ENiGMA ActivityPub Update

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Some Updates

As of this writing there are now 172 commits into the ActivityPub feature branch. Figured it was a good time to post a little bit of the status on this thing.

Working Stuff

First, some stuff that’s working, starting with general protocol support:

  • WebFinger: Makes Actors on the system discoverable.
  • NodeInfo2: Information about the node/system itself.

And of course, all sorts of ActivityPub and Activity Streams basics, as well as Activity vocabulary and extensions such as used by Mastodon.

OK, But…

Great, so what the hell does all of this mean for ENiGMA½?

First and foremost, +ops can enable ActivityPub support in the usual ENiGMA½ way: Simple config.hjson entries. In reality, this means a few things:

  1. The Web server is enabled and for ActivityPub to really work, exposed to the outside world securely (HTTPS/TLS) either through a proxy or directly.
  2. The WebFinger module is enabled (defaults to true).
  3. You’re going to want a stable domain name.

Right, back to the features you and your users will actually get to use that are working now:

  • Integration with the Fediverse, and in particular, Mastodon.
  • Random avatar generation for users (Actors in Fediverse speak). Users can also change these images to their own liking.

Random Avatar Example

By default, these will show up on user’s web based profile pages as well!

  • Direct messaging to outside Actors via private mail: Simply address to @Someone@their.host.name!
  • SysOps have the ability to control if ActivityPub is enabled and it’s default configuration for users. By default, users will need to opt-in. Users have control under the default menu layout via the Activity Pub user configuration menu:

User Config

  • Users can search for new Actors. Here’s a shot of the current search results:

Search Results

  • Users/Actors can follow, be followed, etc.
  • Public messages can be browsed, posted, and responded to.
  • A new ‘hub’ menu for ActivityPub where we plan on stuffing a bunch of other goodies!

Once this feature is ready, we’ll have some additional oputil commands to manage ActivityPub, and perhaps a oputil system upgrade type of command as well. And of course, you’ll be able to mod the entire thing. Don’t like the default layout or ‘flow’ of menus? Sure, change it!

Stay tuned…