litebb

A tiny, SQLite powered BBS without any frontend JavaScript.

aktsbot
8
0
JavaScript

liteBB

liteBB is a very tiny BBS/forum written in Node.js.

It’s goals are

  • To have No frontend JavaScript. Everything is server-side rendered.
  • To be small and fast.
  • To have a code-base that can be easily understood by newcomers to the
    language.
  • To be easy to deploy. ie. less or no moving parts.

Note: The choice of sequelize is that, if you, the user
decide, you want a bigger database powering your community
discussions, you can change it just like that, in the config.
SQLite was chosen because its fits my
needs perfectly.

P.S the name liteBB comes from SQLite and oh! there’s a live instance running
on https://litebb.aktsbot.in/

Installation

$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/aktsbot/litebb litebb
$ cd litebb
$ npm i
$ mkdir dbs
$ NODE_ENV=production ./node_modules/.bin/sequelize db:migrate
$ cp example.env .env
$ # change the values in .env
$ npm start

The idea and the first run

The idea / walkthrough

  • The forum has boards.
  • Boards have posts.
  • Posts have replies.
  • Every user has a unique username.
  • Only admin users can create Boards.
  • regular users can create posts and replies.
  • admins have access to the Settings page.
  • From the settings page, one can control the world.

The first run

  • In the .env file, if there is a FIRST_RUN=1 entry,
    then users created while the app is running are admins.
  • So ideally when you set the forum up, have FIRST_RUN=1 in
    the .env file. Then create your admin user.
  • Stop the server. Comment out FIRST_RUN=1 or remove it and then
    restart the server.
  • I understand, this isn’t ideal, but the software will be improved on.

Hacking

  1. SQLite is the star here. So have the sqlite3 binary installed on our
    machine. For a GUI tool, there’s sqlitebrowser.
    If you’re using the sqlite3 binary, having the following in
    $HOME/.sqliterc helps.

    .header on
.mode column

  2. We’ll need node.js installed on our machine. This is a node
    project after all. Also it helps, to install some tools like the
    sequelize cli globally.

    export NPM_PACKAGES=$HOME/.npm                                                  
export NODE_PATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/lib/node_modules:$NODE_PATH"                    
export PATH=$NPM_PACKAGES/bin:$HOME/bin:$PATH

    I don’t like to sudo npm i -g package. With the above 3 lines in our $HOME/.profile, we could do the same without sudo. $ npx sequelize works too, but hey!

  3. We make use of the sequelize cli, if one does not like installing packages
    globally, just add an alias to our $HOME/.bashrc. This is what I have

    alias sequelize="node_modules/.bin/sequelize"

  4. To start the app in debug mode

    $ DEBUG=litebb:* npm start

  5. Sequelize cheatsheet, shamelessly ripped off from their README

    Commands:
  sequelize db:migrate                        Run pending migrations
  sequelize db:migrate:schema:timestamps:add  Update migration table to have timestamps
  sequelize db:migrate:status                 List the status of all migrations
  sequelize db:migrate:undo                   Reverts a migration
  sequelize db:migrate:undo:all               Revert all migrations ran
  sequelize db:seed                           Run specified seeder
  sequelize db:seed:undo                      Deletes data from the database
  sequelize db:seed:all                       Run every seeder
  sequelize db:seed:undo:all                  Deletes data from the database
  sequelize db:create                         Create database specified by configuration
  sequelize db:drop                           Drop database specified by configuration
  sequelize init                              Initializes project
  sequelize init:config                       Initializes configuration
  sequelize init:migrations                   Initializes migrations
  sequelize init:models                       Initializes models
  sequelize init:seeders                      Initializes seeders
  sequelize migration:generate                Generates a new migration file       [aliases: migration:create]
  sequelize model:generate                    Generates a model and its migration  [aliases: model:create]
  sequelize seed:generate                     Generates a new seed file            [aliases: seed:create]

  6. The app and session databases will be generated in ./dbs.

Models/Schema

Boards
------
id
name
description
slug
createdAt
updatedAt


Posts
-----
id
name
content
renderedContent
slug
boardId
createdByUser
createdAt
updatedAt


Replies
-------
id
postId
content
createdByUser
createdAt
updatedAt


Users
-----
id
username
email
passwordHash
role
resetPasswordToken
createdAt
updatedAt

Thanks