jschan/README.md

# jschan
Anonymous imageboard. A type of BBS or forum software. 
Demo site running at https://fatpeople.lol

## Goals
- Oldschool imageboard look, with some modern touches
- Support users that have javascript disabled (TOR users, or the security conscious)
- Leverage nginx to serve static files, do GeoIP lookups and various other things

## Features
- [x] User created boards ala infinity
- [x] Multiple files per post
- [x] Captcha and basic antispam
- [x] Read-only JSON api
- [x] Multi-select moderation actions
- [x] Websocket update threads w/o polling
- [x] Webring support ([lynxchan](https://gitlab.com/alogware/LynxChanAddon-Webring)) ([infinity](https://gitlab.com/Tenicu/infinityaddon-webring))

## Todo
- Fix issues
- Add missing features
- Improve moderation tools
- Improve frontend scripts
- Fork some mobile app and make it compatible with the API

## Setup
Please note:
##### 🚨 The software is still in development. If running in production, you may have to deal with breaking updates e.g. database schema changes. Automated systems to handle this will be made in future when things are more set in stone. 🚨
- these instructions are not step-by-step or complete
- you should be able to read, be comfortable with a command line and have problem solving skills (aka search engine)

##### Requirements
- Linux (debian used in this example)
- Node.js (to run the app)
- MongoDB (database, duh)
- Redis (sessions, build task queue, locks, caching, websocket data)
- Nginx (handle https, serve static content, GeoIP lookup)
- Certbot/letsencrypt (for https cert)
- Graphicsmagick+Imagemagick (thumbnailing images, generating captchas)
- Ffmpeg (thumbnailing videos)

1. Setup server with some basics

  - new user to run the nodejs backend
  - ssh root login disabled, key login only, etc
  - iptables only open http, https and ssh ports on INPUT

2. Install dependencies. You may need to add sources depending on your distro.
```bash
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install nginx ffmpeg imagemagick graphicsmagick
```

3. [Install MongoDB](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/tutorial/install-mongodb-on-debian/#install-mongodb-community-edition-on-debian) and [configure authentication](https://medium.com/mongoaudit/how-to-enable-authentication-on-mongodb-b9e8a924efac)

4. [Install and configure](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-secure-redis-on-debian-9) Redis

4. Install nodejs
Recommended to use [node version manager](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) (nvm).
Install nvm then run the following commands to get the LTS version of nodejs.
```bash
$ nvm install --lts
$ nvm use --lts
```
You can also repeat this process in future to update node versions as they are generally backwards compatible.

4. Configure nginx
- Use the example config included in `configs/nginx.example` and put it in `/etc/nginx/sites-available/YOURDOMAIN.COM`, then symlink it to `/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/YOURDOMAIN.com`.
- Make sure the sites enabled folder is included by `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf`
- Get https certificate from [letsencrypt](https://wiki.debian.org/LetsEncrypt).
- For geo flags, [follow this guide](http://archive.is/2SMOb) to setup the [legacy GeoIP db](https://www.miyuru.lk/geoiplegacy) and add these directives to the http block in `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf`:
```
geoip_country /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat;
geoip_city /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIPCity.dat;
```

5. Clone ths repo, browse to the folder and set some things up
```bash
# copy example config and edit, some comments included
$ cp configs/main.js.example configs/main.js && editor configs/main.js

# install dependencies and run build tasks
$ npm install 
$ npm run-script setup

# setup the database and folder structure, creates admin account admin:changeme
# dont run this again unless you want to completely irreversibly wipe everything
$ gulp reset

# start all the backend processes
$ npm run-script start

# some commands you may need to use in future/find helpful
# pm2 is a process manager for nodejs, gulp is used for various jobs like minifying and compiling scripts.
$ pm2 list #list running pm2 processes
$ pm2 logs #see logs
$ pm2 reload all #reload all backend processes

$ gulp --tasks #list available gulp tasks
$ gulp #run default gulp task
```