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comment-castles

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Lightweight internet forum

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# Comment Castles

Comment Castles is an internet forum project with posts and nested comments. Posts can be assigned to a sub/community and use hashtags. Subs and hashtags are optional. Users can also communicate privately using direct messages. There is a site-wide moderator and each sub has a moderator. There is an instance running at [commentcastles.org](https://www.commentcastles.org)!

Other Features:

* OAuth 2 JSON API
* inbox for direct comments you receive
* [help page](https://www.commentcastles.org/help)
* light mode and dark mode

## Install

Install one of the [tagged releases](https://github.com/ferg1e/comment-castles/releases), preferably the most recent.

Create a PostgreSQL 11 database and execute all the code in `sql/structure.sql`. This will create all the database tables, triggers, etc. PostgreSQL 11+ is probably fine.

Install Redis. This is only for the session store. Redis versions 2 and 6 worked for us, so most versions are probably fine.

Make sure you have Node.js installed. I am using v20.10.0 locally and the live site uses v20.12.1.

Run `npm install` to download all the Node.js dependencies that are listed in `package.json`.

Set the following environment variables:

* `PGHOST`: PostgreSQL host (usually `localhost`)
* `PGUSER`: PostgreSQL username
* `PGDATABASE`: PostgreSQL database name
* `PGPASSWORD`: PostgreSQL password
* `PGPORT`: PostgreSQL port
* `HTTP_PORT`: Port this app will use
* `REDIS_PORT`: Redis port
* `SESSION_NAME`: `express-session` `name`
* `SESSION_SECRET`: `express-session` `secret`
* `NODE_ENV`: built-in node environment flag

On Windows you can use a `.env` and `npm start` to set the environment variables. Here's a sample `.env`:

```
PGHOST=localhost
PGUSER=postgres
PGDATABASE=mydb
PGPASSWORD=123abc
PGPORT=5432
HTTP_PORT=80
REDIS_PORT=6379
SESSION_NAME=mysesh
SESSION_SECRET=wOgw3oQpmbYbie7V
NODE_ENV=production
```

On Linux we used an `ecosystem.config.js` and `pm2 start ecosystem.config.js` to set the environment variables. Here is a sample `ecosystem.config.js`:

```
module.exports = {
    apps : [{
        name: "myappid",
        script: "./app.js",
        env: {
            PGHOST: "localhost",
            PGUSER: "postgres",
            PGDATABASE: "mydb",
            PGPASSWORD: "123abc",
            PGPORT: 5432,
            HTTP_PORT: 80,
            REDIS_PORT: 6379,
            SESSION_NAME: "mysesh",
            SESSION_SECRET: "wOgw3oQpmbYbie7V",
            NODE_ENV: "production",
        }
    }]
}
```

On the [API page](https://www.commentcastles.org/api), a post ID and comment ID are used in URLs on the page. If you want these links to work, you must create a post and comment and then set their IDs to match the ones used on the page.

## Config
The configuration file is located at `src/config/index.js`. The `adminUserId` config value indicates the `user_id` of the site moderator. The site moderator can delete any post or comment. This `user_id` is from the `tuser` database table.

## Update
When you deploy new commits to your instance of this app that is already running, make sure to also execute any new commands that are in `sql/migrations.sql`.

If you deployed your instance before commit [46d52bff7765b250317ee297d570800447cb4afa](https://github.com/ferg1e/comment-castles/commit/46d52bff7765b250317ee297d570800447cb4afa), then you need to run `scripts/gen-user-public-ids.js` in order to generate public IDs for users that are already in the database.

If you deployed your instance before commit [c88bb90499aa616cd4f1d2b777d21e9a90d470c4](https://github.com/ferg1e/comment-castles/commit/c88bb90499aa616cd4f1d2b777d21e9a90d470c4), then you need to run `scripts/populate-domain-names.js`.

If you deployed your instance before commit [90b98831eeb5785391b371cf46712f1a0b4a0e47](https://github.com/ferg1e/comment-castles/commit/90b98831eeb5785391b371cf46712f1a0b4a0e47), then you need to run `scripts/set-last-comment-times.js`.

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