📆 Year in Pixels

Data driven visualizations that summarize your year!

DISCLAIMER: This repo is free to use and open source, BUT it's licensed with special conditions. Please, read the LICENSE file carefully before using it. If you intentionally break the terms and conditions, I WILL track you down and sue you up the wazoo 😊

DISCLAIMER PT. 2: the code is temporarily only functional on Macs. See the bottom of this file to know why and what you can do to help me make it fully portable.

How to Use

I tried to make my code as easy to use as possible, just know that there is a little bit of work to do, though. Room for improvement!

This repo works alongside the Pixels app (App Store, Play Store), developed independently by Teo Vogel. Pixels is a personal life tracker, it is free and doesn't sell or share your data with third parties. Please make sure to track those aspects of life you value or feel are useful for you! It's very beneficial.

Once you have enough data tracked (mind that the code is designed to be used once every year), clone this repository on your local machine or download its raw version if you prefer. If you don't know how to do that, just search "git clone tutorial" online: there is plenty of tutorials on how to use Git out there.

What I track on Pixels

This is how I've personally used Pixels for the past couple years:

1. At the end of every day, I rate how well I felt from 1 to 5 (the app allows you to rate your mood multiple times a day, but I prefer just recording one overall rating);
2. I annotate some tags that describe my day (specifically: "Emotions", "Activities", "Location", "Productivity Rating", "Symptoms" and "Medications"). This is the most personal step of them all, you can customize the tags you use according to what you feel is important to track. Mind you, the code will only work if you use the same tags I use. I'm planning to make it more customizable in the future, but I don't know when I'll be able to come around to it. If you want to contribute and you are skilled enough to do so, feel free to drop a Pull Request and I'll make sure to check it!
3. Finally, I write down a short summary of what happened in the day's "Notes" section. Sometimes, I use this section as a safe space to reflect: it's very therapeutic! Most importantly, I know for sure that my data isn't being shared with anyone for shady purposes, so I can freely let go and share whatever I like.

Obtaining your Pixels Data

In order to use the code in this repo, you will have to export data from your Pixels app. You can do so by going to the Settings, scrolling down to the bottom and clicking "Export Pixels". You will obtain a JSON file. Once you have it, you should create a folder named data in your local repo clone (if you don't know what a repo clone is, you haven't googled "git clone tutorial" yet and should do so) and place the JSON file inside the data folder. Rename the file as follows: data_YEAR.json. Replace YEAR with the year you want to analyze (use 4 digits).

At the end of this step, you should have:

• A local repo clone
  • Containing a data folder (alongside all downloaded content)
    • The data folder should contain a data_YEAR.json file with your Pixels export.

Installing the Conda Environment

For the code to work, you will need to install some version of Anaconda (I suggest Miniconda, which is lighter but has everything you need). Once again, if you don't know how to do that, just search "install miniconda [YOUR OS]" online. Substitute [YOUR OS] with either Windows, your Linux distro of choice or MacOS.

Once you have installed Anaconda, you should open a Terminal console within your local repo clone, and launch the command

conda env create -f ./environment.yml

This command will install all the code libraries needed to make the code work properly. To activate the environment and use it, you will then need to run the command

conda activate pixels

After activation, please check whether the installation of the libraries was correctly completed by comparing the list of libraries you find in the environment.yml file to what is installed in the pixels environment, by running the command

conda list

At the end of this step, you should have:

• A project folder structured as shown in the previous step;
• A conda environment called pixels with 12 libraries installed.

Installing an IDE (OPTIONAL)

This step is not needed if you don't care about reading the code and understanding how I reasoned.

The final installation you will need to run the code consists of a program which is able to open Python files. You can choose among a large pool of such programs. I suggest to use Visual Studio Code or PyCharm. They are on the easy side of the spectrum. For guides on how to install them, you can search "install [vs code OR pycharm] [YOUR OS]" online, just like before.

At the end of this step, you should have:

• A project folder with the code and your Pixels data export as shown two steps ago;
• A working conda environment as shown in the previous step;
• An Interactive Development Environment able to process Python files, such as Visual Studio Code.

Generating the Visualizations

Finally, you are able to run the code! To do so, you should open a Terminal console starting from the project's folder; you should then run the following commands:

conda activate pixels
python3 main.py

Support

If you find any problem with the code that you aren't able to overcome on your own or with the help of ChatGPT, come back to this webpage and open an Issue describing your problem (you don't kow how to open an issue? Search "github how to open issue" online). I will try to come back to you as soon as I can to support and fix the code if needed. Mind you this is a passion project, so I won't be able to dedicate much time to it. I'll come around to fixing things whenever possible.

If you are able to fix the code on your own, please open an Issue where you describe both problem and solution. I'll check it out and if I find it to be a meaningful contribution to the project, I'll let you open a Pull Request so you can both publish your fix and appear as a contributor.

Wanted Contributions

OS Portability

Right now, the code is only functional for Macs due to the emoji font I'm using. I'd like the help of someone who doesn't own just a Mac in order to make the code fully portable to any OS.

HAVE FUN!