Public Technical Preview 4

We're continuing our practice of releasing regular Public Technical Previews. Many features were planned for this release, but due to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, as well as some developers' exams, only 4 of the 23 goals were accomplished. Yet, it doesn't mean there weren't any changes to OpenVK, just many of them were unplanned ones. It's been 5 months since the last release, and 290 commits have been made in that time.

Please note that Public Technical Preview versions are still not recommended for production use. Use them at your own risk.

What's Changed

• Photos now use miniatures to save traffic.
• Notes list now has a new style.
• Enforced usage of non-empty, correct profile names.
• Users can set hometown in their profile.
• Nicknames are now considered in user searches.
• Error 404 for deleted user pages now looks consistent
• Site admins can now see first known IPs of users.
• Video uploading is now supported on Windows.
• Support agents can now prevent users from creating tickets.
• Site admins can now easily unban users.
• Added support for Matomo analytics.
• Search is now restricted to authorized users.
• New notification sound.
• Site admins can now place alerts on groups.
• /about page now shows 30 top groups.
• E-Mail addresses can now be changed in settings.
• Added the ability to top up user's balance through the cryptocurrency TON.
• Cookies notification now shows up.
• Various fixes.
• Localization updates.

Full Changelog: public_preview_3...public_preview_4

Installation

1. Install PHP 7.4, web-server, Composer, Node.js, Yarn and Chandler

• PHP 8 has not yet been tested, so you should not expect it to work.

2. Unpack the OpenVK PTP 4 archive into the /path/to/chandler/extensions/available/openvk directory and install commitcaptcha like this:

git clone https://github.com/openvk/commitcaptcha /path/to/chandler/extensions/available/commitcaptcha

3. And enable them:

ln -s /path/to/chandler/extensions/available/commitcaptcha /path/to/chandler/extensions/enabled/
ln -s /path/to/chandler/extensions/available/openvk /path/to/chandler/extensions/enabled/

4. Import install/init-static-db.sql to same database you installed Chandler to
   4.1. Import all sqls from install/sqls except 00026-EVENTDB-emoji-support.sql to same database
5. Import install/init-event-db.sql to separate database
   5.1. Import install/sqls/00026-EVENTDB-emoji-support.sql to same database
6. Copy openvk-example.yml to openvk.yml and change options
7. Run composer install in OpenVK directory
8. Move to Web/static/js and execute yarn install
9. Set openvk as your root app in chandler.yml

Once you are done, you can login as a system administrator on the network itself (no registration required):

• Login: [email protected]
• Password: admin
  • It is recommended to change the password before using the built-in account.

(Outdated) full example installation instruction for CentOS 8 is also available here.

Upgrading

1. Update Chandler
2. Unpack the OpenVK PTP 4 archive over existing openvk directory
3. Import sqls from install/sqls starting from 00018-email-verification.sql to 00025-toncoin-fetching.sql to database you installed Chandler to
4. Import install/sqls/00026-EVENTDB-emoji-support.sql to events database
5. Run composer install in OpenVK directory
6. Move to Web/static/js and execute yarn install
7. Execute openvkctl build-images

Contributors

We want to thank all of our developers and translators: @Holoniix, @celestora, @veselcraft, @maksalees, @rudzik8, @ayaaop, @WerySkok, @aupn, @apeeh, @KosFurler, @SigmaTel71, @E2r7hN07Fl47, @themohooks, @HSDChannel.

Public Technical Preview 3

To motivate developers and understand the progress we have made, we are returning to the practice of releasing regular Public Technical Previews. The previous Public Technical Preview was released about a year and a half ago and since then we pushed over 800 new commits into the repository.

Please note that Public Technical Preview versions are still not recommended for production use. Use them at your own risk.

What's Changed

A lot. We don't probably need to list every change (because no one remembers or uses PTP2 anyway) but here are some of them:

• There is now VKAPI. It parodies VK's API but not exactly. Sadly, there's no documentation for it yet.
• Users can now switch between classic (wall) and new (microblog) design.
• Instance admins now can confige maximum post size.
• Winter header is shown from December 1st to January 15th.
• We now have simple anti-spam system that is banning users who do too many similar actions in a short period of time.
• Custom nicknames can be assigned for supporters in ticketing system.
• Admins can hide online status and mark deceased users.
• Section for administrators now works somehow.
• Ability to create invite links.
• Registration can be disabled on instance.
• Users can set their date of birth.
• Default profile picture was changed.
• Posts can be pinned.
• Added support for plausible.io, self-hosted web analytics.
• Privacy policy has been added.
• Users can reply to other comments.
• Graffiti can be drawn and attached to posts.
• Videos can be attached to posts.
• Notifications can be shown in real time if Apache Kafka is set up.
• Groups now have configurable administrators list.
• Themes now take effect immediately.
• Groups that are administered can be pinned in the left menu.
• Users can specify their site.
• Posts can be created anonymously.
• Currency "Votes" has been added.
• • Users can give gifts to other users using Votes.
• • Users can transfer Votes.
• Many sections are translated now.
• If OpenVK instance has custom name, it will be shown in the header.
• 2-FA TOTP support has been added.
• Groups now have discussions.
• Now messages can be received not from friends only.
• Groups can now hide their posts in Global feed.
• Added "About instance" page.
• Now timestamps adapt to user's timezone.
• Added E-Mail verification.

Full Changelog: public_preview_2...public_preview_3

Installation

1. Install PHP 7.4, web-server, Composer, Node.js, Yarn and Chandler

• PHP 8 has not yet been tested, so you should not expect it to work.

2. Unpack the OpenVK PTP 3 archive into the /path/to/chandler/extensions/available/openvk directory and install commitcaptcha like this:

git clone https://github.com/openvk/commitcaptcha /path/to/chandler/extensions/available/commitcaptcha

3. And enable them:

ln -s /path/to/chandler/extensions/available/commitcaptcha /path/to/chandler/extensions/enabled/
ln -s /path/to/chandler/extensions/available/openvk /path/to/chandler/extensions/enabled/

4. Import install/init-static-db.sql to same database you installed Chandler to
   4.1. Import all sqls from install/sqls to same database
5. Import install/init-event-db.sql to separate database
6. Copy openvk-example.yml to openvk.yml and change options
7. Run composer install in OpenVK directory
8. Move to Web/static/js and execute yarn install
9. Set openvk as your root app in chandler.yml

Once you are done, you can login as a system administrator on the network itself (no registration required):

• Login: [email protected]
• Password: admin
  • It is recommended to change the password before using the built-in account.

Full example installation instruction for CentOS 8 is also available here.

Contributors

We want to thank all of our developers and translators: @maksalees, @veselcraft, @dsrev, @celestora, @AlmaArmas, @VladimirLapskiy-zz, @ayaaop, @apeeh, @KosFurler, @samukhin, @Defenders08, @rudzik8, @mbs0ft, @WerySkok, @n1rwana, @themohooks, @windowz414, @hugonote, @MoccoCoffee, @HSDChannel, @SamyoFox, @myslivets, @Diicorp95.

Public Technical Preview 2

RU

Вторая публичная версия OpenVK. Этот релиз включает в себя, в основном, исправления багов среднего уровня важности.
Список изминений:

• Удаление поста больше не повреждает БД
• OVK-113: Два одинаковых эмодзи в одном посте больше не повреждают БД
• Зависимость "emoji-detector" сменила поставщика с "p3k" на "al"
• Детектор эмодзи был обновлён и включает эмодзи из Unicode 2019
• Twemoji используется как источник изображений эмодзи
• Больше нельзя занять адрес группы, если ты пользователь
• Исправлен баг, из-за которого нельзя опубликовать заметку
• Заметки можно скрыть програмно или через редактирование БД
• Видеозаписи можно загрузить нормально
• Шаблон видеозаписи не портит вёрстку и корректно разделяется на страницы
• Настройки более не включают в себя локальные мемы
• Общий шаблон теперь больше напоминает ВК
• Лайки теперь больше напоминают лайки из ВК
• Спойлеры закрываются и открываются плавно

Установка:
Для установки этого обновления не требуется редактирование конфигурации OpenVK, Chandler. Изменения в аппаратном обеспечении хоста тоже не нужны. База данных не изменилась и обновлять её не требуется.
Короче, эта версия полностю совместима с предыдущей и может заменить её или быть заменена ею без серъёзных последствий. Для установки необходимо сменить ветку на REL_PP-1.

Изменения API:
Внутренний API не был изменён.

EN

Second version OVK, that is available to public. This is mainly a bug fix release.
Changelog:

• Post deletion no longer corrupts database
• It is no longer possible to take address of group as a user
• Videos can now be uploaded correctly
• Fixed layout and pagination bugs for video pages
• Settings page no longer displays obscure jokes
• Fixed bug that prevented notes to be submitted
• Notes can now be deleted (programmaticly)
• Likes are more VK-styled now
• General layout is more VK-styled now
• Spoilers now use smooth animation
• Twemoji is used as emoji source
• emoji-detector package changed vendor from "p3k" to "al"
• Emoji detector upgraded to include emojis from Unicode 2019
• OVK-113: Two same emojis in one post no longer corrupt database

Upgrading:
This update does not require changing configuration of OpenVK or application server. Hardware configuration does need to change also. Database schema stays the same.
In other words, this update is fully compatible with pervious version. To install this update clone REL_PP-1 branch or download tarball for this release and replace all files in your current OVK installation.

API changes:
Internal API hasn't changed.

Public Technical Preview 1

RU
Первая версия ОВК, доступная публике для пользования (но не для скачивания).
Работает с chandler 0.0.1. Не рекомендуется использовать в продакшне.

EN
First OVK2 version that was available for public access.
Works with chandler 0.0.1. Not meant for production.