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https://github.com/xor-freenet/plugin-Freetalk

Anonymous forum system for Freenet. Resistant against censorship. Currently in development. Uses plugin-WebOfTrust as spam filter. Support contact & maintainer: @xor-freenet
https://github.com/xor-freenet/plugin-Freetalk

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Anonymous forum system for Freenet. Resistant against censorship. Currently in development. Uses plugin-WebOfTrust as spam filter. Support contact & maintainer: @xor-freenet

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# Freetalk - a forum system for Freenet [![Result of weekly CI tests of branch master on xor-freenet's repository](https://github.com/xor-freenet/plugin-Freetalk/actions/workflows/cron-weekly.yml/badge.svg "Result of weekly CI tests of branch master on xor-freenet's repository")](https://github.com/xor-freenet/plugin-Freetalk/actions/workflows/cron-weekly.yml)



Freetalk (FT) aims to provide a user-friendly and secure alternative to the "Freenet Message System"

(FMS) C++ daemon.



It intends to do so by:

* integrating into the Freenet web interface by being a plugin instead of being a standalone

  application with its own web interface.

* being written in Java instead of C++ to avoid remote code execution exploits.

* using the [Web of Trust](https://github.com/freenet/plugin-WebOfTrust) (WoT) plugin for spam

  filtering instead of a single-use trust system like FMS does to ensure user "identities"

  (comparable to "accounts" on the regular internet) can be used across different Freenet plugins

  such as Freemail, FlogHelper, Sone and Freetalk itself.



## Status



As of 2022 Freetalk is currently in active development by

[xor-freenet](https://github.com/xor-freenet).  

Development news are posted about every 1-3 weeks on the

[FMS](https://github.com/freenet/wiki/wiki/FMS) board `freenet` in threads called

`Freetalk development news YYYY-MM`.



## Contributing



While the repository for the official code is hosted on

[Freenet's GitHub](https://github.com/freenet), you may consider to instead create your pull

requests at [xor-freenet's Freetalk repository](https://github.com/xor-freenet/plugin-Freetalk)

because:

- Freenet's repository may lag some months behind the one of xor-freenet and merge conflicts can

  thus be avoided by using xor's repo.

- You'll receive extended and accelerated review:  

  xor wrote most of Freetalk's code and is actively working on it.  

- After his review xor will submit your code to the official Freenet developers for inclusion in the

  main repository on Freenet's GitHub.



## Usage



As of 2022 Freetalk is currently in active development (see [above](#status)) and **NOT**

intended to be used.  

It will first have to be changed to use WoT's new `event-notifications` API, otherwise it will be

very slow.



If you use it nevertheless be aware that all messages will be deleted at some point in the future.  

That will be necessary to conduct major changes without having to spend months upon writing code for

backwards compatibility. Sorry :)



## Support / Contact



You can:

- mail `[email protected]`

- file a bug in the Freetalk project on the [Freenet bugtracker](https://freenet.mantishub.io)

- or, to remain anonymous by using Freenet, post on the

  [FMS](https://github.com/freenet/wiki/wiki/FMS) board `freenet`.



[xor-freenet](https://github.com/xor-freenet) will reply by these means within about a week.



## Compiling



### Dependencies



Clone the [fred](https://github.com/freenet/fred) and plugin-Freetalk repositories into the same

parent directory.  

Initialize the git submodules by `( cd plugin-Freetalk && git submodule update --init )`.  

Compile fred by command line using `( cd fred && ./gradlew jar copyRuntimeLibs )`, or for

compiling it with Eclipse use the [below instructions](#compiling-with-eclipse).



### Compiling by command line



```bash

# With the Ant build script reference implementation:

ant

# If you get errors about missing classes check build.xml for whether the JAR locations are correct.



# With the new Gradle builder - it is fully tested against Ant (see tools/) but lacks some features.

# Its advantages are:

# - parallel unit test execution on all available CPU cores.

# - incremental builds are supported (leave out "clean jar").

gradle clean jar

# Wrong JAR locations can be fixed in the file build.gradle

```



The output `Freetalk.jar` will be in the `dist` directory.  

You can load it on the `Plugins` page of the Freenet web interface.  

Make sure to load the `WebOfTrust` plugin as well.



### Compiling with Eclipse



These instructions have been written for the Eclipse package `Eclipse IDE for Java Developers` of

version `2018-12` for `Linux 64-bit`, which you can get

[here](https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release/2018-12/r).



1. Import the fred project into Eclipse: `File / Import... / Gradle / Existing Gradle Project`.

2. Configure the project to use Gradle version `4.10.3` at

   `Right click the project / Properties / Gradle`.  

   Enable `Automatic project Synchronization` there as well.

3. Enable Eclipse's `Gradle executions` and `Gradle tasks` views at `Window / Show view / Other...`.

4. In the `Gradle Tasks` view, right click `fred` and select `Run Default Gradle Tasks`.  

   Wait for Gradle to finish. You can see its output and error messages in the `Console` view.

5. Once the above step is finished, the green `Run` button in the main toolbar will show a run

   configuration for fred in its dropdown menu.  

   Open the UI to edit it at `Run / Run Configurations...` and there set:  

   * `Gradle Tasks / Gradle tasks: jar copyRuntimeLibs`  

      The latter ensures Gradle copies all dependency JARs of Freenet to a single directory which

      FT will use.  

     **TODO**: Prefix with `clean` task once it doesn't break `Version.class` anymore.

   * `Arguments / Program Arguments: -x test` optionally to skip running the fred unit tests at

      every build.

6. Re-run fred's Gradle with the above run configuration via `Run / `.

7. Import the FT project as type `General / Existing Projects into Workspace` - that type is what

   to use here because the FT repository already contains an Eclipse project configuration.

8. Ensure a Gradle run configuration for FT is created by running the default tasks like you did

   for fred.  

   Set its Gradle tasks to `jar`, or `clean jar` if you want to ensure the JAR is always fully

   rebuilt. Not fully rebuilding may cause e.g. deleted classes to persist in the JAR, though

   I have not tested if this still applies to a build system as modern as Gradle.



**Notice**: Building using `Project / Build project` or `Project / Build Automatically` or the

toolbar buttons does not seem to trigger Gradle with the said Eclipse version!  

It seems that this only triggers Eclipse's internal Java builder which is used to empower Eclipse's

own features.  

As a consequence, manually run Gradle using the aforementioned `Run` button in case you need the

FT JAR as output, e.g. for the following [debugging](#debugging) section.  

Running the unit tests is also done by that, or by Eclipse's own UI for running tests, especially to

debug failing tests with its debugger.



**Notice**: Should Eclipse show errors about missing JARs such as `db4o.jar` and say they prevent it

from building: Notice that the JARs likely have in fact been created by the fred/FT Gradle

builders on the filesystem already, so you can fix Eclipse to notice them by:

1. `Right click the project / Gradle / Refresh Gradle Project`.

2. `Project / Build Project` to manually start a build. Automatic building might have to be disabled

   in the same menu.



## Debugging



* Set up Eclipse as explained in the [compiling](#compiling) section.

* Run fred's class `freenet.node.NodeStarter` using the Eclipse debugger.

* Browse to Freenet's [Plugins page](http://127.0.0.1:8888/plugins/).

* Load the `WebOfTrust` plugin.

* Use the `Load Plugin` box to load `PARENT_DIRECTORY/plugin-Freetalk/dist/Freetalk.jar`.

* After the plugin is loaded, Freetalk will be accessible at the `Forums` menu.