computer-playbook/roles/web-app-friendica

Friendica

Description

Empower your decentralized social networking with Friendica, a platform designed to foster communication and community building with ease. Experience a robust, containerized deployment that streamlines installation, configuration, and maintenance for your Friendica instance.

Overview

This role deploys Friendica using Docker, managing the Friendica application container alongside a central MariaDB instance. It provides tools for full resets, manual and automatic database reinitialization, email and general configuration debugging, and autoinstall processes, all to ensure your Friendica installation remains reliable and easy to maintain.

Cosmos

The diagram places Friendica in the Infinito.Nexus cosmos: the components it deploys (capabilities), the central services it consumes (dependencies), and its outward reach (federation and bridged external networks).

flowchart LR
    subgraph deps [Dependencies]
        dep_svc_bkp_volume_2_local["svc-bkp-volume-2-local 💻"]
        dep_svc_db_mariadb["svc-db-mariadb 🐳🐝"]
        dep_svc_db_openldap["svc-db-openldap 🐳🐝"]
        dep_svc_net_tor["svc-net-tor 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_dashboard["web-app-dashboard 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_keycloak["web-app-keycloak 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_matomo["web-app-matomo 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_prometheus["web-app-prometheus 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_stalwart["web-app-stalwart 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_svc_css["web-svc-css 💻"]
        dep_web_svc_logout["web-svc-logout 🐳🐝"]
    end
    subgraph role [web-app-friendica 🐳🐝]
        svc_friendica["friendica"]
        svc_logout["logout"]
        svc_ldap["ldap"]
        svc_sso["sso"]
        svc_dashboard["dashboard"]
        svc_matomo["matomo"]
        svc_email["email"]
        svc_mariadb["mariadb"]
        svc_css["css"]
        svc_prometheus["prometheus"]
        svc_tor["tor"]
        svc_container_backup["container_backup"]
    end
    subgraph dependents [Dependents]
        dpt_web_app_fediwall["web-app-fediwall 🐳🐝"]
    end
    dep_svc_bkp_volume_2_local -. "0..1" .-> svc_container_backup
    dep_svc_db_mariadb -. "0..1" .-> svc_mariadb
    dep_svc_db_openldap -. "0..1" .-> svc_ldap
    dep_svc_net_tor -. "0..1" .-> svc_tor
    dep_web_app_dashboard -. "0..1" .-> svc_dashboard
    dep_web_app_keycloak -. "0..1" .-> svc_sso
    dep_web_app_matomo -. "0..1" .-> svc_matomo
    dep_web_app_prometheus -. "0..1" .-> svc_prometheus
    dep_web_app_stalwart -. "0..1" .-> svc_email
    dep_web_svc_css -. "0..1" .-> svc_css
    dep_web_svc_logout -. "0..1" .-> svc_logout
    svc_friendica -. "0..1" .-> dpt_web_app_fediwall

Solid 1:1 edges are fixed relationships; dashed 0..1 edges are conditional (enabled only in matching deployments); red 0..0 edges are turned off in this role. Node markers show the role's deploy modes (💻 host, 🐳 compose, 🐝 swarm); ❌ marks a service that is explicitly turned off, and ⚙️ an Ansible role dependency declared in meta/main.yml.

Features

• Decentralized Social Networking: Facilitate a distributed network for seamless peer-to-peer communication.
• Containerized Deployment: Leverage Docker for streamlined setup, management, and scalability.
• Robust Reset and Recovery Tools: Easily reset and reinitialize both the application and its underlying database.
• Configuration Debugging: Quickly inspect environment variables, volume data, and configuration files to troubleshoot issues.
• Autoinstall Capability: Automate initial installation steps to rapidly deploy a working Friendica instance.

Quick Setup

Development

Clone, set up the workstation, and deploy Friendica onto the local stack:

git clone https://github.com/infinito-nexus/core.git
cd core
make onboard
make compose-deploy mode=reinstall apps=web-app-friendica full_cycle=false

Production

Run the published image to provision the inventory and deploy Friendica to a managed server (the mounted volume persists the inventory):

APP=web-app-friendica
HOST=<your-server>
DOMAIN=<your-domain>
TLS_MODE=self_signed
SSH_PUBLIC_KEY="<your-ssh-public-key>"

docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$PWD/inventories:/etc/infinito.nexus/inventories" \
  -e APP="$APP" -e HOST="$HOST" -e DOMAIN="$DOMAIN" -e TLS_MODE="$TLS_MODE" -e SSH_PUBLIC_KEY="$SSH_PUBLIC_KEY" \
  ghcr.io/infinito-nexus/core/debian bash -c '
    INVENTORY=/etc/infinito.nexus/inventories/production
    infinito administration inventory provision "$INVENTORY" \
      --inventory-file "$INVENTORY/devices.yml" \
      --host "$HOST" \
      --include "$APP" \
      --vars "{\"TLS_MODE\": \"$TLS_MODE\", \"DOMAIN_PRIMARY\": \"$DOMAIN\", \"users\": {\"administrator\": {\"authorized_keys\": [\"$SSH_PUBLIC_KEY\"]}}}" &&
    infinito administration deploy dedicated "$INVENTORY/devices.yml" \
      --password-file "$INVENTORY/.password" \
      --diff -vv'

Addons

Role-level extensions are declared in meta/addons/ (unified addon contract, requirement 026):

Addon	Mechanism	Default state	Bridges
ldapauth	addon	enabled whenever the ldap service is present (svc-db-openldap co-deployed)	ldap → svc-db-openldap

ldapauth is the only path that materialises a friendica.user row, so its enablement derives directly from the ldap service flag. The oauth2-proxy sso gate in front of the vhost is a front-door auth gate, not an addon bridge, and stays in meta/services.yml. The LDAP login path is covered by the existing LDAP Playwright spec (requirement 018), so no addon-specific spec is added.

Further Resources

• Friendica Docker Hub
• Friendica Installation Documentation
• Friendica GitHub Repository
• Relevant Issue Tracker

Credits

Implemented by Kevin Veen-Birkenbach. Part of the Infinito.Nexus Project and maintained by Kevin Veen-Birkenbach. Licensed under the Infinito.Nexus Community License (Non-Commercial).