the frontend stuff is getting along well
as for the backend stuff, well, there's more SQL than python, and i haven't even hit 100 lines yet, so
okay, the frontend stuff is getting close to being ready. when fedibooks first goes live, some features won't be ready yet. the basic stuff will all work just fine, though!
the backend stuff is gonna be a lot harder than the frontend, but i'll hopefully have it done before too long!
also worth noting: the whole site works without javascript 
there are a few features that will require it, but so far it's 100% JS free
which is nice because i'm bad at JS
i like javascript and i think it's important, but i also like avoiding it where possible to make everything as lightweight as possible
what do you typically call the "@user@instan.ce" thing? i call it a handle
the SQL is (probably) finished and it is beautiful
https://github.com/Lynnesbian/FediBooks/blob/master/setup.sql
one of the best parts of webdev is having to implement input validation on both the client and the server
hmm i wonder how i implemented input sanitisation in my last project
...oh! i didn't!
well time to shut cg.lynnesbian.space down forever
i can be a real dingus sometimes
wait a minute never mind i overreacted it DOES sanitise inputs
phewwwwwwww
okay curious greg is back up so you can use it again now
even though it's really buggy and shit
how strange that some instances don't seem to work properly 
the bot creation process is done now. it doesn't handle errors gracefully yet, but apart from that, it's ready!
this means you can now create a bot with fedibooks 0u0
now for the learning from posts part 
things are coming along very well! you can create a bot and add accounts for it to learn from. there's a few basic things left, and then it's on to the actual ebooks stuff - downloading and making posts!!
531 (significant) lines of HTML, 328 lines of python, 174 lines of CSS, 76 lines of SQL, 1 tired bune
comparitively, mstdn-ebooks is "just" 387 lines of python
according to this arbitrary chart i'm about halfway done for fedibooks' first release
it's been a while i last updated this thread, because it's also been a while since i did any major work on fedibooks. i've kinda pushed myself way too hard on it and i'm taking it more slowly now.
that said, i do have some new features to show off! firstly, fedibooks is now capable of scraping user posts. this is one of the key steps towards implementing full ebooks functionality. the first screenshot shows that fedibooks has successfully scraped all 63 of this account's posts.
secondly, there's now a nifty little bug report form for those of us without github accounts, shown in the second screenshot.
fedibooks is now capable of:
. authenticating with mastodon/pleroma
. scraping user posts
. generating and submitting its own posts
this means it can do nearly everything mstdn-ebooks can, and all that's left is replying!! 
uh oh, looks like you're out of gems! your ebooks bot will stop posting until you have at least 3 more.
[ wait for gems to recharge (3h27m) ]
[ watch 3 ads ]
[ buy pack of 15 gems ($4.99) ]
there are a few minor features left now, and one major feature - replying. once that's done, fedibooks will be complete.
unfortunately, testing the reply functionality requires me to actually deploy fedibooks to a website, since i can't test it with localhost. this means it's going to be a bit of a hassle to implement.
however, i've looked at what needs to be done for reply functionality, and it seems pretty easy with web push - mastodon will automatically send a request to fedibooks with some info, which fedibooks can then reply to. it should be pretty simple 0u0
i want to implement reply functionality and bot settings, and then i'll release the first version of fedibooks for all to use!
once fedibooks is released, i'll be shutting down my paid ebooks hosting service in a week (since it's available for free now). i'll implement an "import from mstdn-ebooks" feature to ease the transition.
thank you so much to everyone who supported me on patreon!
i'm really excited for this. this is the first time i've ever actually managed to finish a major project! i often start things that are way too ambitious and never manage to finish them, but this time i did it!!
this is the screen that appears when you try to do something i haven't made yet
i'm about to start testing the reply functionality for fedibooks 0u0
fedibooks is now live, by the way! i've disabled signups for now, but in the mean time, you can explore the site: https://fedibooks.com/
well i've run into a bit of an issue...
the bot creation process works on my small laptop and pet's laptop, but not on my big laptop. i have no idea why, it's the same code and everything, and my small laptop has the same firefox addons as the big one. i'm reading over the code and i really don't see how this bug works... and why does it only happen on one laptop??
okay i found the issue
this specific install of firefox wants the favicon.ico, and when it can't find it, it requests fedibooks' home page
because your browser is requesting the home page, fedibooks assumes you've finished creating the bot, and resets your progress counter thingy to 1.
this breaks multi-step forms.
okay!! fedibooks is now live and in what you might call early access.
i don't know how well it's going to hold up, because i haven't been able to do much serious testing on it, but i guess we'll all find out together!!
okay now it's up for real
nervous bun,
next i need to work on implementing the "import mstdn-ebooks bot" thing
for those who've been following along with this thread, i'm sure you've seen that it's been quite a ride!
once the mstdn-ebooks import functionality is done, i'll be shutting down my paid hosting service after a week. this means i'm cutting off the income source i mainly use to pay for the server.
if you'd like to donate, you can do so here:
https://patreon.com/Lynnesbian
https://paypal.com/Lynnesbian
https://ko-fi.com/Lynnesbian
there are currently no donor benefits, although patreon pledgers (to any tier) will get early access to my lynne teaches tech posts.
thanks for considering!
Future updates to this thread will be done from this account to reduce clutter on people's timelines.
Speaking of updates, FediBooks will now show you how many minutes remain until your bot next posts something.
@LynnearSoftware Yunohost implementation would be rad. I see it's on your radar.
Pleroma support is fixed, and it's now possible to create bots on Pleroma instances.
As Pleroma does not currently support fine-grained app permissions, FediBooks will require full read and write access to your account. You may look through the source code to verify that these permissions are not used maliciously.
What would you like to see next implemented in FediBooks?