows service that starts automatically
• Set up the service to handle system sleep/wake cycles
• Start the service

Once installed, YAHNC will be accessible at http://localhost:80

Removing the Service

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator

2. Navigate to the project directory

3. Run the removal script:

   .\remove-service.ps1

This script will:

• Stop the YAHNC service if it's running
• Completely remove the service from your system

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.