Wallabag

#lang-php #web #reading-list 

Wallabag is a read later solution like Firefox Pocket to save and organize articles between devices and make them available offline. This is the server-side application, it will fetch articles and save the content and images on the server when a link is provided. There is also client software for browsers and mobile devices available which can be used to download and read the fetched articles and add new articles to the server.

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

Prerequisites

We’re using PHP in the stable version 7.3:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace tools version show php
Using 'PHP' version: '7.3'
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Warning

Wallabag 2.3.x does not work with PHP 7.4

You’ll need your MySQL credentials. Get them with my_print_defaults:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ my_print_defaults client
--default-character-set=utf8mb4
--user=isabell
--password=MySuperSecretPassword
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Also, the domain you want to use for Wallabag must be set up as well:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Installation & Configuration

First get the Wallabag source code from GitHub:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ git clone https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag.git ~/html
Cloning into '/home/isabell/wallabag'...
remote: Counting objects: 46655, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (23/23), done.
remote: Total 46655 (delta 10), reused 20 (delta 9), pack-reused 46620
Receiving objects: 100% (46655/46655), 58.15 MiB | 20.81 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (26623/26623), done.
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Change to that folder and run make install. During the installation process, you will be asked for a lot of configuration settings. But you only need to set up the following information:

  • database_name: <username>_wallabag - replace <username> with the MySQL username

  • database_user: put in the MySQL username that you looked up in the prerequisites

  • database_password: that is the MySQL password that you looked up in the prerequisites

  • mailer_host: 127.0.0.1:587 - we need to serve the special smtp port here

  • mailer_user: <username>@uber.space - replace <username> with your uberspace username

  • mailer_password: <mail-password> - you need to set a mail password for your uberspace first

  • domain_name: put in here your domain or subdomain like https://isabell.uber.space

  • secret: type in any random string here, do not keep the default string!

  • twofactor_sender: choose an email address to be used as sender

  • fosuser_registration: set this to false, otherwise anyone can register at your wallabag instance

  • from_email: choose an email address to be used as sender (can be the same as above)

  • Would you like to create a new admin user (recommended)?: yes

  • Username: admin - or you can also choose any other name, that could increase security

  • Password: choose a good password here

  • Email: set in a mail address to use with this admin account

 [isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/html
 [isabell@stardust html]$ make install
 [...]
 Creating the "app/config/parameters.yml" file
 Some parameters are missing. Please provide them.
 database_driver (pdo_mysql):
 database_driver_class (null):
 database_host (127.0.0.1):
 database_port (null):
 database_name (wallabag): isabell_wallabag
 database_user (root): isabell
 database_password (null): MySuperSecretPassword
 database_path (null):
 database_table_prefix (wallabag_):
 database_socket (null):
 database_charset (utf8mb4):
 domain_name ('https://your-wallabag-url-instance.com'): https://isabell.uber.space
 mailer_transport (smtp):
 mailer_host (127.0.0.1): 127.0.0.1:587
 mailer_user (null): isabell@uber.space
 mailer_password (null): MySuperSecretPassword
 locale (en):
 secret (ovmpmAWXRCabNlMgzlzFXDYmCFfzGv): *!!set.random.string!!*
 twofactor_auth (true):
 twofactor_sender (no-reply@wallabag.org): isabell@uber.space
 fosuser_registration (true): false
 fosuser_confirmation (true):
 from_email (no-reply@wallabag.org): isabell@uber.space
 [...]
 * Would you like to create a new admin user (recommended)? (yes/no) [yes]: yes
 * Username [wallabag]: admin
 * Password [wallabag]: [hidden] *!!choose.your.own!!*
 * Email []: isabell@uber.space
 [...]
 Config successfully setup.
 [OK] Wallabag has been successfully installed.
 [OK] You can now configure your web server, see https://doc.wallabag.org
 [isabell@stardust html]$

Note

You just need to set the highlighted values (as explained above), for the others just accept the default values with enter. You can change all the settings afterwards inside the ~/html/app/config/parameters.yml file.

To apply changes to parameters.yml, you have to clear your cache by deleting everything in ~/var/cache with this command:

[isabell@stardust html]$ bin/console cache:clear -e=prod.

You still need to forward your document root to the /web folder where the public content is located. Therefore create a .htaccess file inside the ~/html folder with the following content:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /web/$1 [QSA,L]

Updates

Note

Check the update feed regularly to stay informed about the newest version.

If there is a new version available, you can update with the following command:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/html
[isabell@stardust html]$ make update
[isabell@stardust html]$

Tested with Wallabag 2.3.2 and Uberspace 7.1.2

Written by: ezra <ezra@posteo.de>