A Pretty Readability Archive with Ruby and CSS

I’ve always found it interesting to see what other people read. Not just the things that they share on twitter, but the articles they read on a daily basis.

I decided to build a web application to display my Readability bookmarks using Ruby, Sinatra, and CSS transitions to create an interactive card-based layout.

The Technical Implementation

The application follows these key steps:

1. Environment variable setup - Secure authentication credential storage
2. Readit gem integration - Ruby library for the Readability API
3. XAuth authentication - Secure API authentication
4. Bookmark fetching - Retrieving archived articles
5. Interactive card display - CSS 3D transforms for flippable cards

API Integration

Using the Readit gem, I configured the Readability API connection:

# Configure the Readit API
Readit.configure do |config|
  config.consumer_key = ENV['READABILITY_KEY']
  config.consumer_secret = ENV['READABILITY_SECRET']
end

# Authenticate via XAuth
client = Readit::Client.new(
  oauth_token: ENV['READABILITY_TOKEN'],
  oauth_token_secret: ENV['READABILITY_TOKEN_SECRET']
)

# Fetch archived bookmarks
bookmarks = client.bookmarks

Interactive Card Design

The CSS creates an engaging card-based layout where each bookmark has:

• Front face - Title and background image from the article
• Back face - Article excerpt and metadata
• Flip animation - Smooth 3D transform on hover

The cards use CSS 3D transforms to create a flipping effect that reveals additional information about each article when you hover over them.

Key Features

• Responsive design - Cards adapt to different screen sizes
• Visual appeal - Each card shows the article’s featured image
• Rich metadata - Article excerpts, publication dates, and sources
• Smooth animations - CSS transitions for polished interactions

Future Improvements

Potential enhancements I’m considering:

• Infinite scrolling - Load more bookmarks as you scroll
• Responsive grid - Replace fixed-width layout with flexible grid
• Filtering - Sort by date, source, or tags
• Search functionality - Find specific articles quickly

Reflection

This project combines API integration, responsive design, and interactive CSS to create something genuinely useful. It’s a great example of how modern web technologies can transform simple data into engaging experiences.

The combination of Ruby for backend processing and CSS for frontend interactions creates a fast, visually appealing way to browse through saved articles.