DegenRocket server

DegenRocket-server is a backend for a web3 decentralized social media with native support for Degen Messaging Protocol (DMP).

Server setup

If you don't have any experience at setting up a server, then there is a beginner-friendly guide with scripts for an automated initial server setup.

Postgres database

Setup

By default, user postgres doesn't have a password on Ubuntu, so the backend will fail to connect due to a wrong password and it's generally not a good idea to use a default postgres user with superuser privileges for the app. The solution is to create a new user with a password, but without privileges, e.g.:

sudo su - postgres
psql
CREATE USER dbuser WITH PASSWORD 'dbuser';
CREATE DATABASE news_database WITH OWNER = dbuser;
exit
exit

Note: make sure to use a strong password and add it to .env.

nano .env

Example:

POSTGRES_PASSWORD=dbuser
POSTGRES_USER=dbuser

To create all tables in a new database, execute the code from database.sql.

Note: skip line CREATE DATABASE news_database; because we've already created a database in the step above.

sudo su - postgres
psql -h localhost -d news_database -U dbuser -p 5432
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS posts(
id SERIAL NOT NULL,
...

Note: table posts is not necessary if you disable web2 posts. However, it's suggested to create table posts to avoid any errors.

Tables

Table posts contains web2 posts (not signed with any private key), usually fetched from RSS sources.

Table actions contains all web3 actions that are signed with a private key.

Table actions_count contains the number of reactions received by the target action from other actions on this server.

Install

# update npm
npm install -g npm

# install nvm to manage node versions
# https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

# install node v18
nvm install 18

# set node v18 as default
nvm alias default 18

# switch to node v18
nvm use 18

# install packages
npm install

Environment

Create default .env file, see example .env.example.

cp .env.example .env

Test locally

npm run dev

Run production

Run with pm2

# Install pm2
npm i pm2 -g

# To make sure app starts after reboot
pm2 startup

# Run the app
npm run prod

# Freeze a process list on reboot
pm2 save

# Check processes
pm2 list

RSS

The current git version doesn't include the RSS module. It might be added in the future.

Troubleshooting

Send a message to degenrocket on Session if you need any help.