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about

simsi is a free, simple piece of weblog-software I have written as a means of posting my thoughts while I am on the road, away from my trusty computer - a moblog, to use current nomenclature. All you need is a cellphone to send a message, either an SMS (for all you Americans out there: a textmessage), an MMS or a regular eMail to your address. Or you can use any internet-cafe you come across. Whenever then somebody looks at the weblog, the script queries the mail-address for messages to be posted and adds their date, author and content to the weblog. Any photos (.jpg) sent with your message (e.g. from your new shiny camera phone) are displayed as well.

You can set up an address specifically for simsi, but you can also use your regular address without any interference. And to make sure nobody who is not supposed to can post to your moblog, you can restrict access to specific addresses or domains.

Because using the MMS/SMS/eMail-gateway of any cellphone-provider adds some chaff to the message, you need to make sure that simsi knows which part of the eMail to display. This is simply done by enclosing the relevant portion in pound-signs (#) - which also guarantees that other messages that arrive at the address (be it spam, or the latest from your mom) don't show up on the web!

The posts of your weblog are stored in an "rss.xml"-file (RSS 2.0) on the webserver. Thus not only creating an archive of your posts, but also making it possible to watch a simsi-weblog in any aggregator or feed-reader of choice.

To personalize your weblog, you can edit the "template.html"-file to your heart's delight, using every bit of HTML and CSS you know. Besides, you may define how many posts are displayed on each page.

The complete program consists of just one small script of PHP. This does of course mean that for simsi to work, your webhoster has to support PHP (version 4 or higher, with the --imap- and GD-extensions compiled in) - which he most probably does. Installation is usually as easy as modifying a few configuration variables and then copying three files to your webserver. You can begin to add posts via SMS, MMS or eMail immediately.


download

Current version (2.16): simsi_2_16.tgz (~4KB)

installation

Download and unpack (tar -xzvf simsi_2_16.tgz, or just double-click) the file. The resulting folder will contain the script "index.php" itself, "popup.php" which handles the thumbnails, and the "template.html"-file. The "pictures"-folder is the default to store images and thumbnails.

Open "index.php" in your favorite editor, and modify the configuration in lines 10-24 to the values you need:

If you decide to give your weblog a more personal look, you can edit the "template.html", too. Design like you would any other webpage, and put the {PLACEHOLDERS} in the desired positions where you want e.g. the title or the picture to be. Just make sure that the 'repeating' part of the weblog, the posts, is contained between the indicated markers. simsi uses these to determine where to split the template.

Once you're done, all that's left to do is putting "index.php", "template.html" and "popup.php" onto your webserver. As soon as you visit the site for the first time, the script generates a file "rss.xml" which will contain the posts you make to your blog.


using

To post, send a message to the eMail-address you set up. The most important thing:

The part of the message body that is supposed to show up in the weblog has to be enclosed in pound-signs (#)

The #s make sure that an eMail sent via the SMS/MMS-gateway of your cellphone-provider (or most webmail-services, for that matter), which contains lots of other stuff added afterwards, is processed correctly. If your "template.html" uses the {TITLE}-placeholder, the subjects of your messages are displayed there.

Mails that do not contain a pair of # in the body are left untouched - so no need to worry about losing important stuff or spam appearing in your weblog. (^_^)

Example: If you send this SMS through the SMS/eMail-gateway to the eMail-address you use for simsi

post@mysimsi.com #Dear Diary, you don't know how easy the last few minutes have been...#

then the eMail once it reaches your server reads something like

This message was sent via the SMS-gateway of your greedy provider
Message follows:
--
From: 0179-1234567@ubergreedy.com #Dear Diary, you don't know how easy the last few minutes have been...#
--
Message ends.

and it will show up on the weblog-page as the post

Dear Diary, you don't know how easy the last few minutes have been...

with a correct timestamp plus information about the author (eMail and/or realname, depending on your configuration and "template.html") - and the mail will be deleted. Depending on $SHARED_EMAIL, messages that made no sense to simsi will either remain on the server (to be fetched by your usual eMail-client) or will be purged.

If you attach pictures to your message, they are saved on the server, and will be shown together with the post. And any HTML you use is preserved as well.


faq

Q: When I try to read my weblog, I only get the error-message "could not connect to mailserver. quitting..."?

A: Make sure that the $MAIL_-variables in lines 12-14 of the script are correct. If so, perhaps your mailserver is temporarily down.
Besides, if you are running the script locally, check whether you are connected to the internet! (^_^)


Q: When looking at my weblog, it complains about a "permission problem with 'rss.xml'. quitting..."?

A: Either the script could not generate the necessary file "rss.xml" on the server, or the file could not be written to. Most probably because the directory your blog lives in does not have the correct permissions. As a remedy, ftp into the server and change them via chmod a+w [directory]!


Q: When I attach a picture to my message, simsi prints nothing but "no permission to write image. quitting..."?

A: To be able to write a picture, the $PICTURE_FOLDER must have the right permissions. To fix the problem, ftp into the server and use chmod a+w [directory] to change them!


Q: My mails don't show up in simsi?

A: A few possible problems: Either the data for your mail-server in lines 12-14 is incorrect; you have set $ALLOWED_SENDERS to a value that doesn't let your own messages through; or the time in $MAIL_QUERY_INTERVAL isn't elapsed yet, and simsi hasn't queried the mail server for new messages again!
And you are enclosing your message in #, aren't you?


Q: The picture I send is ignored. All I see is the text of my entry?

A: Depending on your eMail-client, attachments are encoded in many different ways. If I have overlooked yours, please contact me, so I can tweak simsi for you (and others)!


Q: The thumbnails do not work, but I am sure that the GD-library is installed?

A: Perhaps you are using an older version of the GD-library - simsi employs some functions of GD 2.0.1. Replace imagecreatetruecolor() in line 34 with imagecreate(), and imagecopyresampled() with imagecopyresized() in line 35 of "index.php". That should work, only with lesser quality thumbnails!


Q: simsi does not display anything but "could not open 'template.html'. quitting..."?

A: The "template.html"-file that determines the layout of your blog could not be found. Perhaps you forgot to put it on the server, right next to the script!


Q: The script dies with the error message "undefined function 'imap_open' in line 84"?

A: In this case, the PHP-installation on your (or more probably your hoster's) server does not have the necessary --imap-extension compiled in. Time to talk to your administrator!


contact

simsi was written by Marc Rohlfing. You can reach me at 'simsi AT rowlff DOT de'. Every comment, suggestion or bug-report is appreciated.


donate

simsi is - and will always be - free! Use it in whichever way you like... but should you ever feel a little nagging from that good conscience of yours, my Amazon Wish List is full of goodies great and small you can send me as a token of your appreciation. Thanks!


made with

I use my Powerbook running Panther, SubEthaEdit, Marc Liyanage's PHP Apache Module and several books from O'Reilly to develop simsi.


license

simsi

Copyright 2003, 2004, Marc Rohlfing

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

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