# ‎
Turn the Beaglebone Black into a personal communications server
Author: Bob Mottram
Keywords: freedombox, debian, beaglebone, red matrix, email, web server, home server, internet, censorship, surveillance, social network, irc, jabber

# Developers Guide

## Introduction

Freedombone consists of a set of bash scripts. There are a lot of them, but they're not very complicated. If you're familiar with the GNU/Linux commandline and can hack a bash script then you can probably add a new app or fix a bug in the system. There are no trendy development frameworks to learn or to get in your way. You might also want to consult the Code of Conduct, and there is a Matrix room at #fbone:matrix.freedombone.net

## Adding extra apps

Suppose you have some internet application which you want to add to the system. To do this you need to create an app script which tells the system how to install/remove and also backup/restore. The script should be designed to work with the current stable version of Debian.

There's a command which you can use to generate scripts for new apps. Some examples are as follows:

To create a script for a generic PHP plus MySql/MariaDB web app:

    freedombone-template --app [name] -e [email] -r [repo url] \
                         -c [commit] --php yes -d mariadb > \
                         src/freedombone-app-myappname

For a Nodejs app with MySql/MariaDB database:

    freedombone-template --app [name] -e [email] -r [repo url] \
                         -c [commit] --node yes -d mariadb \
                         --dir /etc/myappname --daemon yes > \
                         src/freedombone-app-myappname

For a Python app with Postgresql database:

    freedombone-template --app [name] -e [email] -r [repo url] \
                         -c [commit] -d postgresql \
                         --dir /etc/myappname --daemon yes > \
                         src/freedombone-app-myappname

For a Python app without any database, communicating between the daemon and the web server on port 1234:

    freedombone-template --app [name] -e [email] -r [repo url] \
                         -c [commit] --dir /etc/myappname \
                         --daemon yes --portinternal 1234 > \
                         src/freedombone-app-myappname

For an app without any database which communicates directly on a particular port through the firewall:

    freedombone-template --app [name] -e [email] -r [repo url] \
                         -c [commit] --dir /etc/myappname \
                         --daemon yes --port 5000 > \
                         src/freedombone-app-myappname

A generic PHP plus MySql/MariaDB web app which is only available on an onion address:

    freedombone-template --app [name] -e [email] -r [repo url] \
                         -c [commit] --php yes -d mariadb \
                         --onion yes > \
                         src/freedombone-app-myappname

For more details see the manpage:

    man freedombone-template

The template command won't give you a fully working app, but it will give you a big head start and avoid a lot of potential mistakes. It's highly likely that you'll still need to add extra configuration for your particular app, especially within the install_app function.

When your new script is ready for testing you can install it with:

    make install

Then run the administrator control panel and you should see the new app within Add/Remove apps.

Submit your working app to https://github.com/bashrc/freedombone/issues or create a pull request.

## Customising mesh images

If you want to make your own specially branded version of the mesh images, such as for a particular event, then to change the default desktop backgrounds edit the images within img/backgrounds and to change the available avatars and desktop icons edit the images within img/avatars. Re-create disk images using the instructions shown previously.

If you need particular dconf commands to alter desktop appearance or behavior then see the function mesh_client_startup_applications within src/freedombone-image-customise.

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