would a "more from this actor" button be helpful on #ktistec? the use case is 1) navigate to an actor you're thinking of following, 2) click on "more from this actor" to fetch ~10 additional, recent posts. is there another feature that would be more useful?

Release v3.2.1 of Ktistec adds support for bookmarking posts. This was so immediately useful I don't know why it took me so long to get around to it!

Pinned/featured posts are in the works for the next release.

The full changelog:

Added

• Support for bookmarking posts.

Fixed

• Invalidate user's sessions after changing password.
• Ignore supplied languages that don't conform to expected format.

Changed

• Upgrade Kemal.

In other thoughts... I'd like to make followed hashtags more consumable. I follow ~10 hashtags and: 1) it's hard to tell what's new, 2) it feels like they arrive in large batches that are difficult to digest, and 3) the reading experience is meh.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

commits b9e0658d to d42482bb cut the time required to run all #ktistec tests from ~35 seconds to ~26 seconds, a savings of about 25% (there are currently 5114 tests). the faster tests run, the more you run them, so this is a good outcome.

no #ktistec release this week. i have been working on bookmarked posts, pinned/featured posts, as well as some minor performance improvements, but i need to spend time fixing an issue with my libxml extensions that is preventing me from moving to the latest release of #crystallang. i've been putting it off but it's gotta get done, so...

Okay, my analysis is complete! Here are the core changes to Ktistec required for Mastodon API compatibility:

• PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) must be optional: Because Mastodon makes PKCE optional, clients don't support it, which means other servers can't require it. PKCE (and the code_challenge parameter) ensures that an authorization code can only be exchanged by the client that initiated the OAuth request.
• Support for the client_credentials grant type: The client_credentials grant type is used to grant a client app-level access without requiring user authentication. Mastodon requires this for some of its "public" API endpoints. This necessitates a change to the database schema to allow a null account id in the client secrets table.
• Addition of a created_at timestamp property: Mastodon requires a non-standard created_at property in the body of the /oauth/token endpoint response instead of (in addition to) the standard expires_in property.
• Support for both form-encoded and JSON request bodies: This isn't a Mastodon requirement per se but popular clients clearly demand some latitude in what they send.
• WebFinger must accept requests with no resource parameter: This is honestly a bug on my part.
• Mastodon-compatible endpoints: A boatload of them. Clients expect many endpoints and don't gracefully degrade if they're not present. Really I should just implement features like pinned posts and bookmarks...

The only thing here that gives me heartburn is that PKCE is not required.

#ktistec #mastodonapi #oauth

I ended up with a solution that exaggerates the focal point offset from center to try to get more of the image around the focal point inside the container:

def normalized_focal_point
  return nil unless has_focal_point?
  x, y = focal_point.not_nil!
  norm_x = x / 2 + 0.5      # normalized x = x / 2 + 0.5
  norm_y = -y / 2 + 0.5     # normalized y = -y / 2 + 0.5 (y inverted)
  # push the focal point toward the edges so that more of the focused image is in view
  {
    exaggerate(norm_x),
    exaggerate(norm_y)
  }
end

private def exaggerate(value, strength = 0.75)
  centered = value - 0.5
  exaggerated = centered.sign * (centered.abs ** strength)
  (exaggerated + 0.5).clamp(0.0, 1.0)
end

Reading up on object-position and its use for focal point support in Mastodon and looking at examples in practice it doesn’t seem like the existing implemented approach works well (link). I'm open to better ways to do this, and I welcome course correction if I'm heading in the wrong direction.

#ktistec #activitypub