mirror of
https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial.git
synced 2024-11-27 14:16:39 +00:00
74 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
74 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
# Glossary
|
|
|
|
This document describes some commonly-used terms in discussions of federation.
|
|
|
|
## `ActivityPub`
|
|
|
|
A decentralized social networking protocol based on the ActivityStreams data format. See [here](https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/).
|
|
|
|
GoToSocial uses the ActivityPub protocol to communicate between GtS servers, and with other federated servers like Mastodon, Pixelfed, etc.
|
|
|
|
## `ActivityStreams`
|
|
|
|
A model/data format for representing potential and completed activities using JSON. See [here](https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-core/).
|
|
|
|
GoToSocial uses the ActivityStreams data model to 'speak' ActivityPub with other servers.
|
|
|
|
## `Actor`
|
|
|
|
An actor is an ActivityStreams object that is capable of performing some Activity like following, liking, creating a post, reblogging, etc. See [here](https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/#actors).
|
|
|
|
In GoToSocial, each account/user is an actor.
|
|
|
|
## `Dereference`
|
|
|
|
To 'dereference' a post or a profile means to make an HTTP call to the server that hosts that post or profile, in order to obtain its ActivityStreams representation.
|
|
|
|
GoToSocial 'dereferences' posts and profiles on remote servers, in order to convert them to models that GoToSocial can understand and work with.
|
|
|
|
Here's a more detailed explanation with some examples:
|
|
|
|
Let's say that someone on an ActivityPub server searches for the username `@tobi@goblin.technology`.
|
|
|
|
Their server would then do a webfinger lookup at `goblin.technology` for the username `tobi`, at the following URL:
|
|
|
|
```text
|
|
https://goblin.technology/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:tobi@goblin.technology
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The `goblin.technology` server would give back some JSON in response; something like this:
|
|
|
|
```json
|
|
{
|
|
"subject": "acct:tobi@goblin.technology",
|
|
"aliases": [
|
|
"https://goblin.technology/users/tobi",
|
|
"https://goblin.technology/@tobi"
|
|
],
|
|
"links": [
|
|
{
|
|
"rel": "http://webfinger.net/rel/profile-page",
|
|
"type": "text/html",
|
|
"href": "https://goblin.technology/@tobi"
|
|
},
|
|
{
|
|
"rel": "self",
|
|
"type": "application/activity+json",
|
|
"href": "https://goblin.technology/users/tobi"
|
|
}
|
|
]
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Under the links section the requesting server would look for a link of type `application/activity+json`, which denotes the ActivityStreams representation of the user. In this case, the URL is:
|
|
|
|
```text
|
|
https://goblin.technology/users/tobi
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The above URL is a *reference* to the activitypub representation of the user/Actor `tobi` on the `goblin.technology` instance. It's called a reference because it doesn't contain all of the information about that user, it's only a reference point for where that information can be found.
|
|
|
|
Now, the requesting server will make a request to that URL in order to obtain a fuller representation of `@tobi@goblin.technology`, which complies to the ActivityPub spec. In other words, the server now follows a *reference* to get to the thing it references. This makes it *not a reference anymore*, hence the term *dereferencing*.
|
|
|
|
For an analogy, consider what happens when you look something up in the index of a book: first you get the page number that the material you're interested in is on, which is a reference. Then you turn to the referenced page to see the content, which is dereferencing.
|