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nomadNews

(★ 9)

Community news portal for NomadNet nodes — categories, editorial workflow, comments, breaking news, and an LXMF bot for submitting, subscribing, and reading news. Part of the Off-Grid Community Suite.

File Explorer

ZIP Download

- admin.mu
- backup.mu
- breaking_news.mu
- categories.mu
- default_permissions.mu
- groups.mu
- limits.mu
- lxmf_submissions.mu
- mirror_settings.mu
- permissions.mu
- rejected_archive.mu
- site_settings.mu
- subscriptions.mu
- wipe_settings.mu
- withdrawn_archive.mu
about.mu
apply_editor.mu
article.mu
categories.mu
category.mu
create_admin.py
edit_article.mu
editors.mu
index.mu
LICENSE
list.mu
login.mu
logout.mu
lxmf_bot.py
main.py
moderate_comments.mu
my_lists.mu
profile.mu
README.md
register.mu
review_queue.mu
search.mu
share.mu
submit_article.mu
tag.mu
tags.mu
write_article.mu

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A community news portal for [NomadNet](https://github.com/markqvist/NomadNet) nodes — categories, an editorial submit → review → publish workflow, nested comments, breaking news, and an LXMF bot for submitting, subscribing to, and reading news without ever opening a browser.

Part of the [**Off-Grid Community Suite**](https://github.com/Nezugi/Off-Grid-Community-Suite/tree/main) for NomadNet nodes.

---

## A note on this tool's design

Most of the suite runs as plain `.mu` CGI pages with no background process and no dependency beyond the Python standard library. nomadNews mostly follows that too, but its LXMF integration (`lxmf_bot.py`) is a deliberate exception:

- It needs [`rns`](https://pypi.org/project/rns/) and [`lxmf`](https://pypi.org/project/lxmf/) — already installed on any machine running NomadNet itself, so in practice this rarely means an extra `pip install`.
- It's a long-running process, started manually (`python3 lxmf_bot.py`, e.g. inside `tmux`/`screen`), not something that runs on page load. It attaches to the Reticulum instance NomadNet is already running (`share_instance = Yes` in `~/.reticulum/config`) rather than opening its own interfaces.

Everything else — accounts, articles, comments, admin panel — is standard-library-only stateless CGI, same as the rest of the suite.

---

## Features

- **Categories** — icon, color, description, sort order; `public` or group-`restricted` visibility; can be created, edited, and deleted (deleting a non-empty category requires picking where its articles move to; the last remaining category can't be deleted)
- **Articles** — title, teaser, full body, sources, optional tags; self- or other-authored; submit → review → publish workflow, plus scheduled publishing and withdrawal (kept in an archive, not deleted)
- **Breaking news** — up to 3 active at once, auto-expire after 24h, short headline field
- **Pinned articles**
- **Nested comments** — threaded replies, up/down votes, soft-delete that preserves thread structure, per-category moderation
- **Tags** — free-text, with an overview and per-tag listing page
- **Full-text search** — title, body, tags
- **Reading lists** — private, per-user
- **Per-category editorial permissions** — write, publish, edit own/others, delete, breaking news, approve editors, moderate comments — no global override, every right is scoped to a category
- **Groups** for gating restricted categories
- **Identity-only login** — no password login at all; a NomadNet node identity is a live cryptographic proof of possession, not a server-stored secret, so there's nothing to crack if the database is ever copied
- **LXMF bot** (`lxmf_bot.py`) — submit articles, publish directly with a shared password, request a full backup, subscribe/unsubscribe to a category's daily digest, fetch a category's latest articles on demand, and (if enabled) an emergency wipe command — see below
- **Website subscribe links** — logged-in users with an LXMF address on their profile can subscribe/unsubscribe straight from the category pages, no LXMF message needed
- **Mirror mode** — let another nomadNews node mirror this site's public content (or mirror another node yourself), periodic LXMF sync, read-only on the mirror side
- **Backup & restore** — content-only export/import (no accounts, permissions, or connection data — the file sits in the node's public download directory)
- **Emergency wipe** — two-password, two-message LXMF flow that irreversibly destroys the database and files, for the scenario where the node itself has been discovered
- **Site-wide rate limiting & hard caps**, all admin-tunable, defaults sized for a Raspberry Pi 4
- **Admin panel** — site settings, categories, groups, permissions, default rights, breaking news, rejected/withdrawn archives, backup, protection limits, LXMF submissions, mirror settings, category subscriptions, emergency wipe

---

## Installation

```bash
# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Nezugi/nomadNews
cd nomadNews

# 2. Copy the page into your NomadNet pages directory
cp -r . ~/.nomadnetwork/storage/pages/news/

# 3. Make all .mu files executable
chmod +x ~/.nomadnetwork/storage/pages/news/*.mu
chmod +x ~/.nomadnetwork/storage/pages/news/admin/*.mu

# 4. Edit main.py
nano ~/.nomadnetwork/storage/pages/news/main.py

# In main.py, adjust the following lines to match your username:
# storage_path = "/home/YOUR_USER/.nomadNews"
# files_path   = "/home/YOUR_USER/.nomadnetwork/storage/files/news"

# 5. Create the admin account (identity-only, no password)
python3 ~/.nomadnetwork/storage/pages/news/create_admin.py
# Enable "Identify to Nodes" in NomadNet, visit register.mu once to read off
# your identity hash, then paste it in when prompted.

# After installation, access the page via:
# YOUR_NODE_HASH:/page/news/index.mu
```

### Optional: the LXMF bot

```bash
cd ~/.nomadnetwork/storage/pages/news
python3 lxmf_bot.py
```

Required for article submission over LXMF, category subscriptions and the daily digest, on-demand `LATEST` lookups, LXMF backups, mirror mode, and the emergency wipe command. Everything else (the website itself) works without it. Send `HELP` to the bot's address for the full command list available to an ordinary sender.

---

## Configuration

```python
storage_path      = "/home/YOUR_USER/.nomadNews"
files_path        = "/home/YOUR_USER/.nomadnetwork/storage/files/news"
page_path         = ":/page/news"
file_path         = ":/file/news"
site_name         = "nomadNews"
site_description  = "Community news portal"
node_homepage     = ":/page/index.mu"
```

---

## Permission System

Every editorial right is granted **per user, per category** — there is no site-wide "editor" role.

| Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|
| write | Write articles in this category |
| publish | Publish directly — own and others' pending articles |
| edit own | Edit your own articles in this category |
| edit others | Edit anyone's articles in this category |
| delete | Withdraw/delete articles in this category |
| breaking news | Mark articles in this category as breaking |
| approve editors | Approve editor applications for this category |
| moderate comments | Moderate comments on articles in this category |

Separately, a handful of rights are global per user (not category-scoped): comment, vote, submit articles, create reading lists, edit the About page, manage backups.

---

## File Structure

```
news/
├── main.py                    ← database, sessions, permissions, shared helpers
├── create_admin.py            ← CLI: create/promote an identity-linked admin
├── lxmf_bot.py                ← standalone LXMF listener (run separately)
├── index.mu / categories.mu / category.mu / article.mu / edit_article.mu
├── write_article.mu / submit_article.mu / review_queue.mu
├── login.mu / logout.mu / register.mu / profile.mu / apply_editor.mu
├── tags.mu / tag.mu / search.mu / share.mu / editors.mu / about.mu
├── moderate_comments.mu / my_lists.mu / list.mu
└── admin/
    ├── admin.mu                 ← admin overview
    ├── site_settings.mu         ← name / description
    ├── categories.mu            ← create, edit, delete categories
    ├── groups.mu                ← groups for restricted categories
    ├── permissions.mu           ← per-user rights + node identity linking
    ├── default_permissions.mu   ← default rights for new registrations
    ├── breaking_news.mu
    ├── rejected_archive.mu / withdrawn_archive.mu
    ├── backup.mu                ← content-only export/import
    ├── limits.mu                ← rate limits & sitewide caps
    ├── lxmf_submissions.mu      ← direct-publish password
    ├── mirror_settings.mu       ← mirror another site / let others mirror this one
    ├── subscriptions.mu         ← daily digest schedule & stats
    └── wipe_settings.mu         ← emergency wipe passwords & early-warning log
```

---

## Database

SQLite at `~/.nomadNews/news.db` — created automatically on first run.

---

## Access

```
YOUR_NODE_HASH:/page/news/index.mu
```

## License

MIT