CXLLUM
Still going. Send help.
Welcome back, nobody!
So if you read the last post, you'll know I built a custom Android widget suite and icon pack in a single evening. Surely that would be enough for any reasonable person? Reader, I am not a reasonable person.
Over the past few days — with far too much hyperfixating happening during my working hours — I kept going. And what started as "maybe I'll add a DNF button" turned into a full admin app, a redesigned About page, a movie library, and an Xbox widget on the homepage 🙃
The admin app
The missing piece of the whole setup was always admin on the go. The web CMS is fine when I'm at a computer, but I wanted to be able to mark a book as finished from my phone, right there on the sofa, without logging into a browser. So I built it.
Cxllum Admin is a sideloaded Android app — same dark aesthetic, same teal on #1e1e1e — that hits the same PHP endpoints as the web admin. It opens with a fingerprint prompt (Samsung's BiometricPrompt API), falls back to a password if needed, and stores a session token in EncryptedSharedPreferences so you stay logged in.
The book flow is the bit I'm most proud of. Tap "Finished! 📚" and it immediately asks you to rate the book before logging it — five gold stars, confirm, done. It then prompts for what you're reading next via an Open Library search, complete with cover art. Or tap "Add Later" and it just clears the current book. The whole thing took what was previously a multi-step web admin process and turned it into three taps.
There's also a DNF 🚫 button — Did Not Finish — in red, for the books that just don't make it. No rating prompt, no ceremony. Just the honest truth.
Beyond books, the app handles reading challenge goals, changelog entries, and a CAFFEINE stat override with an expiry time, so if the algorithm thinks I'm running at 40% on a Friday when I've clearly had three coffees, I can correct it.
And then movies happened. TMDB integration means you can search by title, get the full poster and director details, tap to confirm, and it's in the database. The About page movie list is powered by the same table now.
The About page
Speaking of the About page — it got a full redesign. The old file explorer widget with a sidebar is gone. In its place: three draggable terminal windows, each representing a hobby. Click the folder icon and it expands below, pushing the others closed.
Books and Movies both show cover art and star ratings (gold for filled, grey for empty — same as it's always been) along with descriptions. If no review exists it shows // no review yet rather than nothing. Both lists are ordered most recently finished first.
Photography gets a grid of thumbnails from /images/photography/ — just the filename stored in the database, the path hardcoded into the PHP. Click a thumbnail and a lightbox opens. Clean and simple.
Homepage Xbox widget
The widget collection on the homepage also gained a new member: Xbox. It shows whether I'm online or offline (green dot / grey dot), what I'm currently playing or last played, and how many friends are online.
Once again, I should probably sleep.
Key Features
- Cxllum Admin app: fingerprint login, currently reading with Open Library search and cover art, Finished/DNF flow with star rating, CAFFEINE override with expiry 📱
- Movie library: TMDB-powered search, poster art, star ratings, add manually option 🎬
- About page redesign: three draggable terminal windows for Books, Movies, Photography; covers, ratings and reviews throughout 📚
- Xbox homepage widget: online status, current/last played game, friends online count 🟢
- New DB bits:
stat_overrides,admin_sessions,dnfcolumn onbooks_read,cover_urloncurrent_bookandbooks_read, photography table 🗄️