From f3340ae5f4ac6c60823bf4d14e1fcdbeaaec353c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Brian Picciano Date: Sat, 21 May 2022 14:07:14 -0600 Subject: Remove old code related to static, it's not needed anymore --- .../src/_posts/2022-01-01-dav-is-all-you-need.md | 155 --------------------- 1 file changed, 155 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 static/src/_posts/2022-01-01-dav-is-all-you-need.md (limited to 'static/src/_posts/2022-01-01-dav-is-all-you-need.md') diff --git a/static/src/_posts/2022-01-01-dav-is-all-you-need.md b/static/src/_posts/2022-01-01-dav-is-all-you-need.md deleted file mode 100644 index 3f79d6c..0000000 --- a/static/src/_posts/2022-01-01-dav-is-all-you-need.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,155 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: >- - DAV is All You Need -description: >- - Contacts, calendars, passwords, oh my! -tags: tech ---- - -For some time now I've been trying to find an alternative solution to Google -Keep for shared note taking. The motivation for this change was two-fold: - -* Google sucks, and I'm trying to get their products out of my life in favor of - self-hosted options. - -* Google Keep _really_ sucks. Seriously, it can barely load on my Chromebook - because of whatever bloated ass web framework they're using for it. It's just - a note taking app! - -So this weekend I buckled down and actually made the switch. The first step was -to find something to switch _to_, however, which ended up being not trivial. -There's a million different options in this space, but surprisingly few which -could fulfill the exact niche we need in our household: - -* Fully open-source and open protocol. If it's not open it's not worth the - bother of switching, cause we'll just have to do it all again once whatever - product we switch to gets acqui-hired by a food delivery app. - -* Self-hosted using a _simple_ server-side component. I'm talking something that - listens on a public port and saves data to a file on disk, and _that's it_. - No database processes, no message queues, no bullshit. We're not serving a - million users here, there's no reason to broaden the attack surface - unnecessarily. - -* Multi-platform support, including mobile. Our primary use-case here is our - grocery list, which needs to be accessible by everyone everywhere. - -I've already got a Nextcloud instance running at home, and there is certainly a -notes extension for it, so that could have been an option here. But Nextcloud -very much does not fall into the second point above: it's not simple. It's a -giant PHP app that uses Postgres as a backend, has its own authentication and -session system, and has a plugin system. Frankly, it was easily the biggest -security hole on the entire server, and I wasn't eager to add usage to it. - -Happily, I found another solution. - -## WebDAV - -There's a project called [Joplin](https://joplinapp.org/) which implements a -markdown-based notes system with clients for Android, iPhone, Linux, Mac, and -Windows. Somewhat interestingly there is _not_ a web client for it, but on -further reflection I don't think that's a big deal... no bloated javascript -frameworks to worry about at least. - -In addition to their own cloud backend, Joplin supports a number of others, with -the most interesting being WebDAV. WebDAV is an XML-based extension to HTTP -which allows for basic write operations on the server-side, and which uses -HTTP's basic auth for authentication. You can interact with it using curl if you -like, it really can't get simpler. - -[Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/) is the server I use to handle all incoming -HTTP requests to my server, and luckily there's a semi-official -[WebDAV](https://github.com/mholt/caddy-webdav) plugin which adds WebDAV -support. With that compiled in, the `Caddyfile` configuration is nothing more -than: - -``` -hostname.com { - - route { - - basicauth { - sharedUser sharedPassword - } - - - webdav { - root /data/webdav - } - - } - -} -``` - -With that in place, any Joplin client can be pointed at `hostname.com` using the -shared username/assword, and all data is stored directly to `/data/webdav` by -Caddy. Easy-peasy. - -## CardDAV/CalDAV - -Where WebDAV is an extension of HTTP to allow for remotely modifying files -genearlly, CardDAV and CalDAV are extensions of WebDAV for managing remote -stores of contacts and calendar events, respectively. At least, that's my -understanding. - -Nextcloud has its own Web/Card/CalDAV service, and that's what I had been, up -till this point, using for syncing my contacts and calendar from my phone. But -now that I was setting up a separate WebDAV endpoint, I figured it'd be worth -setting up a separate Card/CalDAV service and get that much closer to getting -off Nextcloud entirely. - -There is, as far as I know, no Card or CalDAV extension for Caddy, so I'd still -need a new service running. I came across -[radicale](https://radicale.org/v3.html), which fits the bill nicely. It's a -simple CalDAV and CardDAV server which saves directly to disk, much like the -Caddy WebDAV plugin. With that running, I needed only to add the following to my -`Caddyfile`, above the `webdav` directive: - -``` -handle /radicale/* { - - uri strip_prefix /radicale - - reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:5454 { - header_up X-Script-Name /radicale - } - -} -``` - -Now I could point the [DAVx5](https://www.davx5.com/) app on my phone to -`hostname.com/radicale` and boom, contact and calendar syncing was within reach. -I _did_ have a lot of problems getting DAVx5 working properly, but those were -more to do with Android than self-hosting, and I eventually worked through them. - -## Passwords - -At this point I considered that the only thing I was still really using -Nextcloud for was password management, a la Lastpass or 1Password. I have a lot -of gripes with Nextcloud's password manager, in addition to my aforementioned -grips with Nextcloud generally, so I thought it was worth seeing if some DAV or -another could be the final nail in Nextcloud's coffin. - -A bit of searching around led me to [Tusk](https://subdavis.com/Tusk/), a chrome -extension which allows the chrome browser to fetch a -[KeePassXC](https://keepassxc.org/) database from a WebDAV server, decode it, -and autofill it into a website. Basically perfect. I had only to export my -passwords from Nextcloud as a CSV, import them into a fresh KDBX file using the -KeePassXC GUI, place the file in my WebDAV folder, and point Tusk at that. - -I found the whole experience of using Tusk to be extremely pleasant. Everything -is very well labeled and described, and there's appropriate warnings and such in -places where someone might commit a security crime (e.g. using the same password -for WebDAV and their KDBX file). - -My one gripe is that it seems to be very slow to unlock the file in practice. I -don't _think_ this has to do with my server, as Joplin is quite responsive, so -it could instead have to do with my KDBX file's decryption difficulty setting. -Perhaps Tusk is doing the decryption in userspace javascript... I'll have to -play with it some. - -But it's a small price to be able to turn off Nextcloud completely, which I have -now done. I can sleep easier at night now, knowing there's not some PHP -equivalent to Log4j which is going to bite me in the ass one day while I'm on -vacation. -- cgit v1.2.3