xbrowsersync / api Goto Github PK

I’m trying to self-host xbrowsersync, and except the following nitpick it worked without problems.
I wanted to connect xbrowsersync using Unix Sockets to mongodb and to the reverse-proxy (nginx).

Since this approach isn’t documented, and I didn’t look at the code, I don’t know how to do it.

I tried setting the config option db.host to /var/run/mongodb/mongodb-PID.socket but that didn’t work.
I didn’t try setting server.host to some path.

This isn’t very important to me, but it would be a nice addition if it were possible to connect xbrowsersync to unix sockets and if the necessary configuration were documented.

By the way, thanks for your work.

Edit: Just to make clear: I now have xbrowsersync talking over one port with nginx and talking over some other port with mongodb.

Hey. I have implemented the minimal subset of the functionality in Google Cloud Functions (with Firestore back-end). If you think it is worth to mention this somewhere, feel free. Here are the relevant repos:

https://github.com/sbogomolov/xbrowsersync-gcf
https://github.com/sbogomolov/xbrowsersync-gcf-terraform

I am interested to sync two (or three) Firefox installations over an xbrowsersync service.

As I read on Home Page all sync servers have a size limit ranging from 1MB up to 12MB.

Since I have a huge bookmark dir tree of approx 7000 bookmarks and (sub)folders this could be critical.
I have no idea how to calculate the necessary size in MB for me.

Are the bookmarks compressed before syncing?
That would use the tiny sync server place much more efficiently.

Could someone tell me how to calc the server space from my given 7000 Bookmarks?

Is there no way to increase the sync server space?

Do I get a warning from the AddOn when my free space approaches limit?

Can I spread my bookmarks over two (!) sync servers?
...or two accounts on the same sync server?

Peter

The sequence I tried (may be helpful):

• Added a bookmark within a Chrome bookmark tool bar folder. I found that I'd bookmarked a subpage of the web site I wanted.
• Copied a "separator" link I had in another bookmark tool bar folder (about:blank with ------------- in the name text field) and pasted it below the above link.
• Added a second bookmark next to the first for the main page of the site I wanted.
• Right-click deleted the first link I made.

To solve the hang I tried to disable sync. This resulted in the local Chrome extension reloading my local bookmarks about a dozen times. It eventually stopped and gave a popup saying something like my sync had been restored. The first (incorrect) and separator bookmarks are there and the second bookmark is not. Note that I have two Chrome windows open.

I then try to create a new sync and got a daily new sync limit reached. For "new" syncs, I only tried once.

I tried to upgrade from 1.1.9 to 1.1.11 but results in following error after update:

{"name":"xBrowserSync_api","hostname":"syncme.mydomain.tld","pid":721,"level":50,"req":null,"err":{"message":"Cannot read property 'length' of undefined","name":"TypeError","stack":"TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of undefined\n at pathtoRegexp (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/node_modules/path-to-regexp/index.js:63:49)\n at new Layer (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:45:17)\n at Function.use (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:464:17)\n at Function. (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/node_modules/express/lib/application.js:220:21)\n at Array.forEach ()\n at Function.use (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/node_modules/express/lib/application.js:217:7)\n at Server.prepareRoutes (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/dist/core/server.js:312:18)\n at Server. (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/dist/core/server.js:76:22)\n at Generator.next ()\n at /usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/dist/core/server.js:14:71\n at new Promise ()\n at __awaiter (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/dist/core/server.js:10:12)\n at Server.init (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/dist/core/server.js:72:16)\n at Object. (/usr/home/xbrowsersync/API/dist/api.js:6:8)\n at Module._compile (module.js:653:30)\n at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:664:10)"},"msg":"Service failed to start","time":"2020-02-24T09:29:40.290Z","v":0}

reference: https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/connection-string/

It would be nice to have an option for using either the standard or new MongoDB DNS Seedlist Connection Format. Per the documentation, the key benefit is:

Using DNS to construct the available servers list allows more flexibility of deployment and the ability to change the servers in rotation without reconfiguring clients.

The simple workaround is to update the connection string in src/core/db.ts, but it would be nice to have a Boolean option in settings.json.

I set up a self hosted api and it works really good and it is behind a nginx ssl proxy. Port 8080 is not exposed to the internet but I would like to let it only open the port on 127.0.0.1. As described in the documetnation I set up a settings.json in the folder api/config/ with the following content after seeing that the default (127.0.0.1) wasn't used:
[...] }, "server": { "host": "127.0.0.1" },[...]
But still no luck. Any idea why this is happening?
System is ubuntu 20.04 LTS, node v10.19.0, api version 1.5.2

Instead of synchronizing with a database such as MongoDB, it would be wonderful to have a way to do it with a Git repo. It would make it possible for one to create a local or a remote repository and get rid of external database-based sync servers.

An idea is to create a JSON file for every bookmark. For instance, https://github.com/xBrowserSync could be stored as https_github.com_xBrowserSync.json, that is, :// and / (and other characters, like ? and %) could be replaced by _. Each JSON file could have the same structure of the current MongoDB documents.

Hi,

I found this good stuff on PrivacyTools.io but I would love to eventually able to sync my bookmarks and tabs over my own FTP hosted on my own hardware at home.

Do you foresee this to be available in the future? Thank you.

It would be helpful if index.js would not assume that the application is anchored at the root path, and would instead use window.location.href to figure out how to build a correct path in case xBrowserSync is proxied behind a different path.

I'm trying to test the API with curl; every call returns some variation on:

{"code":"UnsupportedVersionException","message":"The requested API version is not supported"}

If the server requires headers, can these be documentated?

$ node dist/api.js
{"name":"xBrowserSync_api","hostname":"[redacted]","pid":8532,"level":50,"req":null,"err":{"message":"failed to connect to server [xbrowsersyncdb:27017] on first connect [MongoNetworkError: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND xbrowsersyncdb xbrowsersyncdb:27017]","name":"MongoNetworkError","stack":"MongoNetworkError: failed to connect to server [xbrowsersyncdb:27017] on first connect [MongoNetworkError: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND xbrowsersyncdb xbrowsersyncdb:27017]\n    at Pool.<anonymous> (/opt/xBrowserSync/api/node_modules/mongoose/node_modules/mongodb-core/lib/topologies/server.js:564:11)\n    at Pool.emit (events.js:182:13)\n    at Connection.<anonymous> (/opt/xBrowserSync/api/node_modules/mongoose/node_modules/mongodb-core/lib/connection/pool.js:317:12)\n    at Object.onceWrapper (events.js:273:13)\n    at Connection.emit (events.js:182:13)\n    at Socket.<anonymous> (/opt/xBrowserSync/api/node_modules/mongoose/node_modules/mongodb-core/lib/connection/connection.js:246:50)\n    at Object.onceWrapper (events.js:273:13)\n    at Socket.emit (events.js:182:13)\n    at emitErrorNT (internal/streams/destroy.js:82:8)\n    at emitErrorAndCloseNT (internal/streams/destroy.js:50:3)\n    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:63:19)"},"msg":"Database error","time":"2018-12-28T17:10:39.969Z","v":0}
{"name":"xBrowserSync_api","hostname":"[redacted]","pid":8532,"level":50,"req":null,"err":{"message":"Unable to connect to database.","name":"Error","stack":"Error: Unable to connect to database.\n    at NativeConnection.dbConn.on (/opt/xBrowserSync/api/dist/core/db.js:66:28)\n    at NativeConnection.emit (events.js:182:13)\n    at process.nextTick (/opt/xBrowserSync/api/node_modules/mongoose/lib/connection.js:575:37)\n    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:61:11)"},"msg":"Service failed to start","time":"2018-12-28T17:10:39.970Z","v":0}

I figured out that this was because my password included incompatible special characters for a URL: : # ? / \ %.

Added a note to the readme to help other users and pull request following momentarily.

I would like it to be possible to add the possibility to activate U2F or OTP, in order to request a verification when connecting.
This method would allow us to protect our bookmarks in a more efficient way without endangering the anonymity of the user.

Hey there,

I'm following the guide and am unable to run the latest release. Getting the following error:

(node:13168) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: TypeError: Cannot read property 'error' of undefined
    at Server.log (/Users/vania/Data/Projects/xbrowsersync/dist/server.js:92:33)
    at Server.<anonymous> (/Users/vania/Data/Projects/xbrowsersync/dist/server.js:82:22)
    at Generator.next (<anonymous>)
    at /Users/vania/Data/Projects/xbrowsersync/dist/server.js:13:71
    at new Promise (<anonymous>)
    at __awaiter (/Users/vania/Data/Projects/xbrowsersync/dist/server.js:9:12)
    at Server.init (/Users/vania/Data/Projects/xbrowsersync/dist/server.js:72:16)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/vania/Data/Projects/xbrowsersync/dist/api.js:5:8)
    at Module._compile (module.js:649:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:660:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:561:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:501:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:493:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:690:10)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:194:16)
    at bootstrap_node.js:666:3
(node:13168) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Unhandled promise rejection. This error originated either by throwing inside of an async function without a catch block, or by rejecting a promise which was not handled with .catch(). (rejection id: 2)
(node:13168) [DEP0018] DeprecationWarning: Unhandled promise rejections are deprecated. In the future, promise rejections that are not handled will terminate the Node.js process with a non-zero exit code.

My system information:

$ node --version
v8.0.0

$ mongo --version
MongoDB shell version v3.6.3
git version: 9586e557d54ef70f9ca4b43c26892cd55257e1a5
OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.0.2n  7 Dec 2017
allocator: system
modules: none
build environment:
    distarch: x86_64
    target_arch: x86_64

$ uname
Darwin # also tried on Ubuntu 16.04

Error seems to be coming from here. Log file permissions are set to 777.

Any ideas? Been looking into this in my spare time but no good suggestion yet.

Hi

It would be nice if you offer Docker install, I think if you want large numbers of adaptations the installation should be a bit easier.

thanks

Hi,
i want to support the project with my server. Have docker running on ubuntu 18.04.

• Is it possible to just take my IP in .env?

• this tutorial https://github.com/xbrowsersync/api-docker/blob/master/README.md points to https://github.com/xbrowsersync/api and vice versa.

Can you just give a simple tut how to use the docker? Dont understand it tough :)

thx

I began trying xbrowsersync beta 1.4.1beta2 since I could not manage to get the previous release to connect successfully to a private api server..

I can run tcpdump on the server side and attempts are made to a custom port 5600. so I know by using http://mycustom.com:5600/ , the app is trying to connect but it just appears to do syn/ack back and forth without going much beyond "Hello Client"..

I ran the integrationtest on the server end and all passes...

I have the server running,
{"name":"xBrowserSync_api","hostname":"machinexyz","pid":21673,"level":30,"msg":"Service started on 9.9.9.9:5600","time":"2019-01-08T05:10:09.064Z","v":0}
^ I can do ctl-c at any time to shutdown the service so I know the server is running..

Browser: chromium 71 (in developer mode, and loaded the extracted extension)
OS: Linux Debian (stretch -- latest release)

I am using a 32-bit Linux system, and I found out that nodejs only goes up to version 8, as the nodejs team has dropped support for 32-bit starting from version 10.

What version are you using for mongodb and nodejs?, then I can try duplicate the setup a little more and see then what works and what doesnt....

(fwiw I noticed a benign typo @ "If set to true no clients will be able to connect to this service." -- https://github.com/xbrowsersync/api)

thanks

I was really excited about this extension which might help me finally dump Chrome, but alas, no Apple support. So close..

Are you really sure you won't support iOS and Safari because of a silly $99/yr licensing cost?

Us Apple users are clearly not going to migrate to an inferior platform (android) in order to get this extension but I'm sure there are many who would happily donate to the project to have their device supported. Even if you just supported Safari on OS X it would provide a means of syncing bookmarks to our iOS devices too (via iCloud).

Would you reconsider if there was enough demand?

Hi @nero120,

Currently I'm challenging myself to create similar API server using .NET Core, I already able to handle create, update, info sync request successfully but I unable to handle invalid bookmark ID correctly.

For now when xBrowserSync request for non-existing ID i would give HTTP 404 response with empty body and xBrowserSync assume that connection to server is lost as follow

Also I got confused about the response when sync size limit is exceeded or not accepting new sync? Based on your bookmarksService.ts it will throw an exception but I couldn't understand what happen next? How the exception is handled and translated into JSON response? Could you tell me the expected JSON response for xBrowserSync?

Lastly I would ask that would you allow http://localhost as API server address for xBrowserSync? It seems have validation that reject http://localhost

Thank You

I wish, well - actually required, to run xbrowsersync api at a relative url. So:

https://mysite.org/**xbrowsersync**

Is this possible? If so, how do I set that up? If not: why not, this is a common IT issue?

I am on an archlinux system with all packages up to date. Nodejs and MongoDB are installed.

Mongo is configured per your readme and npm install --unsafe-perm has been executed.

When starting the service I get the following:

 $ node dist/api.js
node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:930
  throw err;
  ^

Error: Cannot find module 'bunyan'
Require stack:
- /home/harleypig/projects/xbrowsersync-api/dist/server.js
- /home/harleypig/projects/xbrowsersync-api/dist/api.js
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:927:15)
    at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:772:27)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:999:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/cjs/helpers:93:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/harleypig/projects/xbrowsersync-api/dist/server.js:26:34)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1095:14)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1124:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:975:32)
    at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:816:12)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:999:19) {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: [
    '/home/harleypig/projects/xbrowsersync-api/dist/server.js',
    '/home/harleypig/projects/xbrowsersync-api/dist/api.js'
  ]
}

I get the same message after running npm install bunyan.

"Esers" -- rather than "Users" typo on api document page,
https://github.com/xbrowsersync/api

Any interest in adding support for DynamoDB for the persistence tier?

Hi there,

I have edited and adapted your docker-compose.yml file but before I start posting and explaining it here maybe you can give me a hint how to debug it.

the compose file starts mongo and xbs. mongo runs fine, xbs stops quite fast after starting and "docker logs -f xbs" does not show any log output.

How can I get some decent log output to debug my problems?

I noticed the default setting for the log file points to /var/log/xBrowserSync/api.log - shall I mount this file via a docker volume so I can access it after the container stops or is there some other way to get log output?

I love the current tags-feature, but are there plans for implementing folder structures?

As a user I might want to sync folder structure between different browsers/computers and access bookmarks via folders

e.g. parent/something/ contains all bookmarks that I sorted into something as I don't always want to search for a bookmark that I know, but rather a topic I previously sorted (would be even more manual than tags)

If there is something like this on the roadmap and users want the feature, I might be able to help with development.

I try to install on my server. the service using pm2, using 127.0.0.1:8080 and create virtualhost so i can access using my subdomain.

but all the css and js not loaded, and return
{"code":"ResourceNotFound","message":"/css/bootstrap.min.css"}
when i try to access directly.

and when i try to change service on the chrome extension the domain became red.

how can i tell the service is working?
the pm2 log show only this
xBrowserSync-API started on 127.0.0.1:8080 ...

Describe the issue you are experiencing
I've been using xBrowserSync for several months with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, and it's been working smoothly, until now. When I make a bookmark change in one browser, I get the following notification: "Service request limit hit. Sync has been disabled, re-enable Sync to resume syncing." If I then click the toolbar icon for XBrowserSync, I see the same message. But when I check the Data Usage graph, it tells me that I'm using only 21KB out of 1MB, or only 4% of the limit. Is this a server-side glitch or something I need to correct on my end? If the latter, can someone tell me how to resolve this bug? Thanks.

How can the issue be reproduced?
Open any browser. Make a change to a bookmark--add or delete. See if error about Service request limit hit appears.

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem:

Desktop browser
Firefox, Chrome, or Edge

• OS: Windows 10 Pro
• Browser Chrome, Firefox, or Edge
• Version Latest versions of browsers.

As I read users need not use the publicly available xBrowserSync servers but can setup and use their own xBrowserSync servers in local LAN.

Some questions about that:

Users are directed to the following page for the corresponding server:

https://github.com/xbrowsersync/api/releases

I found only source files. Is there no pre-compiled server binary package (for Windows)?

The label of this project is "API" which mean only the interface definition.
Where is the actual body of the server?

Is this a real stand-alone server or just a service in the sense of a Windows service?

In which kind of container does this server store the bookmarks: E.g. in a file or SQlite DB or full MySQL DB?

Peter

I am running 1.1.12 on QNAP NAS via Docker-api XbroweserSync. I hvae Chrome and Brave browser xmark sync connected and working (I sync'd my Brave browser toolbar first then connected chrome and overwrote by Chrome bookmarks).

I then did some cleanup of my Brave bookmark bar deleting bookmarks. I saw as I deleted them the XBrowersync extension sending the bookmark changes to my server.

Checking the Brave extension status shows the bookmarks are in sync.

I have not seen these updates in my Chrome bookmark toolbar.

Noticed that when I attempt to update the URL of a previously saved bookmark, it consistently fails to update if it is a subset of the existing URL (eg: https://github.com/tlindsay42 -> https://github.com/tlindsay4).

Error message: URL has already been bookmarked

Workaround: Insert a character into the base string so that it is no longer matches the parent and then update it again to the desired URL (eg: https://github.com/tlindsay42 -> https://g*r*ithub.com/tlindsay4 -> https://github.com/tlindsay4).

I am having issues with my stack being deployed to but the api can not find the mongodb server (both within the scope of the mongo stack and outside).
The following is the error being thrown by the xbs_api containter:

{
  "name": "xBrowserSync_api",
  "hostname": "7d8549e34a6b",
  "pid": 1,
  "level": 50,
  "req": null,
  "err": {
    "message": "Authentication failed.",
    "name": "MongoError",
    "stack": "MongoError: Authentication failed.
		at MessageStream.messageHandler (/usr/src/api/node_modules/mongodb/lib/cmap/connection.js:268:20)
		at MessageStream.emit (events.js:315:20)
		at processIncomingData (/usr/src/api/node_modules/mongodb/lib/cmap/message_stream.js:144:12)
		at MessageStream._write (/usr/src/api/node_modules/mongodb/lib/cmap/message_stream.js:42:5)
		at writeOrBuffer (internal/streams/writable.js:358:12)
		at MessageStream.Writable.write (internal/streams/writable.js:303:10)
		at Socket.ondata (internal/streams/readable.js:719:22)
		at Socket.emit (events.js:315:20)
		at addChunk (internal/streams/readable.js:309:12)
		at readableAddChunk (internal/streams/readable.js:284:9)
		at Socket.Readable.push (internal/streams/readable.js:223:10)
		at TCP.onStreamRead (internal/stream_base_commons.js:188:23)",
    "code": 18
  },
  "msg": "Unable to connect to database",
  "time": "2021-05-16T04:28:08.200Z",
  "v": 0
}

The xbs-stack.yml

version: "3.8"
services:
  api:
    image: "xbrowsersync/api:1.1.13"
    volumes:
      - xbs_data:/usr/src/api/
    ports:
      - 8082:8080
    deploy:
      labels:
        - "traefik.enable=true"
        - "traefik.http.routers.xbs.entrypoints=http"
        - "traefik.http.middlewares.xbs-https-redirect.redirectscheme.scheme=https"
        - "traefik.http.routers.xbs.middlewares=xbs-https-redirect"
        - "traefik.http.routers.xbs-secure.entrypoints=https"
        - "traefik.http.routers.xbs-secure.tls=true"
        - "traefik.http.routers.xbs-secure.service=xbs"
        - "traefik.docker.network=proxy"
        - "traefik.http.routers.xbs.rule=Host(`xbs.in.derpaholic.com`)"
        - "traefik.http.routers.xbs-secure.rule=Host(`xbs.in.derpaholic.com`)"
        - "traefik.http.services.xbs.loadbalancer.server.port=8080"
      placement:
         constraints:
           - node.labels.xbs.settings==true
    networks:
      - proxy
    healthcheck:
      test: [ "CMD", "node", "/usr/src/api/healthcheck.js" ]
      interval: "1m"
      timeout: "10s"
      retries: 5
      start_period: "30s"
volumes:
  xbs_data:
networks:
  proxy:
    external: true

Lastly the setting.json

{
    "db": {
        "host": "mongodb_mongodb",
        "name": "xbrowsersync",
        "username": "xbs",
        "password": "<password>"
    },
    "maxSyncs": 1,
    "maxSyncSize": 10240000,
    "status": {
        "allowNewSyncs": true,
        "message": "xBrowserSync."
    }
}

worth noting that "mongodb_mongodb" does work as the host because that is the hostname of the mongo server within the swarm. I have tested that within a ubuntu container attached to the same network.

Thank you for any help!

just discovered this project, and seems like exactly what I've been looking for. however, the one thing I can't seem to find is docs for the rest api itself, not just how to setup the server, but what the api looks like so i can write clients for it. is this somewhere other than the code? :)

Hello,

Thank you for your work on that project.
I am running a private API and using the latest released client (FF and chrome). To test the sync between my two browser I am searching for a way to trigger a sync (I mean by that fetching new changes) from browser B when I make a change in browser A.
Is there a way to trigger the fetching from the add-ons ? A refresh rate to configure somewhere ?

Thank you!

Hello,

First of all, a big thank you for providing this solution which helps all the orphans of xmarks :)

Would it be possible to make a version of the API with the DB creds put in some file rather than in the environment variables so we can set the access to the relevant process only ?

Cheers to you guys,

I recently discovered that you can Add a Keyword for this Search when right-clicking a search box. After defining the keyword, you can type it in the omnibar then your query, press enter, and you're redirected to that site with that search query. It's similar to DuckDuckGo's !bangs but faster and more direct. After setting xBrowserSync up on my server and using it for a couple of hours, I noticed that my keywords no longer work even though the bookmarks are there. I'm doing research for a paper right now and I have a lot of academic databases "aliased" to a couple of characters for quick use and not having those is an inconvenience. I'm not sure if a workaround on my part is needed or if a website search feature needs to be added or what but I would really like to see this functionality along with using xBrowserSync.

Would like be able to see list of all individual sync ID, storage use and qty of sync'd browsers per sync ID on my API Docker server

It seems that xBrowserSync does not support an SSL/TLS encrypted MongoDB connection. With my MongoDB being remote, this is an absolute requirement.

As title, could you please put config folder into .gitignore?
In 1.0, the config file is in .gitignore.
Besides, I suggest not to put the version number in the config file, I think it should be in somewhere else since everyone's config files are different.

Hi, just following up from the previous issue I logged, for whenever you have a chance.

I created an instance of the API server in a Docker container, using the Dockerfile attached: Dockerfile.txt

This installs mongodb, node.js 7.7.2 and the API server, configures mongodb, and creates a small launch script. When I run the API server using it, nothing gets output to the /var/log/xBrowserSync_api.log log file, and any attempts to connect to https://localhost:8080/ just time out.

Unfortunately I'm not able at the moment to investigate further, but let me know if there's any other information that would be useful in resolving the issue.

EDIT: Ah - I didn't realize that by default, the API runs over plain HTTP, rather than TLS. I can report that I now have the server running. It'd be great if the README could include any info on configuring it to use TLS - do you want me to open a separate issue for that?

This is a combination support request and documentation issue. After I get all of this sorted out, I'd be happy to add to the readme.md.

I'm running Centos 7. The setup instructions in the README.md could use a few more details. Some of these may be noob questions…

• Where is it recommended to install the source files to? To a subdir in my user home dir? Step 1
  could include the git clone command. I created ~me/xBrowserSync and from this dir I did the git clone,
  which created the API directory with the files.
• The /var/log dir generally isn't writeable by general users. I set the log file to /home/me/xBrowserSync/xBrowserSync_api.log
• If I run api.js manually from the command line as user me and point a browser on the local machine to 127.0.0.1:8080/info I get {"status":1,"message":"","version":"1.0.3","maxSyncSize":204800}. This config is just for testing and bring-up of the API server.
• Using the Chrome xBrowserSync applet (v1.3.1), I cannot set the Change Service box to http://127.0.0.1:8080/. The server text remains red and the Update button remains grayed out. If I add a .com in the entry ( http://127.0.0.1.com:8080/) the text turns black and the Update tries but fails since that's not the correct address. Seems this may be a bug/enhancement needed for the app to allow an IP address. My current plan is to run the API on my server and not use DDNS since my WAN IP address seldom changes, but I cannot set the app server field to an IP address.
• I need to set up a systemd service file to start the API on system boot. Is there a command line way to kill a currently running api.js?
• I need to get this talking on an ssl / https connection, and perhaps with a virtual web host.
• I suspect that I need to open up the remote port on server firewall, and set up the router port forward.

Hi, is possible to use it allowing only a certain of users?
thanks in advance,

I have status.online = true in config/settings.json but when I when I go to the status page it reads offline. Is there a setting elsewhere I'm missing?

If not: I think I found a bug.

I did a fresh git clone from this repo on 2020.01.12 at 8pm PST

It built, it passed all its tests, and it serves up the home page fine. But I cannot figure out HOW to get the service in an ONLINE status. Any clues would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dear Developers:

Love what you've made, but would really love a full replacement to the online sync services. For that I'd need full-on password and form data sync as well. What does your road-map say so far as implementing all that? I had heard somewhere it was in the grand plan, but haven't heard much about it since.

Thanks.

When you visit the main page of the server URL you see a large logo and the text API service info

I would like to suggest that the logo is shrunk and that also the status.message is displayed just under the Status: Online Version: 1.1.8 part

i followed the instructions on https://github.com/xbrowsersync/api with v1.1.11 but when calling
$ node dist/api.js
i got
` api $ node dist/api.js
buffer.js:327
throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE(
^

TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The first argument must be of type string or an instance of Buffer, ArrayBuffer, or Array or an Array-like Object. Received function hidden
at Function.from (buffer.js:327:9)
at fnv1a32 (/home/ronald/xBrowserSync/api/node_modules/mongoose-uuid2/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/fnv1a.js:21:25)
at fnv1a24 (/home/ronald/xBrowserSync/api/node_modules/mongoose-uuid2/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/fnv1a.js:39:18)
at Object. (/home/ronald/xBrowserSync/api/node_modules/mongoose-uuid2/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/objectid.js:14:20)
`
What might be the problem ?
$ node --version
v13.9.0

$ mongo --version
MongoDB shell version v4.2.3
git version: 6874650b362138df74be53d366bbefc321ea32d4
OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.1.1d 10 Sep 2019
allocator: tcmalloc
modules: none
build environment:
distmod: ubuntu1804
distarch: x86_64
target_arch: x86_64

$ systemctl status mongodb.service
● mongodb.service - High-performance, schema-free document-oriented database
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mongodb.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sun 2020-02-23 13:01:26 CET; 2h 3min ago
Main PID: 19482 (mongod)
Tasks: 32 (limit: 9394)
Memory: 108.0M
CGroup: /system.slice/mongodb.service
└─19482 /usr/bin/mongod --quiet --config /etc/mongodb.conf

Feb 23 13:01:26 ivy3770 systemd[1]: Started High-performance, schema-free document-oriented database.

it's difficult to track similar options, the config description is also not too clear between these two settings,

dailyNewSyncsLimit --> setting this to 0 "disables all new syncs", or allows "unlimitted syncs" ?

status.allowNewSyncs --> I suppose would be the ultimate decider whether 1 new sync is permissible.

There should be added text to dailyNewSyncsLimit's description to clarify that new syncs become possible as long as status.allowNewSyncs is enabled..

All the other options look well explained.. and because I think there's lots of them, that I think it's a good idea imho to have vice-versa in both places to remind users to check both settings(as each of these two affects the other).

thanks

Hi - attempting to run with node version 8.9.4 and mongodb version 2.6.10 on Ubuntu 16.04, an exception got thrown when I attempted to start the API server:

> sudo node api.js
util.js:969
    throw new TypeError('The super constructor to "inherits" must not ' +
    ^

TypeError: The super constructor to "inherits" must not be null or undefined
    at Object.inherits (util.js:969:11)
    at Object.<anonymous> (.../node_modules/spdy/lib/spdy/connection.js:86:6)
    at Module._compile (module.js:643:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:654:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:556:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:499:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:491:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:587:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (.../node_modules/spdy/lib/spdy.js:20:19)

I found that changing the version of restify in the dependencies in package.json from "4.0.x" to "4.3.x" (as suggested in this issue report), and re-building, got the service at least starting up:

diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 00b671e..fae0c16 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
     "mongojs": "2.4.x",
     "node-uuid": "1.4.x",
     "q": "1.4.x",
-    "restify": "4.0.x",
+    "restify": "4.3.x",
     "request": "2.73.x"
   },
   "devDependencies": {

I still don't seem to be getting any response when I use wget to try accessing the API, nor are any log messages getting written, but I will investigate that further.

I know there are several password back up programs. And Mozilla probably would not like another as they always push their sync. But has there been any thought (if it is even possible) to sync Firefox passwords. So when the bookmarks are updated, so are the passwords?

Hi.
updated to 1.1.10 and lost kinda 50% of my bookmarks Firefox 1.5.0. Was able to save booksmarks from one device, now investigating with creating a new sync, but firefox addon says can't connect, but its green when changing the service.

Will report if more details are knows.

In API version 1.1.5 I didn't have the db.username or db.password in the settings.json file and it picked up the ENV versions and used those. When upgrading to 1.1.8 however I couldn't get the API to stay running as a service it ran correctly when running the node dist/api.js command which was strange.

Adding the 'username' and 'password' to the settings file however allowed it to work again, remove them and it fails. Looking at the commit history I think this relates to Fixed db auth issues with docker containers.

I think a simple update on the read.me so that it reads
Config settings for the following have changed. db authentication has changed so ensure you update your config/settings.json to include 'username' and 'password' logging has also changed so ensure you update your config/settings.json file if you have customised logging settings.