Getting Started with Known
Getting Started with Known offers a guide to setting up Known on your web server.
Known is the simplest implementation of an IndieWeb-compatible website to date.
Known is a software package that adheres to IndieWeb principles and offers a usable IndieWeb site out of the box. It can be configured for a single user or to serve a community.
It can publish Posts, Status updates (notes), Check-ins, Photos, Bookmarks, Events and RSVPs. Known can also host podcasts and video.
At one time, Known offered a paid-for hosted option for individuals. This is no longer available, and so you will need your own domain and somewhere to host the site.
There is a comprehensive beginner's guide to Known, although parts of it may now be out of date.
Marcus Povey, a core contributer to Known, maintains up-to-date code and instructions.
Hosting
Known offers guides to installing on Arvixe and Reclaim. People have successfully and easily installed Known on other hosts, such as DreamHost.
Requirements
Known requires the following server components:
- PHP 7.0 or above.
- MySQL 5+, MongoDB, Postgres or SQLite3. (Known recommends MySQL.)
- A Web Server that supports URL rewriting (Apache + mod_rewrite recommended).
- If you are using Apache, you also need to make sure support for .htaccess is enabled (using the AllowOverride All directive).
System requirements for Known.
Plugins
Much of Known's IndieWeb functionality is delivered through plugins. Several of these support syndication to other platforms and to silos. Known also offers MicroPub to receive input from suitable clients.
Installing plugins requires access to your site's hosting in order to copy the plugin folder to the IdnoPlugins folder of your site. Once there, navigate to Site configuration > Plugins to enable a new plugin. Settings for each plugin are available from the menu at the top of the Site configuration page.
For example, if you wish to syndicate posts to Twitter, enable the Twitter plugin and then follow the instructions on the Twitter configuration page. This will create a button underneath the Post creation screen that allows you to decide whether to syndicate that post to Twitter.
RSS and other feeds
Known has extensive support for feeds, in several formats; RSS, JSON and KML.
Feeds are a good way of enabling people and other sites to read your site. Known makes it very easy to provide specific feeds for different kinds of content.
- Status updates - https://example.withknown.com/content/statusupdates/?_t=rss
- Posts - https://example.withknown.com/content/posts/?_t=rss
- Photos - https://example.withknown.com/content/photos/?_t=rss
- Check-ins - https://example.withknown.com/content/check-ins/?_t=rss
- Bookmarks - https://example.withknown.com/content/bookmarkedpages/?_t=rss
- Audio - https://example.withknown.com/content/streamingmedia/?_t=rss
You can also concatenate different kinds of content into a single post. This is a good way of sending only some kinds of post to a site such as Micro Blog. For example, https://example.withknown.com/content/statusupdates/posts/bookmarkedpages?_t=rss sends only Posts, Status update (notes) and Bookmarks.
Examples
Several people are (or were) using Known as either their main site or as a secondary site. Many are listed on the main Known page and may be willing to offer assistance.