EpochTalk is an open-source discussion platform that is highly customizable to suit your needs. If you want to set up a discussion platform on your Windows 11 computer using EpochTalk, this tutorial will guide you through the installation process.
The first step is to fork the EpochTalk repository by heading to the official EpochTalk GitHub page: https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk. Once there, click on the "Fork" button in the top-right corner of the page. This will create a copy of the repository on your GitHub account that you can customize later.
Clone the repository from your GitHub account to your Windows 11 computer using Git. Open your Command Prompt or Windows Terminal and navigate to the directory where you want to clone the repository.
Use the following command to clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/epochtalk.git
Replace <your-username> with your GitHub username. Git will download the EpochTalk source code to your computer.
With the EpochTalk source code on your computer, navigate to the directory where you cloned the repository using your Command Prompt or Windows Terminal.
Once you're in the directory, you will run the following command, which will install all dependencies required for EpochTalk:
npm install
This command will take some time as it downloads and installs all of the required dependencies.
Before running the EpochTalk server, you must create a new PostgreSQL database that you will use to store your preference data. Download and install the PostgreSQL software on your computer if you haven't done so already.
You can create a new database using the following command:
createdb mydatabase
Replace mydatabase with the name you want to give to your new PostgreSQL database.
EpochTalk comes with a default configuration file that you can edit to customize the settings of your forum. Navigate to the config/ directory and look for a file called default.json. Make a copy of this file and rename it to local.json.
With your text editor, open the local.json file and enter the details for your database connection.
{
"database": {
"dialect": "postgres",
"database": "mydatabase",
"user": "postgres",
"password": null,
"host": "localhost",
"port": 5432,
"logging": false
}
}
Replace the values for database, user, password, host, and port with the values that match your PostgreSQL database.
To start the EpochTalk server, run the following command in the directory where you cloned the repository:
npm start
Once the server starts, you will see the output in your terminal window.
Now, you can navigate to your web browser and visit http://localhost:8080 to view your newly created forum.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed EpochTalk on your Windows 11 computer.
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Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!
