[HN Gopher] Libli, tiny Matrix client for building public libraries
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Libli, tiny Matrix client for building public libraries
Author : ngc6677
Score : 60 points
Date : 2022-03-07 10:35 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (libli.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (libli.org)
| mxuribe wrote:
| While I have not tried/implemented Libli (yet), I'm happy to see
| more innovation around the matrix protocol! The more, the
| merrier; and we all benefit! Also, it looks like it is less setup
| - maybe easier to run (?) - than one of the implementations that
| I've read about, like this one: https://evolved.systems/hosting-
| a-blog-on-matrix/
|
| ...But, again, I'm glad to see any and all implementations and
| ideas leveraging matrix! Kudos!
| ngc6677 wrote:
| Thanks! It is only a client software, not the server part. Will
| try to make it available through `npm` though, so it is easier
| to self host. Cheers! Also really excited about matrix, having
| great hopes for the future :}
|
| Also this can be helpful, https://gitlab.com/sctlib/matrix-
| room-element, which is what makes libli communicate with matrix
| APIs.
| mxuribe wrote:
| Thanks, that gitlab repo is very helpful!
| xrd wrote:
| I keep seeing information about Matrix and initially dismissed it
| as JACR (just another chat room). I hate Slack, so why would I
| want to use Matrix?
|
| But, after reading this, it's obvious I was totally wrong. Matrix
| is to Slack like Mastodon is to Twitter: decentralized. Right?
|
| Is there a good starting point for learning about Matrix?
| Especially for someone who hates chat rooms. :)
| rakoo wrote:
| Matrix is a bunch of append-only logs automatically
| synchronizing all the time. The most immediate use case is
| message passing, but it can also be microblogging, data
| storage, source code repository, pretty much anything. And
| because it has been started with HTTP+JSON, it can be used in
| the browser directly.
|
| Anything that requires any sort of communication can be built
| on top of Matrix, and profit from its inherent properties
| (authentification and authorization, encryption, signing,
| replication, ...)
| ngc6677 wrote:
| also, from the homepage, "Matrix is the missing signalling
| layer for WebRTC".
|
| That makes so much sense! It gets pretty easy to send an
| offer and answer for the webRTCPeerConnection dance!
| (https://sctlib.gitlab.io/rtc/)
| ngc6677 wrote:
| Yes, decentralized through federation like Mastodon.
|
| One other cool think about it, each "message sent to an user or
| a room", are "events".
|
| And an event can be of any type, and have any sort of (json)
| data to it.
|
| Through element.io (the main matrix client, developed by Matrix
| people), you can type `/devtools` in a chat, to test sending
| "custom events" to a room.
|
| As a developer, it means you can "hack" matrix, to make it
| store whatever data you'd like.
|
| If you'd like to look at some javascript, this is the code
| related to matrix that makes libli run
| https://gitlab.com/sctlib/matrix-room-element
|
| Otherwise this page has a lot of resources
| https://matrix.org/discover/
|
| cheers!
| mxuribe wrote:
| I think @rakoo has a great description (below) about matrix
| being so much more than a mere chat system.
|
| As far as where to learn more, maybe try visiting:
| https://matrix.org/discover
|
| Also, i think i learned the most by reading the client-server
| api spec, and figuring out how to leverage the api to send
| messages into a room (from a little throw-away command line app
| i built)...but then, i dissolved my thinking that my little
| playing arouind had to be a "chat message" that gets sent into
| a roomn, and pretended the rooms and messages were for other
| contexts...and that is when my brain blew up, and that matrix
| is much more beyond just a chat messaging protocol. From my
| little playing around i grew to understand use cases like event
| synching between, say, IoT devices, and on and on...
| Admittedly, the chat use case is pretty easy to get acquanted
| with matrix. But i feell that there is so much more in store
| for the future of matrix. There are lots of clever people out
| there; i can't wait to see what else they build with matrix!
|
| EDIT: UPDATE...My apologies, i should not have assumed you were
| a dev/techie and would be willing or had the availabnility to
| "just build an app" in order to learn about a thing; sorry! My
| note about visiting the /discover page still would help in any
| case. :-)
| sitzkrieg wrote:
| sign up on a server of your choice. then browse rooms on eg,
| matrix.org and try to join a popular room. time how long it
| takes before it becomes usable. once that's done, login a
| second time on a different device and watch the various rooms
| go out of sync constantly :-)
| stinkytaco wrote:
| As a public librarian, I was sort of thrown by the title. It's
| for things like image libraries, or presumably other media. Not
| related to lending libraries.
| ngc6677 wrote:
| ah yes sorry, not only images - tough could be a (visual)
| start. Hoping to get you surprised, because, libraries, I'd
| like more of them, more knowledge/experience sharing.
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