--- /dev/null
+# Welcome to my WebSub Hub
+
+## What
+
+[WebSub](https://www.w3.org/TR/websub/) is a protocol for subscribing to content updates from publishers. The Hub is the central component which manages that relationship.
+
+This Hub implementation was created with personal [self-hostable](https://indieweb.org/WebSub) deployment in mind. It is content-agnostic, supports multiple database backends, and can scale to multiple nodes for robustness and capacity.
+
+## Beware
+
+This is currently a Minimum Viable Product release. Basic functionality is complete, but the administration experience may be challenging.
+
+## Up And Running
+
+Customize configuration within `config/${NODE_ENV}.js`. All envs inherit settings from `default.js` if not specified. Environment is selected using the `NODE_ENV` value, defaulting to `development` if unset.
+
+Database table initialization and schema version migrations are automated. Configure SQLite with a database file, or point PostgreSQL to a created database.
+
+A user will need to be created in order to view the `/admin` pages; the `bin/authAddUser.js` script will do this.
+
+The bundled logger spews JSON to stdout.
+
+### Quickstart Example
+
+One way of deploying this server is behind nginx, with the pm2 package to manage the server process, and a local postgres database. Some details on this are presented here as a rough guide to any parts of this stack which may be unfamiliar.
+
+- Have NodeJS 12-ish available.
+- Have PostgreSQL available.
+- Clone the server repository.
+ ```git clone https://git.squeep.com/websub-hub```
+- Install the production dependencies.
+ ```cd websub-hub```
+ ```NODE_ENV=production npm i```
+- Create a ```config/production.js``` configuration file. See ```config/default.js``` for available settings.
+ > <pre>
+ > 'use strict';
+ > // Minimum required configuration settings
+ > module.exports = {
+ > dingus: {
+ > selfBaseUrl: 'https://hub.squeep.com/',
+ > },
+ > db: {
+ > connectionString: 'postgresql://websubhub:mypassword@localhost/websubhub',
+ > },
+ > };
+ > </pre>
+- Prepare PostgreSQL with a user and database, using e.g. ```psql```.
+ > <pre>
+ > CREATE ROLE websubhub WITH CREATEDB LOGIN PASSWORD 'mypassword';
+ > GRANT websubhub TO postgres
+ > CREATE DATABASE websubhub OWNER=websubhub;
+ > GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE websubhub TO websubhub;
+ > \c websubhub
+ > CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_stat_statements;
+ > </pre>
+- Install the process manager, system-wide.
+ ```npm i -g pm2```
+- Configure the process manager to keep the server logs from growing unbounded.
+ ```pm2 install pm2-logrotate```
+ ```pm2 set pm2-logrotate:rotateInterval '0 0 1 * *'``` (rotate monthly)
+ ```pm2 set pm2-logrotate:compress true```
+ ```pm2 startup``` (arrange to start process monitor on system boot)
+- Launch the server, running one process per CPU, and persist it through reboots.
+ ```NODE_ENV=production pm2 start server.js --name websubhub -i max```
+ ```pm2 save```
+- Create an administration user.
+ ```NODE_ENV=production node bin/authUserAdd.js admin```
+- Copy the static files to somewhere nginx will serve them from. This will vary greatly depending on your setup.
+ ```cp -rp static /home/websubhub/hub.squeep.com/html/static```
+- Expose the server through nginx.
+ > <pre>
+ > server {
+ > listen 443 ssl http2;
+ > ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/nginx/server-chain.pem;
+ > ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/nginx/server.key;
+ > server_name hub.squeep.com;
+ > root /home/websubhub/hub.squeep.com/html
+ > try_files $uri $uri/ @websubhub;
+ >
+ > location @websubhub {
+ > proxy_pass http://websubhub$uri;
+ > proxy_set_header Host $host;
+ > proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
+ > proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
+ > proxy_http_version 1.1;
+ > }
+ >
+ > location = / {
+ > proxy_pass http://websubhub$is_args$args;
+ > proxy_set_header Host $host;
+ > proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
+ > proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
+ > proxy_http_version 1.1;
+ > }
+ > }
+ > </pre>
+ ```nginx -s reload```
+- The Hub server should now be available!
+
+## Frills
+
+A rudimentary tally of a topic's subscribers is available on the `/info?topic=topicUrl` endpoint. The topicUrl should be URI encoded. Formats available are SVG badge, JSON, and plain text, selectable by setting e.g. `format=svg` in the query parameters.
+
+## Architecture
+
+The Hub keeps track of three primary entities:
+
+- Topics: data and metadata for a published content endpoint. Topics are unique by source URL.
+- Subscriptions: the relationship between a client requesting content and the topic providing it. Subscriptions are unique by topic and client URL.
+- Verifications: updates to subscriptions which are pending confirmation. Verifications are not unique, but only the most recent for any Subscription pairing will be acted upon.
+
+Any tasks in progress (notably: fetching new topic content, distributing that content to subscribers, or confirming pending verifications) are doled out and managed by a cooperative advisory locking mechanism. The task queue is wrangled in the database within the `*_in_progress` tables.
+
+A Hub node will periodically check for more tasks to perform, executing them up to a set concurrency limit.
+
+### Quirks
+
+This implementation is built atop an in-house API framework, for Reasons. It would not be hard to replace such with something more mainstream, but that is not currently a design goal.
+
+### File Tour
+
+- bin/ - utility scripts
+- config/
+ - default.js - defines all configuration parameters' default values
+ - index.js - merges an environment's values over defaults
+ - *.js - environment specific values, edit these as needed
+- server.js - launches the application server
+- src/
+ - common.js - utility functions
+ - communication.js - outgoing requests and associated logic
+ - db/
+ - base.js - abstract database class that any engine will implement
+ - errors.js - database Error types
+ - index.js - database factory
+ - schema-version-helper.js - schema migrations aide
+ - postgres/
+ - index.js - PostgreSQL implementation
+ - sql/ - statements and schemas
+ - sqlite/
+ - index.js - SQLite implementation
+ - sql/ - statements and schemas
+ - enum.js - invariants
+ - errors.js - local Error types
+ - link-helper.js - processes Link headers
+ - logger.js - a very simple logging class
+ - manager.js - process incoming requests
+ - service.js - defines incoming endpoints, linking the API server framework to the manager methods
+ - template/ - HTML content
+ - worker.js - maintains a pool of tasks in progress, for sending out updates, performing verifications, et cetera
+- test/ - unit and coverage tests
+- test-e2e/ - support for whole-service testing