# A web client for WeeChat [](https://travis-ci.org/glowing-bear/glowing-bear?branch=master)
Glowing Bear is a web frontend for the [WeeChat](http://weechat.org) IRC client and strives to be a modern interface. It relies on WeeChat to do all the heavy lifting and then provides some nice features on top of that, like embedding images, videos, and other content. The best part, however, is that you can use it from any modern internet device -- whether it's a computer, tablet, or smart phone -- and all your stuff is there, whereever you are. You don't have to deal with the messy technical details, and all you need to have installed is a browser or our app.
Glowing Bear is a web frontend for the [WeeChat](https://weechat.org) IRC client and strives to be a modern interface. It relies on WeeChat to do all the heavy lifting and then provides some nice features on top of that, like embedding images, videos, and other content. The best part, however, is that you can use it from any modern internet device -- whether it's a computer, tablet, or smart phone -- and all your stuff is there, wherever you are. You don't have to deal with the messy technical details, and all you need to have installed is a browser or our app.
## Getting Started
Glowing Bear connects to the WeeChat instance you're already running (version 0.4.2 or later is required), and you need to be able to establish a connection to the WeeChat host from your device. It makes use of the relay plugin, and therefore you need to set up a relay. If you want to get started as quickly as possible, use these commands in WeeChat:
Glowing Bear connects to the WeeChat instance you're already running (version 0.4.2 or later is required), and you need to be able to establish a connection to the WeeChat host from your device. It makes use of the relay plugin, and therefore you need to set up a relay. If you want to try this out with a local WeeChat instance, use these commands in WeeChat to create an **unencrypted relay** (see the note below):
/relay add weechat 9001
/set relay.network.password YOURPASSWORD
Now point your browser to the [Glowing Bear](http://www.glowing-bear.org)! If you're having trouble connecting, check that the host and port of your WeeChat host are entered correctly, and that your server's firewall permits incoming connections on the relay port.
Now point your browser to the [Glowing Bear](http://www.glowing-bear.org)! If you're having trouble connecting, check that the host and port of your WeeChat host are entered correctly, and that your server's firewall permits incoming connections on the relay port (9001 in this example).
Please note that the above instructions set up an *unencrypted* relay, and all your data will be transmitted in clear. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you set up encryption if you want to keep using Glowing Bear. We've written [a detailed guide on how to set up a trusted secure relay](https://4z2.de/2014/07/06/weechat-trusted-relay) for you.
**Please note that the above instructions set up an unencrypted relay, and all your data will be transmitted in clear.** You should not use this over the internet. We strongly recommend that you set up encryption if you want to keep using Glowing Bear. There's a guide on setting it up with Let's Encrypt on the landing page of the [next version of Glowing Bear](https://latest.glowing-bear.org), under "Getting Started". Ask us in `#glowing-bear` on freenode if something is unclear.
You can run Glowing Bear in many ways: use it like any other webpage, as an app in Firefox (choose "Install app" on the landing page) or Chrome ("Tools", then "Create application shortcuts"), or a full-screen Chrome app on Android ("Add to homescreen"). We also provide an [Android app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glowing_bear) that you can install from the Google Play Store, and a [Firefox OS app](https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/glowing-bear/) in the Firefox Marketplace.
You can run Glowing Bear in many ways:
<ahref="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glowing_bear"><imgalt="Android app on Google Play"src="/assets/img/badge_playstore.png"/></a><ahref="https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/glowing-bear/"><imgalt="Firefox OS app in the Firefox Marketplace"src="/assets/img/badge_firefoxos.png"/></a>
* like any other webpage
* Chrome app ("Tools", then "Create application shortcuts")
* Android Chrome app, a full-screen experience ("Add to homescreen").
* [Android app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glowing_bear) that you can install from the Google Play Store
* Electron app for Windows, Linux and macOS. ```npm install; npm install electron-packager; npm run build-electron-{windows, darwin, linux}``` (choose your platform from the list, e.g. `build-electron-darwin` for macOS)
<ahref="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glowing_bear"><imgalt="Android app on Google Play"src="/assets/img/badge_playstore.png"/></a>
## Screenshots
@ -35,8 +41,9 @@ Glowing Bear uses WeeChat directly as its backend through the relay plugin. This
## FAQ
- *Can I use Glowing Bear to access a machine or port not exposed to the internet by passing the connection through my server?* No, that's not what Glowing Bear does. You can use a websocket proxy module for your webserver to forward `/weechat` to your WeeChat instance though. Here are some pointers you might find helpful for setting this up with [nginx](http://nginx.com/blog/websocket-nginx/) or [apache](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy_wstunnel.html).
- *How does the encryption work?* TLS is used for securing the connection if you enable encryption. This is handled by your browser, and we have no influence on certificate handling, etc. You can find more detailed instructions on how to communicate securely in the "encryption instructions" tab on the [landing page](http://www.glowing-bear.org). A detailed guide on setting up a trusted secure relay is available [here](https://4z2.de/2014/07/06/weechat-trusted-relay).
- *Can I use Glowing Bear to access a machine or port not exposed to the internet by passing the connection through my server?* No, that's not what Glowing Bear does. You can use a websocket proxy module for your webserver to forward `/weechat` to your WeeChat instance though. We've got instructions for setting this up [on our wiki](https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear/wiki/Proxying-WeeChat-relay-with-a-web-server).
- *How does the encryption work?* TLS is used for securing the connection if you enable encryption. This is handled by your browser, and we have no influence on certificate handling, etc. You can find more detailed instructions on how to communicate securely in the "Getting Started" tab on the [landing page of our development version](https://latest.glowing-bear.org).
- *Can I make it so that there are no requests to third party servers at all?* Sure, you'll have to hide embeds by default (it's in the settings dialog), and download the JavaScript files for which we use a CDN by default. For the second step, you have two options: a) use the Android or Electron app, or b) run `npm run make-local` to download the files and apply a patch to use them instead of the CDN. But remember to re-run this command whenever you update Glowing Bear!
## Development
@ -55,11 +62,9 @@ python -m http.server
Now you can point your browser to [http://localhost:8000](http://localhost:8000)!
Remember that **you don't need to host Glowing Bear yourself to use it**, you can just use [our hosted version](http://www.glowing-bear.org) powered by GitHub pages, and we'll take care of updates for you. Your browser connects to WeeChat directly, so it does not matter where Glowing Bear is hosted.
If you'd prefer a version hosted with HTTPS, GitHub serves that as well with an undocumented, not officially supported (by GitHub) link. Be careful though, it might break any minute. Anyway, here's the link: [secret GitHub HTTPS link](https://glowing-bear.github.io/glowing-bear/).
Remember that **you don't need to host Glowing Bear yourself to use it**, you can just use [our hosted version](https://www.glowing-bear.org) powered by GitHub pages, and we'll take care of updates for you. Your browser connects to WeeChat directly, so it does not matter where Glowing Bear is hosted.
You can also use the latest and greatest development version of Glowing Bear at [https://latest.glowing-bear.org/](https://latest.glowing-bear.org/).
You can also use the latest and greatest development version of Glowing Bear at [https://latest.glowing-bear.org/](https://latest.glowing-bear.org/). Branches of this repository are available as [https://latest.glowing-bear.org/**branchname**/](https://latest.glowing-bear.org/branchname/), and pull requests as [https://latest.glowing-bear.org/pull/**123**/](https://latest.glowing-bear.org/pull/123/)—note the trailing slashes.
### Running the tests
Glowing Bear uses Karma and Jasmine to run its unit tests. To run the tests locally, you will first need to install `npm` on your machine. Check out the wonderful [nvm](https://github.com/creationix/nvm) if you don't know it already, it's highly recommended.
@ -89,4 +94,4 @@ If you wish to submit code, we try to make the contribution process as simple as
We'd also like to ask you to join our IRC channel, #glowing-bear on freenode, so we can discuss your ideas and changes.
If you're curious about the projects we're using, here's a list: [AngularJS](https://angularjs.org/), [Bootstrap](http://getbootstrap.com/), [Underscore](http://underscorejs.org/), [favico.js](http://lab.ejci.net/favico.js/), Emoji provided free by [Emoji One](http://emojione.com/), and [zlib.js](https://github.com/imaya/zlib.js). Technology-wise, [WebSockets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket) are the most important part, but we also use [local storage](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Storage#localStorage), the [Notification Web API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/API/notification), and last (but not least) [Apache Cordova](https://cordova.apache.org/) for our mobile app.
If you're curious about the projects we're using, here's a list: [AngularJS](https://angularjs.org/), [Bootstrap](http://getbootstrap.com/), [Underscore](http://underscorejs.org/), [favico.js](http://lab.ejci.net/favico.js/), Emoji provided free by [Emoji One](http://emojione.com/), and [zlib.js](https://github.com/imaya/zlib.js). Technology-wise, [WebSockets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket) are the most important part, but we also use [local storage](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Storage#localStorage), the [Notification Web API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/API/notification), and last (but not least) [Apache Cordova](https://cordova.apache.org/) for our mobile app.
<strong>We now support TLS!</strong> If you're using an encrypted relay, you should change your bookmarks to <ahref="https://www.glowing-bear.org"style="">http<spanstyle="color:#090; font-weight:bold">s</span>://www.glowing-bear.org</a>
<divclass="alert alert-warning"ng-show="show_tls_warning"ng-cloak><strong>You're using Glowing Bear over an unencrypted connection (http://). This is not recommended!</strong> We recommend using our secure hosted version at <ahref="https://www.glowing-bear.org/">https://www.glowing-bear.org/</a>, or <ahref="https://latest.glowing-bear.org/">https://latest.glowing-bear.org</a> for the latest development version. If your relay is on your local network, that is unfortunately impossible, but be aware of the implications.</div>
<strong>Secure connection error</strong> A secure connection with the WeeChat relay could not be initiated. This is most likely because your browser does not trust your relay's certificate. Please read the encryption instructions below!
<strong>Secure connection error</strong> Unable to connect to unencrypted relay when your are connecting to Glowing Bear over HTTPS. Please use an encrypted relay or load the page without using HTTPS.
<strong>Secure connection error</strong> Unable to connect to unencrypted relay when you are connecting to Glowing Bear over HTTPS. Please use an encrypted relay or load the page without using HTTPS.
GlowingBear requires JavaScript support to function. Additionally, you must allow JS from <code>cdnjs.cloudflare.com</code>. Please check your script blocker or browser settings.
</div>
Glowing Bear is a web frontend for the WeeChat IRC client and strives to be a modern interface. It relies on WeeChat to do all the heavy lifting and then provides some nice features on top of that, like embedding images, videos, and other content. The best part, however, is that you can use it from any modern internet device -- whether it's a computer, tablet, or smart phone -- and all your stuff is there, wherever you are. You don't have to deal with the messy technical details, and all you need to have installed is a browser or our app.
<div>To start using glowing bear, please enable the relay plugin in your WeeChat client:
<p><spanclass="label label-danger">WeeChat version 0.4.2 or higher is required—we recommend at least 1.0.</p>
<p>To start using Glowing Bear, follow the instructions below to set up an encrypted relay. All communication goes directly between your browser and your WeeChat relay! This means that your server must be accessible. We never see any of your data or your password, and you don't need to trust a "cloud". All settings, including your password, are saved locally in your own browser between sessions.</p>
<divclass="alert alert-warning"ng-show="show_tls_warning"><strong>You're using Glowing Bear over an unencrypted connection (http://). This is not recommended!</strong> We recommend using our secure hosted version at <ahref="https://www.glowing-bear.org/">https://www.glowing-bear.org/</a>, or <ahref="https://latest.glowing-bear.org/">https://latest.glowing-bear.org</a> for the latest and greatest development version. You can still follow the instructions below to set up an encrypted relay, though.</div>
<p>When using encryption, all communication between your browser and WeeChat will be securely encrypted with TLS. This means that you have to set up a certificate. While it's possible to use a self-signed cert, we recommend against it, because it's handled poorly in browsers, and may not work at all on mobile devices. If you don't already have a certificate for your domain (or you don't have a domain), we strongly encourage you to get a certificate from <ahref="https://letsencrypt.org/">Let's Encrypt</a>—it's free and easy. We'll walk you through it.</p>
<p><strong>If you don't have a domain</strong> you can get a free subdomain from providers such as <ahref="https://freedns.afraid.org/">afraid</a>. You'll want to set up an 'A' record to your server's IP address, and quite possibly an AAAA record to its IPv6 address. These might take a few hours to propagate, if the steps below don't work right away, try again in a few hours.</p>
<p><strong>Getting a certificate</strong> is easy. You'll need certbot—just follow the encryptions at <ahref="https://certbot.eff.org/">https://certbot.eff.org</a>. If you're not serving webpages on the same server or are unsure, select "none of the above" (if you are, you can probably use that webserver to proxy your relay, and skip this—check out the <ahref="https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear/wiki/Proxying-WeeChat-relay-with-a-web-server">instructions in our Wiki</a>). Next, get the certificate with <code>certbot certonly --standalone -d {{ settings.host || your.domain.com }}</code> and follow the instructions.</p>
<p>Nearly done! Now you just need to copy the files into place. To do that, use the following commands, replacing the <strong>username</strong> placeholder with your actual username:</p>
<p>Once you've got the certificate and moved it in place, you can set up an encrypted relay on port {{ settings.port || 9001 }} with these WeeChat commands:</p>
<spanclass="label label-danger">WeeChat version 0.4.2 or higher is required.</span><br>
The communication goes directly between your browser and your WeeChat relay in plain text. Check the instructions below for help on setting up encrypted communication.
Connection settings, including your password, are saved locally in your own browser between sessions.
<br>
<h3>Shortcuts</h3>
<p>Your certificate needs to be renewed every couple of months. Either follow the instructions for automatic renewal at <ahref="https://certbot.eff.org/">https://certbot.eff.org</a>, or run <code>certbot renew</code> manually when renewal is due. <strong>Important:</strong> You'll need to follow the instructions for copying the certificate to the right place again, and re-run <code>/relay sslcertkey</code> in WeeChat.</p>
<li>Arrow keys: Navigate history, or navigate quick search buffer results. Pressing <kbd>↓</kbd> while writing a message pushes it onto the history for later re-use, without sending it.</li>
<li><kbd>Tab</kbd>: Complete nick</li>
<li>The following readline/emacs style keybindings can be enabled with a setting: <spantitle="Move cursor to beginning of line"><kbd>Ctrl-a</kbd></span>, <spantitle="Move cursor to te end of the line"><kbd>Ctrl-e</kbd></span>, <spantitle="Delete from cursor to beginning of the line"><kbd>Ctrl-u</kbd></span>, <spantitle="Delete from cursor to the end of the line"><kbd>Ctrl-k</kbd></span>, <spantitle="Delete from cursor to previous space"><kbd>Ctrl-w</kbd></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Pinning buffers</h3>
<p>
The option "Only show buffers with unread messages" is useful when you have a lot of buffers and can't meaningfully look at all of them at the same time. However, often you have a select few buffers that you use more frequently and would like to have displayed permanently.
</p>
<p>
To pin a buffer, type <code>/buffer set localvar_set_pinned true</code>. <strong>Note</strong>: Local variables on buffers are not persisted across WeeChat restarts, so either use script <code>buffer_autoset.py</code> to automatically apply that upon buffer creation or use a trigger if you want automatic repinning when buffers get recreated. To unpin, you can use the same command and set anything other than <code>true</code>.
</p>
<p>
Helpful trigger to automatically repin a buffer (in this instance, <var>irc.freenode.#weechat</var>): <pre><code>/trigger add autopin signal "buffer_opened" "${buffer[${tg_signal_data}].full_name} =~ <var>irc.freenode.#weechat</var>" "" "/command -buffer ${buffer[${tg_signal_data}].full_name} * /buffer set localvar_set_pinned true"</code></pre>
<p>If you check the encryption box, the communication between browser and WeeChat will be encrypted with TLS.</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: If you are using a self-signed certificate, you have to visit <ahref="https://{{ settings.host }}:{{ settings.port }}/weechat">https://{{ settings.host || 'weechathost' }}:{{ settings.port || 'relayport' }}/weechat</a> in your browser first to add a security exception. You can close that tab once you confirmed the certificate, no content will appear. The necessity of this process is a bug in <ahref="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=594502">Firefox</a> and other browsers.</p>
<p><strong>Setup</strong>: If you want to use an encrypted session you first have to set up the relay to use TLS. You basically have two options: a self-signed certificate is easier to set up, but requires manual security exceptions. Using a certificate that is trusted by your browser requires more setup, but offers greater convenience later on and does not require security exceptions. You can find a guide to set up WeeChat with a free trusted certificate from StartSSL <ahref="https://4z2.de/2014/07/06/weechat-trusted-relay">here</a>. Should you wish to use a self-signed certificate instead, execute the following commands in a shell on the same host and as the user running WeeChat:</p>
<p>If WeeChat is already running, you can reload the certificate and private key and set up an encrypted relay on port {{ settings.port || 9001 }} with these WeeChat commands:</p>
<p>You don't need to install anything to use this app, it should work with any modern browser. Start using it <adata-toggle="collapse"data-parent="#accordion"href="#collapseOne">right now</a>! However, there are a few ways to improve integration with your operating system.</p>
<p>You don't need to install anything to use Glowing Bear, it works with any modern browser. Start using it <adata-toggle="collapse"data-parent="#accordion"href="#collapseOne">right now</a> at the top of the page! However, there are a few ways to improve integration with your operating system.</p>
<h3>Mobile Applications</h3>
<p>If you're running Android 4.4 or later, you can install our app from the Google Play Store! We also provide an optimized application for Firefox OS devices. If you're using the Firefox browser, keep on reading below -- the Firefox OS app won't work for you</p>
<p><ahref="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glowing_bear"><imgalt="Android app on Google Play"src="assets/img/badge_playstore.png"/></a><ahref="https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/glowing-bear/"><imgalt="Firefox OS app in the Firefox Marketplace"src="assets/img/badge_firefoxos.png"/></a></p>
<p>If you're running Android 4.4 or later, you can install our app from the Google Play Store! We can't distribute on iOS unfortunately, but if you're a developer, you can <ahref="https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear-cordova">follow the sideloading instructions</a>.</p>
<p><ahref="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glowing_bear"><imgalt="Android app on Google Play"src="assets/img/badge_playstore.png"/></a></p>
<h3>Electron</h3>
<p>Glowing Bear supports the electron shell. You'll have to build it yourself, though. Run the following commands, choosing your platform from the list in the last command: <pre>git clone https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear
cd glowing-bear
npm install
npm install electron-packager
npm run build-electron-{windows, darwin, linux}</pre>
<h3>Firefox Browser</h3>
<p>If you have a recent version of Firefox you can install Glowing Bear as a Firefox app. Click the button to install.</p>
<p>Note for self-signed certificates: Firefox does not share a certificate storage with Firefox apps, so accepting self-signed certificates is a bit tricky.</p>
<p>Firefox used to support apps, but this was removed from Firefox. There's nothing we can do about it. Sorry!</p>
<h3>Chrome</h3>
<p>To install Glowing Bear as an app in Chrome for Android, select <kbd>Menu - Add to home screen</kbd>. In the desktop version of Chrome, click <kbd>Menu - More tools - Create application shortcuts</kbd>.</p>
<p>Glowing bear is built by a small group of developers in their free time. As we're always trying to improve it, we would love getting your feedback and help. If that sounds like something you might enjoy, check out our <ahref="https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear">project page</a> on GitHub!</p>
<p>If you're interested in contributing or simply want to say hello, head over to <strong>#glowing-bear</strong> on <strong>freenode!</strong> We won't bite, promise (-ish).</p>
<p>If you're interested in contributing or simply want to say hello, head over to <strong>#glowing-bear</strong> on <strong>freenode!</strong> We won't bite, promise :)</p>
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<p><strong>Connection to WeeChat lost</strong></p>
<iclass="glyphicon glyphicon-refresh"></i>
Reconnecting... <iclass="glyphicon glyphicon-spin glyphicon-refresh"></i><aclass="btn btn-xs"ng-click="reconnect()"href="#">Click to try to reconnect now</a>
// A KeyboardEvent property representing the physical key that was pressed, ignoring the keyboard layout and ignoring whether any modifier keys were active.
// Not supported in Edge or Safari at the time of writing this, but supported in Firefox and Chrome.
varkey=$event.code;
// Safari doesn't implement DOM 3 input events yet as of 8.0.6
// Ask for permission to display desktop notifications
@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ weechat.factory('notifications', ['$rootScope', '$log', 'models', 'settings', fu
}
}
if('serviceWorker'innavigator){
// Check for serviceWorker support, and also disable serviceWorker if we're running in electron process, since that's just problematic and not necessary, since gb then already is in a separate process
Lorenz Hübschle-Schneider
7 years ago
