Kill the Newsletter!

Convert email newsletters into Atom feeds

Deploy Your Own Instance (Self-Host)

1. Create accounts on GitHub, Namecheap, and DigitalOcean.

2. Fork this repository.

3. Create a deployment SSH key pair:

   $ ssh-keygen
   

   Private key (id_rsa): Add to your fork under Settings > Secrets as a new secret called SSH_PRIVATE_KEY.

   Public key (id_rsa.pub): Add to your fork under Settings > Deploy keys and to your DigitalOcean account under Account > Security > SSH keys.

4. Buy a domain on Namecheap.

5. Create a DigitalOcean droplet:

   Image	Ubuntu 18.04.3 (LTS) x64
   Plan	Starter Standard $5/mo
   Additional options	Monitoring
   Authentication	Your Deployment SSH Key
   Hostname	<YOUR DOMAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, “kill-the-newsletter.com”>
   Backups	Enable

6. Assign the new droplet a Firewall:

   Name	<YOUR DOMAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, “kill-the-newsletter.com”>
   Inbound Rules	ICMP
   	SSH	22
   	Custom	25 (SMTP)
   	HTTP	80
   	HTTPS	443

7. Assign the new droplet a Floating IP.

8. Configure the DNS in Namecheap:

   Type	Host	Value
   A	@	<FLOATING IP>
   CNAME	www	<YOUR DOMAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, “kill-the-newsletter.com”>
   MX	@	<YOUR DOMAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, “kill-the-newsletter.com”>

9. Configure the deployment on package.json, particularly under the following keys:

   • apps.env.BASE_URL.
   • apps.env.EMAIL_DOMAIN.
   • apps.env.ISSUE_REPORT.
   • deploy.production.host.
   • deploy.production.repo.

10. Configure Caddy, the reverse proxy, on Caddyfile.

11. Setup the server:

    $ ssh-add
    $ npm run deploy:setup
    

12. Migrate the existing feeds (if any):

    $ ssh-add
    $ ssh -A root@<YOUR DOMAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, “kill-the-newsletter.com”>
    root@<YOUR DOMAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, “kill-the-newsletter.com”> $ rsync -av <path-to-previous-feeds> /root/kill-the-newsletter.com/current/static/feeds/
    root@<YOUR DOMAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, “kill-the-newsletter.com”> $ rsync -av <path-to-previous-alternate> /root/kill-the-newsletter.com/current/static/alternate/
    

13. Push to your fork, which will trigger the GitHub Action that deploys the code and starts the server.

Run Locally

Install Node.js and run:

$ npm install
$ npm start

The web server will be running at http://localhost:8000 and the email server at smtp://localhost:2525.

Run Tests

Install Node.js and run:

$ npm install-test

Docker Support (Experimental)

Install Docker and run:

$ docker build -t kill-the-newsletter .
$ docker run kill-the-newsletter

The web server will be running at http://localhost:8000 and the email server at smtp://localhost:2525.

For use in production, start with the example Dockerfile.