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README
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StatusNet 0.9.0 ("Stand") Beta 5
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1 Feb 2010
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This is the README file for StatusNet (formerly Laconica), the Open
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Source microblogging platform. It includes installation instructions,
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descriptions of options you can set, warnings, tips, and general info
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for administrators. Information on using StatusNet can be found in the
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"doc" subdirectory or in the "help" section on-line.
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About
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=====
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StatusNet (formerly Laconica) is a Free and Open Source microblogging
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platform. It helps people in a community, company or group to exchange
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short (140 characters, by default) messages over the Web. Users can
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choose which people to "follow" and receive only their friends' or
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colleagues' status messages. It provides a similar service to sites
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like Twitter, Jaiku, Yammer, and Plurk.
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With a little work, status messages can be sent to mobile phones,
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instant messenger programs (GTalk/Jabber), and specially-designed
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desktop clients that support the Twitter API.
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StatusNet supports an open standard called OpenMicroBlogging
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<http://openmicroblogging.org/> that lets users on different Web sites
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or in different companies subscribe to each others' notices. It
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enables a distributed social network spread all across the Web.
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StatusNet was originally developed for the Open Software Service,
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Identi.ca <http://identi.ca/>. It is shared with you in hope that you
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too make an Open Software Service available to your users. To learn
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more, please see the Open Software Service Definition 1.1:
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      http://www.opendefinition.org/ossd
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StatusNet, Inc. <http://status.net/> also offers this software as a
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Web service, requiring no installation on your part. The software run
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on status.net is identical to the software available for download, so
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you can move back and forth between a hosted version or a version
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installed on your own servers.
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License
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=======
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This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
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published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
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License, or (at your option) any later version.
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This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
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WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
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Affero General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public
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License along with this program, in the file "COPYING".  If not, see
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<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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    IMPORTANT NOTE: The GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) has
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    *different requirements* from the "regular" GPL. In particular, if
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    you make modifications to the StatusNet source code on your server,
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    you *MUST MAKE AVAILABLE* the modified version of the source code
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    to your users under the same license. This is a legal requirement
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    of using the software, and if you do not wish to share your
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    modifications, *YOU MAY NOT INSTALL STATUSNET*.
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Additional library software has been made available in the 'extlib'
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directory. All of it is Free Software and can be distributed under
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liberal terms, but those terms may differ in detail from the AGPL's
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particulars. See each package's license file in the extlib directory
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for additional terms.
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New this version
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================
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This is a major feature release since version 0.8.2, released Nov 1 2009.
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It is also a security release since 0.9.0beta4 January 27 2010. Beta
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users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to deal with a security alert.
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http://status.net/wiki/Security_alert_0000002
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Notable changes this version:
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- Records of deleted notices are stored without the notice content.
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- Much of the optional core featureset has been moved to plugins.
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- OpenID support moved from core to a plugin. Helps test the strength of
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  our plugin architecture and makes it easy to disable this
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  functionality for e.g. intranet sites.
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- Many additional hook events (see EVENTS.txt for details).
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- OMB 0.1 support re-implemented using libomb.
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- Re-structure database so notices, messages, bios and group
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  descriptions can be over 140 characters. Limit defined by
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  site administrator as configuration option; can be unlimited.
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- Configuration data now optionally stored in the database, which
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  overrides any settings in config files.
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- Twitter integration re-implemented as a plugin.
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- Facebook integration re-implemented as a plugin.
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- Role-based authorization framework. Users can have named roles, and
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  roles can have rights (e.g., to delete notices, change configuration
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  data, or ban uncooperative users). Default roles 'admin' (for
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  configuration) and 'moderator' (for community management) added.
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- Plugin for PubSubHubBub (PuSH) support.
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- Considerable code style cleanup to meet PEAR code standards.
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- Made a common library for HTTP-client access which uses available
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  HTTP libraries where possible.
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- Added statuses/home_timeline method to API.
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- Hooks for plugins to handle notices offline, either by defining
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  their own queue handler scripts or to use a default plugin queue
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  handler script.
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- Plugins can now modify the database schema, adding their own tables
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  or modifying existing ones.
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- Groups API.
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- Twitter API supports Web caching for some methods.
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- Twitter API refactored into one-action-per-method.
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- Realtime plugin supports a tear-off window.
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- FOAF for groups.
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- Moved all JavaScript tags to just before </body> by default,
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  significantly speeding up apparent page load time.
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- Added a Realtime plugin for Orbited server.
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- Added a mobile plugin to give a more mobile-phone-friendly layout
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  when a mobile browser is detected.
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- Use CSS sprites for most common icons.
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- Fixes for images and buttons on Web output.
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- New plugin requires that users validate their email before posting.
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- New plugin UserFlag lets users flag other profiles for review.
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- Considerably better i18n support. Use TranslateWiki to update
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  translations.
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- Notices and profiles now store location information.
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- New plugin, Geonames, for turning location names and lat/long pairs
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  into structured IDs and vice versa. Architecture reusable for other
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  systems.
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- Better check of license compatibility between site licenses.
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- Some improvements in XMPP output.
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- Media upload in the API.
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- Replies appear in the user's inbox.
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- Improved the UI on the bookmarklet.
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- StatusNet identities can be used as OpenID identities.
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- Script to register a user.
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- Script to make someone a group admin.
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- Script to make someone a site admin or moderator.
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- 'login' command.
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- Pluggable authentication.
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- LDAP authentication plugin.
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- Script for console interaction with the site (!).
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- Users don't see group posts from people they've blocked.
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- Admin panel interface for changing site configuration.
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- Users can be sandboxed (limited contributions) or silenced
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  (no contributions) by moderators.
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- Many changes to make language usage more consistent.
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- Sphinx search moved to a plugin.
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- GeoURL plugin.
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- Profile and group lists support hAtom.
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- Massive refactoring of util.js.
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- Mapstraction plugin to show maps on inbox and profile pages.
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- Play/pause buttons for realtime notices.
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- Support for geo microformat.
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- Partial support for feed subscriptions, RSSCloud, PubSubHubBub.
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- Support for geolocation in browser (Chrome, Firefox).
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- Quit trying to negotiate HTML format. Always use text/html.
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  We lose, and so do Web standards. Boo.
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- Better logging of request info.
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- Better output for errors in Web interface.
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- No longer store .mo files; these need to be generated.
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- Minify plugin.
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- Events to allow pluginizing logger.
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- New framework for plugin localization.
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- Gravatar plugin.
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- Add support for "repeats" (similar to Twitter's "retweets").
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- Support for repeats in Twitter API.
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- Better notification of direct messages.
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- New plugin to add "powered by StatusNet" to logo.
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- Returnto works for private sites.
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- Localisation updates, including new Persian translation.
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- CAS authentication plugin
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- Get rid of DB_DataObject native cache (big memory leaker)
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- setconfig.php script to set configuration variables
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- Blacklist plugin, to blacklist URLs and nicknames
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- Users can set flag whether they want to share location
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  both in notice form (for one notice) and profile settings
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  (any notice)
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- notice inboxes moved from normalized notice_inbox table to
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  denormalized inbox table
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- Automatic compression of Memcache
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- Memory caching pluginized
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- Memcache, XCache, APC and Diskcache plugins
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- A script to update user locations
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- cache empty query results
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- A sample plugin to show best plugin practices
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- CacheLog plugin to debug cache accesses
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- Require users to login to view attachments on private sites
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- Plugin to use Mollom spam detection service
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- Plugin for RSSCloud
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- Add an array of default plugins
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- A version action to give credit to contributors and plugin
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  developers
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- Daemon to read IMAP mailbox instead of using a mailbox script
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- Pass session information between SSL and non-SSL server
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  when SSL set to 'sometimes'
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- Major refactoring of queue handlers to manage very
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  large hosting site (like status.net)
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- SubscriptionThrottle plugin to prevent subscription spamming
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- Don't enqueue into plugin or SMS queues when disabled (breaks unqueuehandler if SMS queue isn't attached)
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- Improve name validation checks on local File references
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- fix local file include vulnerability in doc.php
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- Reusing fixed selector name for 'processing' in util.js
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- Removed hAtom pattern from registration page.
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- restructuring of User::registerNew() lost password munging
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- Add a script to clear the cache for a given key
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- buggy fetch for site owner
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- Added missing concat of </li> in Realtime response
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- Updated XHR binded events to work better in jQuery 1.4.1. Using .live() for event delegation instead of jQuery.data() and checking to see if an element was previously binded.
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- Updated jQuery Form Plugin from v2.17 to v2.36
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- Updated jQuery JavaScript Library from v1.3.2 to v1.4.1
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- move schema.type.php to typeschema.php like other files
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- Add Really Simple Discovery (RSD) support
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- Add a robots.txt URL to the site root
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- error clearing tags for profiles from memcached
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- on exceptions, stomp logs the error and reenqueues
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- add lat, lon, location and remove closing tag from geocode.php
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- Use passed-in lat long in geocode.php
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- better handling of null responses from geonames.org
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- Globalized form notice data geo values
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- Using jQuery chaining in FormNoticeXHR
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- Using form object instead of form_id and find(). Slightly faster and easier to read.
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- removed describeTable from base class, and fixed it up in pgsql
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- getTableDef() mostly working in postgres
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- move the schema DDL sql off into seperate files for each db we support
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- plugin to limit number of registered users
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- add hooks for user registration
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- live fast, die young in bash scripts
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- for single-user mode, retrieve either site owner or defined nickname
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- method to get the site owner
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- define a constant for the 'owner' role of a site
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- add simple cache getter/setter static functions to Memcached_DataObject
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- Adds notice author's name to @title in Realtime response
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- Hides .author from XHR response in showstream
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- Hides .author from XHR response in showstream
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- Fix more fatal errors in queue edge cases
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- Don't attempt to resend XMPP messages that can't be broadcast due to the profile being deleted.
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- Wrap each bit of distrib queue handler's saving operation in a try/catch; log exceptions but let everything else continue.
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- Log exceptions from queuedaemon.php if they're not already caught
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- Move sessions settings to its own panel
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- Fixes for status_network db object .ini and tag setter script
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- Add a script to set tags for sites
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- Adjust API authentication to also check for OAuth protocol params in the HTTP Authorization header, as defined in OAuth HTTP Authorization Scheme.
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- Last-chance distribution if enqueueing fails
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- Manual failover for stomp queues.
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- lost config in index.php made all traffic go to master
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- "Revert "move RW setup above user get in index.php so remember_me works""
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- Revert "move RW setup above user get in index.php so remember_me works"
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- move RW setup above user get in index.php so remember_me works
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- hide most DB_DataObject errors
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- always set up database_rw, regardless, so cached sessions work
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- update mysqltimestamps on insert and update
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- additional debugging data for Sessions
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- 'Sign in with Twitter' button img
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- Update to biz theme
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- Remove redundant session token field from form (was already being added by base class).
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- 'Sign in with Twitter' button img
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- Can now set $config['queue']['stomp_persistent'] = false; to explicitly disable persistence when we queue items
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- Showing processing indicator for form_repeat on submit instead of form
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- Removed avatar from repeat of username (matches noticelist)
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- Removed unused variable assignment for avatar URL and added missing fn
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- Don't preemptively close existing DB connections for web views (needed to keep # of conns from going insane on multi-site queue daemons, so just doing for CLI) May, or may not, help with mystery session problems
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- dropping the setcookie() call from common_ensure_session() since we're pretty sure it's unnecessary
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- append '/' on cookie path for now (may still need some refactoring)
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- set session cookie correctly
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- Fix for Mapstraction plugin's zoomed map links
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- debug log line for control channel sub
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- Move faceboookapp.js to the Facebook plugin
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- fix for fix for bad realtime JS load
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- default 24-hour expiry on Memcached objects where not specified.
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Prerequisites
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=============
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The following software packages are *required* for this software to
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run correctly.
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- PHP 5.2.3+. It may be possible to run this software on earlier
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  versions of PHP, but many of the functions used are only available
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  in PHP 5.2 or above.
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- MySQL 5.x. The StatusNet database is stored, by default, in a MySQL
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  server. It has been primarily tested on 5.x servers, although it may
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  be possible to install on earlier (or later!) versions. The server
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  *must* support the MyISAM storage engine -- the default for most
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  MySQL servers -- *and* the InnoDB storage engine.
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- A Web server. Preferably, you should have Apache 2.2.x with the
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  mod_rewrite extension installed and enabled.
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Your PHP installation must include the following PHP extensions:
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- Curl. This is for fetching files by HTTP.
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- XMLWriter. This is for formatting XML and HTML output.
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- MySQL. For accessing the database.
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- GD. For scaling down avatar images.
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- mbstring. For handling Unicode (UTF-8) encoded strings.
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- gettext. For multiple languages. Default on many PHP installs.
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For some functionality, you will also need the following extensions:
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- Memcache. A client for the memcached server, which caches database
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  information in volatile memory. This is important for adequate
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  performance on high-traffic sites. You will also need a memcached
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  server to store the data in.
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- Mailparse. Efficient parsing of email requires this extension.
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  Submission by email or SMS-over-email uses this extension.
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- Sphinx Search. A client for the sphinx server, an alternative
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  to MySQL or Postgresql fulltext search. You will also need a
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  Sphinx server to serve the search queries.
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You will almost definitely get 2-3 times better performance from your
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site if you install a PHP bytecode cache/accelerator. Some well-known
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examples are: eaccelerator, Turck mmcache, xcache, apc. Zend Optimizer
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is a proprietary accelerator installed on some hosting sites.
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External libraries
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------------------
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A number of external PHP libraries are used to provide basic
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functionality and optional functionality for your system. For your
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convenience, they are available in the "extlib" directory of this
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package, and you do not have to download and install them. However,
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you may want to keep them up-to-date with the latest upstream version,
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and the URLs are listed here for your convenience.
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- DB_DataObject http://pear.php.net/package/DB_DataObject
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- Validate http://pear.php.net/package/Validate
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- OpenID from OpenIDEnabled (not the PEAR version!). We decided
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  to use the openidenabled.com version since it's more widely
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  implemented, and seems to be better supported.
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  http://openidenabled.com/php-openid/
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- PEAR DB. Although this is an older data access system (new
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  packages should probably use PHP DBO), the OpenID libraries
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  depend on PEAR DB so we use it here, too. DB_DataObject can
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  also use PEAR MDB2, which may give you better performance
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  but won't work with OpenID.
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  http://pear.php.net/package/DB
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- OAuth.php from http://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/code/php/
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- markdown.php from http://michelf.com/projects/php-markdown/
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- PEAR Mail, for sending out mail notifications
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  http://pear.php.net/package/Mail
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- PEAR Net_SMTP, if you use the SMTP factory for notifications
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  http://pear.php.net/package/Net_SMTP
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- PEAR Net_Socket, if you use the SMTP factory for notifications
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  http://pear.php.net/package/Net_Socket
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- XMPPHP, the follow-up to Class.Jabber.php. Probably the best XMPP
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  library available for PHP. http://xmpphp.googlecode.com/. Note that
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  as of this writing the version of this library that is available in
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  the extlib directory is *significantly different* from the upstream
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  version (patches have been submitted). Upgrading to the upstream
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  version may render your StatusNet site unable to send or receive XMPP
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  messages.
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- Facebook library. Used for the Facebook application.
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- PEAR Services_oEmbed. Used for some multimedia integration.
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- PEAR HTTP_Request is an oEmbed dependency.
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- PEAR Validate is an oEmbed dependency.
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- PEAR Net_URL2 is an oEmbed dependency.
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- Console_GetOpt for parsing command-line options.
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A design goal of StatusNet is that the basic Web functionality should
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work on even the most restrictive commercial hosting services.
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However, additional functionality, such as receiving messages by
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Jabber/GTalk, require that you be able to run long-running processes
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on your account. In addition, posting by email or from SMS require
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that you be able to install a mail filter in your mail server.
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Installation
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============
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Installing the basic StatusNet Web component is relatively easy,
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especially if you've previously installed PHP/MySQL packages.
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1. Unpack the tarball you downloaded on your Web server. Usually a
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   command like this will work:
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   	   tar zxf statusnet-0.8.2.tar.gz
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   ...which will make a statusnet-0.8.2 subdirectory in your current
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   directory. (If you don't have shell access on your Web server, you
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   may have to unpack the tarball on your local computer and FTP the
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   files to the server.)
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2. Move the tarball to a directory of your choosing in your Web root
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   directory. Usually something like this will work:
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   	   mv statusnet-0.8.2 /var/www/mublog
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   This will make your StatusNet instance available in the mublog path of
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   your server, like "http://example.net/mublog". "microblog" or
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   "statusnet" might also be good path names. If you know how to
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   configure virtual hosts on your web server, you can try setting up
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   "http://micro.example.net/" or the like.
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3. Make your target directory writeable by the Web server.
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   	  chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/
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   On some systems, this will probably work:
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      	   chgrp www-data /var/www/mublog/
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	   chmod g+w /var/www/mublog/
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   If your Web server runs as another user besides "www-data", try
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   that user's default group instead. As a last resort, you can create
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   a new group like "mublog" and add the Web server's user to the group.
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4. You should also take this moment to make your avatar, background, and
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   file subdirectories writeable by the Web server. An insecure way to do
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   this is:
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   	  chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/avatar
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   	  chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/background
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   	  chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/file
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   You can also make the avatar, background, and file directories
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   writeable by the Web server group, as noted above.
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5. Create a database to hold your microblog data. Something like this
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   should work:
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   	  mysqladmin -u "username" --password="password" create statusnet
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   Note that StatusNet must have its own database; you can't share the
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   database with another program. You can name it whatever you want,
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   though.
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   (If you don't have shell access to your server, you may need to use
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   a tool like PHPAdmin to create a database. Check your hosting
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   service's documentation for how to create a new MySQL database.)
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6. Create a new database account that StatusNet will use to access the
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   database. If you have shell access, this will probably work from the
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   MySQL shell:
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          GRANT ALL on statusnet.*
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	  TO 'lacuser'@'localhost'
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	  IDENTIFIED BY 'lacpassword';
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   You should change 'lacuser' and 'lacpassword' to your preferred new
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   username and password. You may want to test logging in to MySQL as
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   this new user.
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7. In a browser, navigate to the StatusNet install script; something like:
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           http://yourserver.example.com/mublog/install.php
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   Enter the database connection information and your site name. The
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   install program will configure your site and install the initial,
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   almost-empty database.
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8. You should now be able to navigate to your microblog's main directory
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   and see the "Public Timeline", which will be empty. If not, magic
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   has happened! You can now register a new user, post some notices,
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   edit your profile, etc. However, you may want to wait to do that stuff
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   if you think you can set up "fancy URLs" (see below), since some
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   URLs are stored in the database.
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Fancy URLs
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----------
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By default, StatusNet will use URLs that include the main PHP program's
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name in them. For example, a user's home profile might be
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found at:
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    http://example.org/mublog/index.php/mublog/fred
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On certain systems that don't support this kind of syntax, they'll
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look like this:
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    http://example.org/mublog/index.php?p=mublog/fred
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It's possible to configure the software so it looks like this instead:
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    http://example.org/mublog/fred
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These "fancy URLs" are more readable and memorable for users. To use
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fancy URLs, you must either have Apache 2.x with .htaccess enabled and
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mod_rewrite enabled, -OR- know how to configure "url redirection" in
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your server.
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1. Copy the htaccess.sample file to .htaccess in your StatusNet
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   directory. Note: if you have control of your server's httpd.conf or
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   similar configuration files, it can greatly improve performance to
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   import the .htaccess file into your conf file instead. If you're
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   not sure how to do it, you may save yourself a lot of headache by
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   just leaving the .htaccess file.
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2. Change the "RewriteBase" in the new .htaccess file to be the URL path
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   to your StatusNet installation on your server. Typically this will
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   be the path to your StatusNet directory relative to your Web root.
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3. Add or uncomment or change a line in your config.php file so it says:
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       $config['site']['fancy'] = true;
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You should now be able to navigate to a "fancy" URL on your server,
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like:
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     http://example.net/mublog/main/register
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If you changed your HTTP server configuration, you may need to restart
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the server first.
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If it doesn't work, double-check that AllowOverride for the StatusNet
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directory is 'All' in your Apache configuration file. This is usually
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/etc/httpd.conf, /etc/apache/httpd.conf, or (on Debian and Ubuntu)
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/etc/apache2/sites-available/default. See the Apache documentation for
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.htaccess files for more details:
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   http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/htaccess.html
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Also, check that mod_rewrite is installed and enabled:
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   http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_rewrite.html
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Sphinx
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------
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To use a Sphinx server to search users and notices, you'll need to
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enable the SphinxSearch plugin. Add to your config.php:
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  addPlugin('SphinxSearch');
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  $config['sphinx']['server'] = 'searchhost.local';
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You also need to install, compile and enable the sphinx pecl extension for
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php on the client side, which itself depends on the sphinx development files.
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See plugins/SphinxSearch/README for more details and server setup.
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SMS
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---
537
538
StatusNet supports a cheap-and-dirty system for sending update messages
539
to mobile phones and for receiving updates from the mobile. Instead of
540
sending through the SMS network itself, which is costly and requires
541
buy-in from the wireless carriers, it simply piggybacks on the email
542
gateways that many carriers provide to their customers. So, SMS
543
configuration is essentially email configuration.
544
545
Each user sends to a made-up email address, which they keep a secret.
546
Incoming email that is "From" the user's SMS email address, and "To"
547
the users' secret email address on the site's domain, will be
548
converted to a notice and stored in the DB.
549
550
For this to work, there *must* be a domain or sub-domain for which all
551
(or most) incoming email can pass through the incoming mail filter.
552
553
1. Run the SQL script carrier.sql in your StatusNet database. This will
554
   usually work:
555
556
   	   mysql -u "lacuser" --password="lacpassword" statusnet < db/carrier.sql
557
558
   This will populate your database with a list of wireless carriers
559
   that support email SMS gateways.
560
561
2. Make sure the maildaemon.php file is executable:
562
563
   	chmod +x scripts/maildaemon.php
564
565
   Note that "daemon" is kind of a misnomer here; the script is more
566
   of a filter than a daemon.
567
568
2. Edit /etc/aliases on your mail server and add the following line:
569
570
      *: /path/to/statusnet/scripts/maildaemon.php
571
572
3. Run whatever code you need to to update your aliases database. For
573
   many mail servers (Postfix, Exim, Sendmail), this should work:
574
575
      newaliases
576
577
   You may need to restart your mail server for the new database to
578
   take effect.
579
580
4. Set the following in your config.php file:
581
582
   $config['mail']['domain'] = 'yourdomain.example.net';
583
584
At this point, post-by-email and post-by-SMS-gateway should work. Note
585
that if your mail server is on a different computer from your email
586
server, you'll need to have a full installation of StatusNet, a working
587
config.php, and access to the StatusNet database from the mail server.
588
589
XMPP
590
----
591
592
XMPP (eXtended Message and Presence Protocol, <http://xmpp.org/>) is the
593
instant-messenger protocol that drives Jabber and GTalk IM. You can
594
distribute messages via XMPP using the system below; however, you
595
need to run the XMPP incoming daemon to allow incoming messages as
596
well.
597
598
1. You may want to strongly consider setting up your own XMPP server.
599
   Ejabberd, OpenFire, and JabberD are all Open Source servers.
600
   Jabber, Inc. provides a high-performance commercial server.
601
602
2. You must register a Jabber ID (JID) with your new server. It helps
603
   to choose a name like "update@example.com" or "notice" or something
604
   similar.  Alternately, your "update JID" can be registered on a
605
   publicly-available XMPP service, like jabber.org or GTalk.
606
607
   StatusNet will not register the JID with your chosen XMPP server;
608
   you need to do this manually, with an XMPP client like Gajim,
609
   Telepathy, or Pidgin.im.
610
611
3. Configure your site's XMPP variables, as described below in the
612
   configuration section.
613
614
On a default installation, your site can broadcast messages using
615
XMPP. Users won't be able to post messages using XMPP unless you've
616
got the XMPP daemon running.  See 'Queues and daemons' below for how
617
to set that up. Also, once you have a sizable number of users, sending
618
a lot of SMS, OMB, and XMPP messages whenever someone posts a message
619
can really slow down your site; it may cause posting to timeout.
620
621
NOTE: stream_select(), a crucial function for network programming, is
622
broken on PHP 5.2.x less than 5.2.6 on amd64-based servers. We don't
623
work around this bug in StatusNet; current recommendation is to move
624
off of amd64 to another server.
625
626
Public feed
627
-----------
628
629
You can send *all* messages from your microblogging site to a
630
third-party service using XMPP. This can be useful for providing
631
search, indexing, bridging, or other cool services.
632
633
To configure a downstream site to receive your public stream, add
634
their "JID" (Jabber ID) to your config.php as follows:
635
636
      $config['xmpp']['public'][] = 'downstream@example.net';
637
638
(Don't miss those square brackets at the end.) Note that your XMPP
639
broadcasting must be configured as mentioned above. Although you can
640
send out messages at "Web time", high-volume sites should strongly
641
consider setting up queues and daemons.
642
643
Queues and daemons
644
------------------
645
646
Some activities that StatusNet needs to do, like broadcast OMB, SMS,
647
and XMPP messages, can be 'queued' and done by off-line bots instead.
648
For this to work, you must be able to run long-running offline
649
processes, either on your main Web server or on another server you
650
control. (Your other server will still need all the above
651
prerequisites, with the exception of Apache.) Installing on a separate
652
server is probably a good idea for high-volume sites.
653
654
1. You'll need the "CLI" (command-line interface) version of PHP
655
   installed on whatever server you use.
656
657
2. If you're using a separate server for queues, install StatusNet
658
   somewhere on the server. You don't need to worry about the
659
   .htaccess file, but make sure that your config.php file is close
660
   to, or identical to, your Web server's version.
661
662
3. In your config.php files (both the Web server and the queues
663
   server!), set the following variable:
664
665
   $config['queue']['enabled'] = true;
666
667
   You may also want to look at the 'daemon' section of this file for
668
   more daemon options. Note that if you set the 'user' and/or 'group'
669
   options, you'll need to create that user and/or group by hand.
670
   They're not created automatically.
671
672
4. On the queues server, run the command scripts/startdaemons.sh. It
673
   needs as a parameter the install path; if you run it from the
674
   StatusNet dir, "." should suffice.
675
676
This will run the queue handlers:
677
678
* queuedaemon.php - polls for queued items for inbox processing and
679
  pushing out to OMB, SMS, XMPP, etc.
680
* xmppdaemon.php - listens for new XMPP messages from users and stores
681
  them as notices in the database; also pulls queued XMPP output from
682
  queuedaemon.php to push out to clients.
683
684
These two daemons will automatically restart in most cases of failure
685
including memory leaks (if a memory_limit is set), but may still die
686
or behave oddly if they lose connections to the XMPP or queue servers.
687
688
It may be a good idea to use a daemon-monitoring service, like 'monit',
689
to check their status and keep them running.
690
691
All the daemons write their process IDs (pids) to /var/run/ by
692
default. This can be useful for starting, stopping, and monitoring the
693
daemons.
694
695
Since version 0.8.0, it's now possible to use a STOMP server instead of
696
our kind of hacky home-grown DB-based queue solution. See the "queues"
697
config section below for how to configure to use STOMP. As of this
698
writing, the software has been tested with ActiveMQ.
699
700
Sitemaps
701
--------
702
703
Sitemap files <http://sitemaps.org/> are a very nice way of telling
704
search engines and other interested bots what's available on your site
705
and what's changed recently. You can generate sitemap files for your
706
StatusNet instance.
707
708
1. Choose your sitemap URL layout. StatusNet creates a number of
709
   sitemap XML files for different parts of your site. You may want to
710
   put these in a sub-directory of your StatusNet directory to avoid
711
   clutter. The sitemap index file tells the search engines and other
712
   bots where to find all the sitemap files; it *must* be in the main
713
   installation directory or higher. Both types of file must be
714
   available through HTTP.
715
716
2. To generate your sitemaps, run the following command on your server:
717
718
   php scripts/sitemap.php -f index-file-path -d sitemap-directory -u URL-prefix-for-sitemaps
719
720
   Here, index-file-path is the full path to the sitemap index file,
721
   like './sitemapindex.xml'. sitemap-directory is the directory where
722
   you want the sitemaps stored, like './sitemaps/' (make sure the dir
723
   exists). URL-prefix-for-sitemaps is the full URL for the sitemap dir,
724
   typically something like <http://example.net/mublog/sitemaps/>.
725
726
You can use several methods for submitting your sitemap index to
727
search engines to get your site indexed. One is to add a line like the
728
following to your robots.txt file:
729
730
   Sitemap: /mublog/sitemapindex.xml
731
732
This is a good idea for letting *all* Web spiders know about your
733
sitemap. You can also submit sitemap files to major search engines
734
using their respective "Webmaster centres"; see sitemaps.org for links
735
to these resources.
736
737
Themes
738
------
739
740
There are two themes shipped with this version of StatusNet: "identica",
741
which is what the Identi.ca site uses, and "default", which is a good
742
basis for other sites.
743
744
As of right now, your ability to change the theme is site-wide; users
745
can't choose their own theme. Additionally, the only thing you can
746
change in the theme is CSS stylesheets and some image files; you can't
747
change the HTML output, like adding or removing menu items.
748
749
You can choose a theme using the $config['site']['theme'] element in
750
the config.php file. See below for details.
751
752
You can add your own theme by making a sub-directory of the 'theme'
753
subdirectory with the name of your theme. Each theme can have the
754
following files:
755
756
display.css: a CSS2 file for "default" styling for all browsers.
757
ie6.css: a CSS2 file for override styling for fixing up Internet
758
	 Explorer 6.
759
ie7.css: a CSS2 file for override styling for fixing up Internet
760
	 Explorer 7.
761
logo.png: a logo image for the site.
762
default-avatar-profile.png: a 96x96 pixel image to use as the avatar for
763
			    users who don't upload their own.
764
default-avatar-stream.png: Ditto, but 48x48. For streams of notices.
765
default-avatar-mini.png: Ditto ditto, but 24x24. For subscriptions
766
			 listing on profile pages.
767
768
You may want to start by copying the files from the default theme to
769
your own directory.
770
771
NOTE: the HTML generated by StatusNet changed *radically* between
772
version 0.6.x and 0.7.x. Older themes will need signification
773
modification to use the new output format.
774
775
Translation
776
-----------
777
778
Translations in StatusNet use the gettext system <http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/>.
779
Theoretically, you can add your own sub-directory to the locale/
780
subdirectory to add a new language to your system. You'll need to
781
compile the ".po" files into ".mo" files, however.
782
783
Contributions of translation information to StatusNet are very easy:
784
you can use the Web interface at TranslateWiki.net to add one
785
or a few or lots of new translations -- or even new languages. You can
786
also download more up-to-date .po files there, if you so desire.
787
788
For info on helping with translations, see http://status.net/wiki/Translations
789
790
Backups
791
-------
792
793
There is no built-in system for doing backups in StatusNet. You can make
794
backups of a working StatusNet system by backing up the database and
795
the Web directory. To backup the database use mysqldump <http://ur1.ca/7xo>
796
and to backup the Web directory, try tar.
797
798
Private
799
-------
800
801
The administrator can set the "private" flag for a site so that it's
802
not visible to non-logged-in users. This might be useful for
803
workgroups who want to share a microblogging site for project
804
management, but host it on a public server.
805
806
Note that this is an experimental feature; total privacy is not
807
guaranteed or ensured. Also, privacy is all-or-nothing for a site; you
808
can't have some accounts or notices private, and others public.
809
Finally, the interaction of private sites with OpenMicroBlogging is
810
undefined. Remote users won't be able to subscribe to users on a
811
private site, but users of the private site may be able to subscribe
812
to users on a remote site. (Or not... it's not well tested.) The
813
"proper behaviour" hasn't been defined here, so handle with care.
814
815
Access to file attachments can also be restricted to logged-in users only.
816
1. Add a directory outside the web root where your file uploads will be
817
   stored. Usually a command like this will work:
818
819
           mkdir /var/www/mublog-files
820
821
2. Make the file uploads directory writeable by the web server. An
822
   insecure way to do this is:
823
824
           chmod a+x /var/www/mublog-files
825
826
3. Tell StatusNet to use this directory for file uploads. Add a line
827
   like this to your config.php:
828
829
           $config['attachments']['dir'] = '/var/www/mublog-files';
830
831
Upgrading
832
=========
833
834
IMPORTANT NOTE: StatusNet 0.7.4 introduced a fix for some
835
incorrectly-stored international characters ("UTF-8"). For new
836
installations, it will now store non-ASCII characters correctly.
837
However, older installations will have the incorrect storage, and will
838
consequently show up "wrong" in browsers. See below for how to deal
839
with this situation.
840
841
If you've been using StatusNet 0.7, 0.6, 0.5 or lower, or if you've
842
been tracking the "git" version of the software, you will probably
843
want to upgrade and keep your existing data. There is no automated
844
upgrade procedure in StatusNet 0.8.2. Try these step-by-step
845
instructions; read to the end first before trying them.
846
847
0. Download StatusNet and set up all the prerequisites as if you were
848
   doing a new install.
849
1. Make backups of both your database and your Web directory. UNDER NO
850
   CIRCUMSTANCES should you try to do an upgrade without a known-good
851
   backup. You have been warned.
852
2. Shut down Web access to your site, either by turning off your Web
853
   server or by redirecting all pages to a "sorry, under maintenance"
854
   page.
855
3. Shut down XMPP access to your site, typically by shutting down the
856
   xmppdaemon.php process and all other daemons that you're running.
857
   If you've got "monit" or "cron" automatically restarting your
858
   daemons, make sure to turn that off, too.
859
4. Shut down SMS and email access to your site. The easy way to do
860
   this is to comment out the line piping incoming email to your
861
   maildaemon.php file, and running something like "newaliases".
862
5. Once all writing processes to your site are turned off, make a
863
   final backup of the Web directory and database.
864
6. Move your StatusNet directory to a backup spot, like "mublog.bak".
865
7. Unpack your StatusNet 0.8.2 tarball and move it to "mublog" or
866
   wherever your code used to be.
867
8. Copy the config.php file and avatar directory from your old
868
   directory to your new directory.
869
9. Copy htaccess.sample to .htaccess in the new directory. Change the
870
   RewriteBase to use the correct path.
871
10. Rebuild the database. (You can safely skip this step and go to #12
872
    if you're upgrading from another 0.8.x version).
873
874
    NOTE: this step is destructive and cannot be
875
    reversed. YOU CAN EASILY DESTROY YOUR SITE WITH THIS STEP. Don't
876
    do it without a known-good backup!
877
878
    If your database is at version 0.7.4, you can run a special upgrade
879
    script:
880
881
    mysql -u<rootuser> -p<rootpassword> <database> db/074to080.sql
882
883
    Otherwise, go to your StatusNet directory and AFTER YOU MAKE A
884
    BACKUP run the rebuilddb.sh script like this:
885
886
    ./scripts/rebuilddb.sh rootuser rootpassword database db/statusnet.sql
887
888
    Here, rootuser and rootpassword are the username and password for a
889
    user who can drop and create databases as well as tables; typically
890
    that's _not_ the user StatusNet runs as. Note that rebuilddb.sh drops
891
    your database and rebuilds it; if there is an error you have no
892
    database. Make sure you have a backup.
893
    For PostgreSQL databases there is an equivalent, rebuilddb_psql.sh,
894
    which operates slightly differently. Read the documentation in that
895
    script before running it.
896
11. Use mysql or psql client to log into your database and make sure that
897
    the notice, user, profile, subscription etc. tables are non-empty.
898
12. Turn back on the Web server, and check that things still work.
899
13. Turn back on XMPP bots and email maildaemon. Note that the XMPP
900
    bots have changed since version 0.5; see above for details.
901
902
If you're upgrading from very old versions, you may want to look at
903
the fixup_* scripts in the scripts directories. These will store some
904
precooked data in the DB. All upgraders should check out the inboxes
905
options below.
906
907
NOTE: the database definition file, laconica.ini, has been renamed to
908
statusnet.ini (since this is the recommended database name). If you
909
have a line in your config.php pointing to the old name, you'll need
910
to update it.
911
912
Notice inboxes
913
--------------
914
915
Notice inboxes are now required. If you don't have inboxes enabled,
916
StatusNet will no longer run.
917
918
UTF-8 Database
919
--------------
920
921
StatusNet 0.7.4 introduced a fix for some incorrectly-stored
922
international characters ("UTF-8"). This fix is not
923
backwards-compatible; installations from before 0.7.4 will show
924
non-ASCII characters of old notices incorrectly. This section explains
925
what to do.
926
927
0. You can disable the new behaviour by setting the 'db''utf8' config
928
   option to "false". You should only do this until you're ready to
929
   convert your DB to the new format.
930
1. When you're ready to convert, you can run the fixup_utf8.php script
931
   in the scripts/ subdirectory. If you've had the "new behaviour"
932
   enabled (probably a good idea), you can give the ID of the first
933
   "new" notice as a parameter, and only notices before that one will
934
   be converted. Notices are converted in reverse chronological order,
935
   so the most recent (and visible) ones will be converted first. The
936
   script should work whether or not you have the 'db''utf8' config
937
   option enabled.
938
2. When you're ready, set $config['db']['utf8'] to true, so that
939
   new notices will be stored correctly.
940
941
Configuration options
942
=====================
943
944
The main configuration file for StatusNet (excepting configurations for
945
dependency software) is config.php in your StatusNet directory. If you
946
edit any other file in the directory, like lib/common.php (where most
947
of the defaults are defined), you will lose your configuration options
948
in any upgrade, and you will wish that you had been more careful.
949
950
Starting with version 0.7.1, you can put config files in the
951
/etc/statusnet/ directory on your server, if it exists. Config files
952
will be included in this order:
953
954
* /etc/statusnet/statusnet.php - server-wide config
955
* /etc/statusnet/<servername>.php - for a virtual host
956
* /etc/statusnet/<servername>_<pathname>.php - for a path
957
* INSTALLDIR/config.php - for a particular implementation
958
959
Almost all configuration options are made through a two-dimensional
960
associative array, cleverly named $config. A typical configuration
961
line will be:
962
963
     $config['section']['option'] = value;
964
965
For brevity, the following documentation describes each section and
966
option.
967
968
site
969
----
970
971
This section is a catch-all for site-wide variables.
972
973
name: the name of your site, like 'YourCompany Microblog'.
974
server: the server part of your site's URLs, like 'example.net'.
975
path: The path part of your site's URLs, like 'mublog' or ''
976
      (installed in root).
977
fancy: whether or not your site uses fancy URLs (see Fancy URLs
978
       section above). Default is false.
979
logfile: full path to a file for StatusNet to save logging
980
	 information to. You may want to use this if you don't have
981
	 access to syslog.
982
logdebug: whether to log additional debug info like backtraces on
983
          hard errors. Default false.
984
locale_path: full path to the directory for locale data. Unless you
985
	     store all your locale data in one place, you probably
986
	     don't need to use this.
987
language: default language for your site. Defaults to US English.
988
          Note that this is overridden if a user is logged in and has
989
          selected a different language. It is also overridden if the
990
          user is NOT logged in, but their browser requests a different
991
          langauge. Since pretty much everybody's browser requests a
992
          language, that means that changing this setting has little or
993
          no effect in practice.
994
languages: A list of languages supported on your site. Typically you'd
995
	   only change this if you wanted to disable support for one
996
	   or another language:
997
	   "unset($config['site']['languages']['de'])" will disable
998
	   support for German.
999
theme: Theme for your site (see Theme section). Two themes are
1000
       provided by default: 'default' and 'stoica' (the one used by
1001
       Identi.ca). It's appreciated if you don't use the 'stoica' theme
1002
       except as the basis for your own.
1003
email: contact email address for your site. By default, it's extracted
1004
       from your Web server environment; you may want to customize it.
1005
broughtbyurl: name of an organization or individual who provides the
1006
	   service. Each page will include a link to this name in the
1007
	   footer. A good way to link to the blog, forum, wiki,
1008
	   corporate portal, or whoever is making the service available.
1009
broughtby: text used for the "brought by" link.
1010
timezone: default timezone for message display. Users can set their
1011
	  own time zone. Defaults to 'UTC', which is a pretty good default.
1012
closed: If set to 'true', will disallow registration on your site.
1013
	This is a cheap way to restrict accounts to only one
1014
	individual or group; just register the accounts you want on
1015
	the service, *then* set this variable to 'true'.
1016
inviteonly: If set to 'true', will only allow registration if the user
1017
	    was invited by an existing user.
1018
private: If set to 'true', anonymous users will be redirected to the
1019
         'login' page. Also, API methods that normally require no
1020
         authentication will require it. Note that this does not turn
1021
         off registration; use 'closed' or 'inviteonly' for the
1022
         behaviour you want.
1023
notice: A plain string that will appear on every page. A good place
1024
	to put introductory information about your service, or info about
1025
	upgrades and outages, or other community info. Any HTML will
1026
        be escaped.
1027
logo: URL of an image file to use as the logo for the site. Overrides
1028
      the logo in the theme, if any.
1029
ssl: Whether to use SSL and https:// URLs for some or all pages.
1030
     Possible values are 'always' (use it for all pages), 'never'
1031
     (don't use it for any pages), or 'sometimes' (use it for
1032
     sensitive pages that include passwords like login and registration,
1033
     but not for regular pages). Default to 'never'.
1034
sslserver: use an alternate server name for SSL URLs, like
1035
           'secure.example.org'. You should be careful to set cookie
1036
           parameters correctly so that both the SSL server and the
1037
           "normal" server can access the session cookie and
1038
           preferably other cookies as well.
1039
shorturllength: Length of URL at which URLs in a message exceeding 140
1040
                characters will be sent to the user's chosen
1041
                shortening service.
1042
dupelimit: minimum time allowed for one person to say the same thing
1043
           twice. Default 60s. Anything lower is considered a user
1044
           or UI error.
1045
textlimit: default max size for texts in the site. Defaults to 140.
1046
           0 means no limit. Can be fine-tuned for notices, messages,
1047
           profile bios and group descriptions.
1048
1049
db
1050
--
1051
1052
This section is a reference to the configuration options for
1053
DB_DataObject (see <http://ur1.ca/7xp>). The ones that you may want to
1054
set are listed below for clarity.
1055
1056
database: a DSN (Data Source Name) for your StatusNet database. This is
1057
	  in the format 'protocol://username:password@hostname/databasename',
1058
	  where 'protocol' is 'mysql' or 'mysqli' (or possibly 'postgresql', if you
1059
	  really know what you're doing), 'username' is the username,
1060
	  'password' is the password, and etc.
1061
ini_yourdbname: if your database is not named 'statusnet', you'll need
1062
		to set this to point to the location of the
1063
		statusnet.ini file. Note that the real name of your database
1064
		should go in there, not literally 'yourdbname'.
1065
db_driver: You can try changing this to 'MDB2' to use the other driver
1066
	   type for DB_DataObject, but note that it breaks the OpenID
1067
	   libraries, which only support PEAR::DB.
1068
debug: On a database error, you may get a message saying to set this
1069
       value to 5 to see debug messages in the browser. This breaks
1070
       just about all pages, and will also expose the username and
1071
       password
1072
quote_identifiers: Set this to true if you're using postgresql.
1073
type: either 'mysql' or 'postgresql' (used for some bits of
1074
      database-type-specific SQL in the code). Defaults to mysql.
1075
mirror: you can set this to an array of DSNs, like the above
1076
	'database' value. If it's set, certain read-only actions will
1077
	use a random value out of this array for the database, rather
1078
	than the one in 'database' (actually, 'database' is overwritten).
1079
	You can offload a busy DB server by setting up MySQL replication
1080
	and adding the slaves to this array. Note that if you want some
1081
	requests to go to the 'database' (master) server, you'll need
1082
	to include it in this array, too.
1083
utf8: whether to talk to the database in UTF-8 mode. This is the default
1084
      with new installations, but older sites may want to turn it off
1085
      until they get their databases fixed up. See "UTF-8 database"
1086
      above for details.
1087
schemacheck: when to let plugins check the database schema to add
1088
             tables or update them. Values can be 'runtime' (default)
1089
             or 'script'. 'runtime' can be costly (plugins check the
1090
             schema on every hit, adding potentially several db
1091
             queries, some quite long), but not everyone knows how to
1092
             run a script. If you can, set this to 'script' and run
1093
             scripts/checkschema.php whenever you install or upgrade a
1094
             plugin.
1095
1096
syslog
1097
------
1098
1099
By default, StatusNet sites log error messages to the syslog facility.
1100
(You can override this using the 'logfile' parameter described above).
1101
1102
appname: The name that StatusNet uses to log messages. By default it's
1103
	 "statusnet", but if you have more than one installation on the
1104
	 server, you may want to change the name for each instance so
1105
	 you can track log messages more easily.
1106
priority: level to log at. Currently ignored.
1107
facility: what syslog facility to used. Defaults to LOG_USER, only
1108
          reset if you know what syslog is and have a good reason
1109
          to change it.
1110
1111
queue
1112
-----
1113
1114
You can configure the software to queue time-consuming tasks, like
1115
sending out SMS email or XMPP messages, for off-line processing. See
1116
'Queues and daemons' above for how to set this up.
1117
1118
enabled: Whether to uses queues. Defaults to false.
1119
subsystem: Which kind of queueserver to use. Values include "db" for
1120
           our hacked-together database queuing (no other server
1121
           required) and "stomp" for a stomp server.
1122
stomp_server: "broker URI" for stomp server. Something like
1123
              "tcp://hostname:61613". More complicated ones are
1124
              possible; see your stomp server's documentation for
1125
              details.
1126
queue_basename: a root name to use for queues (stomp only). Typically
1127
                something like '/queue/sitename/' makes sense.
1128
stomp_username: username for connecting to the stomp server; defaults
1129
                to null.
1130
stomp_password: password for connecting to the stomp server; defaults
1131
                to null.
1132
license
1133
-------
1134
1135
The default license to use for your users notices. The default is the
1136
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which is probably the right
1137
choice for any public site. Note that some other servers will not
1138
accept notices if you apply a stricter license than this.
1139
1140
type: one of 'cc' (for Creative Commons licenses), 'allrightsreserved'
1141
      (default copyright), or 'private' (for private and confidential
1142
      information).
1143
owner: for 'allrightsreserved' or 'private', an assigned copyright
1144
       holder (for example, an employer for a private site). If
1145
       not specified, will be attributed to 'contributors'.
1146
url: URL of the license, used for links.
1147
title: Title for the license, like 'Creative Commons Attribution 3.0'.
1148
image: A button shown on each page for the license.
1149
1150
mail
1151
----
1152
1153
This is for configuring out-going email. We use PEAR's Mail module,
1154
see: http://pear.php.net/manual/en/package.mail.mail.factory.php
1155
1156
backend: the backend to use for mail, one of 'mail', 'sendmail', and
1157
	 'smtp'. Defaults to PEAR's default, 'mail'.
1158
params: if the mail backend requires any parameters, you can provide
1159
	them in an associative array.
1160
1161
nickname
1162
--------
1163
1164
This is for configuring nicknames in the service.
1165
1166
blacklist: an array of strings for usernames that may not be
1167
	   registered. A default array exists for strings that are
1168
	   used by StatusNet (e.g. 'doc', 'main', 'avatar', 'theme')
1169
	   but you may want to add others if you have other software
1170
	   installed in a subdirectory of StatusNet or if you just
1171
	   don't want certain words used as usernames.
1172
featured: an array of nicknames of 'featured' users of the site.
1173
	  Can be useful to draw attention to well-known users, or
1174
	  interesting people, or whatever.
1175
1176
avatar
1177
------
1178
1179
For configuring avatar access.
1180
1181
dir:    Directory to look for avatar files and to put them into.
1182
	Defaults to avatar subdirectory of install directory; if
1183
	you change it, make sure to change path, too.
1184
path:	Path to avatars. Defaults to path for avatar subdirectory,
1185
	but you can change it if you wish. Note that this will
1186
	be included with the avatar server, too.
1187
server: If set, defines another server where avatars are stored in the
1188
	root directory. Note that the 'avatar' subdir still has to be
1189
	writeable. You'd typically use this to split HTTP requests on
1190
	the client to speed up page loading, either with another
1191
	virtual server or with an NFS or SAMBA share. Clients
1192
	typically only make 2 connections to a single server at a
1193
	time <http://ur1.ca/6ih>, so this can parallelize the job.
1194
	Defaults to null.
1195
1196
public
1197
------
1198
1199
For configuring the public stream.
1200
1201
localonly: If set to true, only messages posted by users of this
1202
	   service (rather than other services, filtered through OMB)
1203
	   are shown in the public stream. Default true.
1204
blacklist: An array of IDs of users to hide from the public stream.
1205
	   Useful if you have someone making excessive Twitterfeed posts
1206
	   to the site, other kinds of automated posts, testing bots, etc.
1207
autosource: Sources of notices that are from automatic posters, and thus
1208
            should be kept off the public timeline. Default empty.
1209
1210
theme
1211
-----
1212
1213
server: Like avatars, you can speed up page loading by pointing the
1214
	theme file lookup to another server (virtual or real).
1215
	Defaults to NULL, meaning to use the site server.
1216
dir:    Directory where theme files are stored. Used to determine
1217
	whether to show parts of a theme file. Defaults to the theme
1218
	subdirectory of the install directory.
1219
path:	Path part of theme URLs, before the theme name. Relative to the
1220
	theme server. It may make sense to change this path when upgrading,
1221
	(using version numbers as the path) to make sure that all files are
1222
	reloaded by caching clients or proxies. Defaults to null,
1223
	which means to use the site path + '/theme'.
1224
1225
xmpp
1226
----
1227
1228
For configuring the XMPP sub-system.
1229
1230
enabled: Whether to accept and send messages by XMPP. Default false.
1231
server: server part of XMPP ID for update user.
1232
port: connection port for clients. Default 5222, which you probably
1233
      shouldn't need to change.
1234
user: username for the client connection. Users will receive messages
1235
      from 'user'@'server'.
1236
resource: a unique identifier for the connection to the server. This
1237
	  is actually used as a prefix for each XMPP component in the system.
1238
password: password for the user account.
1239
host: some XMPP domains are served by machines with a different
1240
      hostname. (For example, @gmail.com GTalk users connect to
1241
      talk.google.com). Set this to the correct hostname if that's the
1242
      case with your server.
1243
encryption: Whether to encrypt the connection between StatusNet and the
1244
	    XMPP server. Defaults to true, but you can get
1245
	    considerably better performance turning it off if you're
1246
	    connecting to a server on the same machine or on a
1247
	    protected network.
1248
debug: if turned on, this will make the XMPP library blurt out all of
1249
       the incoming and outgoing messages as XML stanzas. Use as a
1250
       last resort, and never turn it on if you don't have queues
1251
       enabled, since it will spit out sensitive data to the browser.
1252
public: an array of JIDs to send _all_ notices to. This is useful for
1253
	participating in third-party search and archiving services.
1254
1255
invite
1256
------
1257
1258
For configuring invites.
1259
1260
enabled: Whether to allow users to send invites. Default true.
1261
1262
tag
1263
---
1264
1265
Miscellaneous tagging stuff.
1266
1267
dropoff: Decay factor for tag listing, in seconds.
1268
	 Defaults to exponential decay over ten days; you can twiddle
1269
	 with it to try and get better results for your site.
1270
1271
popular
1272
-------
1273
1274
Settings for the "popular" section of the site.
1275
1276
dropoff: Decay factor for popularity listing, in seconds.
1277
	 Defaults to exponential decay over ten days; you can twiddle
1278
	 with it to try and get better results for your site.
1279
1280
daemon
1281
------
1282
1283
For daemon processes.
1284
1285
piddir: directory that daemon processes should write their PID file
1286
	(process ID) to. Defaults to /var/run/, which is where this
1287
	stuff should usually go on Unix-ish systems.
1288
user: If set, the daemons will try to change their effective user ID
1289
      to this user before running. Probably a good idea, especially if
1290
      you start the daemons as root. Note: user name, like 'daemon',
1291
      not 1001.
1292
group: If set, the daemons will try to change their effective group ID
1293
       to this named group. Again, a name, not a numerical ID.
1294
1295
memcached
1296
---------
1297
1298
You can get a significant boost in performance by caching some
1299
database data in memcached <http://www.danga.com/memcached/>.
1300
1301
enabled: Set to true to enable. Default false.
1302
server: a string with the hostname of the memcached server. Can also
1303
	be an array of hostnames, if you've got more than one server.
1304
base: memcached uses key-value pairs to store data. We build long,
1305
      funny-looking keys to make sure we don't have any conflicts. The
1306
      base of the key is usually a simplified version of the site name
1307
      (like "Identi.ca" => "identica"), but you can overwrite this if
1308
      you need to. You can safely ignore it if you only have one
1309
      StatusNet site using your memcached server.
1310
port: Port to connect to; defaults to 11211.
1311
1312
emailpost
1313
---------
1314
1315
For post-by-email.
1316
1317
enabled: Whether to enable post-by-email. Defaults to true. You will
1318
         also need to set up maildaemon.php.
1319
1320
sms
1321
---
1322
1323
For SMS integration.
1324
1325
enabled: Whether to enable SMS integration. Defaults to true. Queues
1326
         should also be enabled.
1327
1328
integration
1329
-----------
1330
1331
A catch-all for integration with other systems.
1332
1333
taguri: base for tag:// URIs. Defaults to site-server + ',2009'.
1334
1335
inboxes
1336
-------
1337
1338
For notice inboxes.
1339
1340
enabled: No longer used. If you set this to something other than true,
1341
	 StatusNet will no longer run.
1342
1343
throttle
1344
--------
1345
1346
For notice-posting throttles.
1347
1348
enabled: Whether to throttle posting. Defaults to false.
1349
count: Each user can make this many posts in 'timespan' seconds. So, if count
1350
       is 100 and timespan is 3600, then there can be only 100 posts
1351
       from a user every hour.
1352
timespan: see 'count'.
1353
1354
profile
1355
-------
1356
1357
Profile management.
1358
1359
banned: an array of usernames and/or profile IDs of 'banned' profiles.
1360
        The site will reject any notices by these users -- they will
1361
        not be accepted at all. (Compare with blacklisted users above,
1362
        whose posts just won't show up in the public stream.)
1363
biolimit: max character length of bio; 0 means no limit; null means to use
1364
          the site text limit default.
1365
1366
newuser
1367
-------
1368
1369
Options with new users.
1370
1371
default: nickname of a user account to automatically subscribe new
1372
	 users to. Typically this would be system account for e.g.
1373
         service updates or announcements. Users are able to unsub
1374
         if they want. Default is null; no auto subscribe.
1375
welcome: nickname of a user account that sends welcome messages to new
1376
         users. Can be the same as 'default' account, although on
1377
         busy servers it may be a good idea to keep that one just for
1378
         'urgent' messages. Default is null; no message.
1379
1380
If either of these special user accounts are specified, the users should
1381
be created before the configuration is updated.
1382
1383
snapshot
1384
--------
1385
1386
The software will, by default, send statistical snapshots about the
1387
local installation to a stats server on the status.net Web site. This
1388
data is used by the developers to prioritize development decisions. No
1389
identifying data about users or organizations is collected. The data
1390
is available to the public for review. Participating in this survey
1391
helps StatusNet developers take your needs into account when updating
1392
the software.
1393
1394
run: string indicating when to run the statistics. Values can be 'web'
1395
     (run occasionally at Web time), 'cron' (run from a cron script),
1396
     or 'never' (don't ever run). If you set it to 'cron', remember to
1397
     schedule the script to run on a regular basis.
1398
frequency: if run value is 'web', how often to report statistics.
1399
           Measured in Web hits; depends on how active your site is.
1400
           Default is 10000 -- that is, one report every 10000 Web hits,
1401
           on average.
1402
reporturl: URL to post statistics to. Defaults to StatusNet developers'
1403
           report system, but if they go evil or disappear you may
1404
           need to update this to another value. Note: if you
1405
           don't want to report stats, it's much better to
1406
           set 'run' to 'never' than to set this value to something
1407
           nonsensical.
1408
1409
attachments
1410
-----------
1411
1412
The software lets users upload files with their notices. You can configure
1413
the types of accepted files by mime types and a trio of quota options:
1414
per file, per user (total), per user per month.
1415
1416
We suggest the use of the pecl file_info extension to handle mime type
1417
detection.
1418
1419
supported: an array of mime types you accept to store and distribute,
1420
           like 'image/gif', 'video/mpeg', 'audio/mpeg', etc. Make sure you
1421
           setup your server to properly recognize the types you want to
1422
           support.
1423
uploads:   false to disable uploading files with notices (true by default).
1424
filecommand: The required MIME_Type library may need to use the 'file'
1425
	     command. It tries the one in the Web server's path, but if
1426
	     you're having problems with uploads, try setting this to the
1427
	     correct value. Note: 'file' must accept '-b' and '-i' options.
1428
1429
For quotas, be sure you've set the upload_max_filesize and post_max_size
1430
in php.ini to be large enough to handle your upload. In httpd.conf
1431
(if you're using apache), check that the LimitRequestBody directive isn't
1432
set too low (it's optional, so it may not be there at all).
1433
1434
file_quota: maximum size for a single file upload in bytes. A user can send
1435
            any amount of notices with attachments as long as each attachment
1436
            is smaller than file_quota.
1437
user_quota: total size in bytes a user can store on this server. Each user
1438
            can store any number of files as long as their total size does
1439
            not exceed the user_quota.
1440
monthly_quota: total size permitted in the current month. This is the total
1441
            size in bytes that a user can upload each month.
1442
dir: directory accessible to the Web process where uploads should go.
1443
     Defaults to the 'file' subdirectory of the install directory, which
1444
     should be writeable by the Web user.
1445
server: server name to use when creating URLs for uploaded files.
1446
        Defaults to null, meaning to use the default Web server. Using
1447
        a virtual server here can speed up Web performance.
1448
path: URL path, relative to the server, to find files. Defaults to
1449
      main path + '/file/'.
1450
filecommand: command to use for determining the type of a file. May be
1451
             skipped if fileinfo extension is installed. Defaults to
1452
             '/usr/bin/file'.
1453
1454
group
1455
-----
1456
1457
Options for group functionality.
1458
1459
maxaliases: maximum number of aliases a group can have. Default 3. Set
1460
            to 0 or less to prevent aliases in a group.
1461
desclimit: maximum number of characters to allow in group descriptions.
1462
           null (default) means to use the site-wide text limits. 0
1463
           means no limit.
1464
1465
oohembed
1466
--------
1467
1468
oEmbed endpoint for multimedia attachments (links in posts).
1469
1470
endpoint: oohembed endpoint using http://oohembed.com/ software.
1471
1472
search
1473
------
1474
1475
Some stuff for search.
1476
1477
type: type of search. Ignored if PostgreSQL or Sphinx are enabled. Can either
1478
      be 'fulltext' (default) or 'like'. The former is faster and more efficient
1479
      but requires the lame old MyISAM engine for MySQL. The latter
1480
      will work with InnoDB but could be miserably slow on large
1481
      systems. We'll probably add another type sometime in the future,
1482
      with our own indexing system (maybe like MediaWiki's).
1483
1484
sessions
1485
--------
1486
1487
Session handling.
1488
1489
handle: boolean. Whether we should register our own PHP session-handling
1490
	code (using the database and memcache if enabled). Defaults to false.
1491
	Setting this to true makes some sense on large or multi-server
1492
	sites, but it probably won't hurt for smaller ones, either.
1493
debug: whether to output debugging info for session storage. Can help
1494
       with weird session bugs, sometimes. Default false.
1495
1496
background
1497
----------
1498
1499
Users can upload backgrounds for their pages; this section defines
1500
their use.
1501
1502
server: the server to use for background. Using a separate (even
1503
        virtual) server for this can speed up load times. Default is
1504
        null; same as site server.
1505
dir: directory to write backgrounds too. Default is '/background/'
1506
     subdir of install dir.
1507
path: path to backgrounds. Default is sub-path of install path; note
1508
      that you may need to change this if you change site-path too.
1509
1510
ping
1511
----
1512
1513
Using the "XML-RPC Ping" method initiated by weblogs.com, the site can
1514
notify third-party servers of updates.
1515
1516
notify: an array of URLs for ping endpoints. Default is the empty
1517
        array (no notification).
1518
1519
design
1520
------
1521
1522
Default design (colors and background) for the site. Actual appearance
1523
depends on the theme.  Null values mean to use the theme defaults.
1524
1525
backgroundcolor: Hex color of the site background.
1526
contentcolor: Hex color of the content area background.
1527
sidebarcolor: Hex color of the sidebar background.
1528
textcolor: Hex color of all non-link text.
1529
linkcolor: Hex color of all links.
1530
backgroundimage: Image to use for the background.
1531
disposition: Flags for whether or not to tile the background image.
1532
1533
notice
1534
------
1535
1536
Configuration options specific to notices.
1537
1538
contentlimit: max length of the plain-text content of a notice.
1539
              Default is null, meaning to use the site-wide text limit.
1540
              0 means no limit.
1541
1542
message
1543
-------
1544
1545
Configuration options specific to messages.
1546
1547
contentlimit: max length of the plain-text content of a message.
1548
              Default is null, meaning to use the site-wide text limit.
1549
              0 means no limit.
1550
1551
logincommand
1552
------------
1553
1554
Configuration options for the login command.
1555
1556
disabled: whether to enable this command. If enabled, users who send
1557
	  the text 'login' to the site through any channel will
1558
	  receive a link to login to the site automatically in return.
1559
	  Possibly useful for users who primarily use an XMPP or SMS
1560
	  interface and can't be bothered to remember their site
1561
	  password. Note that the security implications of this are
1562
	  pretty serious and have not been thoroughly tested. You
1563
	  should enable it only after you've convinced yourself that
1564
	  it is safe. Default is 'false'.
1565
1566
singleuser
1567
----------
1568
1569
If an installation has only one user, this can simplify a lot of the
1570
interface. It also makes the user's profile the root URL.
1571
1572
enabled: Whether to run in "single user mode". Default false.
1573
nickname: nickname of the single user.
1574
1575
robotstxt
1576
---------
1577
1578
We put out a default robots.txt file to guide the processing of
1579
Web crawlers. See http://www.robotstxt.org/ for more information
1580
on the format of this file.
1581
1582
crawldelay: if non-empty, this value is provided as the Crawl-Delay:
1583
            for the robots.txt file. see http://ur1.ca/l5a0
1584
            for more information. Default is zero, no explicit delay.
1585
disallow: Array of (virtual) directories to disallow. Default is 'main',
1586
          'search', 'message', 'settings', 'admin'. Ignored when site
1587
          is private, in which case the entire site ('/') is disallowed.
1588
1589
Plugins
1590
=======
1591
1592
Beginning with the 0.7.x branch, StatusNet has supported a simple but
1593
powerful plugin architecture. Important events in the code are named,
1594
like 'StartNoticeSave', and other software can register interest
1595
in those events. When the events happen, the other software is called
1596
and has a choice of accepting or rejecting the events.
1597
1598
In the simplest case, you can add a function to config.php and use the
1599
Event::addHandler() function to hook an event:
1600
1601
    function AddGoogleLink($action)
1602
    {
1603
        $action->menuItem('http://www.google.com/', _('Google'), _('Search engine'));
1604
        return true;
1605
    }
1606
1607
    Event::addHandler('EndPrimaryNav', 'AddGoogleLink');
1608
1609
This adds a menu item to the end of the main navigation menu. You can
1610
see the list of existing events, and parameters that handlers must
1611
implement, in EVENTS.txt.
1612
1613
The Plugin class in lib/plugin.php makes it easier to write more
1614
complex plugins. Sub-classes can just create methods named
1615
'onEventName', where 'EventName' is the name of the event (case
1616
matters!). These methods will be automatically registered as event
1617
handlers by the Plugin constructor (which you must call from your own
1618
class's constructor).
1619
1620
Several example plugins are included in the plugins/ directory. You
1621
can enable a plugin with the following line in config.php:
1622
1623
    addPlugin('Example', array('param1' => 'value1',
1624
                               'param2' => 'value2'));
1625
1626
This will look for and load files named 'ExamplePlugin.php' or
1627
'Example/ExamplePlugin.php' either in the plugins/ directory (for
1628
plugins that ship with StatusNet) or in the local/ directory (for
1629
plugins you write yourself or that you get from somewhere else) or
1630
local/plugins/.
1631
1632
Plugins are documented in their own directories.
1633
1634
Troubleshooting
1635
===============
1636
1637
The primary output for StatusNet is syslog, unless you configured a
1638
separate logfile. This is probably the first place to look if you're
1639
getting weird behaviour from StatusNet.
1640
1641
If you're tracking the unstable version of StatusNet in the git
1642
repository (see below), and you get a compilation error ("unexpected
1643
T_STRING") in the browser, check to see that you don't have any
1644
conflicts in your code.
1645
1646
If you upgraded to StatusNet 0.8.2 without reading the "Notice
1647
inboxes" section above, and all your users' 'Personal' tabs are empty,
1648
read the "Notice inboxes" section above.
1649
1650
Myths
1651
=====
1652
1653
These are some myths you may see on the Web about StatusNet.
1654
Documentation from the core team about StatusNet has been pretty
1655
sparse, so some backtracking and guesswork resulted in some incorrect
1656
assumptions.
1657
1658
- "Set $config['db']['debug'] = 5 to debug the database." This is an
1659
  extremely bad idea. It's a tool built into DB_DataObject that will
1660
  emit oodles of print lines directly to the browser of your users.
1661
  Among these lines will be your database username and password. Do
1662
  not enable this option on a production Web site for any reason.
1663
1664
- "Edit dataobject.ini with the following settings..." dataobject.ini
1665
  is a development file for the DB_DataObject framework and is not
1666
  used by the running software. It was removed from the StatusNet
1667
  distribution because its presence was confusing. Do not bother
1668
  configuring dataobject.ini, and do not put your database username
1669
  and password into the file on a production Web server; unscrupulous
1670
  persons may try to read it to get your passwords.
1671
1672
Unstable version
1673
================
1674
1675
If you're adventurous or impatient, you may want to install the
1676
development version of StatusNet. To get it, use the git version
1677
control tool <http://git-scm.com/> like so:
1678
1679
	git clone git@gitorious.org:statusnet/mainline.git
1680
1681
This is the version of the software that runs on Identi.ca and the
1682
status.net hosted service. Using it is a mixed bag. On the positive
1683
side, it usually includes the latest security and bug fix patches. On
1684
the downside, it may also include changes that require admin
1685
intervention (like running a script or even raw SQL!) that may not be
1686
documented yet. It may be a good idea to test this version before
1687
installing it on your production machines.
1688
1689
To keep it up-to-date, use 'git pull'. Watch for conflicts!
1690
1691
Further information
1692
===================
1693
1694
There are several ways to get more information about StatusNet.
1695
1696
* There is a mailing list for StatusNet developers and admins at
1697
  http://mail.status.net/mailman/listinfo/statusnet-dev
1698
* The #statusnet IRC channel on freenode.net <http://www.freenode.net/>.
1699
* The StatusNet wiki, http://status.net/wiki/
1700
* The StatusNet blog, http://status.net/blog/
1701
* The StatusNet status update, <http://status.status.net/status> (!)
1702
1703
Feedback
1704
========
1705
1706
* Microblogging messages to http://identi.ca/evan are very welcome.
1707
* StatusNet's Trac server has a bug tracker for any defects you may find,
1708
  or ideas for making things better. http://status.net/trac/
1709
* e-mail to evan@status.net will usually be read and responded to very
1710
  quickly, unless the question is really hard.
1711
1712
Credits
1713
=======
1714
1715
The following is an incomplete list of developers who've worked on
1716
StatusNet. Apologies for any oversight; please let evan@status.net know
1717
if anyone's been overlooked in error.
1718
1719
* Evan Prodromou, founder and lead developer, StatusNet, Inc.
1720
* Zach Copley, StatusNet, Inc.
1721
* Earle Martin, StatusNet, Inc.
1722
* Marie-Claude Doyon, designer, StatusNet, Inc.
1723
* Sarven Capadisli, StatusNet, Inc.
1724
* Robin Millette, StatusNet, Inc.
1725
* Ciaran Gultnieks
1726
* Michael Landers
1727
* Ori Avtalion
1728
* Garret Buell
1729
* Mike Cochrane
1730
* Matthew Gregg
1731
* Florian Biree
1732
* Erik Stambaugh
1733
* 'drry'
1734
* Gina Haeussge
1735
* Tryggvi Björgvinsson
1736
* Adrian Lang
1737
* Ori Avtalion
1738
* Meitar Moscovitz
1739
* Ken Sheppardson (Trac server, man-about-town)
1740
* Tiago 'gouki' Faria (i18n manager)
1741
* Sean Murphy
1742
* Leslie Michael Orchard
1743
* Eric Helgeson
1744
* Ken Sedgwick
1745
* Brian Hendrickson
1746
* Tobias Diekershoff
1747
* Dan Moore
1748
* Fil
1749
* Jeff Mitchell
1750
* Brenda Wallace
1751
* Jeffery To
1752
* Federico Marani
1753
* Craig Andrews
1754
* mEDI
1755
* Brett Taylor
1756
* Brigitte Schuster
1757
1758
Thanks also to the developers of our upstream library code and to the
1759
thousands of people who have tried out Identi.ca, installed StatusNet,
1760
told their friends, and built the Open Microblogging network to what
1761
it is today.