Setup your own StatusNet

From StatusNet

So, you are curious about/interested in StatusNet, and want to setup one for yourself? Here is how you can do that.

Contents 1 For private/open social communities 2 For companies 2.1 Installation 2.2 Configuration 2.3 Enabling plugins 2.4 Announce + Invite!

[edit] For private/open social communities

StatusNet is used by several social communities (see ListOfServers), but their setup experiences have not been added to this page. Feel free to add your experiences!

[edit] For companies

This section describes how you can set up StatusNet, if you want to use it as an internal communication platform within your company.

[edit] Installation

Download StatusNet and follow the Installation procedure (and seriously, it really is worth reading the complete README file).

[edit] Configuration

After the installation procedure StatusNet is configured in a default way. But likely you want to change this configuration. Most of the configuration options are also available through the Admin panel of the web client.

Some candidates:

• Site:
  • Default timezone
  • Default language
• Design:
  • Site logo
• Access:
  • Private
  • Invitation only

You might want to have a look at the chapter about 'Configuration options' in the README.

[edit] Enabling plugins

After the installation procedure StatusNet is configured using only a few plugins. But likely you want to enable some plugins (see also list of plugins).

For a list of plugins that are enabled by default, see lib/default.php, section 'plugins'.

To enable a plugin (the Autocomplete plugin, for example), just add a line to config.php:

addPlugin('Autocomplete');

Or, if the plugin requires config parameters:

addPlugin('HelloWorld', array('Greeting' => 'ciao', 'worldName' => 'planet earth'));

You can have a look at the 'plugins' directory, for a list of available plugins.

I think the following plugins are especially worth looking at:

• If your company is small, you probably just want everybody to follow everybody (instead of having users to follow others manually)

addPlugin('FollowEveryone');

• StatusNet is a server (hosting/managing the notices) and a web client (for viewing the notices). If your users will use the web client intensively instead of a standalone client (see list of apps), then you might want to apply some improvements on the UI:

addPlugin('Autocomplete');
addPlugin('TabFocus');

• And likely you want another UI improvement: Realtime updates (for example when you view the public timeline, and a new notice comes in, you want to see a notification about '1 new message'). To use this, you need to enable the Realtime plugin, plus a plugin that 'wraps' a realtime application (currently Meteor is the most popular). First install the application such as Meteor, and then add the following to your config: (and change the parameters if necessary)

addPlugin('Meteor', array(
    'webserver' => 'your.webserver_of_meteor.net',
    'webport' => 4670,
    'channelbase' => 'statusnet',
    'controlserver' => 'your.controlserver_of_meteor.net',
    'controlport' => '4671'
));
addPlugin('Realtime');

[edit] Announce + Invite!

When your StatusNet is ready, you can start inviting colleagues! You might start with early adaptors or colleagues with Twitter/Facebook experience.

People who don't have microblogging experience yet, can be helped with a Take a tour page.