I'm very pleased to announce that the first release of Podping is ready and public. There is:

• github Podcastindex-org/podping-hivewriter
• a library on Pypi - podping-hivewriter
• Docker hub images - podcastindexorg/podping-hivewriter

The readme file for this is on GitHub and being worked on.

podping-hivewriter

The Hive writer component of podping. You will need a Hive account, see section Hive account and Authorization below.

Linux CLI Install

Using pipx (preferred over pip)

pipx install podping-hivewriter

Using pip

pip install --user podping-hivewriter

Make sure you have ~/.local/bin/ on your PATH.

See the dedicated CLI docs for more information.

Container

docker-compose

TODO

Building the image with Docker

Locally build the podping-hivewriter container with a "develop" tag

docker build -t podpinghivewriter:develop .

Running the image

Run the locally built image in a container, passing local port 9999 to port 9999 in the container.
ENV variables can be passed to docker with --env-file option after modifying the .env.EXAMPLE file and renaming it to .env

docker run --rm -p 9999:9999 --env-file .env --name podping podpinghivewriter:develop

Running with command line options, like --dry-run for example, add them with the full podping command.
Settings can also be passed with the -e option for Docker. Note, we leave out -p 9999:9999 here because we're not running the server.

docker run --rm \
    -e PODPING_HIVE_ACCOUNT=<account> \
    -e PODPING_HIVE_POSTING_KEY=<posting-key> \
    podpinghivewriter:develop \
    podping --dry-run write https://www.example.com/feed.xml

As another example for running a server, to run in detached mode, note the -d in the docker run options. Also note that client or server must come after the command line options for podping:

docker run --rm -d \
    -p 9999:9999 --env-file .env \
    --name podping podpinghivewriter:develop \
    podping --livetest server

One running you can view and follow the live output with:

docker logs podping -f

See the CLI docs for default values.

Development

We use poetry for dependency management. Once you have it, clone this repo and run:

poetry install

Then to switch to the virtual environment, use:

poetry shell

Make sure you have a .env file with a valid PODPING_HIVE_ACCOUNT and PODPING_HIVE_POSTING_KEY set.

After that you should be able to run the podping command or run the tests:

pytest

To run all tests, make sure to set the necessary environment variables for your Hive account. This can take many minutes:

pytest --runslow

Hive account

If you need a Hive account, please download the Hive Keychain extension for your browser then use this link to get your account from https://HiveOnboard.com?ref=podping. You will need at least 20 Hive Power "powered up" to get started (worth around $10). Please contact @brianoflondon brian@podping.org if you need assistance getting set up.

If you use the Hiveonboard link podping will delegate enough Hive Power to get you started.

Permissions and Authorization

You don't need permission, but you do need to tell podping that you want to send valid podpings:

• Hive is a so-called "permissionless" blockchain. Once you have a Hive Account and a minimal amount of Hive Power, that account can post to Hive, including sending podpings;

• Nobody can block any valid Hive Account from sending and nobody can help you if you lose your keys;

• Whilst anyone can post podpings to Hive, there is a need to register your Hive Accountname for those podpings to be recognized by all clients;

• Please contact new@podping.org or send a Hive Transfer to @podping to have your account validated.

• Side note on keys: podping uses the posting-key which is the lowest value of the four Hive keys (owner, active, memo, posting and there is usually a master password which can generate all the keys). That is not to say that losing control of it is a good idea, but that key is not authorized to make financially important transfers. It can, however, post public information so should be treated carefully and kept secure.

For a comprehensive explanation of Hive and Podping, please see this post.