Remark42 MongoDB Server

Store Remark42 comments, images and avatars on MongoDB.
Tested with Remark42 v1.10.1.

Warning The fix for the following issues on Remark42 are required for Remark42 MongoDB Server to work:

• Type cast panic when using RPC
• Key() method invoked with wrong siteID

Until version v1.10.2 is released it's mandatory to build Remark42 from its master branch.

Setup

Initialize the server with remark42-mongodb.js init:

A configuration file remark42-mongodb.json is created:

{
    "port": 9000,
    "hostname": "localhost",
    "database": "mongodb://localhost:27017/remark42-mongodb",
    "avatars": "remark_avatars",
    "bodyLimit": "8mb",
    "dynamicPosts": true,
    "logDir": "logs",
    "logMaxSize": "8m",
    "logMaxFiles": 30
}

The following options are available:

• port: the TCP port on which the Remark42 MongoDB Server listens for client connections;
• hostname: the hostname where to listen for client connections;
• database: the MongoDB connection URI;
• avatars: Remark42 can be configured to store avatars in a GridFS bucket. This optional setting is the name of the GridFS bucket; once configured, remark42-mongodb periodically cleans up unused avatars;
• bodyLimit: maximum size of request bodies, should be calibrated accordingly to the maximum image size accepted by Remark42 (IMAGE_MAX_SIZE);
• dynamicPosts: if true, any post referenced by comments is created if not existing; if false, comments referencing a non-existing post are rejected: in that case, available sites/posts must be initialized either by hand or by using sites create and posts create commands;
• logDir: logs folder path;
• logMaxSize: the maximum size for each log file (e.g. 32k, 8m, 2g).
• logMaxFiles (optional): maximum number of days the logs are kept; if omitted, logs are kept indefinitely;

All options can be overridden via REMARK42_MONGODB_XXX environment variables, for example REMARK42_MONGODB_DATABASE or REMARK42_MONGODB_LOG_MAX_SIZE.

Running

Start the server with remark42-mongodb.js serve.

Three log files are created:

• access-YYYY-MM-DD.log: collecting information about served requests;
• error-YYYY-MM-DD.log: collecting errors;
• main-YYYY-MM-DD.log: collecting general information;

Log files are rotated daily and are limited both in size (logMaxSize) and number (logMaxFiles).

Health check

Service health can be checked by sending a GET /health request, that will respond with 200 OK or 503 Service Unavailable depending on the state of the server and database connection.

Managing sites

New sites can be created with remark42-mongodb.js sites create [name]:

Sites must be created regardless of whether dynamicPosts is set to true or false.
The encryption key and email are described on Remark42 documentation, respectively SECRET and ADMIN_SHARED_EMAIL. \ Note that Remark42 MongoDB Server handles different values for each site (i.e. they are not "shared").

Current sites can be listed with remark42-mongodb.js sites list:

Managing posts

New posts can be created with remark42-mongodb.js posts create [site] [url]:

This is useful for initializing the database when dynamicPosts is set to false.
The posts on a specific site can be listed with remark42-mongodb.js posts list [site]:

Remark42 configuration

Set the following environment variables in Remark42 to enable integration with Remark42 MongoDB Server (adjust values according to your configuration):

STORE_TYPE=rpc
STORE_RPC_API=http://localhost:9000

ADMIN_TYPE=rpc
ADMIN_RPC_API=http://localhost:9000

IMAGE_TYPE=rpc
IMAGE_RPC_API=http://localhost:9000

Remark42 can also store avatars in a GridFS bucket with the following configuration:

AVATAR_TYPE=uri
AVATAR_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/remark42-mongodb?ava_db=remark42-mongodb&ava_coll=remark_avatars

Warning At the moment mongodb+srv URIs (used by MongoDB Atlas) are not handled correctly (open issue).

Remark42 MongoDB Server can periodically clean up unused avatars by configuring avatars to remark_avatars.

More information on how to configure Remark42 available at Remark42 documentation.