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@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ README ------ -Laconica 0.6.4 ("Catapult") -11 December 2008 +Laconica 0.7.1 ("West of the Fields") +6 February 2009 This is the README file for Laconica, the Open Source microblogging platform. It includes installation instructions, descriptions of @@ -19,23 +19,23 @@ microblogging platform. It helps people in a community, company or group to exchange short (140 character) messages over the Web. Users can choose which people to "follow" and receive only their friends' or colleagues' status messages. It provides a similar service to sites -like Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce and Plurk. +like Twitter, Jaiku and Plurk. With a little work, status messages can be sent to mobile phones, instant messenger programs (GTalk/Jabber), and specially-designed desktop clients that support the Twitter API. Laconica supports an open standard called OpenMicroBlogging -(http://openmicroblogging.org/) that lets users on different Web sites +<http://openmicroblogging.org/> that lets users on different Web sites or in different companies subscribe to each others' notices. It enables a distributed social network spread all across the Web. Laconica was originally developed for the Open Software Service, -Identi.ca (http://identi.ca/). It is shared with you in hope that you +Identi.ca <http://identi.ca/>. It is shared with you in hope that you too make an Open Software Service available to your users. To learn -more, please see the Open Software Service Definition 1.0: +more, please see the Open Software Service Definition 1.1: - http://www.openknowledge.org/ossd + http://www.opendefinition.org/ossd License ======= @@ -71,56 +71,54 @@ for additional terms. New this version ================ -This is a minor feature and security improvement version from version -0.6.3 (release 24 Nov 2008). Notable features of version 0.6.4 include: - -- "private" installs won't show any data to the outside world; redirect - non-logged-in users to login. (See "Private" below) -- Ability to "block" a subscriber, which forces them to unsubscribe, - doesn't allow them to subscribe again, and doesn't allow them to send - @-replies -- Fine-grained control of subscriptions; users can choose not to receive - notices from other users over SMS, or IM, or both -- support for Mozilla microsummaries - (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Microsummaries) -- more efficient support for blacklisting users from the public page -- instructions on the public page for people who aren't logged in -- better registration instructions -- a check for license compatibility in receiving OMB notices -- HTML output in RSS 1.0, 2.0, and Atom feeds -- tuned and more reliable 'rememberme' cookies for username/password - and OpenID logins -- a utility for setting user passwords -- a "ban" configuration variable to ban certain users from posting - notices -- an configurable posting throttle to keep any one user from flooding - the site with messages. -- fine-tuned url-shortening: only shorten if it's needed, only expand - certain URLs, and handle failure of URL-shortening services reliably -- disable Ajax input for notices, subscribe, nudge, while the - request is processing -- early implementation of support for Last-Modified and ETag-based - caching -- initial microformats support -- redirect on bad nicknames in URLs -- correctly send emails in recipient's, not sender's, language -- correct email content type -- Change "Most Favorited" page to "Popular" -- properly support the "since" parameter in API calls -- Fix for changes in validate_credentials API call for the Twitter - bridge -- Fix for fatal error when sending email confirmation on registration -- Better replies for commands sent through the Ajax channel -- Add a User-Agent string for OMB requests -- Upgrade upstream library XMPPHP -- Upgrade upstream library JQuery Forms -- Code cleanup: checkboxes have proper <label> elements -- Code cleanup: consolidated various notice-listing code in one place -- Better support for unsubscribing from a remote user -- Stump of experimental Facebook application (not ready for use! code - review only!) -- Stump of experimental user account deletion (not ready for use! code - review only!) +This is a minor bug-fix release since version 0.7.0, released Jan 29 +2009. Notable changes this version: + +- Vast improvement in auto-linking to URLs. +- Link to group search from user's group page +- Improved interface in Facebook application +- Fix bad redirects in delete notice +- Updated PostgreSQL database creation script +- Show filesize in avatar/logo upload +- Vastly improved avatar/logo upload +- Allow re-authentication with OpenID +- Correctly link hashtabs inside parens and brackets +- Group and avatar image transparency works +- Better handling of commands through the Web and Ajax channels +- Fix links for profile page feeds +- Fixed destroy method in API +- Fix endpoint of Connect menu when XMPP disabled +- Show number of group members +- Enable configuration files in /etc/laconica/ + +Changes in version 0.7.0: + +- Support for groups. Users can join groups and send themed notices + to those groups. All other members of the group receive the notices. +- Laconica-specific extensions to the Twitter API. +- A Facebook application. +- A massive UI redesign. The HTML generated by Laconica has changed + significantly, to make theming easier and to give a more open look + by default. Also, sidebar. +- Massive code hygiene changes to move towards compliance with the PEAR + coding standards and to support the new UI redesign. +- Began the breakup of util.php -- moved about 30% of code to a views + hierarchy. +- UI elements for statistical information (like top posters or most + popular groups) added in a sidebar. +- include Javascript badge by Kent Brewster. +- Updated online documentation. +- Cropping of user avatars using Jcrop. +- fix for Twitter bridge to not send "Expect:" headers. +- add 'dm' as a synonym for 'd' in commands. +- Upgrade upstream version of jQuery to 1.3. +- Upgrade upstream version of PHP-OpenID to 2.1.2. +- Move OpenMicroBlogging specification to its own repository. +- Make tag-based RSS streams work. +- Additional locales: Bulgarian, Catalan, Greek, Hebrew, simplified + Chinese, Telugu, Taiwanese Chinese, Vietnamese, +- PostgreSQL updates. +- Nasty bug in Twitter bridge that wouldn't verify with Twitter Prerequisites ============= @@ -202,6 +200,7 @@ and the URLs are listed here for your convenience. version (patches have been submitted). Upgrading to the upstream version may render your Laconica site unable to send or receive XMPP messages. +- Facebook library. Used for the Facebook application. A design goal of Laconica is that the basic Web functionality should work on even the most restrictive commercial hosting services. @@ -219,9 +218,9 @@ especially if you've previously installed PHP/MySQL packages. 1. Unpack the tarball you downloaded on your Web server. Usually a command like this will work: - tar zxf laconica-0.6.4.tar.gz + tar zxf laconica-0.7.1.tar.gz - ...which will make a laconica-0.6.4 subdirectory in your current + ...which will make a laconica-0.7.1 subdirectory in your current directory. (If you don't have shell access on your Web server, you may have to unpack the tarball on your local computer and FTP the files to the server.) @@ -229,7 +228,7 @@ especially if you've previously installed PHP/MySQL packages. 2. Move the tarball to a directory of your choosing in your Web root directory. Usually something like this will work: - mv laconica-0.6.4 /var/www/mublog + mv laconica-0.7.1 /var/www/mublog This will make your Laconica instance available in the mublog path of your server, like "http://example.net/mublog". "microblog" or @@ -237,21 +236,28 @@ especially if you've previously installed PHP/MySQL packages. configure virtual hosts on your web server, you can try setting up "http://micro.example.net/" or the like. -3. You should also take this moment to make your avatar subdirectory - writeable by the Web server. An insecure way to do this is: +3. Make your target directory writeable by the Web server. - chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/avatar + chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/ On some systems, this will probably work: - chgrp www-data /var/www/mublog/avatar - chmod g+w /var/www/mublog/avatar + chgrp www-data /var/www/mublog/ + chmod g+w /var/www/mublog/ If your Web server runs as another user besides "www-data", try that user's default group instead. As a last resort, you can create - a new group like "avatar" and add the Web server's user to the group. + a new group like "mublog" and add the Web server's user to the group. + +4. You should also take this moment to make your avatar subdirectory + writeable by the Web server. An insecure way to do this is: + + chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/avatar + + You can also make the avatar directory writeable by the Web server + group, as noted above. -4. Create a database to hold your microblog data. Something like this +5. Create a database to hold your microblog data. Something like this should work: mysqladmin -u "username" --password="password" create laconica @@ -264,63 +270,55 @@ especially if you've previously installed PHP/MySQL packages. a tool like PHPAdmin to create a database. Check your hosting service's documentation for how to create a new MySQL database.) -5. Run the laconica.sql SQL script in the db subdirectory to create - the database tables in the database. A typical system would work - like this: - - mysql -u "username" --password="password" laconica < /var/www/mublog/db/laconica.sql - - You may want to test by logging into the database and checking that - the tables were created. Here's an example: - - SHOW TABLES; - 6. Create a new database account that Laconica will use to access the database. If you have shell access, this will probably work from the MySQL shell: - GRANT SELECT,INSERT,DELETE,UPDATE on laconica.* + GRANT ALL on laconica.* TO 'lacuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'lacpassword'; You should change 'lacuser' and 'lacpassword' to your preferred new - username and password. You may want to test logging in as this new - user and testing that you can SELECT from some of the tables in the - DB (use SHOW TABLES to see which ones are there). - -7. Copy the config.php.sample in the Laconica directory to config.php. - -8. Edit config.php to set the basic configuration for your system. - (See descriptions below for basic config options.) Note that there - are lots of options and if you try to do them all at once, you will - have a hard time making sure what's working and what's not. So, - stick with the basics at first. In particular, customizing the - 'site' and 'db' settings will almost definitely be needed. - -9. At this point, you should be able to navigate in a browser to your - microblog's main directory and see the "Public Timeline", which - will be empty. If not, magic has happened! You can now register a - new user, post some notices, edit your profile, etc. However, you - may want to wait to do that stuff if you think you can set up - "fancy URLs" (see below), since some URLs are stored in the database. + username and password. You may want to test logging in to MySQL as + this new user. + +7. In a browser, navigate to the Laconica install script; something like: + + http://yourserver.example.com/mublog/install.php + + Enter the database connection information and your site name. The + install program will configure your site and install the initial, + almost-empty database. + +8. You should now be able to navigate to your microblog's main directory + and see the "Public Timeline", which will be empty. If not, magic + has happened! You can now register a new user, post some notices, + edit your profile, etc. However, you may want to wait to do that stuff + if you think you can set up "fancy URLs" (see below), since some + URLs are stored in the database. Fancy URLs ---------- -By default, Laconica will have big long sloppy URLs that are hard for -people to remember or use. For example, a user's home profile might be +By default, Laconica will use URLs that include the main PHP program's +name in them. For example, a user's home profile might be found at: - http://example.org/mublog/index.php?action=showstream&nickname=fred + http://example.org/mublog/index.php/mublog/fred + +On certain systems that don't support this kind of syntax, they'll +look like this: + + http://example.org/mublog/index.php?p=mublog/fred It's possible to configure the software so it looks like this instead: http://example.org/mublog/fred These "fancy URLs" are more readable and memorable for users. To use -fancy URLs, you must either have Apache 2.2.x with .htaccess enabled -and mod_redirect enabled, -OR- know how to configure "url redirection" -in your server. +fancy URLs, you must either have Apache 2.x with .htaccess enabled and +mod_redirect enabled, -OR- know how to configure "url redirection" in +your server. 1. Copy the htaccess.sample file to .htaccess in your Laconica directory. Note: if you have control of your server's httpd.conf or @@ -345,10 +343,6 @@ like: If you changed your HTTP server configuration, you may need to restart the server first. -If you have problems with the .htaccess file on versions of Apache -earlier than 2.2.x, try changing the regular expressions in the -htaccess.sample file that use "\w" to just use ".". - Sphinx ------ @@ -380,7 +374,7 @@ configuration is essentially email configuration. Each user sends to a made-up email address, which they keep a secret. Incoming email that is "From" the user's SMS email address, and "To" the users' secret email address on the site's domain, will be -converted to a message and stored in the DB. +converted to a notice and stored in the DB. For this to work, there *must* be a domain or sub-domain for which all (or most) incoming email can pass through the incoming mail filter. @@ -424,7 +418,7 @@ config.php, and access to the Laconica database from the mail server. XMPP ---- -XMPP (eXtended Message and Presence Protocol, http://xmpp.org/) is the +XMPP (eXtended Message and Presence Protocol, <http://xmpp.org/>) is the instant-messenger protocol that drives Jabber and GTalk IM. You can distribute messages via XMPP using the system below; however, you need to run the XMPP incoming daemon to allow incoming messages as @@ -508,7 +502,7 @@ server is probably a good idea for high-volume sites. needs as a parameter the install path; if you run it from the Laconica dir, "." should suffice. -This will run six (for now) queue handlers: +This will run eight (for now) queue handlers: * xmppdaemon.php - listens for new XMPP messages from users and stores them as notices in the database. @@ -522,6 +516,10 @@ This will run six (for now) queue handlers: of registered users. * xmppconfirmhandler.php - sends confirmation messages to registered users. +* twitterqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices to Twitter for user + who have opted to set up Twitter bridging. +* facebookqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices to Facebook for users + of the built-in Facebook application. Note that these queue daemons are pretty raw, and need your care. In particular, they leak memory, and you may want to restart them on a @@ -554,10 +552,57 @@ Sample cron job: # Update Twitter friends subscriptions every half hour 0,30 * * * * /path/to/php /path/to/laconica/scripts/synctwitterfriends.php>&/dev/null +Built-in Facebook Application +----------------------------- + +Laconica's Facebook application allows your users to automatically +update their Facebook statuses with their latest notices, invite +their friends to use the app (and thus your site), view their notice +timelines, and post notices -- all from within Facebook. The application +is built into Laconica and runs on your host. For automatic Facebook +status updating to work you will need to enable queuing and run the +facebookqueuehandler.php daemon (see the "Queues and daemons" section +above). + +Quick setup instructions*: + +Install the Facebook Developer application on Facebook: + + http://www.facebook.com/developers/ + +Use it to create a new application and generate an API key and secret. +Uncomment the Facebook app section of your config.php and copy in the +key and secret, e.g.: + + # Config section for the built-in Facebook application + $config['facebook']['apikey'] = 'APIKEY'; + $config['facebook']['secret'] = 'SECRET'; + +In Facebook's application editor, specify the following URLs for your app: + +- Callback URL: http://example.net/mublog/facebook/ +- Post-Remove URL: http://example.net/mublog/facebook/remove +- Post-Add Redirect URL: http://apps.facebook.com/yourapp/ +- Canvas URL: http://apps.facebook.com/yourapp/ + +(Replace 'example.net' with your host's URL, 'mublog' with the path +to your Laconica installation, and 'yourapp' with the name of the +Facebook application you created.) + +Additionally, Choose "Web" for Application type in the Advanced tab. +In the "Canvas setting" section, choose the "FBML" for Render Method, +"Smart Size" for IFrame size, and "Full width (760px)" for Canvas Width. +Everything else can be left with default values. + +*For more detailed instructions please see the installation guide on the +Laconica wiki: + + http://laconi.ca/trac/wiki/FacebookApplication + Sitemaps -------- -Sitemap files (http://sitemaps.org/) are a very nice way of telling +Sitemap files <http://sitemaps.org/> are a very nice way of telling search engines and other interested bots what's available on your site and what's changed recently. You can generate sitemap files for your Laconica instance. @@ -578,7 +623,7 @@ Laconica instance. like './sitemapindex.xml'. sitemap-directory is the directory where you want the sitemaps stored, like './sitemaps/' (make sure the dir exists). URL-prefix-for-sitemaps is the full URL for the sitemap dir, - typically something like 'http://example.net/mublog/sitemaps/'. + typically something like <http://example.net/mublog/sitemaps/>. You can use several methods for submitting your sitemap index to search engines to get your site indexed. One is to add a line like the @@ -594,7 +639,7 @@ to these resources. Themes ------ -There are two themes shipped with this version of Laconica: "stoica", +There are two themes shipped with this version of Laconica: "identica", which is what the Identi.ca site uses, and "default", which is a good basis for other sites. @@ -625,16 +670,20 @@ default-avatar-mini.png: Ditto ditto, but 24x24. For subscriptions You may want to start by copying the files from the default theme to your own directory. +NOTE: the HTML generated by Laconica changed *radically* between +version 0.6.x and 0.7.x. Older themes will need signification +modification to use the new output format. + Translation ----------- -Translations in Laconica use the gettext system (http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/). +Translations in Laconica use the gettext system <http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/>. Theoretically, you can add your own sub-directory to the locale/ subdirectory to add a new language to your system. You'll need to compile the ".po" files into ".mo" files, however. Contributions of translation information to Laconica are very easy: -you can use the Web interface at http://laconi.ca/entrans/ to add one +you can use the Web interface at http://laconi.ca/pootle/ to add one or a few or lots of new translations -- or even new languages. You can also download more up-to-date .po files there, if you so desire. @@ -643,7 +692,7 @@ Backups There is no built-in system for doing backups in Laconica. You can make backups of a working Laconica system by backing up the database and -the Web directory. To backup the database use mysqldump (http://ur1.ca/7xo) +the Web directory. To backup the database use mysqldump <http://ur1.ca/7xo> and to backup the Web directory, try tar. Private @@ -669,7 +718,7 @@ Upgrading If you've been using Laconica 0.6, 0.5 or lower, or if you've been tracking the "git" version of the software, you will probably want to upgrade and keep your existing data. There is no automated upgrade -procedure in Laconica 0.6.4. Try these step-by-step instructions; read +procedure in Laconica 0.7.1. Try these step-by-step instructions; read to the end first before trying them. 0. Download Laconica and set up all the prerequisites as if you were @@ -761,6 +810,15 @@ edit any other file in the directory, like lib/common.php (where most of the defaults are defined), you will lose your configuration options in any upgrade, and you will wish that you had been more careful. +Starting with version 0.7.1, you can put config files in the +/etc/laconica/ directory on your server, if it exists. Config files +will be included in this order: + +* /etc/laconica/laconica.php - server-wide config +* /etc/laconica/<servername>.php - for a virtual host +* /etc/laconica/<servername>_<pathname>.php - for a path +* INSTALLDIR/config.php - for a particular implementation + Almost all configuration options are made through a two-dimensional associative array, cleverly named $config. A typical configuration line will be: @@ -826,7 +884,7 @@ db -- This section is a reference to the configuration options for -DB_DataObject (see http://ur1.ca/7xp). The ones that you may want to +DB_DataObject (see <http://ur1.ca/7xp>). The ones that you may want to set are listed below for clarity. database: a DSN (Data Source Name) for your Laconica database. This is @@ -926,7 +984,7 @@ server: If set, defines another server where avatars are stored in the the client to speed up page loading, either with another virtual server or with an NFS or SAMBA share. Clients typically only make 2 connections to a single server at a - time (http://ur1.ca/6ih), so this can parallelize the job. + time <http://ur1.ca/6ih>, so this can parallelize the job. Defaults to null. public @@ -1007,7 +1065,7 @@ memcached --------- You can get a significant boost in performance by caching some -database data in memcached (http://www.danga.com/memcached/). +database data in memcached <http://www.danga.com/memcached/>. enabled: Set to true to enable. Default false. server: a string with the hostname of the memcached server. Can also @@ -1018,7 +1076,7 @@ sphinx You can get a significant boost in performance using Sphinx Search instead of your database server to search for users and notices. -(http://sphinxsearch.com/). +<http://sphinxsearch.com/>. enabled: Set to true to enable. Default false. server: a string with the hostname of the sphinx server. @@ -1031,7 +1089,7 @@ A catch-all for integration with other systems. source: The name to use for the source of posts to Twitter. Defaults to 'laconica', but if you request your own source name from - Twitter (http://twitter.com/help/request_source), you can use + Twitter <http://twitter.com/help/request_source>, you can use that here instead. Status updates on Twitter will then have links to your site. @@ -1077,7 +1135,7 @@ repository (see below), and you get a compilation error ("unexpected T_STRING") in the browser, check to see that you don't have any conflicts in your code. -If you upgraded to Laconica 0.6.4 without reading the "Notice inboxes" +If you upgraded to Laconica 0.7.1 without reading the "Notice inboxes" section above, and all your users' 'Personal' tabs are empty, read the "Notice inboxes" section above. @@ -1108,7 +1166,7 @@ Unstable version If you're adventurous or impatient, you may want to install the development version of Laconica. To get it, use the git version -control tool (http://git-scm.com/) like so: +control tool <http://git-scm.com/> like so: git clone http://laconi.ca/software/laconica.git @@ -1121,7 +1179,7 @@ There are several ways to get more information about Laconica. * There is a mailing list for Laconica developers and admins at http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev -* The #laconica IRC channel on freenode.net (http://www.freenode.net/). +* The #laconica IRC channel on freenode.net <http://www.freenode.net/>. * The Laconica wiki, http://laconi.ca/trac/ Feedback @@ -1156,9 +1214,13 @@ if anyone's been overlooked in error. * Erik Stambaugh * 'drry' * Gina Haeussge -* Ken Sheppardson (Trac server, man-about-town) -* Tiago 'gouki' Faria (entrans) * Tryggvi Björgvinsson +* Adrian Lang +* Ori Avtalion +* Meitar Moscovitz +* Ken Sheppardson (Trac server, man-about-town) +* Tiago 'gouki' Faria (i18n managerx) +* Sean Murphy Thanks also to the developers of our upstream library code and to the thousands of people who have tried out Identi.ca, installed Laconi.ca, |