Greetings!

[scripting]

Let's start using this repo. :smile:

The plan: Iterate over the install process of FeedLand server app until most of the issues are resolved so it's possible for people with experience running a server to successfully set up and run a FeedLand instance.

I'm not looking for anything close to perfection. Just something that can be used.

This is not for "poets." You have to be able to run a server and be reasonably self-sufficient.

I have an instance of this running at dave.feedland.org. You're welcome to create an account there. I will not provide instructions for that. Let's see how it goes.

Caveat: I will be re-initializing the database frequently.

Dave

[scotthansonde]

No time to elaborate, but

• I was able to create an account at dave.feedland.org
• I was able to create my own instance by following the docs for this archive
• (I of course meet the requirements of being able to run a server and being reasonably self-sufficient 😃)

[scotthansonde]

Here's a narrative of how I installed, following setup.md. I skipped Amazon SES for now, since I've never worked with it.

• Not that it makes any difference, but I use phpMyAdmin to interact with MySQL. I've used it for over 20 years, so it's what I'm used to. It has buttons for common tasks, and you can type in SQL as well.
• I installed on a local virtual machine running Ubuntu. I already have MySQL running on a local virtual machine as well.
• I made an empty database named feedland with a user named feedland. My experience from WordPress is that it's easier when this is set up ahead of time.
• Downloaded the folder, did npm install, added my database credentials and myDomain (just a local IP and port)
• Copied setup.sql into phpMyAdmin. I already had the database, so I deleted the "create database" line (but I made sure I had the right character sets), then ran the SQL
• I started the server directly with node feedland.js and followed the output in the terminal
• Turns out I made a silly mistake. I forgot a comma in config.json. The last output was startup: can't start the server because config.myDomain is not defined. But if I would have paid attention I would have noticed that the first output was readConfig: err.message == Unexpected string in JSON at position 239.
• Once I fixed config.json, the server started as expected. I browsed to my instance and saw the "Please sign on to enter FeedLand."
• Using tips.md, I manually added a user to MySQL and copied those credentials into localStorage.
  • The example in tips.md had too many quotes and didn't work for me. I changed it to localStorage.emailMemory = '{"emailaddress": "bullmancuso@gmail.com", "code": "gorrilla"}'; (Single qoutes around the string, double quotes inside.)
• I was then able to see a page with my feeds (none so far) and was able to add a few feeds. I considered the install a success.

Next I'll set up SES for myself, then redo the install to see if anything looks different.

[scotthansonde]

I did get SES working. Everytime I go the the AWS console I feel like I'm just blindly clicking things and hoping they work, but I mananged to

• Find the SES home page in the AWS console
• Create an identity for a single mail address
• Create an IAM user for SES
• Make credentials for that user to have AmazonSESFullAccess
• Put those credentials in the ~/.aws folder on my server

I then restarted the server and tried to "Connect with email". Got an error in the server console sendMail: err.message == Email address is not verified. The following identities failed the check in region US-EAST-1: dave@scripting.com

There must be a setting for that! Found the davemail package in node_modules/ with a "mailSender" setting. So I put the "mailSender" setting in my config.json, set it to my address, restarted the server, and tried "Connect with email" again. It worked. I got the "FeedLand confirmation" mail sent from my server, and was able to follow that link to confirm.

[scripting]

@scotthansonde --

You are way better at this than I am. It took me a lot of fussing to get SES to work, hours and hours, maybe days. I remember it being quite painful.

And I can't believe that you found config.mailSender. I will now document it and provide it in the example config.json.

[scripting]

Changes --

1. Fixed localStorage.emailMemory assignment on tips page.

2. Added three new values to the example config.json file for

 "mailSender": "bullmancuso@thefamily.org",
 "confirmEmailSubject": "FeedLand confirmation",
 "confirmationExpiresAfter": 3600,

3. Documented them on the config.md page.

4. There was a missing value in the localStorage.emailMemory assignment on the tips page. We need the screenname value there too.

"{'emailaddress': 'bullmancuso@gmail.com', 'code': 'xxx', 'screenname': "bullmancuso'}";

[troutcolor]

Hi, I've got things moving a little on a Raspberry Pi here. Just and no more.

At the weekend I set up a Raspberry Pi 3 with the Raspberry OS Lite. Updated everything and installed mySql & Node. Added pagepark into the mix and had it running at fl.johnj.info

This evening installed FeedLand set up the config. Had a few problems. Since sql is local I was using local host but it didn't work until I used 127.0.0.1

I had set up Amazon SES at the weekend, got it working from the command line. In Feedland got errors. but couldn't see where to set it in the config. I see there is progress above on that front above so I'll try more on Wednesday evening.

I've not got the domain working it is just on local ip address at the moment, but I have now subbed to one feed.

I've taken quite a lot of notes during the process and will try to get them tidied. Mainly setting up pi stuff.

My main tip is to read the tips.md document!

Question: do I need to stop and restart feedland if I change the config? I found I had to type control-c then reboot the pi to clear the port and get feedland to restart?

Thanks Dave

cheers

John

[scripting]

We're still doing reviews, I wasn't expecting anyone to start installing it yet, but it's good that you have. I'll go through the errors you reported, and fix what needs fixing and report back here. Do I correctly get that you'll be trying again on Wednesday evening?

[scripting]

To your first question -- if you change config, you have to restart feedland.js.

[troutcolor]

Thanks Dave, That what I thought, is there a good way to restart it?

Most of my problems came from my lack of knowledge about servers, MySQL etc rather than the FeedLand instructions. These apart from the problem with local storage were great.

It will probably be Wednesday evening, it is Monday evening here now, when I’ll get back to it. Other than pulling in more feeds😃

[scripting]

@troutcolor --

If you launched it at the command line, just press Control-C.

[troutcolor]

Last one from last night, got some more feeds imported from feedland.org and the domain working: http://fl.johnj.info:1452/ not sure how long that will stay up.

Cheers

John

[scotthansonde]

@troutcolor Welcome! I'm running my test server on a VM on my Synology NAS, so I'm guessing our servers are pretty much equally low-powered. 😃

[troutcolor]

@scotthansonde thanks. Low powered suits me😀 I like the Pi cause I can wipe it and start again when take a wrong turn.

[troutcolor]

A question. I've got Feedland running very nicely on my Raspberry Pi. As far as I see I can do all the things my config allows. Log on with email, add feeds singly & via opml. Categorise, read news and the like. I've also got it working on a subdomain.

I've got these defaults set: "flNewsProducts": false, "flUserFeeds": false, "flLikesFeeds": false, And I am wondering if it is possible to set up UserFeeds and Likes using local storage without S3 being set up. S3 looks quite complicated at first glance.

[troutcolor]

A very trivial question. I do like the dogcow, but with FeedLand, sometimes drummer & my own feedland all open in safari I get confused.

I wonder if I can change the one for 'my own' feedland?

Cheers John

Cheers John

[scripting]

@troutcolor --

1. Glad you have gotten FeedLand set up on your server! :smile:

2. Re using S3 to store those the user feeds, I agree creating a new bucket is overly complex. It should be easier. But there's a reason for going that way. Feeds tend to be read frequently, and will add quite a load to your little server. It's probably not what it's designed to do, but S3 is perfect for feeds. Amazon takes charge of a lot of the dirty business, so once it's up and running, you can mostly forget about it. I wouldn't want those feeds served from my FeedLand server, and I wouldn't recommend it. Let's see if we can smooth out the curve. I asked ChatGPT how to create a bucket for static serving, and it came back with a reasonable checklist. I've posted it in the wiki here. It's a place to start.

3. Those are called favicons, and you should be able to change them -- I'll look into it and get back to you.

[scripting]

@troutcolor --

There's a new config.json value -- urlFavicon.

For example, on dw.lucky.wtf I set it to:

"urlFavicon": "https://icons.duckduckgo.com/ip3/gizmodo.com.ico"

And if you go there, you'll see the icon has changed.

So you need to set that up, and then update FeedLand, and restart the app.

The update instructions are on the tips.md docs page.

[troutcolor]

Hi Dave, Thanks for both answers. The s3 stuff now makes perfect sense. I must remember the chatGPT, I tried it for some JavaScript and text generation before and was pretty amazed. I’ll continue to experiment over the weekend.

[troutcolor]

faveicon changed

Thanks

[mistersugar]

Hello. I'm slowly reading the docs and gathering the details I need to install and test on my webhost.

The setup instructions are clear and make sense to me. However, at the end, the link to the newsProductServer repo gives a 404.

[mistersugar]

I have successfully installed Feedland on my webhost server at feed.stor.im. I was able to sign up and add a feed. Screenshot to show this initial progress. I will continue to test this tomorrow (site will be down for the night).

[scripting]

@mistersugar — great news! Welcome aboard. 😁

[scripting]

@mistersugar --

thanks for the report on the 404 for the newsProductServer repo.

The link is good, but you weren't authorized to access that repo. Just fixed that.

Anyone who is ready to get News Products running on their FeedLand -- please email me and I'll authorize you too.

[mistersugar]

My install of Feedland at http://feed.stor.im is running with Forever on my webhost and I have successfully created a second user. My testing of the core features is going smoothly. I am not seeing any errors.

[scripting]

@mistersugar -- brilliant!

I just signed up as a user, "dave".

Subscribed to 38 feeds.

I love this. I feel like a grandpa. ;-)