Pønskelisten

Like the project? Have too much money? Buy me a coffee or something! ☕️

Introduction - What is this? 🎁

A website-based application for sharing and collaborating on wishlists and presents. The main goal is to allow the sharing of wishlists and the claiming gift ideas without the recipient knowing what they are receiving.

Notable features:

• Group people using, well, groups.
• Create wishlists, with wishes.
• Add collaborators to that very wishlist.
• Have multiple wishlists, shared with multiple groups.
• Wish claiming. Someone can claim a gift on a wishlist they are allowed to see. Anyone else who can see that wishlist then knows that gift idea is taken. The owner can't see this of course.

Known issues:

• UI can be a bit cluttered on smaller screens such as phones

Installation - A bit cumbersome 😰

I recommend using Docker honestly.

1. You need a database

A MySQL database specifically. In the future, this process can be streamlined and the different databases supported by the DB module could be added. But for now, set up a MySQL database that Pønskelisten can reach and log into.

If you are hosting this without Docker you could download XAMPP and just click "start" on the DB feature. No further setup is needed! If you are using Docker, just use the MySQL Docker image. There is even a Docker compose example further down which just needs minor tweaks.

Create a table for Pønskelisten (Docker image does this automatically), and remember the table name for later.

2. Start Pønskelisten

If you want to edit the configuration file manually, start up Pønskelisten and then let it complain a bunch. You can edit the configuration file manually afterward. If not, look further down at the Startup flags for starting Pønsklisten with configuration options.

Either compile your chosen branch/tag with Go installed and run it:

$ go build

$ ./poenskelisten

... or download a pre-compiled release and start the application.

If you want to start up Pønskelisten with some startup flags for a smoother experience, look at the next section. If not, just go to step three.

Startup flags

You can use startup flags to generate values to populate the configuration file with. They are only used if the configuration file doesn't have a pre-configured value to prioritize. The moment the configuration file has values, these flags are useless. Sort of a one-time thing.

The exceptions are generateinvite, which will generate a new, random invitation code at each usage, and disablesmtp which will always disable the SMTP function.

Flag	Type	Explaination
port	integer	Which port Pønskelisten starts on.
timezone	string	The timezone Pønskelisten uses. Given in the TZ database name format. List can be found here.
generateinvite	string (true/false)	If Pønskelisten should generate an invitation code on startup.
dbip	string	The connection address Pønskelisten uses to reach the database.
dbport	integer	The port Pønskelisten can reach the database at.
dbname	string	The name of the table within the database.
dbusername	string	The username used to autnenicate with the database.
dbpassword	string	The password used to autnenicate with the database.
disablesmtp	string (true/false)	Disables SMTP, meaning user verificaton is disabled. SMTP is enabled by default.
smtphost	string	The SMTP server host used.
smtpport	integer	The SMTP server host port used.
smtpusername	string	The username used to authenticate towards the SMTP server used.
smtppassword	string	The username used to authenticate towards the SMTP server used.
upgradetov2	string (true/false)	Converts db.sql in the /files folder to the v2.00 format.

To use a flag, just start the compiled Go program with additional values. Such as:

$ ./poenskelisten -port 7679

$ ./poenskelisten -port 7679 -dbip 127.0.0.1 -dbname mycooltable -smtphost smtp.justanexample.org

3. Configure the /files/config.json file

You can skip this step if you utilized the start-up flags in the previous step, or go back and use the flags instead. The flags are just a way to give startup parameters to put in the config.json file. The table of flags also provides some insight into how the configuration file can be edited manually.

Edit the configuration file so it can reach the MySQL database, and possibly an SMTP server if you don't disable the SMTP function. There is no admin interface currently so this must be done manually in the file. The timezone is also necessary, but the private key should populate automatically.

Restart Pønskelisten for the changes to take effect.

You should not be able to access Pønskelisten. By default, you can find the front end at localhost:8080.

4. Be able to alter the DB

To sign up for the website you need an invitation code. If you used the generateinvite flag you can find an invitation code in the log file located within the files directory, or on the console.

If not, you need to alter the database table to add the invitation code. Cumbersome, I know.

I recommend installing PHPMyAdmin (a database interface) either as a Docker image or locally (it comes pre-packaged in XAMPP). This can used to alter the database.

The first user who signs up is automatically an admin. You need an invitation code for every user who wants to sign up. This can be generated on the admin page.

Be prepared to access the DB every time a user manages to screw up their e-mail while signing up or someone needs an invitation code.

Docker

Environment variables

All the startup flags in the table given previously can be used as environment variables. Do keep in mind that the flags, and in turn the environment variables, are only used if the value is not already defined in the configuration file.

The only exceptions are the generateinvite and the disablesmtp. Consider removing the generateinvite environment variable from your Docker compose file so you don't generate a new code at every restart.

Docker-Compose example

It has Pønskelisten, MySQL DB and PHPMyAdmin. In theory, you just have to edit the environment variables for the Pønskelisten service for this example to function.

version: '3.3'
services:

  db:
    image: mysql:5.7
    container_name: poenskelisten-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:

      # The table name you chose
      MYSQL_DATABASE: 'ponske'

      # User, so you don't have to use root 
      MYSQL_USER: 'myuser'

      # Please switch this password
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: 'mystrongpassword' 

      # Password for root access, change this too
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: 'root' 

    networks:
      - db
    expose:
      - '3306'

    # Where our DB data will be persisted
    volumes:
      - ./db/:/var/lib/mysql/ # Location of DB data

  poenskelisten:
    container_name: poenskelisten-app
    image: aunefyren/poenskelisten:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - db
    depends_on:
      - db

    # Where our Pønskeliste files are
    volumes:
      - ./data/:/app/files/

    ports:
      - '8080:8080'
    environment:

      # Generate an unused invite code on startup
      # Remove this value to avoid continuous code-generation
      generateinvite: true

      # The container will only respect these ENV if they are empty in the config.json
      # Useful for first setup
      port: 8080
      timezone: Europe/Oslo
      dbip: db
      dbport: 3306
      dbname: ponske
      dbusername: myuser
      dbpassword: mystrongpassword
      disablesmtp: false
      smtphost: smtphost
      smtpport: 25
      smtpusername: myusername
      smtppassword: mypassword

  phpmyadmin:
    image: phpmyadmin:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:

      - PMA_ARBITRARY=1

      # DB table
      - PMA_HOST:ponske 

      # Root password
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD:root 

      # Timezone
      - TZ=Europe/Oslo 

    container_name: poenskelisten-phpmyadmin
    ports:
      - 80:80
    depends_on:
      - db
    networks:
      - db

networks:
  db:
    external: false

FAQ - What u mean??? 😕

What does Pønskelisten mean?
Just a clever Norwegian wordplay that doesn't translate to English at all. A wishlist is called a 'ønskeliste' in Norwegian, and the verb 'pønske' means to plot and plan. Therefore, Pønskelisten.

Can you please remove the need to manage the DB directly?
Yeah yeah, it's coming.

The End - Does it work? 🪛

Well, this is in early development and making it user-friendly and worth hosting is hard and takes time. It is certainly functional, but it isn't necessarily what you need or want. Feel free to add feedback or feature requests in the form of GitHub Issues.