Discuit

This is the codebase that powers Discuit, which is an open-source community platform, an alternative to Reddit.

Built with:

• Go: The backend.
• React: The frontend.
• MariaDB: The main datastore.
• Redis: For transient data.

Getting started

Running locally

To setup a development environment of Discuit on your local computer:

1. Install Go (1.21 or higher) by following the instructions at go.dev.

2. Install MariaDB (11.3 or higher), Redis, Node.js (and NPM). On Ubuntu, for instance, you might have to run the following commands:

   sudo apt update
   
   # Install and start MariaDB
   sudo apt install mariadb-server
   sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
   
   # Install and start Redis
   sudo apt install redis-server
   sudo systemctl start redis.service
   
   # Install Node.js and NPM
   sudo apt install nodejs npm
   

3. Create a MariaDB database.

   # Open MariaDB CLI
   mariadb -u root -p --binary-as-hex
   
   # Create a database named discuit (you may use a different name)
   create database discuit;
   
   # Enter exit (or press Ctrl+D) to exit
   exit;
   

4. Discuit uses libvips for fast image transformations. Make sure it's installed on your computer. On Ubuntu you can install it with: sudo apt install libvips-dev.

5. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/discuitnet/discuit.git && cd discuit
   

6. Create a file named config.yaml in the root directory and copy the contents of config.default.yaml into it. And enter the required config parameters in config.yaml.

7. Build the frontend and the backend:

   ./build.sh
   

8. Run migrations:

   ./discuit migrate run
   

9. Start the server:

   ./discuit serve
   

After creating an account, you can run ./discuit admin make username to make a user an admin of the site.

Note: Do not install the discuit binary using go install or move it somewhere else. It uses files in this repository at runtime and so it should only be run from the root of this repository.

Running with Docker

1. Build the Docker Image

   Note: If you need to run discuit on a different architecture, simply change the Dockerfile in the -f flag to the appropriate Dockerfile for your architecture, currently we support linux/amd64 (docker/Dockerfile.amd64), and linux/arm64 (docker/Dockerfile.arm64).

   docker build -t discuit -f docker/Dockerfile.amd64 .
   

2. Run the Docker Container

   Note: The following command while having a persistent database, the included config.yaml file is not. You will need to mount the file to the container if you want to persist the configuration.

Note: Discuit runs on port 8080 inside the container, so the 8080 outside the container doesn't matter, so long as it maps to 8080 on the inside.

docker run -d --name discuit -v discuit-db:/var/lib/mysql -v discuit-redis:/var/lib/redis -v discuit-images:/app/images -p 8080:8080 discuit

3. Accessing Discuit: After the container starts, you can access Discuit by navigating to http://localhost:8080 on your web browser, or to the specific port if you customized the port mapping.

4. Stopping the Container: When you're done, you can stop the container by running:

   docker stop discuit
   

5. Starting the Container Again: To start the container again, use:

   docker start discuit
   

Running with Nix Flakes

If you use Nix or NixOS, you can get a fully reproducible dev environment with all dependencies using the included flake:

nix develop

This will:

• Install all required packages.
• Start local MariaDB and Redis servers (with logs in .mysql/ and .redis/ respectively).
• Create the discuit database and user automatically.

When you exit the shell, MariaDB and Redis will automatically stop.

[!IMPORTANT] You'll need Nix flakes enabled and a recent version of Nix to use this.

Source code layout

In the root directory are these directories:

• cli: Contains the command-line interface.
• core: Contains all the core functionality of the backend.
• internal: Contains Go packages internal to the project.
• migrations: Contains the SQL migration files.
• server: Contains the REST API backend.
• ui - Contains the React frontend.

Roadmap

• Dark mode.
• User created communities.
• UI preferences:
  • Compact mode.
  • Enable or disable infinite scroll.
  • Choose which notifications to get.
  • Change default feed sort.
• Filtering:
  • Mute communities.
  • Mute users.
  • Filter posts by topic.
  • An explore page (modeled after Youtube's home page).
  • Filter link-posts by URL or domain.
• Moderation:
  • Pinned posts and comments.
  • Lock individual comments (so they cannot be replied to).
  • A single page for handling reports for users who moderate multiple communities.
  • Temporary bans.
• User and community mentions (@user and +community).
• Image posts.
• Poll posts.
• Video embeds (Youtube, Vimeo, etc).
• Image galleries.
• Server side rendering (for better SEO).
• Direct messages.
• Saved posts and comments (modeled after Youtube playlists).
• Multiple feeds (modeled after Twitter Lists).
• Search.
• Moderation log.
• RSS feeds.
• Wiki pages for communities.
• User profile pictures.
• User badges (displayed on profile page).
• Post drafts.
• History (viewed posts).
• Something like Reddit's flairs to group posts within a community.

Contributing

Discuit is free and open-source software, and you're welcome to contribute to its development.

If you're thinking of working on something substantial, however, (like a major feature) please create an issue, or contact the maintainer, to discuss it before commencing work.

The documentation of the API can be found at docs.discuit.org.

License

Copyright (C) 2024 Previnder

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see .