Microjournal

A tiny self-hostable “microjournaling” web app. Helps fill the void when abstaining from social media by encouraging journaling small thoughts throughout the day instead of doomscrolling! Inspired by a video by struthful on YouTube.

Features:

• Post plain text entries to a simple private blog timeline
• Light/dark mode support
• No Javascript
• Works as a nice little web app when bookmarked to the home screen on iOS

Requirements

• Web host with PHP 8.1

Installation

1. Copy all the files in htdocs to your web directory.
2. Copy journal.db somewhere outside your web directory so it is not accessible from the internet.
3. Ensure journal.db is writable by the web server user. The web app will test writability when it is first run and will alert you if it fails.
4. Edit index.php and set the configuration values near the top:
   • DB_PATH is the path to journal.db on the server’s file system.
   • BASE_URL is the URL where index.php will be accessed from the web. An https: URL is strongly recommended. You may include index.php in the URL or just point to the path.
5. Load the URL in a browser. If there are any configuration problems, you’ll be notified. Otherwise, you will be prompted to create a username and password. The username can be an email address or a simple username.

Optionally, since there isn’t anything here you’d want other people accessing, you may want to add a robots.txt to your website to keep your journal undiscovered by search engines.

Future features (maybe)

• Deleting posts
• Editing posts
• Simple markdown support

License

This software is under the MIT Software License.