8 This is the README file for StatusNet, the Open Source social
9 networking platform. It includes installation instructions,
10 descriptions of options you can set, warnings, tips, and general info
11 for administrators. Information on using StatusNet can be found in the
12 "doc" subdirectory or in the "help" section on-line.
17 StatusNet is a Free and Open Source social networking platform. It helps
18 people in a community, company or group to exchange short (140
19 characters, by default) messages over the Web. Users can choose which
20 people to "follow" and receive only their friends' or colleagues'
21 status messages. It provides a similar service to sites like Twitter,
22 Google Buzz, or Yammer.
24 With a little work, status messages can be sent to mobile phones,
25 instant messenger programs (GTalk/Jabber), and specially-designed
26 desktop clients that support the Twitter API.
28 StatusNet supports an open standard called OStatus
29 <http://ostatus.org/> that lets users in different networks follow
30 each other. It enables a distributed social network spread all across
33 StatusNet was originally developed for the Open Software Service,
34 Identi.ca <http://identi.ca/>. It is shared with you in hope that you
35 too make an Open Software Service available to your users. To learn
36 more, please see the Open Software Service Definition 1.1:
38 http://www.opendefinition.org/ossd
40 StatusNet, Inc. <http://status.net/> also offers this software as a
41 Web service, requiring no installation on your part. See
42 <http://status.net/signup> for details. The software run
43 on status.net is identical to the software available for download, so
44 you can move back and forth between a hosted version or a version
45 installed on your own servers.
47 A commercial software subscription is available from StatusNet Inc. It
48 includes 24-hour technical support and developer support. More
49 information at http://status.net/contact or email sales@status.net.
54 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
55 it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
56 published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
57 License, or (at your option) any later version.
59 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
60 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
61 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
62 Affero General Public License for more details.
64 You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public
65 License along with this program, in the file "COPYING". If not, see
66 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
68 IMPORTANT NOTE: The GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) has
69 *different requirements* from the "regular" GPL. In particular, if
70 you make modifications to the StatusNet source code on your server,
71 you *MUST MAKE AVAILABLE* the modified version of the source code
72 to your users under the same license. This is a legal requirement
73 of using the software, and if you do not wish to share your
74 modifications, *YOU MAY NOT INSTALL STATUSNET*.
76 Documentation in the /doc-src/ directory is available under the
77 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, with attribution to
78 "StatusNet". See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for details.
80 CSS and images in the /theme/ directory are available under the
81 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, with attribution to
82 "StatusNet". See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for details.
84 Our understanding and intention is that if you add your own theme that
85 uses only CSS and images, those files are not subject to the copyleft
86 requirements of the Affero General Public License 3.0. See
87 http://wordpress.org/news/2009/07/themes-are-gpl-too/ . This is not
88 legal advice; consult your lawyer.
90 Additional library software has been made available in the 'extlib'
91 directory. All of it is Free Software and can be distributed under
92 liberal terms, but those terms may differ in detail from the AGPL's
93 particulars. See each package's license file in the extlib directory
99 This is a security release since version 0.9.7 released on 11 March
100 2011. It fixes security bug #3260. All sites running version 0.9.7 or
101 below are recommended to upgrade to 0.9.9 immediately.
103 Notable changes this version:
105 - Fix bug #3260, a cross-site scripting (XSS) bug that allows an
106 attacker to inject JavaScript into a page with a carefully structured URL.
107 - Updated code for Google Analytics to reflect new API.
108 - Various fixes for Bookmark plugin.
109 - Updates to reCAPTCHA plugin based on changes to API.
110 - New plugin to move the site notice to the sidebar.
111 - Add rss.me to notice source list.
112 - Updates to data backup/restore.
113 - Correct use of "likes" in Facebook plugin.
114 - Ignore failures in Twitter plugin.
116 A full changelog is available at http://status.net/wiki/StatusNet_0.9.9.
118 NOTE: The short-lived StatusNet 0.9.8 ("Letter Never Sent") did not
119 adequately fix bug #3260 as originally thought; thus this new release.
124 The primary output for StatusNet is syslog, unless you configured a
125 separate logfile. This is probably the first place to look if you're
126 getting weird behaviour from StatusNet.
128 If you're tracking the unstable version of StatusNet in the git
129 repository (see below), and you get a compilation error ("unexpected
130 T_STRING") in the browser, check to see that you don't have any
131 conflicts in your code.
133 If you upgraded to StatusNet 0.9.x without reading the "Notice
134 inboxes" section above, and all your users' 'Personal' tabs are empty,
135 read the "Notice inboxes" section above.
140 These are some myths you may see on the Web about StatusNet.
141 Documentation from the core team about StatusNet has been pretty
142 sparse, so some backtracking and guesswork resulted in some incorrect
145 - "Set $config['db']['debug'] = 5 to debug the database." This is an
146 extremely bad idea. It's a tool built into DB_DataObject that will
147 emit oodles of print lines directly to the browser of your users.
148 Among these lines will be your database username and password. Do
149 not enable this option on a production Web site for any reason.
151 - "Edit dataobject.ini with the following settings..." dataobject.ini
152 is a development file for the DB_DataObject framework and is not
153 used by the running software. It was removed from the StatusNet
154 distribution because its presence was confusing. Do not bother
155 configuring dataobject.ini, and do not put your database username
156 and password into the file on a production Web server; unscrupulous
157 persons may try to read it to get your passwords.
162 If you're adventurous or impatient, you may want to install the
163 development version of StatusNet. To get it, use the git version
164 control tool <http://git-scm.com/> like so:
166 git clone git@gitorious.org:statusnet/mainline.git
168 This is the version of the software that runs on Identi.ca and the
169 status.net hosted service. Using it is a mixed bag. On the positive
170 side, it usually includes the latest security and bug fix patches. On
171 the downside, it may also include changes that require admin
172 intervention (like running a script or even raw SQL!) that may not be
173 documented yet. It may be a good idea to test this version before
174 installing it on your production machines.
176 To keep it up-to-date, use 'git pull'. Watch for conflicts!
181 There are several ways to get more information about StatusNet.
183 * There is a mailing list for StatusNet developers and admins at
184 http://mail.status.net/mailman/listinfo/statusnet-dev
185 * The #statusnet IRC channel on freenode.net <http://www.freenode.net/>.
186 * The StatusNet wiki, http://status.net/wiki/
187 * The StatusNet blog, http://status.net/blog/
188 * The StatusNet status update, <http://status.status.net/> (!)
193 * Messages to http://support.status.net/ are very welcome.
194 * The group http://identi.ca/group/statusnet is a good
195 place to discuss the software.
196 * StatusNet has a bug tracker for any defects you may find, or ideas for
197 making things better. http://status.net/bugs
202 The following is an incomplete list of developers who've worked on
203 StatusNet. Apologies for any oversight; please let evan@status.net know
204 if anyone's been overlooked in error.
206 * Evan Prodromou, founder and lead developer, StatusNet, Inc.
207 * Zach Copley, StatusNet, Inc.
208 * Earle Martin, StatusNet, Inc.
209 * Marie-Claude Doyon, designer, StatusNet, Inc.
210 * Sarven Capadisli, StatusNet, Inc.
211 * Robin Millette, StatusNet, Inc.
222 * Tryggvi Björgvinsson
226 * Ken Sheppardson (Trac server, man-about-town)
227 * Tiago 'gouki' Faria (i18n manager)
229 * Leslie Michael Orchard
244 * Siebrand Mazeland and the amazing volunteer translators at translatewiki.net
245 * Brion Vibber, StatusNet, Inc.
246 * James Walker, StatusNet, Inc.
247 * Samantha Doherty, designer, StatusNet, Inc.
249 Thanks also to the developers of our upstream library code and to the
250 thousands of people who have tried out Identi.ca, installed StatusNet,
251 told their friends, and built the Open Microblogging network to what