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@zinat What I was thinking is an easy way to add activity pub to any website including plain static html (no server-side processing).
It would act a bit like disqus. We host a server with all the activitypub WS endpoints. The user adds a html/js snippet to their pages to display a comment box (just like disqus). When they configure an account with us they simply point us to their RSS feed (and int he future we can add in html scrapping for sites without an RSS).
The RSS feed is used to construct their status updates, and provides links to the original articles (which also tells the system which comment section is associated with a status). If they post a new article (even just as static html using jeckyl or something) then the rss feed updates, our server picks that up and updates their stream.
If someone comments to a status then it will get displayed int he appropriate comment section back on their page. The user can also respond through the comment section (or go to the administration section of our site like with disqus as well).
In the end it would basically enable any site to get on the fediverse in a matter of minutes.
@freemo @zinat It would still require a server side processing in retrieving the RSS and pushing it in the static website.
Right now this could be achieved with the embedding of the toot/status, which unfortunately doesn't also show the replies to it. If that could be done, it may be a very simple commenting system for static websites, I guess. (My website is static and I'll like to experiment with activitypub embedded comments)
@freemo Just to get this straight, do you mean pushing the user activity in a static website to its fediverse account, or the other way round?
For the latter, I guess you can embed a call to the mastodon API from an iframed small js script and have the conversation. For the former, you'd probably need a parser atom/rss > activitypub I guess, like this one: https://github.com/edsu/feediverse
(You know I'm not a real techie, so forgive me if I'm saying silly thing =) )
@zinat @arteteco Let me try to explain step-by-step.. there are two servers OP server (original poster) and an AP server (the new software we are talking about now)...
1) AP server polls RSS feed on OP server for updates.
2) On update AP server scrapes the content from it (aware of URL to full content). Adds new posts to the outgoing activity stream in ActivityPub
Then comments are handled like this:
1) anyone in the fediverse replying to a post will have their reply noted in the AP server database
2) Anytime someone goes to an article the HTML/JS snippet they added will display any comments currently int he database associated with the post.
It would also include a form on the website to add comments.
@arteteco @zinat Yes it would still require a server side element. But the way I see it I will host that , and also make that server open-source so others can as well.
It means for someone wanting to use it you either 1) run a seperate server yourself or 2) sign up to a hosted solution and not need the trouble.
It would still be a huge reduction in coding effort for anyone who wants to make an activitypub app or adapt existing ones. I use middleman for as many of my sites as i can (like my blog and personal page). So something like this would be huge for someone like me.