The first experimental release of the server side of the Fosscord project has been published, developing an open communication platform for organizing communication in communities through chat, video, and voice calls. An important feature distinguishing it from other open projects of similar purpose, such as Revolt and Rocket.Chat, is the provision of compatibility at the protocol level with the proprietary messenger Discord — Fosscord users can communicate with people who continue to use the service at discord.com. The project code is written in TypeScript using the Node.js platform and is distributed under the AGPLv3 license. Ready builds server are prepared for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
The server, allowing you to deploy the platform on your own infrastructure, includes components implementing a Discord-compatible HTTP API, a gateway based on the WebSocket protocol, a content delivery network, servers RTC, and WebRTC for organizing voice and video communication, utilities, and a web interface for management. MongoDB is used as the DBMS. Additionally, the project develops a client and CSS framework for creating Discord-style interfaces.
The ultimate goal of the project is to create a clone of Discord that is fully backward compatible but provides extended capabilities. The Fosscord client can replace the official Discord client, and the Fosscord server will allow for launching a Discord-compatible server on your own hardware. Discord support will facilitate the transition of users to the open platform, simplify the migration of bots, and maintain previous workflows and communication environments — after migration, users will still be able to communicate with colleagues who continue to use Discord.
Among the advantages of the Fosscord platform is the ability to finely tune all aspects and limitations, a decentralized architecture without a single point of failure (implying that the client can connect to multiple servers simultaneously), the possibility of extending functionality through plugins, changing appearance through themes, and the use of end-to-end encryption for confidential discussions. Support for bots is provided to enhance server capabilities.
Source: opennet.ru
