Fedify: ActivityPub server framework

🎉 Excited to announce that #Fedify is now on Open Collective! Support the project's development starting at:

• Backer (from $5/mo)
• Supporter (from $25/mo)
• Sponsor (from $100/mo)
• Corporate Sponsor (from $500/mo)
• Custom donations welcome

Your support will help us maintain and improve Fedify. Check it out here:

https://opencollective.com/fedify

#OpenCollective #support #backing #sponsor #donation

Fedify is an #ActivityPub server framework in #TypeScript & #JavaScript. It aims to eliminate the complexity and redundant boilerplate code when building a federated server app, so that you can focus on your business logic and user experience.

The key features it provides currently are:

• Type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary (including some vendor-specific extensions)
• #WebFinger client and server
• HTTP Signatures & Linked Data Signatures & Object Integrity Proofs
• Middleware for handling webhooks
• #NodeInfo protocol
• #Node.js, #Deno, and #Bun support
• CLI toolchain for testing and debugging

If you're curious, take a look at the #Fedify website! There's comprehensive docs, a demo, a tutorial, example code, and more:

https://fedify.dev/

I'm quietly really pleased with having been the mover for this change in @fedify.

Too many ActivityPub servers have put usernames in Actor URLs and it creates a complete mess when wanting to allow users to change their usernames, and created other confusion when you had non-user Actors that you wish to federate.

Here's the PR that prompted the change: https://github.com/dahlia/fedify/pull/140
https://hollo.social/@fedify/01920e31-2b71-7d3e-9d05-f5a6f347598b

The #Fedify docs now have a section on actor identifiers and #WebFinger usernames.

https://unstable.fedify.dev/manual/actor#actor-identifier-and-webfinger-username

Starting with #Fedify v1.0.0, the term handle throughout Fedify will only be used to refer to a fediverse handle (e.g., @hongminhee@fosstodon.org). An actor's internal unique ID (e.g., b379dbdc-3b4f-4ef4-88c2-fc25632d1c22) will be referred to as identifier and a WebFinger name (e.g., hongminhee) will be referred to as username. The term handle in the API will be retained for the time being for backwards compatibility, but a deprecation warning will be logged and will be deprecated in the future.

Q: Which does your #ActivityPub implementation implement, HTTP Signatures, Linked Data Signatures, or Object Integrity Proofs?

Fedify: Y·E·S!

#Fedify #fedidev

In the next release of #Fedify, v1.0.0, you'll be able to forward received activities inside an inbox listener without any modifications.

You can preview this feature in v1.0.0-dev.398+5c6e1394 (JSR & npm).

https://unstable.fedify.dev/manual/inbox#forwarding-activities-to-another-server

Once the next version of #Fedify, v1.0.0, is released, the API will be stabilized. Are there any features you'd like to see before the API is stabilized?

#fedidev #ActivityPub

Q: Which does your #ActivityPub implementation implement, HTTP Signatures, Linked Data Signatures, or Object Integrity Proofs?

Fedify: Y·E·S!

#Fedify #fedidev

@antolius We're definitely thinking about implementing C2S interactions, and it's certainly on our roadmap! But the problem is that we don't have a de facto standard for authentication yet.

Once the next version of #Fedify, v1.0.0, is released, the API will be stabilized. Are there any features you'd like to see before the API is stabilized?

#fedidev #ActivityPub

1/3 @deadsuperhero As someone new to developing ActivityPub apps the poor documentation was a big turn off. @fedify have done a great job in making it easier to build new apps and their documentation is much better. The new book by @evan is also a great read for new AP developers.

However given that the Activity Vocab was defined way back in 2017 by the W3C and Mastodon the biggest AP client still doesn't support all the verbs is a disappointment. e.g summary, listen etc.

@squaredot3301 Integrating with more web frameworks is always on Fedify's roadmap, so if there's a web framework you're looking for in particular, open an issue in our issue tracker!

In the next release of #Fedify, v1.0.0, you'll be able to forward received activities inside an inbox listener without any modifications.

You can preview this feature in v1.0.0-dev.398+5c6e1394 (JSR & npm).

https://unstable.fedify.dev/manual/inbox#forwarding-activities-to-another-server

#Fedify started out exclusively for #Deno, but now also supports #Node.js and #Bun. However, the #logo we created in the early days still features the character from Deno. Should Fedify change its logo now?

@darius Fedify is super cool. I’ve been eyeing it for some future projects, just gotta get better at JavaScript 😅

It’s pretty wild, though, that you can totally take this library, and spin up a working Fediverse app with it. Having to do all of the federation stuff from scratch seems like it would be a nightmare.

Damn... Fedify is really good. It seems like the ActivityPub library I always wanted for Node applications (rather than a reference server like the one I created for ExpressJS).

I love that it's built so you can take an existing app and quickly drop in the federation features you need (like oh okay I need my application to Follow/Accept/Reject/Undo and have the ability to Create an Article but that's it, cool, Fedify has me covered)

https://fedify.dev/tutorial/basics

One of the benefits of #Fedify is that you don't have to worry about whether a property of an Activity Vocabulary object has a URL or embeds an actual object. If you need an object, you can call the `getObject()` method (which will fetch a remote object if necessary). If you need a URI, you can access the `objectId` property.

https://fedify.dev/manual/vocab#object-ids-and-remote-objects

#ActivityPub #fedidev

#Fedify has over 400 stars on GitHub now! 🎊

https://github.com/dahlia/fedify

Creating your own federated microblog by @hongminhee https://lobste.rs/s/albrk0 #distributed #web
https://fedify.dev/tutorial/microblog

LobstersにFedifyチュートリアル「自分だけのフェディバースのマイクロブログを作ろう！」の英語版を投稿しました。

https://lobste.rs/s/albrk0/creating_your_own_federated_microblog

I submitted the @fedify tutorial “Creating your own federated microblog” to @lobsters!

https://lobste.rs/s/albrk0/creating_your_own_federated_microblog

We've applied Twoslash to the Fedify docs to show type information as tooltips in TypeScript example code—check it out now!

https://fosstodon.org/@hongminhee/113134894222177741

次のバージョンのFedifyはLinked Data Signatures (RsaSignature2017)に対応します。つまり、Mastodonが他のサーバーからフォワードしたアクティビティをFedifyが検証出来る様になります。

また、Context.sendActivity()メソッドで送信するアクティビティは、RSA-PKCS#1-v1.5の鍵ペアが一つでも有る場合、HTTP Signaturesに加え、Linked Data Signaturesが添付されます。

すでに廃止された標準であるLinked Data Signaturesを実装するのは気が進まなかったのですが、この変更がFedifyアプリのより良い互換性と相互運用性の基礎になる事を願っています。
QT: https://hollo.social/@fedify/0191ec91-922b-70d5-b5df-8afc07abbec3 [参照]

The next version of #Fedify will support #LDSignatures (#RsaSignature2017), which means that Fedify will be able to verify activities forwarded by #Mastodon from other servers.

In addition, activities sent with the Context.sendActivity() method will have Linked Data Signatures attached in addition to HTTP Signatures if any RSA-PKCS#1-v1.5 key pairs are present.

We were not motivated by implementing Linked Data Signatures, which is already an outdated standard, but we hope this change will lead to better compatibility and interoperability of Fedify apps!

#fedidev #ActivityPub

Working on @fedify's docs about #LDSignatures… I hope someday #Fedify drop the support for Linked Data Signatures… 😇

#fedidev #ActivityPub

The next #Fedify release will finally be 1.0.0. Stay tuned!

#fedidev

If you're curious about #Fedify's property hydration, here's the docs for it:

https://unstable.fedify.dev/manual/vocab#property-hydration

#Fedify has a side effect that when you call the getter method of an Activity Vocabulary object, the property that was internally a URI is populated with the actual ActivityStreams object. Today, someone at Ghost gave us a cool term for this: #hydration.

#fedidev #ActivityPub

The `fedify inbox` command, which is shipped with @fedify/cli, is a tool that creates an ephemeral #ActivityPub server so that you can debug and test the activities you send.

Here's a demo of it.

https://fedify.dev/cli#fedify-inbox-ephemeral-inbox-server

#fedidev

Fedify, an #ActivityPub server framework, has released v0.15.0! The key changes include:

• There's a new tutorial for creating a microblog.
• Actors, collections, and object dispatchers can now have URIs that do not include a WebFinger username, meaning actors can now change their fediverse handles.
• Article, ChatMessage, Note, and Question classes now have a quoteUrl property. This property corresponds to three properties at once: as:quoteUrl, misskey:_misskey_quote, and fedibird:quoteUri.
• Changed the element type of the liked collection from Like to Object | URL.
• Added Context.lookupObject() method.
• The default document loaders can now recognize ActivityStream objects from the Link header or the <link>/<a> tag in HTML.
• Added -r/--raw option to the fedify lookup command.

It is now available in JSR and npm.

#Fedify #fedidev

@silverpill FEP-e232 should be implemented in an application code. @hollo will implement it later!