Whim
Whim is a command-line utility for sending, receiving, and working with webmentions.
Notable features include:
A daemon to receive and store incoming webmentions
A webmention verifier, suitable for scheduled operation
A tool for sending webmentions, individually or en masse (given a source URL)
Commands to query a local database of received webmentions
A simple webserver to display webmention-powered comment sections as HTML, suitable for JavaScript-driven insertion into an otherwise static webpage
Project status
It's alpha
This software is very young, with present-but-incomplete documentation and inflexible configuration. It is absolutely full of not just bugs but questionable design decisions that I have yet to acknowledge and address.
I began this project in the spring of 2020, and hope to continue improving it over the course of the year. See the project's Issues tracker for ongoing status updates.
Mature alternatives
If you want to start receiving webmentions right now, please check out Aaron Parecki's most excellent Webmention.io, a free hosted service that you can start using right away, with any web page. (It is also an open-source project.)
Contact and support
If you are still curious about Whim, by all means check it out and give me a holler if you'd like. I'd be happy to answer any questions about this project or my other IndieWeb work.
You may also wish to join the "#whim" channel on Freenode IRC, where I am likely idling but listening as jmac.
Installing Whim
You need the following stuff already installed to run Whim:
SQLite
Perl (version 5.24.0 or higher)
The `cpanm` command-line program. It is likely available as "cpanminus" in your favorite package manager. You can also install it through the instructions at https://cpanmin.us.
Installing Whim via CPAN
Watch this space... Alas, you have to install Whim via source, for now, as described below.
Installing Whim from source
Install dependencies:
$ cpanm --installdeps .If you want to test Whim before installing it (this step is optional):
$ prove -l t/ xt/
⋮
Result: PASSFinally, install Whim:
$ perl Makefile.PL
$ make
$ make installRunning whim
The whim executable accepts the following subcommands.
listen: Run a daemon that listens for incoming webmentions and stores them in a local database.See also "Displaying webmentions", below.
send: Send webmentions.query: Query a local database for stored, verified webmentions meeting given criteria, and display the results as a human-readable summary.(It should offer JSON output as well, but alas it does not right now.)
This command also lets you view and modify a blocklist of unwelcome webmention sources. Blocked webmentions don't appear in query results.
verify: Try to verify every stored webmention that requires verification.
For quick help on any command, run whim help [command].
For more complete documentation, run man whim.
Displaying webmentions
Besides listening for incoming webmentions, the listen command also sets up an HTTP endpont at /display_wms. It accepts GET requests that contain one query-string argument, url. Whim will fetch and display, as HTML, all verified webmentions whose source matches the given URL.
For example:
http//example.com:8080/display_wms?url=https://some-source.example/foobarWhim uses a set of default templates to make this work. You can provide your own templates in $HOME/.whim/templates. The fact that I have no further information for you about this is a known issue. (GitHub issue #34)
"Whim"?
Two possible explanations:
It stands for white matter, the connective tissue betweeen separate neurological structures in the human brain. Its function resembles Webmention's role in allowing independent websites to communicate, and thus helping their respective authors to collaborate.
Whim puts the hi! in webmentions.
Author and contributors
Whim's lead developer is Jason McIntosh.
Contributors include:
Adam Herzog
Brian Wisti
Copyright and licence
This software is Copyright (c) 2020 by Jason McIntosh.
This is free software, licensed under the MIT License.