RSStream is a local first web application that uses a distributed database in the browser called Holster. The server runs a Node.js app that listens for feed updates from Dobrado and pushes updates to the browser.

Server

Copy this repo to a new directory and run:

• cd server
• npm install

Before running the server code, you need to create a host account. This isn't done within the app because it's possible for Holster to create multiple accounts under the same username. This needs to be avoided because all account data is stored under a single host account.

To create the host account you can use the Node REPL, which is also great for inspecting your Holster data via the API:

const {default: Holster} = await import("@mblaney/holster/src/holster.js")
const holster = Holster()
const user = holster.user()
user.create("host", "password", console.log)

// Next log in to the host account and create an invite code so that you can
// create your first user account:
user.auth("host", "password", console.log)
const enc = await holster.SEA.encrypt({code: "admin", owner: ""}, user.is)

// Wait for encrypt to finish and then put the data:
user.get("available").next("invite_codes").put(enc, true, console.log)

Here console.log is being used as the callback function and will log null if the account was created. Make sure you provide a real username and password!

Export the HOLSTER_USER_NAME and HOLSTER_USER_PASSWORD environment variables to match the details you provided above. All private data created in Holster relies on these credentials, so keep them safe.

After you've created the account start the server with:

• node app.js

For production you can start with pm2:

• npm install pm2 -g
• export NODE_ENV=production
• pm2 startup (And follow startup instructions.)
• pm2 start app.js
• pm2 save

This will save your environment in ~/.pm2/dump.pm2 so that it can be used on restarts, note that you need to run pm2 unstartup followed by the pm2 commands listed above if you modify any required environment variables.

The credentials are also used to access private endpoints, for example to allocate invite codes to an account you can run:

curl -i -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -u <HOLSTER_USER_NAME>:<HOLSTER_USER_PASSWORD> -d '{"code": "<code>"}' localhost:3000/private/create-invite-codes

The value <code> is the account code that you want to allocate the new invite codes to. You can set the number of invite codes to create for an account by adding "count": <number> to the request, otherwise one code will be created.

If you have sendmail available on your server you can export MAIL_FROM and MAIL_BCC to send email to your users. If MAIL_FROM is not set then the same information will be logged so that you have access to it. (See ~/.pm2/logs/app-out.log if you're using pm2.) Export APP_HOST to create links that point to a server other than localhost.

RSStream relies on Dobrado for its feed processing, which is accessed via it's API. You can set it up on a subdomain and then access it via the ADD_FEED_URL, ADD_FEED_ID and ADD_FEED_API_KEY environment variables. Dobrado then pushes updates back to RSStream via the /private/add-item and /private/removed-feed endpoints, so it will also need to be configured with the RSStream url, username and password.

Browser

The front end is served from the browser/build directory, which was created with npx create-react-app browser --template cra-template-pwa.

If you modify the front end you can rebuild it by running:

• cd browser
• npm install
• npm run build