Komment

Minimalist comment solution for static webpages.

Design goals

• Easy to install and setup
• Easy to integrate into own page-layout
• Maximize compliance with GDPR by only storing what is really necessary
• Can be used as server or via CGI
• No dependencies client-side while using Komment (e.g. jQuery)
• No dependencies during run-time (No specific versions of a script environment or DB servers ...)
• No dependencies during build-time (Go standard library only)

Installation

1. Build (or use a pre-built binary for) Komment for your OS/Architecture and copy it - together with the templates and config directories - to your server. (CGI: make sure it is world-accessible and has its execution permissions set correctly.)

2. Configure Komment via komment.json in the config- subdirectory. (CGI: make sure the config file is not accessible from the webserver. The config-directory in this repo contains an appropriate .htaccess file for Apache.)

3. Modify the HTML templates in the template-directory to match your sites layout.

4. Make the necessary modifications to your HTML pages / theme.

5. (CGI: Done.) Configure your webserver to make Komment accessible to the outside world.

Configuration

$(EXECUTABLE)/config/komment.json

{
	// BASIC SETTINGS
	// ==============
	// World-accessible URI of Komment.
	// Despite the name, this is also the URI of Komment when
	// running as server. Either directly or any proxy-mapping
	// happening through nginx, Apache &c.
	"CgiPath": "/komment/komment.cgi",
	// Instead of Komment running as a one-off via CGI it can
	// also run as a server. Set ListenOn to the host:port it
	// should ListenOn. e.g. "0.0.0.0:1234".
	"ListenOn": "",
  
  	// MESSAGE STORAGE & RESTRICTIONS
	// ==============================
	// either an absolute path or relative path to the executable
	// where messages will be stored
	"MessagesPath": "messages",
	// number of seconds after posting during which a message can be edited
	"EditWindow": 60,
	// maximum length of a message.
	// any longer and the message will be truncated and "..." will be added.
	// if MaxLength is not set or 0 no limit will be imposed
	"MaxLength": 100000,
	// maximum length of the poster's name
	// if MaxNameLength is not set or 0 no limit will be imposed
	"MaxNameLength": 40,
	
	// LOOK & FEEL
	// ===========
	// absolute path or relative to executable where templates are located
	"TemplatePath": "templates",
	// format used during output.
	// reference date: Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 -0700 MST 2006
	"DateFormat": "2006-Jan-2, Mon 15:04 MST",
	
	// ID VALIDATION
	// =============
	// absolute or relative (to executable) path to a text file
	// with each line being a regular expression to match an id against.
	// if any match is found the valid is interpreted to be valid.
	// set Whitelist to "", to disable it.
	"Whitelist": "config/id-whitelist.txt",
	// if the id is not whitelisted (or Whitelist being disabled)
	// Komment uses IdValidator to verify the validity of an ID.
	// IdValidator is the path to an executable which is called
	// with 2 arguments:
	// - raw-komment-id
	// - komment-id
	// if IdValidator runs successfully and returns 0 the id is
	// interpreted as valid.
	"IdValidator": "/home/johndoe/bin/id_validator",
	
 	// RATE LIMITING
	// =============
	// Does not work when running via CGI.
	// Limiting is implemented as token bucket, with each message
	// consuming one token.
	//
	// Maximum number of tokens in bucket.
	"BucketSize": 5,
	// Number of seconds until a new token is generated.
	"TokenRate": 60,
	
	// MAIL NOTIFICATION
	// =================
	// Get notification of new comments sent to SmtpTo.
	// If SmtpTo is empty, no notifications will be sent.
	"SmtpTo": "admin@example.com"
	"SmtpFrom": "comment-notification@example.com",
	"SmtpHostname": "mail.example.com",
	"SmtpPort": 587
	"SmtpUser": "example",
	"SmtpPassword": "Staple1HorseToTheHay!",
}

Integration

Templates

Komment uses 3 templates to tailor the HTML output to your needs:

• count.html.tmpl
• form.html.tmpl
• message.html.tmpl

Usage

Add the following snippets to your webpage.

Count of messages for a certain thread (data-komment-id):

<div class="komment_count" data-komment-id="example-2"></div>

Insert a form to add a new comment:

<div class="komment_form" data-komment-id="example-2"></div>

Render all messages:

<div class="komment_messages" data-komment-id="example-2">Enable Javascript to see comments</div>

At the end of your website add:

<script src="/komment/komment.cgi?r=script"></script>
<script>Komment.init()</script>