Planet supports posting videos. You can attach one video per post. Here is a site with many videos:

https://yihanphotos.eth.sucks/

This page collects useful FFmpeg commands that can enhance video posts for Planet.

Install FFmpeg

FFmpeg is a versatile tool for processing videos.

You can download a static build from the FFmpeg website:

https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#build-mac

Or install via Homebrew.

brew install ffmpeg

Convert to HEVC

HEVC is the next-generation video format, capable of significantly reducing file size while maintaining visual fidelity. As of May 2024, it is already widely supported.

https://caniuse.com/hevc

Use this command to re-encode videos to HEVC:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx265 -crf 28 -c:a copy -tag:v hvc1 -movflags faststart output-x265.mp4

It is worth noting that the -movflags faststart option is very important for video files intended for web hosting. This option places metadata at the beginning of the video file, allowing browsers to parse it without requiring the entire file to be downloaded.

-crf 28 is used to adjust compression quality. Its valid range is from 0 to 51, where 0 represents lossless compression, 23 is the default, and 51 is the lowest quality possible. A lower value indicates higher quality.

Upscaling with Nearest Neighbor

This command is particularly useful for processing retro gaming videos. For example, to upscale a video by 4x:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -crf 18 -vf "scale=iw*4:ih*4:flags=neighbor" output-4x.mp4

Example output:

Ensure Metadata is at the Beginning

This command ensures that the metadata is placed at the beginning of the file, which is important for web streaming. It does not alter the actual video data; therefore, there is no recompression. It only changes the location of the metadata.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -codec copy -movflags faststart output.mp4

You can verify the result with the mp4box tool, which can be installed with Homebrew:

brew install mp4box

Use mp4box to inspect a video file:

mp4box -info output.mp4

If you see this line in output, it means the file is good for web streaming:

Progressive (moov before mdat)

This page will be updated regularly as we discover more useful ways to enhance video posts for Planet.

Yes, you can write and generate a static website while offline and publish it later when you have connectivity.

You can also read articles from any Planet you follow while offline, as they are stored in the local repo. For example, if you fetched the latest articles from vitalik.eth, you can read them during a long flight without Wi-Fi.

When you start Planet in an offline environment, the IPFS status area shows Online (0) indicating that no peers are currently connected.

These features are fully functional offline:

• Write or edit a post
• Generate a website
• Read retrieved articles from the Planets you are following

These features need connectivity:

• Publish: Write CID to an IPNS and broadcast the update to your IPFS peers
• Check for Update: Find new posts, or a new version of the app, from the Internet
• Aggregation: Fetch posts from other IPNS, ENS, or RSS addresses

This update brings several new features: Search, Faster Gateway for IPNS, Pin articles, and Export/Import for Articles.

• Download: Planet 0.17.1

Search

Press <kbd>CMD</kbd>+<kbd>F</kbd> to open Search. You can search both your own articles and those from the planets you are following.

Faster Gateway for IPNS

In previous versions, we used ipfs.io or cf-ipfs.com to access IPNS. Now, we have a new, faster option powered by the excellent eth.limo and NameSys. Both are community projects.

For example, IPNS for this site is k51qzi5uqu5dgv8kzl1anc0m74n6t9ffdjnypdh846ct5wgpljc7rulynxa74a and you can open it with the following address:

IPNS + ipfs2.eth.limo

https://k51qzi5uqu5dgv8kzl1anc0m74n6t9ffdjnypdh846ct5wgpljc7rulynxa74a.ipfs2.eth.limo

Usually, it's much faster than:

• ipfs.io: https://ipfs.io/ipns/k51qzi5uqu5dgv8kzl1anc0m74n6t9ffdjnypdh846ct5wgpljc7rulynxa74a
• dweb.link: https://dweb.link/ipns/k51qzi5uqu5dgv8kzl1anc0m74n6t9ffdjnypdh846ct5wgpljc7rulynxa74a
• cf-ipfs.com: https://cf-ipfs.com/ipns/k51qzi5uqu5dgv8kzl1anc0m74n6t9ffdjnypdh846ct5wgpljc7rulynxa74a

The new gateway can also be used with CIDv1 like this:

CIDv1 + ipfs2.eth.limo

https://bafybeihyeuqc7nv2zfwt3x6bglgxrca2xglt26jzzqpi4zxci5czxwskku.ipfs2.eth.limo

When you use Open in Public Gateway feature of Planet, it will open with ipfs2.eth.limo now.

Pin Articles

Articles can now be pinned to appear at the top of the list. This new feature is available when you right-click on an article.

Export/Import for Articles

You can export an article as a data package and import it to Planet on another Mac, or simply airdrop it if they are on the same LAN.

Fixes and Improvements

• Improvement: Full rebuild is now faster by utilizing all CPU cores
• Improvement: Better implementation for monitoring changes in published folders
• New: Prewarm article on public gateway for caching and faster loading
• New: Edit button on the toolbar
• Fixed: Scroll position of newly created articles

This update contains important improvements for performance, and a new template design: Sepia!

• Download: Planet 0.16.0

Peering with eth.limo

eth.limo is the best gateway for ENS websites. Now, with direct peering added, your new content will show up faster on eth.limo because direct peering can significantly reduce the time eth.limo spends connecting with your local IPFS node.

New Template: Sepia

Sepia is a brand new template that is great for microblogging.

Here is a demo site of the new template.

Features:

• Show the latest content in chronological order
• Minimalist two-column design on desktop
• Responsive design works great on both desktop and mobile
• Supports video, audio, and multi-picture content
• Supports tags and archives

We'll continue to improve this new template as we receive feedback from you. In the next update, we'll introduce a whole new editor designed for microblogging.

Improved IPNS Publishing

A confirmation dialog will now show if you try to quit the app while it is performing IPNS publishing (indicated by an animating hourglass in the sidebar). Previously, quitting the app during this process could result in unfinished IPNS publishing and cause the website to fail to resolve.

This improvement should significantly reduce the possibility of an IPNS site being unable to resolve.

Improved Rebuild

Now there are two types of rebuild: Quick Rebuild and Full Rebuild. A Quick Rebuild will only regenerate the site's homepage file, index.html. A Full Rebuild will also regenerate every single post with your currently selected template for the site. Quick rebuilding is useful when you are debugging a SPA (single page application) template, such as Croptop.

Misc. Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed an issue where attaching files on macOS 14 was not working
• Fixed an image interpolation setting that caused blurry avatars
• Fixed an issue where the favicon was not removed when the avatar was unset
• Added support for pasting images with the Quick Share dialog
• Added Bonjour advertising for the Planet API service
• Added a random pick feature in the Avatar Picker
• Added a new API endpoint: /v0/id

<kbd>CMD</kbd> + <kbd>Shift</kbd> + <kbd>D</kbd> is the keyboard shortcut in macOS's Mail.app to send an email. It is also the keyboard shortcut in Planet's Writer to send a post. So, if you're used to that shortcut in Mail, you can apply it in Planet, too.

In this update, blogging with Planet is now a more feature-complete experience! We are so excited to bring you Tags and Archive, as well as enhancements for pinning.

• Download: Planet 0.15.1

Tags

You can now add tags to posts either through Article Settings or via a new tagging icon in Writer.

Each tag will then generate its own page, so all posts with that tag can be viewed from one page.

For example, this is the tag page for all release notes of Planet:

https://planetable.eth.limo/release-notes.html

Archive

A new Archive page has been added. It contains links to all the posts on the site.

We have updated the three built-in templates to accommodate the new Tags and Archive features.

Change App Icon

A new Icon Gallery has been added for you to choose a new icon for the Planet app.

If you hold Pinnable NFT Series A, then you can unlock two special icons that have animations in the Dock upon startup.

To use this animated icon, first you need to connect your Ethereum wallet. You can do so by scanning the QR code with the Rainbow Wallet app on your phone.

Select Hero Image

When you have multiple images attached to a post, you can now select one of them as the hero image. The hero image will be displayed when you share the post link on social sites like Twitter or Discord.

Enhancements for Pinnable

Multiple enhancements have been implemented for the Pinnable integration. Now, when you enable Pinnable for your Planet sites, you will experience more instantaneous feedback from the service.

As soon as you see the pinned icon next to your site title, you can rest assured that extra copies have been saved on the remote Pinnable servers. As a result, your site will be faster and more reachable from various IPFS gateways.

We have recently updated the Article Settings UI. This documentation explains how to use it.

Slug

Your article uses a UUID in its URL by default, but you can opt for a custom one. For example, many blog sites have a page titled "About Me." You can set its URL slug to "about-me," so it will appear like this in the full URL:

example.eth.limo/about-me/

The URL slug can only contain lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. It must be unique.

Type

A new post is created as a blog post by default and will appear in the homepage and RSS feeds. If you change its type to "page," it will not be included in these feeds. The "page" type suits pages like "About Me."

Navigation

If you select "Include in Site Navigation," the page will appear in the site's navigation menu. This feature is designed for pages like "About Me."

You can also use this feature to point to an external page. For instance, you can add a page titled "Discord," include your Discord invite link in the "External Link" field, and choose to include it in the site navigation. This will make it appear as a link to your Discord in the top navigation area.

Navigation weight is used for ordering the links; higher numbers appear later in the sequence.

Article Settings and New List View

A new Article Settings context menu has been added. Now, you have the ability to change a blog post into a page. This feature is particularly useful for creating site-level content such as "About Us", "Contact Us", or any other similar pages.

With these new settings, you can design your site navigation similarly to planetable.eth. This can be done by designating certain articles to be featured as items in the site navigation bar.

By clicking on the list filter, you can filter articles by type, making it easier to find specific pages.

The view of an article item has also been redesigned to reflect its type and attachments.

Planet Avatar Picker

We have designed this new avatar picker to curate various beautiful picture collections that can be used as your Planet avatar.

The first collection, Nostalgia, consists of 99 abstract, simple pictures designed by yihanphotos.eth.

Quick Sharing

You can now drag and drop pictures onto the app icon for quick content sharing.

Pinnable

Pinnable is a new service for pinning ENS/IPNS websites.

When you create and publish decentralized websites using the Planet app, your Mac serves as a node on the IPFS peer-to-peer network, hosting your sites. By utilizing pinning, additional copies of your websites are distributed across the entire network, resulting in quicker loading times and increased accessibility. This eliminates the need to keep your laptop on as a server for laptop users. Each time you publish new content, Pinnable initiates syncing with your node, ensuring that you don't have to keep your Mac on continuously as a server.

You will always maintain control over the authoritative version of your content.

To-Do Syntax

Planet's Markdown writer now supports To-Do list syntax, and you can switch items on or off from the local article view.

Embed YouTube

If you include a YouTube link in the content, it will now automatically convert into a player.

Other Improvements

• Drag to reorder my planets or the following planets.
• A progress bar shows during the rebuilding of a planet.

• Fixed issues with moving articles.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when the app had been up and running for an extended period.
• A template can now have its own settings dictionary, opening possibilities for more template-level customizations.
• Improved scrolling performance in the Markdown Writer.
• Markdown Writer date picker can select 'Today'.

This update includes new Star Types, Planet API server, support for moving repo, IPNS key manager, more social links, new icons for the Insider and Debug builds, and other bug fixes and enhancements.

Star Types

When you add a star to an article, now you can select from several star types to give the star more specific meanings. Some star types make it great to use Planet as a To-Do organizer. Besides right-clicking, you can add/remove star from the toolbar too.

In our next feature update, we'll make it possible to filter articles based on star types.

Select Date for Posts

Added a date widget to specify the creation date when writing an article.

API Server

When the Planet app runs, it can now provide an HTTP API server. Here are all the current supported methods, and we will expand the documentation to include more details. The API server opens possibilities to third-party apps, especially mobile ones.

• GET /v0/planets/my - List all my Planets
• POST /v0/planets/my - Create a new Planet
• GET /v0/planets/my/:uuid - Info of a specific My Planet
• POST /v0/planets/my/:uuid - Modify my Planet
• POST /v0/planets/my/:uuid/publish - Publish My Planet
• GET /v0/planets/my/:uuid/public - Expose the content built
• GET /v0/planets/my/:uuid/articles - List articles under My Planet
• POST /v0/planets/my/:uuid/articles - Create a new Article
• GET /v0/planets/my/:uuid/articles/:uuid - Get an article by UUID
• POST /v0/planets/my/:uuid/articles/:uuid - Modify an article
• DELETE /v0/planets/my/:uuid/articles/:uuid - Delete an article

You can enable the API server and set a username and password from the app Settings.

Repo Location and IPNS Key Manager

This is still quite an experimental feature. Please use it with caution.

The default location for Planet app data is:

~/Library/Containers/xyz.planetable.Planet/Data/Documents/Planet

You can move this location from settings now. If the new location is on iCloud Drive or Dropbox, you can utilize cloud storage for backup.

Also, all IPNS keys are backed up with iCloud keychain if that cloud feature is turned on in your iCloud settings. You can find the new Key Manager under the Tools menu.

Full Sync has yet to be ready as we are testing more scenarios to make Full Sync reliable and easier to use. Again, this is an experimental feature; please use it cautiously.

More Social Integrations

You can now add those social identities to show them as icon links on the site homepage and site info panel.

• Juicebox
• Mastodon
• Twitter
• Telegram
• GitHub

New Icons for Insider and Debug Builds

We release Insider Builds from time to time. They contain new features meant to be tested more before being included in the stable releases. You can get Insider Builds from the GitHub Releases page:

https://github.com/Planetable/Planet/releases

If you are running Insider Builds, you will notice that now it has a dedicated blue icon resembling the Xcode and other Apple dev tools. And we added a dedicated update channel for insider builds so that they can be auto-updated too.

You will get the yellow icon if you build Planet from the source.

More icon choices are coming in the next update. For example, new designs from the Pinnable project we recently launched. Another blog post about Pinnable will follow soon.

Fixes and Improvements

• Added CSS for table and to-do list rendered from Markdown
• Use absolute URL for hero images for maximum compatibility with various crawlers
• Fixed a crash when attaching a video
• Fixed audio player as it was not responding in the previous release
• Use a custom SF Symbol of Ethereum for the button for tipping
• Various style fine-tuning to the Plain template for better contrast
• Added a subtle border and shadow to the planet icons on the sidebar for better contrast
• Added a new variable for templates to use: social_image_url

It's the last day of 2022 and some time zones have already entered 2023 when we release this feature update. Happy New Year! Thank you for your support for Planet this year.

A major update in Feature Update 6 is a brand new template called Grid. You can see it live at the following website:

yihanphotos.eth

The design of this template is optimized for images and videos. It has a responsive design that works on both desktop and mobile. To support this template, this update brought some new files and variables.

Video First Frame Saved as Image

The first frame of the video will be saved as an image file called _videoThumbnail.png. For example, this video of a red-crowned Amazon parrot:

• https://yihanphotos.eth.limo/665137A4-A9D7-4D7C-92ED-56DA3B3FFF75/

The address of the first frame's image file is:

• https://yihanphotos.eth.limo/665137A4-A9D7-4D7C-92ED-56DA3B3FFF75/_videoThumbnail.png

Hero Image

If the article attachment includes a wide enough image, the name of the image can be obtained in the template as a variable called heroImage. This will bring many new possibilities to template design.

At the same time, this file will be converted into two versions suitable for use in a grid layout: _grid.jpg and _grid.png. If the attachment includes a video, the first frame of the video will be the Hero Image. And two grid versions will be generated, such as:

• https://yihanphotos.eth.limo/665137A4-A9D7-4D7C-92ED-56DA3B3FFF75/_grid.jpg
• https://yihanphotos.eth.limo/665137A4-A9D7-4D7C-92ED-56DA3B3FFF75/_grid.png

Image files generated by Planet in this way during rendering have names starting with _ and are located in the same folder as the original files.

These generated files are only used by the template and do not appear in the attachment list.

The above is an introduction to the new template. In future updates, we will continue to bring updates to template design. Traditional blogging systems like WordPress, Jekyll, and Ghost have accumulated a lot of tried and tested designs for organizing information over the past decade. These are all areas that Planet, as a static website generator, needs to catch up on.

Published Folders Dashboard

Published Folders is a new feature that was added to Planet's feature update in October 2022, which allows you to publish any local folder as IPNS.

This feature can be thought of as a fully graphical interface for IPFS publishing, particularly suitable for publishing the build results of various static website generators. For example, Jekyll.

Previously, this feature was accessed through the Tools menu. Now you can find the new graphical interface management entry at Tools -> Published Folders -> Dashboard.

Template Browser UI Improvement

The template management tool Template Browser now has a three-column layout to display more information. It also allows you to preview the design of the template's homepage list.