CodiMD

CodiMD lets you create real-time collaborative markdown notes on all platforms. Inspired by Hackpad, with more focus on speed and flexibility, and build from HackMD source code. Feel free to contribute.

Thanks for using! 😄

Table of Contents

• HackMD CE became CodiMD
• Browsers Requirement
• Installation
  • Getting started (Native install)
    • Prerequisite
    • Instructions
  • Heroku Deployment
  • Kubernetes
  • CodiMD by docker container
  • Cloudron
• Upgrade
  • Native setup
• Configuration
  • Environment variables (will overwrite other server configs)
  • Application settings config.json
  • Third-party integration API key settings
  • Third-party integration OAuth callback URLs
• Developer Notes
  • Structure
  • Operational Transformation
• License

HackMD CE became CodiMD

CodiMD was recently renamed from its former name was HackMD. CodiMD is the free software version of HackMD. It was the original Version of HackMD. The HackMD team initiated CodiMD and provided a solid code base. Due to the need of paying bills, A fork was created and called HackMD EE, which is a SaaS (Software as a Service) product available at hackmd.io.

We decided to change the name to break the confusion between HackMD and CodiMD, formally known as HackMD CE, as it never was an open core project.

Just to more confusion: We are still friends with HackMD ❤️

For the whole renaming story, see the related issue

Browsers Requirement

• Chrome >= 47, Chrome for Android >= 47
• Safari >= 9, iOS Safari >= 8.4
• Firefox >= 44
• IE >= 9, Edge >= 12
• Opera >= 34, Opera Mini not supported
• Android Browser >= 4.4

Installation

Getting started (Native install)

Prerequisite

• Node.js 6.x or up (test up to 7.5.0) and <10.x
• Database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, MSSQL) use charset utf8
• npm (and its dependencies, especially uWebSockets, node-gyp)
• For building CodiMD we recommend to use a machine with at least 2GB RAM

Instructions

1. Download a release and unzip or clone into a directory
2. Enter the directory and type bin/setup, which will install npm dependencies and create configs. The setup script is written in Bash, you would need bash as a prerequisite.
3. Setup the configs, see more below
4. Setup environment variables which will overwrite the configs
5. Build front-end bundle by npm run build (use npm run dev if you are in development)
6. Modify the file named .sequelizerc, change the value of the variable url with your db connection string For example: postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/codimd
7. Run node_modules/.bin/sequelize db:migrate, this step will migrate your db to the latest schema
8. Run the server as you like (node, forever, pm2)

Heroku Deployment

You can quickly setup a sample Heroku CodiMD application by clicking the button below.

If you deploy it without the button, keep in mind to use the right buildpacks. For details check app.json.

Kubernetes

To install use helm install stable/hackmd.

For all further details, please check out the offical CodiMD K8s helm chart.

CodiMD by docker container

Debian-based version:

Alpine-based version:

The easiest way to setup CodiMD using docker are using the following three commands:

git clone https://github.com/hackmdio/codimd-container.git
cd codimd-container
docker-compose up

Read more about it in the container repository…

Cloudron

Install CodiMD on Cloudron:

Upgrade

Native setup

If you are upgrading CodiMD from an older version, follow these steps:

1. Fully stop your old server first (important)
2. git pull or do whatever that updates the files
3. npm install to update dependencies
4. Build front-end bundle by npm run build (use npm run dev if you are in development)
5. Modify the file named .sequelizerc, change the value of the variable url with your db connection string For example: postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/codimd
6. Run node_modules/.bin/sequelize db:migrate, this step will migrate your db to the latest schema
7. Start your whole new server!

• migrate-to-1.1.0

We deprecated the older lower case config style and moved on to camel case style. Please have a look at the current config.json.example and check the warnings on startup.

Notice: This is not a breaking change right now but in the future

• migration-to-0.5.0

We don't use LZString to compress socket.io data and DB data after version 0.5.0. Please run the migration tool if you're upgrading from the old version.

• migration-to-0.4.0

We've dropped MongoDB after version 0.4.0. So here is the migration tool for you to transfer the old DB data to the new DB. This tool is also used for official service.

Configuration

There are some config settings you need to change in the files below.

./config.json      ----application settings

Environment variables (will overwrite other server configs)

variables	example values	description
NODE_ENV	production or development	set current environment (will apply corresponding settings in the config.json)
DEBUG	true or false	set debug mode; show more logs
CMD_CONFIG_FILE	/path/to/config.json	optional override for the path to CodiMD's config file
CMD_DOMAIN	codimd.org	domain name
CMD_URL_PATH	codimd	sub URL path, like www.example.com/<URL_PATH>
CMD_HOST	localhost	host to listen on
CMD_PORT	80	web app port
CMD_PATH	/var/run/codimd.sock	path to UNIX domain socket to listen on (if specified, CMD_HOST and CMD_PORT are ignored)
CMD_ALLOW_ORIGIN	localhost, codimd.org	domain name whitelist (use comma to separate)
CMD_PROTOCOL_USESSL	true or false	set to use SSL protocol for resources path (only applied when domain is set)
CMD_URL_ADDPORT	true or false	set to add port on callback URL (ports 80 or 443 won't be applied) (only applied when domain is set)
CMD_USECDN	true or false	set to use CDN resources or not (default is true)
CMD_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS	true or false	set to allow anonymous usage (default is true)
CMD_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS_EDITS	true or false	if allowAnonymous is true, allow users to select freely permission, allowing guests to edit existing notes (default is false)
CMD_ALLOW_FREEURL	true or false	set to allow new note creation by accessing a nonexistent note URL
CMD_DEFAULT_PERMISSION	freely, editable, limited, locked or private	set notes default permission (only applied on signed users)
CMD_DB_URL	mysql://localhost:3306/database	set the database URL
CMD_SESSION_SECRET	no example	Secret used to sign the session cookie. If non is set, one will randomly generated on startup
CMD_SESSION_LIFE	1209600000	Session life time. (milliseconds)
CMD_FACEBOOK_CLIENTID	no example	Facebook API client id
CMD_FACEBOOK_CLIENTSECRET	no example	Facebook API client secret
CMD_TWITTER_CONSUMERKEY	no example	Twitter API consumer key
CMD_TWITTER_CONSUMERSECRET	no example	Twitter API consumer secret
CMD_GITHUB_CLIENTID	no example	GitHub API client id
CMD_GITHUB_CLIENTSECRET	no example	GitHub API client secret
CMD_GITLAB_SCOPE	read_user or api	GitLab API requested scope (default is api) (GitLab snippet import/export need api scope)
CMD_GITLAB_BASEURL	no example	GitLab authentication endpoint, set to use other endpoint than GitLab.com (optional)
CMD_GITLAB_CLIENTID	no example	GitLab API client id
CMD_GITLAB_CLIENTSECRET	no example	GitLab API client secret
CMD_GITLAB_VERSION	no example	GitLab API version (v3 or v4)
CMD_MATTERMOST_BASEURL	no example	Mattermost authentication endpoint for versions below 5.0. For Mattermost version 5.0 and above, see guide.
CMD_MATTERMOST_CLIENTID	no example	Mattermost API client id
CMD_MATTERMOST_CLIENTSECRET	no example	Mattermost API client secret
CMD_DROPBOX_CLIENTID	no example	Dropbox API client id
CMD_DROPBOX_CLIENTSECRET	no example	Dropbox API client secret
CMD_GOOGLE_CLIENTID	no example	Google API client id
CMD_GOOGLE_CLIENTSECRET	no example	Google API client secret
CMD_LDAP_URL	ldap://example.com	URL of LDAP server
CMD_LDAP_BINDDN	no example	bindDn for LDAP access
CMD_LDAP_BINDCREDENTIALS	no example	bindCredentials for LDAP access
CMD_LDAP_SEARCHBASE	o=users,dc=example,dc=com	LDAP directory to begin search from
CMD_LDAP_SEARCHFILTER	(uid={{username}})	LDAP filter to search with
CMD_LDAP_SEARCHATTRIBUTES	displayName, mail	LDAP attributes to search with (use comma to separate)
CMD_LDAP_USERIDFIELD	uidNumber or uid or sAMAccountName	The LDAP field which is used uniquely identify a user on CodiMD
CMD_LDAP_USERNAMEFIELD	Fallback to userid	The LDAP field which is used as the username on CodiMD
CMD_LDAP_TLS_CA	server-cert.pem, root.pem	Root CA for LDAP TLS in PEM format (use comma to separate)
CMD_LDAP_PROVIDERNAME	My institution	Optional name to be displayed at login form indicating the LDAP provider
CMD_SAML_IDPSSOURL	https://idp.example.com/sso	authentication endpoint of IdP. for details, see guide.
CMD_SAML_IDPCERT	/path/to/cert.pem	certificate file path of IdP in PEM format
CMD_SAML_ISSUER	no example	identity of the service provider (optional, default: serverurl)"
CMD_SAML_IDENTIFIERFORMAT	no example	name identifier format (optional, default: urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress)
CMD_SAML_GROUPATTRIBUTE	memberOf	attribute name for group list (optional)
CMD_SAML_REQUIREDGROUPS	Hackmd-users	group names that allowed (use vertical bar to separate) (optional)
CMD_SAML_EXTERNALGROUPS	Temporary-staff	group names that not allowed (use vertical bar to separate) (optional)
CMD_SAML_ATTRIBUTE_ID	sAMAccountName	attribute map for id (optional, default: NameID of SAML response)
CMD_SAML_ATTRIBUTE_USERNAME	mailNickname	attribute map for username (optional, default: NameID of SAML response)
CMD_SAML_ATTRIBUTE_EMAIL	mail	attribute map for email (optional, default: NameID of SAML response if CMD_SAML_IDENTIFIERFORMAT is default)
CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_URL	https://example.com	where retrieve information about a user after succesful login. Needs to output JSON. (no default value) Refer to the Mattermost or Nextcloud examples for more details on all of the CMD_OAUTH2... options.
CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_USERNAME_ATTR	name	where to find the username in the JSON from the user profile URL. (no default value)
CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_DISPLAY_NAME_ATTR	display-name	where to find the display-name in the JSON from the user profile URL. (no default value)
CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_EMAIL_ATTR	email	where to find the email address in the JSON from the user profile URL. (no default value)
CMD_OAUTH2_TOKEN_URL	https://example.com	sometimes called token endpoint, please refer to the documentation of your OAuth2 provider (no default value)
CMD_OAUTH2_AUTHORIZATION_URL	https://example.com	authorization URL of your provider, please refer to the documentation of your OAuth2 provider (no default value)
CMD_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID	afae02fckafd...	you will get this from your OAuth2 provider when you register CodiMD as OAuth2-client, (no default value)
CMD_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET	afae02fckafd...	you will get this from your OAuth2 provider when you register CodiMD as OAuth2-client, (no default value)
CMD_OAUTH2_PROVIDERNAME	My institution	Optional name to be displayed at login form indicating the oAuth2 provider
CMD_IMGUR_CLIENTID	no example	Imgur API client id
CMD_EMAIL	true or false	set to allow email signin
CMD_ALLOW_PDF_EXPORT	true or false	Enable or disable PDF exports
CMD_ALLOW_EMAIL_REGISTER	true or false	set to allow email register (only applied when email is set, default is true. Note bin/manage_users might help you if registration is false.)
CMD_ALLOW_GRAVATAR	true or false	set to false to disable gravatar as profile picture source on your instance
CMD_IMAGE_UPLOAD_TYPE	imgur, s3, minio or filesystem	Where to upload images. For S3, see our Image Upload Guides for S3 or Minio
CMD_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID	no example	AWS access key id
CMD_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	no example	AWS secret key
CMD_S3_REGION	ap-northeast-1	AWS S3 region
CMD_S3_BUCKET	no example	AWS S3 bucket name
CMD_MINIO_ACCESS_KEY	no example	Minio access key
CMD_MINIO_SECRET_KEY	no example	Minio secret key
CMD_MINIO_ENDPOINT	minio.example.org	Address of your Minio endpoint/instance
CMD_MINIO_PORT	9000	Port that is used for your Minio instance
CMD_MINIO_SECURE	true	If set to true HTTPS is used for Minio
CMD_AZURE_CONNECTION_STRING	no example	Azure Blob Storage connection string
CMD_AZURE_CONTAINER	no example	Azure Blob Storage container name (automatically created if non existent)
CMD_HSTS_ENABLE	true	set to enable HSTS if HTTPS is also enabled (default is true)
CMD_HSTS_INCLUDE_SUBDOMAINS	true	set to include subdomains in HSTS (default is true)
CMD_HSTS_MAX_AGE	31536000	max duration in seconds to tell clients to keep HSTS status (default is a year)
CMD_HSTS_PRELOAD	true	whether to allow preloading of the site's HSTS status (e.g. into browsers)
CMD_CSP_ENABLE	true	whether to enable Content Security Policy (directives cannot be configured with environment variables)
CMD_CSP_REPORTURI	https://<someid>.report-uri.com/r/d/csp/enforce	Allows to add a URL for CSP reports in case of violations
CMD_SOURCE_URL	https://github.com/hackmdio/codimd/tree/<current commit>	Provides the link to the source code of CodiMD on the entry page (Please, make sure you change this when you run a modified version)

Note: Due to the rename process we renamed all HMD_-prefix variables to be CMD_-prefixed. The old ones continue to work.

Application settings config.json

variables	example values	description
debug	true or false	set debug mode, show more logs
domain	localhost	domain name
urlPath	codimd	sub URL path, like www.example.com/<urlpath>
host	localhost	host to listen on
port	80	web app port
path	/var/run/codimd.sock	path to UNIX domain socket to listen on (if specified, host and port are ignored)
allowOrigin	['localhost']	domain name whitelist
useSSL	true or false	set to use SSL server (if true, will auto turn on protocolUseSSL)
hsts	{"enable": true, "maxAgeSeconds": 31536000, "includeSubdomains": true, "preload": true}	HSTS options to use with HTTPS (default is the example value, max age is a year)
csp	{"enable": true, "directives": {"scriptSrc": "trustworthy-scripts.example.com"}, "upgradeInsecureRequests": "auto", "addDefaults": true}	Configures Content Security Policy. Directives are passed to Helmet - see their documentation for more information on the format. Some defaults are added to the configured values so that the application doesn't break. To disable this behaviour, set addDefaults to false. Further, if usecdn is on, some CDN locations are allowed too. By default (auto), insecure (HTTP) requests are upgraded to HTTPS via CSP if useSSL is on. To change this behaviour, set upgradeInsecureRequests to either true or false.
protocolUseSSL	true or false	set to use SSL protocol for resources path (only applied when domain is set)
urlAddPort	true or false	set to add port on callback URL (ports 80 or 443 won't be applied) (only applied when domain is set)
useCDN	true or false	set to use CDN resources or not (default is true)
allowAnonymous	true or false	set to allow anonymous usage (default is true)
allowAnonymousEdits	true or false	if allowAnonymous is true: allow users to select freely permission, allowing guests to edit existing notes (default is false)
allowFreeURL	true or false	set to allow new note creation by accessing a nonexistent note URL
defaultPermission	freely, editable, limited, locked, protected or private	set notes default permission (only applied on signed users)
dbURL	mysql://localhost:3306/database	set the db URL; if set, then db config (below) won't be applied
db	{ "dialect": "sqlite", "storage": "./db.codimd.sqlite" }	set the db configs, see more here
sslKeyPath	./cert/client.key	SSL key path1 (only need when you set useSSL)
sslCertPath	./cert/codimd_io.crt	SSL cert path1 (only need when you set useSSL)
sslCAPath	['./cert/COMODORSAAddTrustCA.crt']	SSL ca chain1 (only need when you set useSSL)
dhParamPath	./cert/dhparam.pem	SSL dhparam path1 (only need when you set useSSL)
tmpPath	./tmp/	temp directory path1
defaultNotePath	./public/default.md	default note file path1
docsPath	./public/docs	docs directory path1
viewPath	./public/views	template directory path1
uploadsPath	./public/uploads	uploads directory1 - needs to be persistent when you use imageUploadType filesystem
sessionName	connect.sid	cookie session name
sessionSecret	secret	cookie session secret
sessionLife	14 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000	cookie session life
staticCacheTime	1 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000	static file cache time
heartbeatInterval	5000	socket.io heartbeat interval
heartbeatTimeout	10000	socket.io heartbeat timeout
documentMaxLength	100000	note max length
email	true or false	set to allow email signin
oauth2	{baseURL: ..., userProfileURL: ..., userProfileUsernameAttr: ..., userProfileDisplayNameAttr: ..., userProfileEmailAttr: ..., tokenURL: ..., authorizationURL: ..., clientID: ..., clientSecret: ...}	An object detailing your OAuth2 provider. Refer to the Mattermost or Nextcloud examples for more details!
allowEmailRegister	true or false	set to allow email register (only applied when email is set, default is true. Note bin/manage_users might help you if registration is false.)
allowGravatar	true or false	set to false to disable gravatar as profile picture source on your instance
imageUploadType	imgur, s3, minio, azure or filesystem(default)	Where to upload images. For S3, see our Image Upload Guides for S3 or Minio
minio	{ "accessKey": "YOUR_MINIO_ACCESS_KEY", "secretKey": "YOUR_MINIO_SECRET_KEY", "endpoint": "YOUR_MINIO_HOST", port: 9000, secure: true }	When imageUploadType is set to minio, you need to set this key. Also checkout our Minio Image Upload Guide
s3	{ "accessKeyId": "YOUR_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID", "secretAccessKey": "YOUR_S3_ACCESS_KEY", "region": "YOUR_S3_REGION" }	When imageuploadtype be set to s3, you would also need to setup this key, check our S3 Image Upload Guide
s3bucket	YOUR_S3_BUCKET_NAME	bucket name when imageUploadType is set to s3 or minio
sourceURL	https://github.com/hackmdio/codimd/tree/<current commit>	Provides the link to the source code of CodiMD on the entry page (Please, make sure you change this when you run a modified version)

¹: relative paths are based on CodiMD's base directory

Third-party integration API key settings

service	settings location	description
facebook, twitter, github, gitlab, mattermost, dropbox, google, ldap, saml	environment variables or config.json	for signin
imgur, s3, minio, azure	environment variables or config.json	for image upload
dropbox(dropbox/appKey)	config.json	for export and import

Third-party integration OAuth callback URLs

service	callback URL (after the server URL)
facebook	/auth/facebook/callback
twitter	/auth/twitter/callback
github	/auth/github/callback
gitlab	/auth/gitlab/callback
mattermost	/auth/mattermost/callback
dropbox	/auth/dropbox/callback
google	/auth/google/callback
saml	/auth/saml/callback

Developer Notes

Structure

codimd/
├── tmp/            --- temporary files
├── docs/           --- document files
├── lib/            --- server libraries
└── public/         --- client files
    ├── css/        --- css styles
    ├── js/         --- js scripts
    ├── vendor/     --- vendor includes
    └── views/      --- view templates

Operational Transformation

From 0.3.2, we started supporting operational transformation. It makes concurrent editing safe and will not break up other users' operations. Additionally, now can show other clients' selections. See more at http://operational-transformation.github.io/

License

License under AGPL.