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diff --git a/_darcs/pristine/README b/_darcs/pristine/README new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a3ea5fa58 --- /dev/null +++ b/_darcs/pristine/README @@ -0,0 +1,1162 @@ +------ +README +------ + +Laconica 0.6.4 ("Catapult") +11 December 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*. + +Additional library software has been made available in the 'extlib' +directory. All of it is Free Software and can be distributed under +liberal terms, but those terms may differ in detail from the AGPL's +particulars. See each package's license file in the extlib directory +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!) + +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. +- GD. For scaling down avatar images. +- mbstring. For handling Unicode (UTF-8) encoded strings. +- gettext. For multiple languages. Default on many PHP installs. + +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. +- Sphinx Search. A client for the sphinx server, an alternative + to MySQL or Postgresql fulltext search. You will also need a + Sphinx server to serve the search queries. + +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 +- OpenID from OpenIDEnabled (not the PEAR version!). We decided + to use the openidenabled.com version since it's more widely + 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 +- PEAR Net_Socket, if you use the SMTP factory for notifications + http://pear.php.net/package/Net_Socket +- 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-0.6.4.tar.gz + + ...which will make a laconica-0.6.4 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-0.6.4 /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. 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. + +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 ".". + +Sphinx +------ + +To use a Sphinx server to search users and notices, you also need +to install, compile and enable the sphinx pecl extension for php on the +client side, which itself depends on the sphinx development files. +"pecl install sphinx" should take care of that. Add "extension=sphinx.so" +to your php.ini and reload apache to enable it. + +You can update your MySQL or Postgresql databases to drop their fulltext +search indexes, since they're now provided by sphinx. + +On the sphinx server side, a script reads the main database and build +the keyword index. A cron job reads the database and keeps the sphinx +indexes up to date. scripts/sphinx-cron.sh should be called by cron +every 5 minutes, for example. scripts/sphinx.sh is an init.d script +to start and stop the sphinx search daemon. + +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. + +NOTE: stream_select(), a crucial function for network programming, is +broken on PHP 5.2.x less than 5.2.6 on amd64-based servers. We don't +work around this bug in Laconica; current recommendation is to move +off of amd64 to another server. + +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; + + You may also want to look at the 'daemon' section of this file for + more daemon options. Note that if you set the 'user' and/or 'group' + options, you'll need to create that user and/or group by hand. + They're not created automatically. + +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. + +Twitter Friends Syncing +----------------------- + +As of Laconica 0.6.3, users may set a flag in their settings ("Subscribe +to my Twitter friends here" under the Twitter tab) to have Laconica +attempt to locate and subscribe to "friends" (people they "follow") on +Twitter who also have accounts on your Laconica system, and who have +previously set up a link for automatically posting notices to Twitter. + +Optionally, there is a script (./scripts/synctwitterfriends.php), meant +to be run periodically from a job scheduler (e.g.: cron under Unix), to +look for new additions to users' friends lists. Note that the friends +syncing only subscribes users to each other, it does not unsubscribe +users when they stop following each other on Twitter. + +Sample cron job: + +# Update Twitter friends subscriptions every half hour +0,30 * * * * /path/to/php /path/to/laconica/scripts/synctwitterfriends.php>&/dev/null + +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 +------ + +There are two themes shipped with this version of Laconica: "stoica", +which is what the Identi.ca site uses, and "default", which is a good +basis for other sites. + +As of right now, your ability to change the theme is site-wide; users +can't choose their own theme. Additionally, the only thing you can +change in the theme is CSS stylesheets and some image files; you can't +change the HTML output, like adding or removing menu items. + +You can choose a theme using the $config['site']['theme'] element in +the config.php file. See below for details. + +You can add your own theme by making a sub-directory of the 'theme' +subdirectory with the name of your theme. Each theme can have the +following files: + +display.css: a CSS2 file for "default" styling for all browsers. +ie6.css: a CSS2 file for override styling for fixing up Internet + Explorer 6. +ie7.css: a CSS2 file for override styling for fixing up Internet + Explorer 7. +logo.png: a logo image for the site. +default-avatar-profile.png: a 96x96 pixel image to use as the avatar for + users who don't upload their own. +default-avatar-stream.png: Ditto, but 48x48. For streams of notices. +default-avatar-mini.png: Ditto ditto, but 24x24. For subscriptions + listing on profile pages. + +You may want to start by copying the files from the default theme to +your own directory. + +Translation +----------- + +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 +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. + +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) +and to backup the Web directory, try tar. + +Private +------- + +The administrator can set the "private" flag for a site so that it's +not visible to non-logged-in users. This might be useful for +workgroups who want to share a microblogging site for project +management, but host it on a public server. + +Note that this is an experimental feature; total privacy is not +guaranteed or ensured. Also, privacy is all-or-nothing for a site; you +can't have some accounts or notices private, and others public. +Finally, the interaction of private sites with OpenMicroBlogging is +undefined. Remote users won't be able to subscribe to users on a +private site, but users of the private site may be able to subscribe +to users on a remote site. (Or not... it's not well tested.) The +"proper behaviour" hasn't been defined here, so handle with care. + +Upgrading +========= + +If you've been using Laconica 0.6, 0.5 or lower, or if you've been +tracking the "darcs" 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 +to the end first before trying them. + +0. Download Laconica and set up all the prerequisites as if you were + doing a new install. +1. Make backups of both your database and your Web directory. UNDER NO + CIRCUMSTANCES should you try to do an upgrade without a known-good + backup. You have been warned. +2. Shut down Web access to your site, either by turning off your Web + server or by redirecting all pages to a "sorry, under maintenance" + page. +3. Shut down XMPP access to your site, typically by shutting down the + xmppdaemon.php process and all other daemons that you're running. + If you've got "monit" or "cron" automatically restarting your + daemons, make sure to turn that off, too. +4. Shut down SMS and email access to your site. The easy way to do + this is to comment out the line piping incoming email to your + maildaemon.php file, and running something like "newaliases". +5. Once all writing processes to your site are turned off, make a + final backup of the Web directory and database. +6. Move your Laconica directory to a backup spot, like "mublog.bak". +7. Unpack your Laconica 0.6 tarball and move it to "mublog" or + wherever your code used to be. +8. Copy the config.php file and avatar directory from your old + directory to your new directory. +9. Copy htaccess.sample to .htaccess in the new directory. Change the + RewriteBase to use the correct path. +10. Rebuild the database. Go to your Laconica directory and run the + rebuilddb.sh script like this: + + ./scripts/rebuilddb.sh rootuser rootpassword database db/laconica.sql + + Here, rootuser and rootpassword are the username and password for a + user who can drop and create databases as well as tables; typically + that's _not_ the user Laconica runs as. +11. Use mysql client to log into your database and make sure that the + notice, user, profile, subscription etc. tables are non-empty. +12. Turn back on the Web server, and check that things still work. +13. Turn back on XMPP bots and email maildaemon. Note that the XMPP + bots have changed since version 0.5; see above for details. + +If you're upgrading from very old versions, you may want to look at +the fixup_* scripts in the scripts directories. These will store some +precooked data in the DB. All upgraders should check out the inboxes +options below. + +NOTE: the database definition file, stoica.ini, has been renamed to +laconica.ini (since this is the recommended database name). If you +have a line in your config.php pointing to the old name, you'll need +to update it. + +Notice inboxes +-------------- + +Before version 0.6.2, the page showing all notices from people the +user is subscribed to ("so-and-so with friends") was calculated at run +time. Starting with 0.6.2, we have a new data structure for holding a +user's "notice inbox". (Note: distinct from the "message inbox", which +is the "inbox" tab in the UI. The notice inbox appears under the +"Personal" tab.) + +Notices are added to the inbox when they're created. This speeds up +the query considerably, and also allows us the opportunity, in the +future, to add different kind of notices to an inbox -- like @-replies +or subscriptions to search terms or hashtags. + +Notice inboxes are enabled by default for new installations. If you +are upgrading an existing site, this means that your users will see +empty "Personal" pages. The following steps will help you fix the +problem. + +0. $config['inboxes']['enabled'] can be set to one of three values. If + you set it to 'false', the site will work as before. Support for this + will probably be dropped in future versions. +1. Setting the flag to 'transitional' means that you're in transition. + In this mode, the code will run the "new query" or the "old query" + based on whether the user's inbox has been updated. +2. After setting the flag to "transitional", you can run the + fixup_inboxes.php script to create the inboxes. You may want to set + the memory limit high. You can re-run it without ill effect. +3. When fixup_inboxes is finished, you can set the enabled flag to + 'true'. + +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'. +inviteonly: If set to 'true', will only allow registration if the user + was invited by an existing user. +private: If set to 'true', anonymous users will be redirected to the + 'login' page. Also, API methods that normally require no + authentication will require it. Note that this does not turn + off registration; use 'closed' or 'inviteonly' for the + behaviour you want. + +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 +set are listed below for clarity. + +database: a DSN (Data Source Name) for your Laconica database. This is + in the format 'protocol://username:password@hostname/databasename', + where 'protocol' is 'mysql' or 'mysqli' (or possibly 'postgresql', if you + really know what you're doing), 'username' is the username, + 'password' is the password, and etc. +ini_yourdbname: if your database is not named 'laconica', you'll need + to set this to point to the location of the + laconica.ini file. Note that the real name of your database + should go in there, not literally 'yourdbname'. +db_driver: You can try changing this to 'MDB2' to use the other driver + type for DB_DataObject, but note that it breaks the OpenID + libraries, which only support PEAR::DB. +debug: On a database error, you may get a message saying to set this + value to 5 to see debug messages in the browser. This breaks + just about all pages, and will also expose the username and + password +quote_identifiers: Set this to true if you're using postgresql. +type: either 'mysql' or 'postgresql' (used for some bits of + database-type-specific SQL in the code). Defaults to mysql. +mirror: you can set this to an array of DSNs, like the above + 'database' value. If it's set, certain read-only actions will + use a random value out of this array for the database, rather + than the one in 'database' (actually, 'database' is overwritten). + You can offload a busy DB server by setting up MySQL replication + and adding the slaves to this array. Note that if you want some + requests to go to the 'database' (master) server, you'll need + to include it in this array, too. + +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 uses queues. Defaults to false. + +license +------- + +The default license to use for your users notices. The default is the +Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which is probably the right +choice for any public site. Note that some other servers will not +accept notices if you apply a stricter license than this. + +url: URL of the license, used for links. +title: Title for the license, like 'Creative Commons Attribution 3.0'. +image: A button shown on each page for the license. + +mail +---- + +This is for configuring out-going email. We use PEAR's Mail module, +see: http://pear.php.net/manual/en/package.mail.mail.factory.php + +backend: the backend to use for mail, one of 'mail', 'sendmail', and + 'smtp'. Defaults to PEAR's default, 'mail'. +params: if the mail backend requires any parameters, you can provide + them in an associative array. + +nickname +-------- + +This is for configuring nicknames in the service. + +blacklist: an array of strings for usernames that may not be + registered. A default array exists for strings that are + used by Laconica (e.g. 'doc', 'main', 'avatar', 'theme') + but you may want to add others if you have other software + installed in a subdirectory of Laconica or if you just + don't want certain words used as usernames. +featured: an array of nicknames of 'featured' users of the site. + Can be useful to draw attention to well-known users, or + interesting people, or whatever. + +avatar +------ + +For configuring avatar access. + +server: If set, defines another server where avatars are stored in the + root directory. Note that the 'avatar' subdir still has to be + writeable. You'd typically use this to split HTTP requests on + 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. + Defaults to null. + +public +------ + +For configuring the public stream. + +localonly: If set to true, only messages posted by users of this + service (rather than other services, filtered through OMB) + are shown in the public stream. Default true. +blacklist: An array of IDs of users to hide from the public stream. + Useful if you have someone making excessive Twitterfeed posts + to the site, other kinds of automated posts, testing bots, etc. + +theme +----- + +server: Like avatars, you can speed up page loading by pointing the + theme file lookup to another server (virtual or real). The + theme server's root path should map to the Laconica "theme" + subdirectory. Defaults to NULL. + +xmpp +---- + +For configuring the XMPP sub-system. + +enabled: Whether to accept and send messages by XMPP. Default false. +server: server part of XMPP ID for update user. +port: connection port for clients. Default 5222, which you probably + shouldn't need to change. +user: username for the client connection. Users will receive messages + from 'user'@'server'. +resource: a unique identifier for the connection to the server. This + is actually used as a prefix for each XMPP component in the system. +password: password for the user account. +host: some XMPP domains are served by machines with a different + hostname. (For example, @gmail.com GTalk users connect to + talk.google.com). Set this to the correct hostname if that's the + case with your server. +encryption: Whether to encrypt the connection between Laconica and the + XMPP server. Defaults to true, but you can get + considerably better performance turning it off if you're + connecting to a server on the same machine or on a + protected network. +debug: if turned on, this will make the XMPP library blurt out all of + the incoming and outgoing messages as XML stanzas. Use as a + last resort, and never turn it on if you don't have queues + enabled, since it will spit out sensitive data to the browser. +public: an array of JIDs to send _all_ notices to. This is useful for + participating in third-party search and archiving services. + +tag +--- + +Miscellaneous tagging stuff. + +dropoff: Decay factor for tag listing, in seconds. + Defaults to exponential decay over ten days; you can twiddle + with it to try and get better results for your site. + +daemon +------ + +For daemon processes. + +piddir: directory that daemon processes should write their PID file + (process ID) to. Defaults to /var/run/, which is where this + stuff should usually go on Unix-ish systems. +user: If set, the daemons will try to change their effective user ID + to this user before running. Probably a good idea, especially if + you start the daemons as root. Note: user name, like 'daemon', + not 1001. +group: If set, the daemons will try to change their effective group ID + to this named group. Again, a name, not a numerical ID. + +memcached +--------- + +You can get a significant boost in performance by caching some +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 + be an array of hostnames, if you've got more than one server. + +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/). + +enabled: Set to true to enable. Default false. +server: a string with the hostname of the sphinx server. +port: an integer with the port number of the sphinx server. + +integration +----------- + +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 + that here instead. Status updates on Twitter will then have + links to your site. + +inboxes +------- + +For notice inboxes. + +enabled: A three-valued flag for whether to use notice inboxes (see + upgrading info above for notes about this change). Can be + 'false', 'true', or '"transitional"'. + +throttle +-------- + +For notice-posting throttles. + +enabled: Whether to throttle posting. Defaults to false. +count: Each user can make this many posts in 'timespan' seconds. So, if count + is 100 and timespan is 3600, then there can be only 100 posts + from a user every hour. +timespan: see 'count'. + +profile +------- + +Profile management. + +banned: an array of usernames and/or profile IDs of 'banned' profiles. + The site will reject any notices by these users -- they will + not be accepted at all. (Compare with blacklisted users above, + whose posts just won't show up in the public stream.) + +Troubleshooting +=============== + +The primary output for Laconica is syslog, unless you configured a +separate logfile. This is probably the first place to look if you're +getting weird behaviour from Laconica. + +If you're tracking the unstable version of Laconica in the darcs +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" +section above, and all your users' 'Personal' tabs are empty, read the +"Notice inboxes" section above. + +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. + +Unstable version +================ + +If you're adventurous or impatient, you may want to install the +development version of Laconica. To get it, use the darcs version +control tool (http://darcs.net/) like so: + + darcs get http://laconi.ca/darcs/ mublog + +To keep it up-to-date, use 'darcs pull'. Watch for conflicts! + +Further information +=================== + +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 wiki, http://laconi.ca/trac/ + +Feedback +======== + +* Microblogging messages to http://identi.ca/evan are very welcome. +* Laconica's Trac server has a bug tracker for any defects you may find, + or ideas for making things better. http://laconi.ca/trac/ +* e-mail to evan@identi.ca will usually be read and responded to very + quickly, unless the question is really hard. + +Credits +======= + +The following is an incomplete list of developers who've worked on +Laconi.ca. Apologies for any oversight; please let evan@identi.ca know +if anyone's been overlooked in error. + +* Evan Prodromou, founder and lead developer, Control Yourself, Inc. +* Zach Copley, Control Yourself, Inc. +* Earle Martin, Control Yourself, Inc. +* Marie-Claude Doyon, designer, Control Yourself, Inc. +* Sarven Capadisli, Control Yourself, Inc. +* Robin Millette, Control Yourself, Inc. +* Ciaran Gultnieks +* Michael Landers +* Ori Avtalion +* Garret Buell +* Mike Cochrane +* Matthew Gregg +* Florian Biree +* Erik Stambaugh +* 'drry' +* Gina Haeussge +* Ken Sheppardson (Trac server, man-about-town) +* Tiago 'gouki' Faria (entrans) +* Tryggvi Björgvinsson + +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, +told their friends, and built the Open Microblogging network to what +it is today. |