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Setup

nio-template is a sample repository of a working Matrix bot that can be taken and transformed into one's own bot, service or whatever else may be necessary. Below is a quick setup guide to running the existing bot.

Install the dependencies

There are two paths to installing the dependencies for development.

Using `docker-compose`

It is recommended to use Docker Compose to run the bot while developing, as all necessary dependencies are handled for you. After installation and ensuring the docker-compose command works, you need to:

Create a data directory and config file by following the docker setup instructions.

Create a docker volume pointing to that directory:

docker volume create \
  --opt type=none \
  --opt o=bind \
  --opt device="/path/to/data/dir" data_volume

Run docker/start-dev.sh to start the bot.

Note: If you are trying to connect to a Synapse instance running on the host, you need to allow the IP address of the docker container to connect. This is controlled by bind_addresses in the listeners section of Synapse's config. If present, either add the docker internal IP address to the list, or remove the option altogether to allow all addresses.

Running natively

If you would rather not or are unable to run docker, the following will instruct you on how to install the dependencies natively:

Install libolm

You can install libolm from source, or alternatively, check your system's package manager. Version 3.0.0 or greater is required.

(Optional) postgres development headers

By default, the bot uses SQLite as its storage backend. This is fine for a few hundred users, but if you plan to support a much higher volume of requests, you may consider using Postgres as a database backend instead.

If you want to use postgres as a database backend, you'll need to install postgres development headers:

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install libpq-dev libpq5

Arch:

sudo pacman -S postgresql-libs

Install Python dependencies

Create and activate a Python 3 virtual environment:

virtualenv -p python3 env
source env/bin/activate

Install python dependencies:

pip install -e .

(Optional) If you want to use postgres as a database backend, use the following command to install postgres dependencies alongside those that are necessary:

pip install -e ".[postgres]"

Configuration

Copy the sample configuration file to a new config.yaml file.

cp sample.config.yaml config.yaml

Edit the config file. The matrix section must be modified at least.

(Optional) Set up a Postgres database

Create a postgres user and database for matrix-reminder-bot:

sudo -u postgresql psql createuser nio-template -W  # prompts for a password
sudo -u postgresql psql createdb -O nio-template nio-template

Edit the storage.database config option, replacing the sqlite://... string with postgres://.... The syntax is:

database: "postgres://username:password@localhost/dbname?sslmode=disable"

See also the comments in sample.config.yaml.

Running

Docker

Refer to the docker run instructions.

Native installation

Make sure to source your python environment if you haven't already:

source env/bin/activate

Then simply run the bot with:

my-project-name

You'll notice that "my-project-name" is scattered throughout the codebase. When it comes time to modifying the code for your own purposes, you are expected to replace every instance of "my-project-name" and its variances with your own project's name.

By default, the bot will run with the config file at ./config.yaml. However, an alternative relative or absolute filepath can be specified after the command:

my-project-name other-config.yaml

Testing the bot works

Invite the bot to a room and it should accept the invite and join.

By default nio-template comes with an echo command. Let's test this now. After the bot has successfully joined the room, try sending the following in a message:

!c echo I am a bot!

The message should be repeated back to you by the bot.

Going forwards

Congratulations! Your bot is up and running. Now you can modify the code, re-run the bot and see how it behaves. Have fun!

Troubleshooting

If you had any difficulties with this setup process, please file an issue or come talk about it in the matrix room.

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