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@@ -1,21 +1,646 @@ -This package requires PHP 5.x and the following PHP Pear libraries: +------ +README +------ + +Laconica 0.6.0 +12 September 2008 + +This is the README file for Laconica, the Open Source microblogging +platform. It includes installation instructions, descriptions of +options you can set, warnings, tips, and general info for +administrators. Information on using Laconica can be found in the +"doc" subdirectory or in the "help" section on-line. + +About +===== + +Laconica (pronounced "luh-KAWN-ih-kuh") is a Free and Open Source +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. + +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 +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 +too make an Open Software Service available to your users. To learn +more, please see the Open Software Service Definition 1.0: + + http://www.openknowledge.org/ossd + +License +======= + +This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify +it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as +published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the +License, or (at your option) any later version. + +This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but +WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of +MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU +Affero General Public License for more details. + +You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public +License along with this program, in the file "COPYING". If not, see +<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. + + IMPORTANT NOTE: The GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) has + *different requirements* from the "regular" GPL. In particular, if + you make modifications to the Laconica source code on your server, + you *MUST MAKE AVAILABLE* the modified version of the source code + to your users under the same license. This is a legal requirement + of using the software, and if you do not wish to share your + modifications, *YOU MAY NOT INSTALL LACONICA*. + +Prerequisites +============= + +The following software packages are *required* for this software to +run correctly. + +- PHP 5.2.x. It may be possible to run this software on earlier + versions of PHP, but many of the functions used are only available + in PHP 5.2 or above. +- MySQL 5.x. The Laconica database is stored, by default, in a MySQL + server. It has been primarily tested on 5.x servers, although it may + be possible to install on earlier (or later!) versions. The server + *must* support the MyISAM storage engine -- the default for most + MySQL servers -- *and* the InnoDB storage engine. +- A Web server. Preferably, you should have Apache 2.2.x with the + mod_rewrite extension installed and enabled. + +Your PHP installation must include the following PHP extensions: + +- Curl. This is for fetching files by HTTP. +- XMLWriter. This is for formatting XML and HTML output. +- MySQL. For accessing the database. + +For some functionality, you will also need the following extensions: + +- Memcache. A client for the memcached server, which caches database + information in volatile memory. This is important for adequate + performance on high-traffic sites. You will also need a memcached + server to store the data in. +- Mailparse. Efficient parsing of email requires this extension. + Submission by email or SMS-over-email uses this extension. + +You will almost definitely get 2-3 times better performance from your +site if you install a PHP bytecode cache/accelerator. Some well-known +examples are: eaccelerator, Turck mmcache, xcache, apc. Zend Optimizer +is a proprietary accelerator installed on some hosting sites. + +External libraries +------------------ + +A number of external PHP libraries are used to provide basic +functionality and optional functionality for your system. For your +convenience, they are available in the "extlib" directory of this +package, and you do not have to download and install them. However, +you may want to keep them up-to-date with the latest upstream version, +and the URLs are listed here for your convenience. - DB_DataObject http://pear.php.net/package/DB_DataObject - Validate http://pear.php.net/package/Validate -- XMLWriter (built-in) -- Auth_Yadis from OpenIDEnabled (not the PEAR version!). I decided +- OpenID from OpenIDEnabled (not the PEAR version!). We decided to use the openidenabled.com version since it's more widely - implemented, seems to be better supported, and it may make sense to - use the openidenabled.com libraries for OpenID auth sometime in the - future. Note that this is no longer distributed separately; it's only - in the openidenabled.com OpenID PHP tarball. + implemented, and seems to be better supported. http://openidenabled.com/php-openid/ +- PEAR DB. Although this is an older data access system (new + packages should probably use PHP DBO), the OpenID libraries + depend on PEAR DB so we use it here, too. DB_DataObject can + also use PEAR MDB2, which may give you better performance + but won't work with OpenID. + http://pear.php.net/package/DB - OAuth.php from http://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/code/php/ - markdown.php from http://michelf.com/projects/php-markdown/ - PEAR Mail, for sending out mail notifications http://pear.php.net/package/Mail - PEAR Net_SMTP, if you use the SMTP factory for notifications http://pear.php.net/package/Net_SMTP -- xmpphp, the follow-up to Class.Jabber.php. Probably the best XMPP - library available for PHP. http://xmpphp.googlecode.com/ +- XMPPHP, the follow-up to Class.Jabber.php. Probably the best XMPP + library available for PHP. http://xmpphp.googlecode.com/. Note that + as of this writing the version of this library that is available in + the extlib directory is *significantly different* from the upstream + version (patches have been submitted). Upgrading to the upstream + version may render your Laconica site unable to send or receive XMPP + messages. + +A design goal of Laconica is that the basic Web functionality should +work on even the most restrictive commercial hosting services. +However, additional functionality, such as receiving messages by +Jabber/GTalk, require that you be able to run long-running processes +on your account. In addition, posting by email or from SMS require +that you be able to install a mail filter in your mail server. + +Installation +============ + +Installing the basic Laconica Web component is relatively easy, +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-0.6.0.tar.gz + + ...which will make a laconica-0.6.0 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.) + +2. Move the tarball to a directory of your choosing in your Web root + directory. Usually something like this will work: + + mv laconica-0.6.0 /var/www/mublog + + This will make your Laconica instance available in the mublog path of + your server, like "http://example.net/mublog". "microblog" or + "laconica" might also be good path names. If you know how to + 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: + + chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/avatar + + On some systems, this will probably work: + + chgrp www-data /var/www/mublog/avatar + chmod g+w /var/www/mublog/avatar + + 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. + +4. Create a database to hold your microblog data. Something like this + should work: + + mysqladmin -u "username" --password="password" create laconica + + Note that Laconica must have its own database; you can't share the + database with another program. You can name it whatever you want, + though. + + (If you don't have shell access to your server, you may need to use + 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.* + 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. + +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. + +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 +found at: + + http://example.org/mublog/index.php?action=showstream&nickname=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. + +1. Copy the htaccess.sample file to .htaccess in your Laconica + directory. Note: if you have control of your server's httpd.conf or + similar configuration files, it can greatly improve performance to + import the .htaccess file into your conf file instead. If you're + not sure how to do it, you may save yourself a lot of headache by + just leaving the .htaccess file. + +2. Change the "RewriteBase" in the new .htaccess file to be the URL path + to your Laconica installation on your server. Typically this will + be the path to your Laconica directory relative to your Web root. + +3. Add or uncomment or change a line in your config.php file so it says: + + $config['site']['fancy'] = true; + +You should now be able to navigate to a "fancy" URL on your server, +like: + + http://example.net/mublog/main/register + +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 ".". + +SMS +--- + +Laconica supports a cheap-and-dirty system for sending update messages +to mobile phones and for receiving updates from the mobile. Instead of +sending through the SMS network itself, which is costly and requires +buy-in from the wireless carriers, it simply piggybacks on the email +gateways that many carriers provide to their customers. So, SMS +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. + +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. + +1. Run the SQL script carrier.sql in your Laconica database. This will + usually work: + + mysql -u "lacuser" --password="lacpassword" laconica < db/carrier.sql + + This will populate your database with a list of wireless carriers + that support email SMS gateways. + +2. Make sure the maildaemon.php file is executable: + + chmod +x scripts/maildaemon.php + + Note that "daemon" is kind of a misnomer here; the script is more + of a filter than a daemon. + +2. Edit /etc/aliases on your mail server and add the following line: + + *: /path/to/laconica/scripts/maildaemon.php + +3. Run whatever code you need to to update your aliases database. For + many mail servers (Postfix, Exim, Sendmail), this should work: + + newaliases + + You may need to restart your mail server for the new database to + take effect. + +4. Set the following in your config.php file: + + $config['mail']['domain'] = 'yourdomain.example.net'; + +At this point, post-by-email and post-by-SMS-gateway should work. Note +that if your mail server is on a different computer from your email +server, you'll need to have a full installation of Laconica, a working +config.php, and access to the Laconica database from the mail server. + +XMPP +---- + +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 +well. + +1. You may want to strongly consider setting up your own XMPP server. + Ejabberd, OpenFire, and JabberD are all Open Source servers. + Jabber, Inc. provides a high-performance commercial server. + +2. You must register a Jabber ID (JID) with your new server. It helps + to choose a name like "update@example.com" or "notice" or something + similar. Alternately, your "update JID" can be registered on a + publicly-available XMPP service, like jabber.org or GTalk. + + Laconica will not register the JID with your chosen XMPP server; + you need to do this manually, with an XMPP client like Gajim, + Telepathy, or Pidgin.im. + +3. Configure your site's XMPP variables, as described below in the + configuration section. + +On a default installation, your site can broadcast messages using +XMPP. Users won't be able to post messages using XMPP unless you've +got the XMPP daemon running. See 'Queues and daemons' below for how +to set that up. Also, once you have a sizable number of users, sending +a lot of SMS, OMB, and XMPP messages whenever someone posts a message +can really slow down your site; it may cause posting to timeout. + +Public feed +----------- + +You can send *all* messages from your microblogging site to a +third-party service using XMPP. This can be useful for providing +search, indexing, bridging, or other cool services. + +To configure a downstream site to receive your public stream, add +their "JID" (Jabber ID) to your config.php as follows: + + $config['xmpp']['public'][] = 'downstream@example.net'; + +(Don't miss those square brackets at the end.) Note that your XMPP +broadcasting must be configured as mentioned above. Although you can +send out messages at "Web time", high-volume sites should strongly +consider setting up queues and daemons. + +Queues and daemons +------------------ + +Some activities that Laconica needs to do, like broadcast OMB, SMS, +and XMPP messages, can be 'queued' and done by off-line bots instead. +For this to work, you must be able to run long-running offline +processes, either on your main Web server or on another server you +control. (Your other server will still need all the above +prerequisites, with the exception of Apache.) Installing on a separate +server is probably a good idea for high-volume sites. + +1. You'll need the "CLI" (command-line interface) version of PHP + installed on whatever server you use. + +2. If you're using a separate server for queues, install Laconica + somewhere on the server. You don't need to worry about the + .htaccess file, but make sure that your config.php file is close + to, or identical to, your Web server's version. + +3. In your config.php files (both the Web server and the queues + server!), set the following variable: + + $config['queue']['enabled'] = true; + +4. On the queues server, run the command scripts/startdaemons.sh. It + 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: + +* xmppdaemon.php - listens for new XMPP messages from users and stores + them as notices in the database. +* jabberqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices in the database to + registered users who should receive them. +* publicqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices in the database to + public feed listeners. +* ombqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices to OpenMicroBlogging + recipients on foreign servers. +* smsqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices to SMS-over-email addresses + of registered users. +* xmppconfirmhandler.php - sends confirmation messages to registered + users. + +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 +regular (daily or so) basis with a cron job. Also, if they lose +the connection to the XMPP server for too long, they'll simply die. It +may be a good idea to use a daemon-monitoring service, like 'monit', +to check their status and keep them running. + +All the daemons write their process IDs (pids) to /var/run/ by +default. This can be useful for starting, stopping, and monitoring the +daemons. + +Sitemaps +-------- + +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. + +1. Choose your sitemap URL layout. Laconica creates a number of + sitemap XML files for different parts of your site. You may want to + put these in a sub-directory of your Laconica directory to avoid + clutter. The sitemap index file tells the search engines and other + bots where to find all the sitemap files; it *must* be in the main + installation directory or higher. Both types of file must be + available through HTTP. + +2. To generate your sitemaps, run the following command on your server: + + php scripts/sitemap.php -f index-file-path -d sitemap-directory -u URL-prefix-for-sitemaps + + Here, index-file-path is the full path to the sitemap index file, + 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/'. + +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 +following to your robots.txt file: + + Sitemap: /mublog/sitemapindex.xml + +This is a good idea for letting *all* Web spiders know about your +sitemap. You can also submit sitemap files to major search engines +using their respective "Webmaster centres"; see sitemaps.org for links +to these resources. + +Themes +------ + +Translation +----------- + +Upgrading +========= + +Configuration options +===================== + +The sole configuration file for Laconica (excepting configurations for +dependency software) is config.php in your Laconica directory. If you +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. + +Almost all configuration options are made through a two-dimensional +associative array, cleverly named $config. A typical configuration +line will be: + + $config['section']['option'] = value; + +For brevity, the following documentation describes each section and +option. + +site +---- + +This section is a catch-all for site-wide variables. + +name: the name of your site, like 'YourCompany Microblog'. +server: the server part of your site's URLs, like 'example.net'. +path: The path part of your site's URLs, like 'mublog' or '/' + (installed in root). +fancy: whether or not your site uses fancy URLs (see Fancy URLs + section above). Default is false. +logfile: full path to a file for Laconica to save logging + information to. You may want to use this if you don't have + access to syslog. +locale_path: full path to the directory for locale data. Unless you + store all your locale data in one place, you probably + don't need to use this. +language: default language for your site. Defaults to US English. +languages: A list of languages supported on your site. Typically you'd + only change this if you wanted to disable support for one + or another language: + "unset($config['site']['languages']['de'])" will disable + support for German. +theme: Theme for your site (see Theme section). Two themes are + provided by default: 'default' and 'stoica' (the one used by + Identi.ca). It's appreciated if you don't use the 'stoica' theme + except as the basis for your own. +email: contact email address for your site. By default, it's extracted + from your Web server environment; you may want to customize it. +broughtbyurl: name of an organization or individual who provides the + service. Each page will include a link to this name in the + footer. A good way to link to the blog, forum, wiki, + corporate portal, or whoever is making the service available. +broughtby: text used for the "brought by" link. +timezone: default timezone for message display. Users can set their + own time zone. Defaults to 'UTC', which is a pretty good default. +closed: If set to 'true', will disallow registration on your site. + This is a cheap way to restrict accounts to only one + individual or group; just register the accounts you want on + the service, *then* set this variable to 'true'. + +syslog +------ + +By default, Laconica sites log error messages to the syslog facility. +(You can override this using the 'logfile' parameter described above). + +appname: The name that Laconica uses to log messages. By default it's + "laconica", but if you have more than one installation on the + server, you may want to change the name for each instance so + you can track log messages more easily. + +queue +----- + +You can configure the software to queue time-consuming tasks, like +sending out SMS email or XMPP messages, for off-line processing. See +'Queues and daemons' above for how to set this up. + +enabled: Whether to + + 'queue' => + array('enabled' => false), + 'license' => + array('url' => 'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/', + 'title' => 'Creative Commons Attribution 3.0', + 'image' => 'http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/88x31.png'), + 'mail' => + array('backend' => 'mail', + 'params' => NULL), + 'nickname' => + array('blacklist' => array()), + 'avatar' => + array('server' => NULL), + 'public' => + array('localonly' => true), + 'theme' => + array('server' => NULL), + 'xmpp' => + array('enabled' => false, + 'server' => 'INVALID SERVER', + 'port' => 5222, + 'user' => 'update', + 'encryption' => true, + 'resource' => 'uniquename', + 'password' => 'blahblahblah', + 'host' => NULL, # only set if != server + 'debug' => false, # print extra debug info + 'public' => array()), # JIDs of users who want to receive the public stream + 'tag' => + array('dropoff' => 864000.0), + 'daemon' => + array('piddir' => '/var/run', + 'user' => false, + 'group' => false) + ); +Web +--- + +Mail +---- + +SMS +--- + +XMPP +---- + +Troubleshooting +=============== + +The primary output for + +Myths +===== + +These are some myths you may see on the Web about Laconica. +Documentation from the core team about Laconica has been pretty +sparse, so some backtracking and guesswork resulted in some incorrect +assumptions. + +- "Set $config['db']['debug'] = 5 to debug the database." This is an + extremely bad idea. It's a tool built into DB_DataObject that will + emit oodles of print lines directly to the browser of your users. + Among these lines will be your database username and password. Do + not enable this option on a production Web site for any reason. + +- "Edit dataobject.ini with the following settings..." dataobject.ini + is a development file for the DB_DataObject framework and is not + used by the running software. It was removed from the Laconica + distribution because its presence was confusing. Do not bother + configuring dataobject.ini, and do not put your database username + and password into the file on a production Web server; unscrupulous + persons may try to read it to get your passwords. + +Further information and Feedback +================================ + +There are several ways to get more information and + +Credits +======= |