Databag - An Open Source, Self Hosted, Federated, E2E Encrypted Chat Platform that's Easy to Setup!

=== Links ===
Show Notes
wiki.opensourceisawesome.com/...
Databag Github Page
github.com/balzack/databag
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=== Timestamps ===
00:00 Beginning
00:09 Introduction to Databag
03:27 Thank you to my Patrons at Patreon, and my Subscribers at KZbin
04:19 Installing Databag
09:41 Setup a Reverse Proxy
11:13 Initial Admin Setup and Account Creation
13:05 The Databag User Interface
17:54 A Little Extra Information
20:06 Be an Open Source Advocate with Me
20:21 Conclusion
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=== Attributions ===
Intro and Outro music provided by www.bensound.com

[@gfxmotion8024]

Thank you. For all that has been presented to us. You're a legend.

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

You're very welcome

[@CRK1918]

Great solution for another chat. Thanks for the video.

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

Glad to help. This one was so easy to setup. I've been givign the developer some ideas to improve the workflow as well, and he has been super receptive.

[@saisibi6708]

Databag is the first communications service that I hosted which went without any hiccups. Your guide was solid mate. Helped out a lot. The dev behind this worked hard too. The service is superb. The mobile clients need better UI though.

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

The dev is very open to design help for the front end. I gave him a few ideas, and he already implemented a couple of them... so jump over, and offer some help. It's a great way to be involved in open source.

[@saisibi6708]

@@AwesomeOpenSource Yeah. I do not know any kind of coding. So, all I can do is just use the machine and say it doesnt look beautiful. And that mobile clients need more work. But I have no clue how to fix that.

[@consecratedtech]

WOW. This series is amazing!!! Now that I am at the end I am starting to setup items and starting to love docker more and more... (you deserve more than a coffee or beer friend) I was wondering if I missed something like a ticketing/support page. I have tried peppermint (failed to get past logging in. I really wanted this one to work). next was uvdesk which I got up and running and then it failed when it came to emails. I have not setup the mail box tool that you did but I am wondering if that would help. I would rather see what you recommend or use. Thanks again for all of this!!

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

Funny enough Peppermint has a big update coming soon, and I’ll be covering it for this series! Stay tuned. And, I’m super glad you like the content.

[@fcamarota]

Thanks brother 🥰

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

My pleasure!

[@user-op6dj4rx9y]

Please go on, very good stuff

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

Glad you like it.

[@cattivello]

Thank you ! really nice and safe. Privacy oriented. I am testing it out for my kids to teach them privacy. One thing I dont know if I miss a configuration or is not a feature... can databag also send voice and video messages? Not voice and video calls, that I read about the TURN server. I mean just a voice or video message. Do I have to add lines to the docker compose file?

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

I think he has added voice and video calls, but not sure about messages specifically. It is under heavy development, so might be a good thing to request on his GitHub issues page.

[@marcosreyes9385]

I just love your video. It's so useful. Just a question, do you know if Databag has something like a webhook? I would like to connect this to a bot.

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

I don't know if it does, but I know the author (main dev) is very open to suggestions on how to improve the software, so make an enhancement request on his github issues.

[@cjmoss51]

This sounds more or less like an alternative to Matrix. Now that you have covered this id like to see you cover Matrix and its associated clients one day.

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

I have covered Matrix in the past. along with setting up a client. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fl6ZnJl_prWif5Y Check it out!

[@zigmasramei58]

hey, can you explain more about that part with domain etc. i have a domain name, i can create a wildcard, but where to diirect it? external ip? my ddns? do i need to open port on my router?

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

If you have a public IP, you want to point it there. If you're using Dynamic DNS, then you'd want to point it to that. The hard part is deciding which will give you better performance and benefit. I have a dynamic IP, but it changes very rarely, so no big deal for me to update it.

[@JamesSallabim]

does databag offer group voice calls, as in everyone in a channel can hop on a line, or are there just 1-1 voice calls

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

Don't know. I think the calls are in the room / group you create, but haven't tested that lately.

[@ronschh]

And the video call and call configs need a turn server Can you show us how to.?

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

I'll see what I can come up with. He has some documentation on it on github as well.

[@zigmasramei58]

Done everything correctly, can access it from my domain, entered my domain in databag settings, but there is an error, when i create users and login to them, it says, that im disconnected from server, any ideas what i did wrong?

[@rolandosborne1871]

make sure you have websockets enabled. it's an option in nginx proxy manager for example...

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

Yep, I'd say it may be related to websockets. @rolandosborne1871 nailed it.

[@jim7smith]

Interesting.....just wondering about the differences between this and rocketchat.

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

RocketChat is definitely a more mature project. I believe when you federate with rocketchat it's a "you're in or you're out" setup...all or nothing. With databag you choose which other instances you want to federate with. Databag has a ways to go, but really seems promising. I'm watching it closely.

[@gdlbzh]

Sounds pretty user-friendly but does it compress pictures and videos ?

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

I don't know about the compression. Definitely jump over to the project github and ask in the Issues though.

[@Link-channel]

Why in the holy motherboard of god did they release it as a docker container AND as a raspberry image, instead of explaining how to install it as a simple normal portable minimal executable??? No old-school sysadmin is going to install anything like this, or with the new nodejs stuff.

[@c-LAW]

After the learning curve, Docker containers are great for ease of installation and containers are sandbox'd so it won't screwup your OS.

[@Link-channel]

​​@@c-LAWou understood the solar opposite of what I meant: Docker is TOO EASY to deploy, there is no learning curve. It takes care of everything, like magic, and the ease of use is always at the expense control. Easy to deploy ➡️ good luck to fixing something you don't understand how it works, when it breaks. You can still download a new container made by someone else, I know, until it becomes a monthly subscription one day. But I guess you are to young to understand what I am saying, that is normal, you will see

[@PLAYGAME-wj9bw]

​@@Link-channel I think it's mostly the installation part that Docker helps with. Otherwise, configuring the service, network, and other aspects is the same. Therefore, you are still learning something, and you won't spend hours trying to figure out why something works on one machine but not on another one; thanks to docker containers.

[@AwesomeOpenSource]

I understand, @Link, you like to know how things work under the covers, but with web applications and services running in docker, you can 100% do that. Just take a look at the Dockerfile in the repo. It's essentially an installation script, that crates the image that the container runs from. You can see what underlying pieces the application is built on, how it sets environment variables, and how it exposes ports. It's essentially a documentation of exactly what you're asking for. The sweet part about a docker container is that it should work regardless of your host OS. It will do what it does, and is super light on resources. The containerization makes it easier to update, kine of like a MacOS App, or a Flatpak, or Snap, it's got all of the stuff it needs in the container, so when you don't need it anymore, just remove the container and everything that it needed to run is gone without accidentally overwriting an OS file, or removing one you needed.

[@lpseem3770]

​​​@@Link-channel I agree with some of Your points. After blindly following container setup, I do not even know where my data is and how to back it up. In some directories, databases, or where else. Another problem will appear right after any serious CVE on any of dependencies, which should be updated hopefully without breaking any other.