After nearly six months since the last major release, the new version of the decentralized social network building platform Hubzilla 7.0 has been published. The project provides a communication server integrated with web publishing systems, featuring a transparent identification system and access management tools in decentralized Fediverse networks. The project's code is written in PHP and JavaScript and is distributed under the MIT license, supporting MySQL and its forks, as well as PostgreSQL as the database storage.
Hubzilla has a unified authentication system that works as a social network, forums, discussion groups, wikis, article publishing systems, and websites. Federated interaction is based on its own Zot protocol, which implements the WebMTA concept for content delivery through the WWW in decentralized networks and provides a number of unique features, including transparent end-to-end authentication 'Nomadic Identity' within the Zot network, as well as a cloning function to provide fully identical entry points and sets of user data across various nodes in the network. It supports interaction with other Fediverse networks using the ActivityPub, Diaspora, DFRN, and OStatus protocols. Hubzilla's file storage is also accessible via the WebDAV protocol. Additionally, the system supports working with events and calendars through CalDAV, as well as address books using CardDAV.
Among the main innovations is a completely redesigned access rights system, which is one of the key features of Hubzilla. The refactoring has simplified the workflow while ensuring greater flexibility for more convenient interaction organization.
- Channel roles have been simplified. Now there are 4 possible options to choose from: 'public', 'private', 'community forum', and 'custom'. By default, a channel is created as 'private'.
- Individual permissions for contacts have been abolished in favor of roles, which are now a mandatory requirement when adding each contact.
- Contact roles have a default preset determined by the channel role. Custom contact roles can be created as needed. Any contact role can be set as the default for new connections in the 'Contact Roles' application.
- Privacy settings have been moved to a separate settings module. Settings for online status visibility and listings on directory pages and offers have been transferred to the profile.
- Advanced configurations are available in the privacy settings if a custom channel role is selected. They received an initial warning, and some entries that may be misinterpreted received hints.
- Privacy groups can be managed from the 'Privacy Groups' application if installed. Default privacy group settings for new content and default privacy groups for new contacts have also been transferred there.
- Guest access has been redesigned to allow adding new guests to privacy groups. Quick access links to private resources have been added to the dropdown menu for convenience.
Other significant changes include:
- The user interface for changing the profile picture has been improved.
- Poll displays have been enhanced.
- A bug with polls for channels – forums has been fixed.
- Performance when deleting a contact has been improved.
- An outdated extension for private messaging has been removed. Instead, the standard direct messaging mechanism is used, including for exchanges with Diaspora.
- Support and improvements for the Socialauth extension.
- Various bug fixes.
Most of the work was carried out by the main developer Mario Vavti with the support of the NGI Zero open source funding.
Source: opennet.ru
