giphy support

[lemurxvulcan]

Feature Request: GIF → ASCII Animation Widget (Giphy Integration)

Summary

Add a widget that fetches GIFs from Giphy, converts frames into ASCII (or terminal-friendly characters), and animates them inside the TUI.

⸻

Motivation

This would allow dynamic visual content inside the app while maintaining terminal compatibility. Animated ASCII provides a lightweight, cross-platform way to display media without graphics support.

Use cases:
• Visual feedback or status animations
• Fun or expressive terminal UI elements
• Attention-grabbing content in dashboards or feeds

⸻

Proposed Functionality

1. Giphy Fetch
   • Query Giphy API using a search term or trending endpoint
   • Support:
   • search(query)
   • trending()
   • optional random mode
   • Configurable API key via env variable:

GIPHY_API_KEY

2. GIF Frame Processing
   • Download GIF
   • Decode into frames
   • Resize to fit widget bounds
   • Convert frames to grayscale
   • Map brightness → ASCII charset

Example charset gradient:

" .:-=+*#%@"

Optional modes:
• ASCII grayscale
• Block characters
• Braille patterns for higher resolution

3. Animation Engine
   • Render frames sequentially in the widget
   • Respect GIF frame delays
   • Loop animation
   • Allow pause/resume

4. Widget Behavior
   • Automatically scale to widget size
   • Maintain aspect ratio
   • Support refresh and new search queries

⸻

Widget API (proposed)

AsciiGifWidget::new()
.query("cats")
.mode(GifMode::Search)
.charset(Charset::Standard)
.looping(true)
.build();

⸻

UI Example

+----------------------------------+
| (=^･ω･^=) |
| /| |\ |
| | ASCII CAT GIF | |
| _______/ |
+----------------------------------+

⸻

Implementation Notes

Crates to consider
• reqwest → HTTP requests
• gif or image → decoding GIF frames
• ratatui → rendering frames
• tokio → async fetching & frame timing

Frame conversion flow
1. Fetch GIF
2. Decode frames
3. Resize to widget dimensions
4. Convert pixels → luminance
5. Map luminance → ASCII chars
6. Render frame buffer
7. Sleep for frame delay
8. Repeat

⸻

Performance Considerations
• Cache downloaded GIFs
• Limit max resolution to prevent terminal slowdown
• Allow configurable FPS cap
• Use incremental redraws to reduce flicker

⸻

Configuration Options

Option Description
max_width frame width cap
fps_limit animation speed limit
charset ASCII mapping style
invert invert brightness mapping
cache enable local caching

⸻

Future Enhancements
• Support local GIF files
• Inline emoji mode
• Colorized ANSI rendering
• Multiple concurrent animations
• WebP/APNG support

⸻

Acceptance Criteria
• Widget displays animated ASCII GIF
• Giphy search works via API key
• Animation timing matches source frames
• Widget resizes correctly
• No significant flicker during playback

⸻

References
• https://developers.giphy.com/docs/api/
• ASCII luminance mapping techniques
• ratatui widget rendering patterns

⸻