Mastodon Secure Feed

Mastodon Secure Feed is a Python-based application that securely fetches the latest posts from a Mastodon account and serves them via an API. This application uses environment variables to securely store Mastodon credentials and cache data to minimize API calls.

Features

Securely fetch and serve Mastodon posts
Caching mechanism to reduce API calls
Easily deployable with Gunicorn and Nginx
Configurable via environment variables

Prerequisites

Python 3.x
Pip
Virtualenv (optional but recommended)
Gunicorn
Nginx
Certbot (for SSL certificates)

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://git.vdm.dev/Llewellyn/mastodon-secure-feed.git
cd mastodon-secure-feed

Create and activate a virtual environment (optional but recommended):
```
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
```
Install the dependencies:
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
Set up environment variables:

Create a .env file in the project root with the following content:
```
MASTODON_INSTANCE=https://joomla.social
ACCESS_TOKEN=your_access_token_here
```

Running the Application

Run the Flask application locally:

export FLASK_APP=src/app.py
export FLASK_ENV=development
flask run

Deploying with Gunicorn and Nginx

Step 4: Set Up Gunicorn

If the Flask app works as expected, you can now configure Gunicorn to serve your app. Create a simple Gunicorn config file or just run Gunicorn with the necessary parameters:

gunicorn --bind 0.0.0.0:8000 src.app:app

Step 5: Create a Systemd Service File for Gunicorn

To keep Gunicorn running, create a systemd service file:

sudo systemctl edit --force --full mastodon_secure_feed.service

Paste in the following:

[Unit]
Description=Gunicorn instance to serve mastodon-secure-feed
After=network.target

[Service]
User=ubuntu
Group=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu/mastodon-secure-feed
Environment="PATH=/home/ubuntu/mastodon-secure-feed/venv/bin"
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/mastodon-secure-feed/venv/bin/gunicorn --workers 3 --bind unix:/home/ubuntu/mastodon-secure-feed/mastodon_secure_feed.sock -m 007 src.app:app

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Start and enable the Gunicorn service:

sudo systemctl start mastodon_secure_feed
sudo systemctl enable mastodon_secure_feed

Step 6: Configure Nginx

Add a new server block to your Nginx configuration or edit an existing one:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Add this server block:

# HTTPS server block for yourdomain.com
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    listen [::]:443 ssl;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        include proxy_params;
        proxy_pass http://unix:/home/ubuntu/mastodon-secure-feed/mastodon_secure_feed.sock;
    }

    # SSL configuration
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem;
}

# Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }
}

Test the configuration and restart Nginx:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Usage

Fetching Latest Posts:

Make a GET request to the /statuses endpoint to fetch the latest cached posts:
```
curl http://yourdomain.com/statuses?limit=4
```
You can also specify the number of posts to fetch using the limit parameter (up to a maximum of 10):
```
curl http://yourdomain.com/statuses?limit=4
```
Updating Cache via Webhook:

Trigger a cache update by making a GET request to the /webhook endpoint:
```
curl http://yourdomain.com/webhook
```
You can also specify the number of posts to fetch using the limit parameter (up to a maximum of 10):
```
curl http://yourdomain.com/webhook?limit=4
```

To display the Mastodon feed on your website, you can use the mastodon-feed-display JavaScript widget. This widget fetches the latest posts from the mastodon-secure-feed API and displays them.

For more information and setup instructions, visit the mastodon-feed-display repository.

Contributing

Fork the repository
Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature-branch)
Make your changes
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add new feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature-branch)
Create a new Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

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