NodeBB 0.6.1 on OpenShift Online for Windows users with PuTTY

STEP 1

Get started with a Free account
https://www.openshift.com/products/pricing

Download and save on Windows desktop putty.exe (SSH client) and puttygen.exe (PuTTY Key Generator) from PuTTY homepage
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Add a new key generated by puttygen.exe (Public key) to OpenShift (URL below) and save locally on your hard disk drive (Private key) for later use
https://openshift.redhat.com/app/console/settings

Sign in to OpenShift & use URL below
https://openshift.redhat.com/app/console/application_type/cart!nodejs-0.10

Public URL: demo
Source Code: https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.git
Branch/tag: v0.6.x ---------- OR SKIP TO TRY v0.7.0-dev
[Click] Create Application

! wait for Application creation !

STEP 2

Go to OpenShift Online and click on demo [OpenShift Online > Applications > demo]
https://openshift.redhat.com/app/console/applications
[Click] see the list of cartridges you can add

Install your own cartridge
http://cartreflect-claytondev.rhcloud.com/reflect?github=smarterclayton/openshift-redis-cart
[Click] Add Cartridge

STEP 3A

OpenShift Online > Applications > demo
[Click] Want to log in to your application? [near to Remote Access]
select all (Ctrl + a) & copy to clipboard (Ctrl + c)

Open PuTTY (putty.exe) on Windows desktop
Host Name (or IP address): paste from clipboard (Ctrl + v) [Session]

! remove ssh text and space from Host Name !

PuTTY > Connection > SSH > Auth
Private key file for authentication
Browse... .ppk file generated by puttygen.exe (Private key)

Back to PuTTY Session
Saved Sessions: demo
[Click] Save
[Click] Open

PuTTY Security Alert
[Click] Yes
You'll see something like [demo-yourdomain.rhcloud.com]>

! remember about your local firewall settings and allow SSH on port 22 !

STEP 3B

cd nodejs [Enter] ---------- OR USE cd n* [Enter]
cd configuration [Enter] ---------- OR USE cd confi* [Enter]
nano node.env [Enter] ---------- OR USE vi node.env [Enter]

find line
export node_app=server.js

replace with
export node_app=app.js

Exit from nano [Ctrl + x]
y [Enter] ! will save changes !
exit [Enter] ---------- OR close PuTTY window

STEP 4

OpenShift Online > Applications > demo
[Click] Restart Application [near to Started & number of small gears]
[Click] Restart

! wait for Application restart !

STEP 5A

Open PuTTY (putty.exe)
[Click] demo & [Click] Load
[Click] Open

echo $OPENSHIFT_NODEJS_IP && echo $REDIS_CLI
[Copy & Paste 2 returned lines (IPs/port/password) to a local Windows text file for a later use]

STEP 5B

cd $OPENSHIFT_REPO_DIR ---------- OR USE cd app-root && cd runtime && cd repo
node app --setup ---------- OR USE ./nodebb setup

URL used to access this NodeBB (http://localhost:4567 http://demo-yourdomain.rhcloud.com:8080 [Enter] ! replace yourdomain !
Please enter a NodeBB secret (your secret): [Enter] ! do not change !
Which database to use (redis) [Enter] ! do not change !
Host IP or address of your Redis instance (127.0.0.1): [Enter] ! Copy & Paste from a local file (STEP 5A)
Host port of your Redis instance (6379): [Enter] ! Copy & Paste from a local file / second line (STEP 5A)
Password of your Redis database: [Enter] ! Copy & Paste from a local file / second line (STEP 5A)
Which database to use (0..n): [Enter] ! do not change !

NodeBB will ask for admin user details:
Administrator username
Administrator email address
Password
Confirm Password

! wait for populating instance with default data !

STEP 5C

nano config.json ---------- OR USE nano c* ---------- OR USE vi config.json

add line between "url" and "secret" lines [IP address can be found in a local file saved in STEP 5A | IP from first line should replace 0.0.0.0 in example below)
"bind_address": "0.0.0.0",

Exit from nano [Ctrl + x]
y [Enter] ! will save changes !
exit [Enter] ---------- OR close PuTTY window

FINAL STEP

NodeBB is ready to use.

URL can be found here:
OpenShift Online > Applications > demo
(WebSockets will work after using port number :8000 in the URL)

Additional Notes

can be used as a free of charge demo (inluding Admin)
you can have up to 3 NodeBB instances in minutes
MongoDB cartridge works as good as redis and can be configured to work with NodeBB
can be used for forum migrations with nodebb-plugin-import and mysql+phpmyadmin in the same gear
no need to install rhc, git and ruby on Windows & no need to run git clone or wget or npm install on the Cloud

Up-to-date guide for advanced users

Private window/tab will give similar result to Firefox "containers". For example when using Opera browser.

When wrong user was used to post replies you can simply change post/topic author. NodeBB allows such trick and it helps to repair things in very short time.

Screenshot below shows Notifications window.

I think it lacks formatting because of special characters in nickname.

https://community.windy.com
Wikipedia: Windy is a Czech company providing interactive weather forecasting services worldwide.

You can help by sending your DB Dump.
https://github.com/akhoury/nodebb-plugin-import/issues/94

Submit an Issue.
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/issues

Feature Requests can be found here.
https://community.nodebb.org/category/5/feature-requests

There is a hook for image resize which makes a plugin possible.
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/wiki/Hooks#image

And more from Julian.

We don't have any client-side image editing tools at the moment
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/issues/3819#issuecomment-160369705

https://forum.magicmirror.builders
About: MagicMirror² is the winner in the official Raspberry Pi magazine’s 50th issue celebration feature voted by the Raspberry Pi community.

Interesting.

Not working:
NodeBB v1.0.2, all themes
NodeBB v1.0.3-auto.0, all themes

Works on Material Design 2.6.4 and NodeBB 1.0.2.

It was recently discussed here.
https://community.nodebb.org/topic/7831/image-optimizer-plugin-requests/5

It's worth to mention that MongoDB 3.0.2/3.1.1 and Redis 3.0.0 are already available.

Podman (drop-in replacement for Docker by Red Hat) was mentioned on NodeBB Community only twice. First time related to Nobbic installer (see below) and recently about real world usage.

What can be done using Nobbic installer (a bash shell script)?

• created and tested on a VPS with cheap dedicated servers in mind,
• install and upgrade NodeBB app and plug-ins with a help of Rootless Podman (Nobbic sends commands to Podman and uses Docker images),
• automated method to keep Node.js, nginx proxy and datastore/database up-to-date,
• includes basic backup/restore feature (please use official NodeBB hosting if you're looking for something more advanced),
• runs on Alpine Linux (see below for a how-to guide) and Arch Linux (any other modern distro will be good as long as it supports things like crun OCI runtime).

Source code and documentation:
https://github.com/ahwayakchih/nobbic
(About: Nobbic helps you quickly setup a pod with NodeBB, database, NGINX, etc... containers.)

Most important part of docs (how to make clean OS useful in just few steps):
https://github.com/ahwayakchih/nobbic/blob/main/docs/SetupPodmanOnAlpineHost.markdown
(How to set up Alpine Linux for running Rootless Podman)

Please keep in mind that Nobbic was last updated on October 3rd, 2021. But project author is always happy to see Pull requests and Issues on GitHub.

You can automate it by using this guide.
https://github.com/ahwayakchih/openshift-nodebb

Or the one written by me.
https://community.nodebb.org/topic/3866/guide-nodebb-0-6-1-on-openshift-for-windows-users-with-putty/1

Or use official NodeBB guide.
https://github.com/NodeBB/nodebb-english/blob/master/installing/cloud/openshift.rst

This is not a bug. You have used npm install command in the wrong folder. Use OpenShift Online in your browser to download NodeBB files to /app-root/runtime/repo and it will work as it should.

pichalite asked for config.json file generated during NodeBB initial setup. IP/domain and port.

If you have an error in config.json file it'll break images.

Please submit a bug.
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/issues

When you hit F5 in the first window you'll be logged out.

You have to open it manually.
http://localhost:4567/

Of course you need to configure it to use localhost instead of other IP/hostname/domain.

I have tested it with 0.9.4 today and it works as it should.

You have a problem with this commit.
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/commit/9d026919ac90a63496a63623af5bbdd2ca9d6de3
https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/issues/2953

1. http://theamericanbulletin.com:8080/recent
2. New topic <--
3. ---> Replying to <---

Apache as a part of XAMPP listen on port 80. You can install and configure nginx or built in Node.js webserver to listen on port of your choice (4567 by default). It will not break local PHP/ MySQL sites.

You can find ready to use configurations here:
https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/install-and-setup-nodebb-with-redis-and-nginx-on-ubuntu-12-04/
and
https://community.nodebb.org/topic/4025/how-to-change-localhost-4567-to-actual-domain-name

Your problem comes from MariaDB/MySQL and you'll find solution on Stack Overflow or GitHub.

For example you can downgrade MariaDB (older versions use SHA256_password auth and your version uses sha2_password auth) to solve problem.