[Galene] ANNOUNCE: Galene 0.9

[Galene] ANNOUNCE: Galene 0.9

[Juliusz Chroboczek]

Dear all,

Galene-0.9 is available by doing

    git clone -b galene-0.9 https://github.com/jech/galene

The main news in this version are a new format for group configuration
files and an HTTP API to administer the group configurations.  There is
currently no UI for the administrative interface, except for a single page
that allows changing a user's password, just under the user name in the
right-hand side menu.

It is possible to start galene-0.9 with your current configuration, and
old-style configuration files will be parsed correctly in most cases.
There are some exceptions:

  - the format of the "config.json" file has changed incompatibly, you
    will need to manually convert any administrator passwords;

  - it is no longer possible to have multiple users with the same username
    and different passwords, you might need to rename some users;

  - it is no longer possible to have multiple wildcard users (users that
    can log-in with an arbitrary password), you might need to make some
    users non-anonymous;

  - the "allow-anonymous" keyword is no longer supported, this is now the
    default behaviour.

In all cases, you should find a friendly warning in the logs, which will
tell you what changes you need to make manually.

A fairly complete changelog follows.

-- Juliusz

26 May 2024: Galene 0.9

  * Reworked the group definition format to be more modular.  There are
    some incompatible changes: multiple users with the same username but
    distinct passords are no longer supported, and the field
    "allow-anonymous" is ignored.
  * Reworked the definition of administrator passwords in config.json.
    The old field "admin" is ignored, a new field "users" is required.
    This is an incompatible change.
  * Implemented an administrative API over HTTP.  Set the field
    "writableGroups" in config.json to enable it.  The API is described in
    the file "README.API", a JavaScript library is in management.js.
  * Implemented a form to allow users to change their password.  If the
    HTTP API is enabled, a link will appear in the side menu.
  * Implemented a new command "/identify" (also availble in the users
    menu) that discloses the IP address from which a user connected.
  * Implemented a contextual menu that triggers on a double click on
    a chat entry.
  * Added a new command "/stopshare".
  * Added a new permission "message" and new commands "shutup" and "unshutup".
  * Changed stateless token validation to attempt all keys rather than
    just the first matching one.