SàT progress note 2019-W21

goffi 24/05/2019, 07:45 jabber-xmpp-en SàT libre project SàT progress

Hi,

this week has seen a bit of work on the website (mostly porting pages from the older one), and again the time to work on the project was short.

When your work on your free time, any moment you take for yourself (a week-end outside, reading a book/newspaper, watching a movie, having a drink, doing sport, etc.), or for the "things which must be done" (cleaning house, administrative things, fixing stuffs, etc.), or simply when you are sick, is time lost for the project, and it goes quickly. I'm living in such spirit for more than 10 years, feeling remorse for everything taking time, and it's not healthy or even sane, not for your nor your loved ones. And even in your project itself, there are a lot of stuff you have do to around it (server administration, website, documentation, communication – like progress notes –, keeping up to date with technologies, etc.) which are not directly improving the software.

I'm explaining this for you, the reader, to understand why it takes so long to develop a project, and why it can get on nerves. You can see now with the progress notes, that the release is nearly ready but still I've had little time to fix issues, and I wont be able to have everything perfectly oiled for this release.

Last week I've mentioned Pubsub, so let's move to this topic.

I won't elaborate on Pubsub itself, just for short Publish/Subscribe is a way to store/get data and to be notified when there are changes. You can see my talk at last FOSDEM (mp4 version) for some use cases. It is notably used in XMPP for blogging, i.e. for the "social network" part of it, and in SàT for events, tickets, merge requests, forums, etc.

During implementation of blogging features in SàT, years ago, the Pubsub implementations in XMPP servers were uneven, and mostly incomplete (because it was not needed for chat which most of the clients were focusing on). There was two options to work around that: choose a server with a working implementation, focus on it and recommend it, that's what have done Jappix and Movim with Metronome, or create a server agnostic component. We have chosen the latter with SàT, and have created "SàT Pubsub", a server independent implementation of PEP/Pubsub, which aims to be the most complete possible.

I've had to write and propose 2 XEPs (XEP-0355 and XEP-0356) to make this possible, but I'll pass the details to avoid making this post too long. Also, this would have hardly be possible without the work of Ralph Meijer which made the base Pubsub implementation in its library Wokkel that we use in top of Twisted, and Idavoll that SàT Pubsub derivate from.

So we now have an independent Pubsub implementation where we can implement everything we need without having to wait for every server to follow some new XEP. And even today when XMPP servers implementations have improved a lot, SàT Pubsub has some unique features, can follow novelties quickly, and is a good place for experimentation. I don't think all server implementations can be on a par with that, at least in the close future.

With that background explained, I'll now explain what I've worked on this week. In standard Pubsub (XEP-0060) when you have the suitable right, you can publish an item (a blog post for instance) with an existing id, this will create a new item and delete the one which was existing previously. But if we have a node where many people can publish, like a blog comment node, that means that anybody can replace the comment of anybody. So if Louise has written something, Pierre can replace the comment, not great.

In some pubsub implementations, which is the case for SàT Pubsub, you can't overwrite an item if you are not the publisher of this item, except if you are admin or owner of the node. That's better regarding blog comments, but there is still an issue: if Louise is owner of a node, and overwrite an item of Pierre, to modify something, she become the new publisher of the item, and Pierre can't modify it anymore. This is notably a problem with tickets: if Pierre report a bug, and Louise changes its status (e.g. because she starts working on the ticket), she becomes the new publisher, and Pierre can't edit it anymore).

To work around that, I've added a new node option which can be activated in configuration, "consistent publisher", which will keep the original publisher even if the item is overwritten (updated) if the entity overwriting the item is owner or admin. I've also prepared an option in database to restrict the maximum number of items in a node, but it's not implemented yet. I can now safely change status of reported issues for SàT without loosing initial publishers.

This week the post was longer than usual, I'll try to keep it shorter next time. As usual, feedbacks are welcome.

E

edhelas 25/05/2019, 08:24

SàT progress note 2019-W20

goffi 17/05/2019, 10:01 jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre SàT progress

Little progress during this week, I've had a busy week-end far from computer (and it's a relief from time to time to be freed from screen).

I'm working mainly on the new website, so I'll explain a bit why doing a new website.

When you have a project, the website is the place people go to know what it is, and SàT is a quite difficult project to explain because it's doing a lot of things, and people get lost easily with it. We are now using the term "communication ecosystem" to explain it, as it seems to fit well: a generic tool for most of your communication needs (chat, file sharing, blog, events, etc.).

We have done current website a while ago using Django, which is one of the most popular web framework on Python (and even outside Python). Django is a great piece of software and has a huge community, but working on the official website with it means that we have to learn, maintain and follow extra technologies. Note that I'm using "we" because we are several people at the association, but I'm currently the only active developer and any extra amount of work is hard to take.

On the other hand, 0.7 version of SàT brings a web framework, based on the ecosystem and so on XMPP. That has many advantage: notably there is nothing new to learn and follow, and it's a concrete use case which allow to test and improve the ecosystem.
Furthermore, the XMPP integration allows to integrate effortlessly things like the official blog, while in the former version we had to include a page of Libervia in a <iframe>.

To summarize, moving the official website on Libervia web framework make the task more easy and is an occasion to test and improve the whole ecosystem.

One of the things that has been improved in the last few months is the integration of a task system, i.e. a way to launch piece of code on certain conditions (in particular if some files are changed), something similar to what you would have with Grunt, for instance, in Javascript world.
This is used to generate SàT documentation, using Sphinx to create HTML page from reStructuredText: when Libervia is launched with --dev-mode, each time the doc is modified, the HTML pages are rebuilt, really handy to check quickly that the syntax gives what you're expecting.

The new official website will be simple, with only a small page of presentation of the software, the documentation, social contract, and few extra pages. Most of it is done, and now I'm porting some pages from Django (the template system is similar to Jinja2 that we use, but it still needs adaptations, and the CSS classes are not the same).

During this, I'm also fixing bugs when I see them or somebody reports them. For instance, I've fixed this week a bug with registration on https://www.libervia.org. If you test any part of the ecosystem (being it desktop or mobile with Cagou, web with Libervia, TUI with Primitivus or CLI with jp), please give feedback either on our chat room (web), or via the SàT/XMPP based ticket system at https://bugs.goffi.org.

I was going to explain some changes I need to do on SàT Pubsub but this post is already long enough, I guess I'll keep it for next week (wow, teasing!).

E

edhelas 17/05/2019, 11:00

SàT progress note 2019-W19

goffi 10/05/2019, 06:03 jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre SàT progress

Hi everybody,

this week has been quite busy with the release of SàT 0.7.0b1. Entering the beta phase means that no more big features will be implemented (small modifications may still be done if necessary), and I'll concentrate on debugging and stability.
The UI of Cagou and Libervia are usable now, even if not perfect, but it was necessary to release to get feedback. Also Python 3 port is the first thing which will be done for next version (0.8), and some features/improvements are waiting for it.

I'm currently focusing on the new website based on Libervia web framework, and on reworking the documentation. The documentation is important to work on, as many people don't know the capabilities of SàT. Furthermore, it can be later used to generate man pages, notably for jp (CLI frontend), and will be available on the new website.

So the plan now is to have the website online a soon as possible, then finish the work started months ago to have SàT (and mostly Cagou) available on flatpak. It would be good to have Cagou available at least on F-Droid, that's another thing to check.

Last but not least I'm planning to work on SàT Pubsub, the server independent PubSub implementation, I'm missing some features before releasing it, but I'll talk about that in a future progress note.

debacle 10/05/2019, 10:03

SàT 0.7.0 just entered beta phase

goffi 08/05/2019, 07:48 jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre

Salut à Toi version 0.7.0 beta 1 has been released. In other words, we are starting the beta phase, the feature are frozen (beside small adjustments) and now we will concentrate on stability, debugging and usability.

As a reminder, "Salut à Toi" is a libre, decentralised, and ethical communication ecosystem. It offers numerous functionalities (instant messaging, end-to-end encryption, blogging, file sharing, events, forums, etc.) and works natively on desktop, mobile devices (Android), on the web, and as well without graphic interface (text interface and command line).

It has been a relief to move over this stage after enourmous amount of work since the last version (0.6.1), released more than 2 and half years ago!

Now, it's your turn: testing, feeding back (on https://bugs.goffi.org or on the project room, also available on the web), and doing your suggestions, it's the time!

If you know Python, I am looking for people who could help me to make the project installable on Windows, Mac OS and *BSD. I am also working on a flatpak package. It would be good to have he web frontend on Yunohost, there again help would be much appreciated (cf. work already started).

Please note that SàT is already available on Debian and probably its derivated (however, beta is not there yet), as well as on Arch Linux (you'll have to use the sat-*-hg packages to test the beta).

The installation instructions are available in the documentation, and I'm working on a new website, which would be more reading friendly, and should be on-line this week.

Here are the links for installation files, and you'll find most of them on Pypy (please note that you'll have to go through "release history" to get beta version)):

I'm concluding with a screenshot of the Android version of Cagou, and note that this blog is also made with this project:

Cagou v0.7.0b1 on Android screenshot

SàT 0.7.0 vient d'entrer en bêta

goffi 07/05/2019, 07:29 jabber-xmpp SàT project libre seenthis planet-libre

La version « 0.7.0 beta 1 » de Salut à Toi vient de sortir. En d'autres termes, nous venons de commencer la phase bêta, il n'y aura plus de nouvelles fonctionnalités (sauf ajustements mineurs), et maintenant il s'agit de se concentrer sur la stabilité, le débogage, et l'utilisabilité.

Pour mémoire, « Salut à Toi » est un écosystème de communication libre, décentralisé, et éthique. Il propose de nombreuses fonctionnalités (messagerie instantanée, chiffrement de bout en bout, blog, partage de fichiers, événements, forums, etc.), et fonctionne nativement sur bureau, appareils mobiles (Android), sur le web, et sans interface graphique (interface console et en ligne de commande).

C'est un soulagement de passer cette étape après l'énorme travail depuis la dernière version (0.6.1), sortie il y a plus de 2 ans 1/2 !

Maintenant c'est à vous de jouer, il faut tester, remonter les problèmes (sur https://bugs.goffi.org ou sur le salon du projet, aussi accessible via le web), et faire vos suggestions, c'est le moment !

Si vous connaissez Python, je cherche des personnes pour m'aider à rendre le project installable sur Windows, Mac OS et *BSD. Je travaille également sur un paquet flatpak. La partie web serait intéressante à avoir sur Yunohost, là encore de l'aide serait appréciée (cf. travail commencé).

Notez que SàT est déjà disponible sur Debian et probablement derivés (la bêta n'y est pas encore par contre), ainsi que sur Arch Linux (utilisez les paquets sat-*-hg pour tester la bêta).

Les instructions d'installation sont disponibles dans la documentation, et je travaille sur un nouveau site web qui en affichera un rendu plus agréable à lire, il devrait être en ligne dans la semaine.

Voici les liens pour les fichiers d'installation, et vous trouverez la plupart d'entre eux sur Pypy (notez que vous devez parcourir « release history » pour voir la version bêta) :

Je fini avec une capture d'écran de la version Android de Cagou, notez que ce blog est également fait avec ce projet :

capture d'écran de Cagou v0.7.0b1 sur Android

E

edhelas 07/05/2019, 07:33

SàT progress note 2019-W18

goffi 03/05/2019, 08:04 jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre SàT progress

Hello,

this week I've had to fix the way jid are used for file transfer.

To explain you the problem, I need to explain you how communication is done in XMPP (*). To be brief, when an entity (with jid louise@example.net) want to access a component (with jid files.example.net), it sends a "stanza" which is an XML element. There are 3 kinds of stanza (presence, message, and iq).
In our case we use iq stanza, so Louise sends something like:

<iqfrom="louise@example.net"to="files.example.net"type="set">
  […]
</iq>

and the component answers with something like this:

<iqfrom="files.example.net"to="louise@example.net"type="result">
  […]
</iq>

Last week I've explained how I've used the local part in components to access files from somebody else. So far, when creating a stanza, I was using the jid we are connecting with in the from attribute (i.e. where we set the sender of the message).

This is working well with clients, or components if you don't use local part, but when somebody was accessing files from pierre@files.example.net, the jid used by the component is files.example.net, a different one, so this was not working anymore.

To fix that, I've simply had to change the code to use the jid used to contact the components (i.e. the one in the to attribute of the original request) instead.

I've also fixed a MAM (Message Archive Management, XEP-0313) bug where the same messages were requested again on next start up under certain conditions.

Finally, I've completed a generic invitation mechanism to notify somebody when an event or photo album is available. When the invitation is received, the data needed to retrieve the thing is saved in a private "list of interest", which is a pubsub node. With that I can now diplay in Libervia the available photo albums as you can see in the screen capture below.

Libervia Photo Album Vignette

We are nearly there, I still have to complete the guest page (page for people without XMPP account), so they can see events or photo albums, and I can launch the beta. It's a matter of days now.

Thanks for reading, as always feedbacks are welcome.

(*) to learn more about XMPP, you can check my series of articles "Let's talk XMPP". It's originally written in French, and only 4 articles on 10 are translated, help would be welcomed to translate the other ones.

SàT progress note 2019-W17

goffi 26/04/2019, 10:26 jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre SàT progress

Hello,

this week I've had little time to work on SàT : thanks to the extended easter week-end, I've had a break.

I did manage to work a bit on the file sharing service, still focusing on the photo album. As I've explained last week, file sharing can be used directly from device to device (e.g. retrieving pictures taken on a mobile phone from desktop computer), or with a server-side service.

XMPP allows to create "components" which can be seen as generic plugins to create services on the server (generic in the way that it's not tied to a specific server implementation, but can be used with anyone implementing XEP-0114). Starting with the incoming v0.7, SàT can be used as a component, and file sharing is the first one.

Until now, it was only used to store personal data, so the files could be accessed with the jid of the component. For instance, if your server is example.net your file sharing component may have the jid files.example.net. To access photo albums, we need the path of the album (e.g. /photos/week-end) which is set in the node attribute in XEP-0329, so you can request files.example.net to retrieve your files (i.e. photo album) from /photos/week-end.
Problem: if Louise is connected to files.example.net and wants to access /photos/week-end, she will get her own album. How to do if she wants to access the one of Pierre?

That's were the local part is used, i.e. the part before the @ in a jid. The files.example.net component will receive all traffic sent to any jid finishing with @files.example.net. So when Louise wants to access Pierre files, she can use pierre@files.example.net instead of just the domain name. That's what I've implemented this week. By using just pierre, the component will associate this with its own server (i.e. example.net), and will look for files from pierre@example.net (and check which ones Louise can access).

But what for people with an account outside of example.net, for instance what if file sharing service allows nestor@example.org to store files? Louise can't request nestor@files.example.net because it would get the files of nestor@example.net (note the .net insteaf of .org , it's a different user). To allow to retrieve the files of an external account, we should be able to use a full jid in the request, but it's forbidden to use @ in local part of the jid.

That's where XEP-0106 is used, it allows to escape a jid to do exactly that. I've implemented that so Louise can request nestor\40example.org@files.example.net to retrieve files from nestor@example.org. Don't worry for the complicated address, the end-user should not have to type it herself.

Last but not least, I have also fixed the margin issue with paragraphs and added missing Atom feeds links, it should hopefully be more confortable to read this blog.

To summarize, during this short week I've implemented a way to retrieve files from an other user in file sharing component, I've implemented XEP-0106, I've fixed a small CSS issue on the blog and I've added missing links for Atom feed.

E

edhelas 26/04/2019, 10:50

SàT progress note 2019-W16

goffi 18/04/2019, 06:14 jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre SàT progress

Hello everybody,

this is the time for a second progress report.

After the implementation of the button for translations, I've updated the French version of Libervia, and of the new website I'm currently working on (which is not yet online). For now this is done locally using tools like Gtranslator or Poedit, I plan to install at some point a web app like Weblate or Pootle and if possible to integrate is with SàT/XMPP (at least for authentication) to make contributions easier.

Beside that I've mainly been working on photos album, I want to be able to use it with 0.7.
For a bit of background, photo album is a specialized view of file sharing. I've evaluated two XEP (XMPP Extension Protocol) for that:

  • File Repository and Sharing (XEP-0214) which is based on Pubsub and Collections Nodes (XEP-0248)
  • File Information Sharing (XEP-0329) which is a simple way to share a repository

File sharing is usable either with direct sharing of a repository from a device (e.g. photos from a mobile phone), or with a server component which host files.

I've chosed the second one (File Information Sharing) for now because the Pubsub one is based on Collections which is, in my opinion, currently not usable: permissions from collection nodes are overwritting ones of leaf nodes, and as a result a private node can be accidentaly opened. This needs to be addressed, it's not the first time I discard pubsub collections because of that, I'll try to propose changes to standard after the 0.7 release.

The other reason I've chosen "File Information Sharing" (FIS) is that the Pubsub one handles mirrors and versions, which I feeled overcomplicated at the time. With FIS, I could make an implementation quickly, and I have a working UI now, which is already quite usable (see this blog post to see how it looks like).

But when I'm using the component, I have no way to change access (everything is managed, there is just no interface to change it), so when I put a file on the file sharing component, it stays private for now, not ideal when you want to share a photo album.

So I've worked on a quick way to do it, using ad-hoc commands: one to change file/directory permissions, and one to delete files. It's nearly finished and will be the last thing before starting beta phase.

That said, Pubsub has already everything needed to manage access and subscriptions (to know when new files/photos are available), so I plan to re-evaluate XEP-0214 at a later point, and if I still find it ill-adapted, maybe propose an other option.

I've also noticed a couple of CSS issues on the blog engine (mainly some padding around paragraph would make it easier to read), and I've been noticed that link to Atom feed is missing on the blog. I was planning to fix that this week but could not find the time (I'm working on SàT on my free time). So I hope to do this in the next few days.

That's it for this week. I'm looking forward to start debugging phase, and then finally release.

SàT Progress note 2019-W15

goffi 11/04/2019, 06:01 jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre SàT progress

Hello everybody,

I've decided to start writing regular progress notes on this blog, so I can have more feedback from you :). The goal is on one hand to show what is worked on, and on the other hand to explain some technical/design decisions. I'll try to make it weekly, but it's not a promise (maybe this one will be the only one who knows). Also even if I often try to publish both in French and English, this is additional work and I need to focus, so this will probably be English only.

For people who haven't heard about the project, Salut à Toi (or SàT) is a communication ecosystem, libre (free as in freedom), decentralised, encrypted, multi-platforms and based on the rock solid XMPP standard. There are numerous features, among which chat, blog, events, files sharing, etc. and even a web framework. You can check https://salut-a-toi.org for details. Cagou is the frontend for desktop/Android, Libervia the web frontend (which include the web framework), jp the command line frontend, and Primivitus the TUI (Terminal User Interface).

Let's go with this first weekly progress note.

This week I've been working on connection change on Cagou on Android: when disconnected, the backend will try to reconnect every 30 s, this makes no sense when network has been disabled, and would be bad for battery. Now, thanks to pyjnius and android module from python-for-android, backend can check connectivity status, and get notified when there is a change. With those data, the reconnection can be adapted to the situation.

This was the last feature I wanted to implement for Cagou. It is now ready for beta. I'm already aware of a couple of troubles, they will be corrected during beta phase.

To save some bandwith on connection, roster versioning has been implemented.
So far SàT was requesting whole roster (the name of the contact list in XMPP) at each startup, which is not really optimal. Roster versioning lets client keep a local cache, and request only for changes (added/removed contacts) since its version in cache.
This was already handled in wokkel that SàT is using, but roster needed to be saved in local storage, and updates to be managed. A jp roster resync command has been added to force a full resynchronisation with server.

On Libervia I've added a button to change language. Localisation was already managed in the engine, but not used.
An explicit button is needed because there is no good way to auto detect language of user (checking user location is not good for various reasons, and browser language is not good either because user can be using a third party browser in a library for instance), so this needs to be visible and easy to change.
I try to keep Libervia working as much as possible without javascript, so the button had to work without javascript enabled. When javascript is enabled, changing language on the dropdown will immediately reload the page with new locale. When javascript is not enabled, an additional button is visible to use the desired language.
capture of language selector with extra button when javascript is not available

Beta version is coming, the last thing I want to implement is a discovery page for photo albums. I've also started to write a new website using Libervia, where I'll move (and improve) SàT documentation, which is currently mainly on the wiki.

That's all for today, please let me know if this progress note is useful/interesting, and if it worth publishing it more or less every week.

N.B.: I haven't made a blog post with the links to my 2 talks at FOSDEM, so here it is:

First talk, about using XMPP beyond instant messaging can be found at:

Second talk, a presentation of SàT focusing on its use of Python

C

clacke 15/04/2019, 10:39

Salut a Toi at FOSDEM this week-end!

goffi 29/01/2019, 18:17 jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre

Hello,

a small note to say that I'll be present at FOSDEM this week-end and I'll do 2 talks:

  • "XMPP Beyond Instant Messaging" where I'll show that XMPP is far more than an instant messaging protocol. Room H.1309 (Van Rijn) Sunday at 9:25
  • "Salut à Toi: A Python Based Social Network And More" which will be a presentation of the Salut à Toi ecosystem. Room UD2.120 (Chavanne) Sunday at 16:00

I'll often be at the "XMPP lounge", but I'm also planning to attend some talks and meet people at other booths, so don't hesitate to ping me on the SàT XMPP room sat@chat.jabberfr.org (also available from this link) if you want to talk and/or have a demo.

Salut à Toi is in stabilisation phase, and the incoming 0.7 release will bring a new desktop/mobile(Android) frontend, advanced file sharing, events, the basis of a decentralised code forge (tickets and merge requests), OMEMO end to end encryption, etc.

A major thing is also the new decentralised web framework, the only one of its kind, which allows you to create website naturaly decentralised, by linking XMPP and Python.

See you there!

E

edhelas 29/01/2019, 18:17

debacle 29/01/2019, 18:23

C

clacke 15/04/2019, 10:38