takahe/docs/releases/0.6.rst

0.6
===

*Not Yet Released*

This release focuses primarily on server completeness and stability, with
an extra helping of moderation tools as well.

This is the first release we *might* recommend you start a community on. Bear in
mind that this is still beta software, and so not free of bugs, but we've now
reached enough stability and moderation functionality that it's doable. We're
also spooling up invites on `takahe.social <https://takahe.social>`_ as part
of our own push in this regard - see https://jointakahe.org/takahesocial/ for
more information and how to get an invite.

If you're curious on the reasons *not* to use Takahē yet, see what's left
to implement on our :doc:`/features` page, and our federation and client
compatibility list on our :doc:`/interoperability` page.

Major features:

* Initial Mastodon Client API support

  * Timelines, notifications, posting, image upload, emoji, search, follow/unfollow, like, boost, thread view all work
  * Filtering, DMs/conversations, bookmarks, favourites list, lists, scheduling, announcements do not work yet

* Custom Emoji ("emojo") support

  * Fetching and rendering is fully supported
  * Local creation is still via the Django Admin, but otherwise works well

* Report functionality and moderation queue

  * Both local and forwarded reports from other servers
  * Identities can now be "limited" or blocked entirely

* Follows page
* Identity, user and invites admin pages
* Stator status monitoring page
* Separate moderation and admin user permission levels
* Terms Of Service, Privacy Policy, and Server Rules page functionality

Additionally, we've made lots of bug fixes and other improvements, including:

* Profile and post URLs now work in search
* Character counter on compose forms
* Compatibility with more Fediverse servers (see :doc:`/interoperability`)
* Static files are now efficiently served/proxied by a bundled nginx
* All uploaded images are now WebP for efficiency
* Sessions use signed cookies for reduced database load

Our plan for the 0.7 release is not finalised, but likely includes:

* Emoji admin page
* User-initiated identity deletion
* Server announcements system
* Initial video support
* HTML emails and moderation emails

We're now looking for specific help from the following people as we develop further:

* Visual Design - We'd like to have a proper design system and identity for Takahē
* Instance admins or developers of non-Mastodon servers - We need help debugging
  federation issues, especially where we're causing errors we can't see elsewhere.

If you'd like to help with these or other areas, see :doc:`/contributing` to
see how to get in touch.

I would also like to specifically thank `Michael Manfre <https://manfre.me/>`_
and `Tyler Kennedy (TkTech) <https://tkte.ch/>`_ for their help during the 0.6
development cycle; it is people like them, who turn up and help with the boring
and unglamarous parts of development, who make Open Source work.

You can download images from `Docker Hub <https://hub.docker.com/r/jointakahe/takahe>`_,
or use the image name ``jointakahe/takahe:0.6``.


Upgrade Notes
-------------

Signed Cookie Sessions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As of version 0.6, Takahē uses signed cookies for sessions rather than a
database table. As part of this change, when you upgrade, all users will be
signed out, but no data will be lost - they just need to sign in again.


Signup Settings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The previous "invite only signups mode" option has been removed - invites are
now always allowed to sign up, and the only option is to disable open signup
or not.

As a result, your site may default to open signups after upgrade - check the
setting and ensure signups are disabled if you want invite-only.


About Page Format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The about page and homepage have been merged and have a new format (and
Markdown is now supported). You should check your layout and formatting still
looks good.


Storage Settings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you use Google Cloud for storage, the URI format has changed - before it was
``gcs://bucketname``, and now it is ``gs:///bucketname``.


Migrations
~~~~~~~~~~

There are new database migrations, but for once, they are not fully
backwards-compatible, as we've deleted the unneeded ``stator_errors`` table.

To apply these migrations, you should:

* Stop all Stator processes (it's fine to leave webservers going)
* Apply the migrations
* Start new Stator processes