Set up convos.chat on Toolforge (IRC frontend; open alternative to IRCCloud)
Open, Needs TriagePublic
Actions

Assigned To

None

Authored By

	Tgr
	May 24 2020, 11:09 PM

Description

convos.chat is an IRC frontend with permanent presence and notifications; something like IRCCloud but free software. We should give it a test-drive.

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T320148: Migrate wiki-irc from Toolforge GridEngine to Toolforge Kubernetes
T283791: Request creation of ircwebchat VPS project

Event Timeline

Tgr created this task.May 24 2020, 11:09 PM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptMay 24 2020, 11:09 PM

dbarratt subscribed.May 24 2020, 11:27 PM

Peachey88 subscribed.May 25 2020, 9:52 AM

Aklapper renamed this task from Set up convos.by on Toolforge to Set up convos.by on Toolforge (IRC frontend; open alternative to IRCCloud).Jun 6 2020, 8:39 AM

Tgr renamed this task from Set up convos.by on Toolforge (IRC frontend; open alternative to IRCCloud) to Set up convos.chat on Toolforge (IRC frontend; open alternative to IRCCloud).Jun 6 2020, 10:51 AM

Tgr updated the task description. (Show Details)

Framawiki subscribed.Jun 6 2020, 11:37 AM

Tried it out locally.

Installing is very simple (although the server component is written in Perl, ugh). There's a snap file for Ubuntu, then you just start a daemon and connect via the browser. Non-snap-based installation looked easy, too.
The functionality is very rudimentary but it works - permanent presence, web notifications, a passable GUI.
For registering / identifying yourself to nickserv, you are largely on your own, although it can auto-execute commands on connect. There is no SASL or certFP support. Convos requires an email address and password for registration, but doesn't seem to do anything with them other than differentiating between its users. Login plugins exist, the one for OpenID Connect is in progress. .

Tgr added a project: User-Tgr.Jun 6 2020, 5:03 PM

I tried it locally, yes the installation is simple and easy, Also the flow and UI looks nice. I think we should definitely try this, I can try to set up a toolforge instance, @Tgr did you already create one?

Gopavasanth claimed this task.Jun 21 2020, 6:01 AM

Okay, I tried to deply here: https://tools.wmflabs.org/wiki-irc/ Aah I'm missing something while deploying, Any toolforge folks around ?

In T253491#6242440, @Gopavasanth wrote:

Okay, I tried to deply here: https://tools.wmflabs.org/wiki-irc/ Aah I'm missing something while deploying, Any toolforge folks around ?

Mind the toolforge.org domain migration

Hi @Tgr, I have reached you in telegram regarding the issue we face while deploying the tool, Did you find any insights?

regarding the issue we face while deploying the tool

and the issues are?

@Gopavasanth: Could you please answer the last comment? Thanks in advance!

Sorry for the delay, After a short workaround, I couldn't find a way to start the daemon service in the toolforge instance, So looking for the way to start the service, Would be happy to dicuss more at IRC (Nick: Gopa in #wikimedia-cloud) to make the tool live.

@Gopavasanth sorry, I keep pushing looking at this back due to other projects being more time-sensitive.

This service will need to require OAuth authentication with the Wikimedia wikis or a similar authorization mechanism before connecting any visitor to Freenode's servers. If authorization is not required, this would be an open proxy to Freenode for anyone on the internet. This would likely be considered a violation of the Cloud Services Terms of Use. It would almost certainly cause friction with Freenode admin staff if it became any repeated source of spam or harassment as a result of having no barriers to use.