#Inner Circle

Inner Circle provides an easy and simple way to share updates with family and friends in the form of photos, videos, and text updates.

#Goals

• Private; intended for family and friends. Invite only.
• Easy setup and management.

#Non-Goals

• Direct messages
• Federation
• Publically accessible

#Server setup

#Build a release

mix deps.get --only prod
MIX_ENV=prod mix compile
npm install --prefix ./assets
npm run deploy --prefix ./assets
MIX_ENV=prod mix phx.digest
MIX_ENV=prod mix release

#Create an env file

This will be used by systemd to set up the environment.

To illustrate what this might look like let's assume you store your runtime files, like the database, in /opt/inner_circle/:

DATABASE_PATH="/opt/inner_circle/inner_circle.db"
URL="example.com"
ADMIN_EMAIL="admin@example.com"
SMTP_USERNAME="admin@example.com"
SMTP_PASSWORD="<email_password>"
SMTP_SERVER="smtp.example.com"
SMTP_PORT=465
SECRET_KEY_BASE="<secret_key>"
LIVE_VIEW_SIGNING_SALT="<secret_signing_salt>"

#Migrate the database

# First, source your environment variables
source /opt/inner_circle/inner_circle_env
export $(cut -d= -f1 /opt/inner_circle/inner_circle_env )
inner_circle eval 'InnerCircle.Release.migrate()'

#Start Inner Circle

Using the provided systemctl script from scripts/inner-circle.service:

systemctl start inner-circle

Running the release directly:

inner_circle start

This will run a bare HTTP server on port 4000. It's recommended that you run a reverse proxy via a webserver like Apache, Nginx, or Caddy in front of the application.

#Send an invitation

inner_circle rpc 'InnerCircle.Release.send_invitation("<email>")'

or, if you already have an account set up, navigate to /users/invite on your site.

#Roadmap

V0.1

• SQLite
• Accounts
  • [x] Send invitation via CLI
  • [x] Reset password
  • [x] Username, password, date created

V0.2

• Deployment
  • [x] Move build-time configurations into runtime configurations
  • [x] Build manifest for generating releases and build artifacts on Sourcehut
  • [x] Automatic HTTPS via SiteEncrypt
  • [x] Example systemd scripts

V0.3

• [x] Posts
  • Username
  • Date
  • Message
  • Parent post (for comments — later)

V0.4

• Timeline
  • [x] Display posts (username, date, message)
  • [x] Pagination
• [x] Edit post
• [x] Delete post
• [x] Only allow owner to edit and delete posts.
• [x] User roles via canada; admin — moderator — user, or equivalent.

V0.5

• Photos in posts
  • [x] Add photos to posts
• Videos in posts
  • [x] Add videos to posts

V0.6

• [x] Better styles via Tailwind CSS.
• [x] Basic caching.
• [x] Thumbnails for videos.
• [x] Compression for photos (imagemagick converts to webp).
• [x] Compression for videos (ffmpeg converts to mp4 w/ max bitrate of 2Mbps).
• [x] Links to original videos and images provided.
• [x] Phoenix updated to v1.6.
• [x] Post page moved out of a live modal to its own page.

V0.7

• Photos
  • [ ] Edit photos in posts
  • [ ] Delete photos in posts
• Videos
  • [ ] Edit videos in posts
  • [ ] Delete videos in posts

V1 - micro-birdsite

• [x] Single binary ready
• User profiles
  • [ ] Post overview
  • [ ] Media overview
  • [ ] Profile photos
• [ ] Documentation for server management, build, develop, etc.
• Blog posts

V2 - Admin UI and CLI

• Admin commands
  • [ ] Delete account by username, id, email
  • [ ] Send password reset
  • [ ] Set timezone — handled by the server instead of the software?
  • Delete specific photo by post
  • Delete specific video by post
  • Delete specific media by post

V3 - activity digest

• [x] Comments on posts
• [x] Daily/weekly digest email
  • Comments on your posts
  • Comments on posts you commented on
  • Summary of new posts
• Post version history
  • [ ] Store versions in database
  • [ ] Show “X revisions” label
  • [ ] Display revisions

V4 - optimizations

• [ ] Accept markdown via earmark and html_sanitize_ex and save as HTML in DB.
• [ ] Export photo data
• [x] Lazy loading for images
• [x] Lazy loading for videos
• Delete unused photos
• Delete unused videos

V5 - data export

• Create zip of all photos
• Create zip of photos from user
• Create zip of all videos
• Create zip of all media
• Create create zip of all videos by user
• Create zip of all media by user
• [ ] Export all data on user in CSV

V6 Third-party integrations

• Telegram integration?
• Instagram integration?
• Facebook integration?
• Matrix integration?

V7 - Accessibility

• Accessibility audit and fixes
  • [ ] alt text in <img> elements

V8 - For the admins

• Admin UI
  • [x] Send invitation
  • Delete accounts
  • Delete comments
  • Delete posts
  • Change URL
  • Setup email credentials for server

V9 - translations

• [x] Support translations for in-app strings
• Support custom translations for posts/comments
• [x] Add Icelandic translations
• [x] Add Filipino translations

V10 - timelines

• Timeline for “follow only” / Timeline for "non-muted"
• Timeline for everyone on instance
• Change new post notifications to have 2 sections; one per timeline

V11 - visibility

• Website for the project

V12 - read-only API

• GraphQL api for read only access

Future possibilities

• Mobile apps
  • iOS
  • Android
  • PWA?
• Desktop apps
  • Qt6/Tk
• Gemini support

V13 - mobile apps?

• iOS
• Android
• PWA?