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Upgrading to 1.8.9

?? Make sure you've made a backup of your database and files before upgrading.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Version 1.8.9 is a broad feature release touching nearly every part of the system.

The headline addition is the Interests system ? a way for admins to bundle related echo areas and file areas into named topic groups that users can subscribe to in one step. A card-based interest picker guides new users through onboarding, and the echomail reader gains an Interests tab and area list filter so readers can stay focused on what they care about.

Real-time delivery (BinkStream) is introduced in this release. A SharedWorker owns one persistent transport connection per logged-in user, shared across all open browser tabs, using WebSocket where available and SSE as a fallback. Unread badge counts for echomail, netmail, files, and the file approval queue are pushed from the server the moment something changes ? driven by PostgreSQL triggers ? eliminating client-side polling for these counts entirely. Message-list views refresh silently in the background without showing a loading spinner, and marking a message as read in one browser tab is immediately reflected in every other open tab. The realtime server is now a core daemon listed alongside the BinkP server in startup documentation and the admin dashboard.

File areas gain a proper upload approval workflow. Non-admin uploads land in a pending queue that sysops can review, scan, approve, or reject from a dedicated admin page. Admins see a live notification badge on the Files menu the moment a new upload is waiting, and the badge persists its seen state across page loads. The Files nav item for admins becomes a dropdown that surfaces the File Approvals queue alongside the regular file browser.

Messaging improvements include a right-click context menu on echomail and netmail list rows (with long-press support on touch devices), a Show Entire Conversation mode, a Raw Source viewer mode for inspecting wire content, and a compose-time warning when a message approaches the FidoNet 16 KB limit. QWK offline mail adds HTTP Basic Auth endpoints for scripted access, and users can now choose exactly which echo areas go into their QWK packets.

BinkP configuration gains several operational improvements. A visual schedule builder simplifies writing cron expressions for poll schedules. Each uplink on the BinkP page has an on-demand connectivity check button that runs a lightweight auth-only probe. Packet filenames in the inbound and outbound queues are now clickable, opening the same packet inspector available on the Kept Packets tab. The scheduler now respects each uplink's configured poll schedule when deciding whether to poll on outbound activity, preventing unnecessary connections to the upstream hub. Session logging is expanded to cover normal inbound and outbound sessions in addition to crash mail, making the BinkP Sessions page and dashboard widgets useful for day-to-day monitoring.

The Telnet/SSH BBS server gains several features tied to this release's major additions. When Interests are enabled, a new Interests menu lets BBS users browse and subscribe from the terminal. The QWK Offline Mail menu now supports full ZMODEM file transfer for both download and upload alongside the existing HTTP download URL. The echomail area picker gains an option to filter areas by Interest.

The AreaFix / FileFix Manager is a new admin tool for managing echo area subscriptions with the upstream hub's robots ? sending commands and reviewing replies ? all without touching a mail client.

For AI-curious sysops, an optional MCP Server exposes echomail to AI assistants such as Claude via the Model Context Protocol, with per-user bearer keys and the same access controls as the web interface. A new abstracted AI Provider Layer backs the Interests suggestion wizard and area classifier, supporting both Anthropic and OpenAI.

Rounding out the release: a tabbed User Settings layout, notification sound previews, admin dashboard improvements including a live Active BinkP Sessions card and a redesigned Today's Callers table, ad click-through tracking and analytics, a campaign clone action in the Broadcast Manager, and miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements including a pipe code false-positive that was rendering English words with green backgrounds.

Summary of Changes

Interests - Admins define named topic groups (Interests) by bundling echo areas and file areas together. Users subscribe to an interest with a single click and are automatically enrolled in all its member areas. - Admin management at /admin/interests: create, edit, reorder, and activate/deactivate interests; assign areas; configure icon and color; and use the Generate Suggestions wizard for keyword-based or AI-assisted grouping. - User interest picker at /interests: card-based subscribe flow with optional per-area selection. - The echomail reader includes an Interests tab and area list filter for a focused reading experience. - New users are guided through interest selection during onboarding. Activity Statistics includes a Popular Interests tab. - Controlled by ENABLE_INTERESTS in .env.

Echomail & Netmail - Message lists now support a right-click context menu (long-press on mobile) with actions including View Conversation, Save for later, Download Message, Forward by EMail, and Share. Holding Shift while right-clicking bypasses the custom menu and shows the browser's native context menu. - Netmail gains full Save for later support: bookmark icon in message rows, a Save button in the message reader footer, a Saved filter tab, and a saved count in the quick stats panel ? matching the existing echomail feature. - Deleting a saved message (single or bulk) now requires a second confirmation dialog so saved messages are not removed accidentally. - Fixed a crash when bulk-deleting echomail messages where one message was referenced by another message's reply chain. - Echomail message lists now include an Ignore message action. It creates per-user ignore rules that match the exact sender name, the exact sender node address, and optionally a substring in the subject line. Leaving the subject blank blocks that sender entirely. - Each distinct combination of sender name, node address, and subject is stored as its own independent ignore rule. A sender posting from multiple node addresses under the same name can be blocked per address or all at once. - Markdown messages now render alt image syntax as a click-to-load placeholder instead of displaying a raw exclamation mark and hyperlink. Clicking the placeholder fetches and displays the image inline. The Markdown toolbar in compose gains an Insert Image button that opens a dialog for entering an image URL, uploading an image file, or selecting a previously uploaded image. Uploaded images are stored privately under the user's file area and served via a stable URL on this BBS (/echomail-images/{hash}). Those URLs always use the configured SITE_URL so they resolve correctly when messages are read on other systems. - A Show Entire Conversation mode loads the full thread when clicking the reply icon, not just the messages on the current page. - The A key cycle now includes a Raw Source mode showing message bytes verbatim ? useful for inspecting wire content. - Messages explicitly marked as Plain Text now bypass ANSI and pipe-code rendering completely. - The compose form warns when approaching the 16 KB FidoNet message body limit. - Fixed a pipe code false-positive that rendered English words like |Advertise with a green background. Detection now requires uppercase letters, matching real BBS software.

QWK Offline Mail - QWK download and REP upload are now available via HTTP Basic Auth at /qwk/download and /qwk/upload for use with external offline-mail tools. - A standalone FTP daemon (scripts/ftp_daemon.php) is available for scripted QWK access and file transfers. It is disabled by default and must be enabled explicitly with FTPD_ENABLED=true. - Users can choose exactly which echo areas appear in their QWK packets via a Conference Areas picker.

User Settings - The settings page is reorganized into a tabbed layout: Display, Messaging, Notifications, and Account. - Notification sound select boxes now have a ? button to preview sounds without leaving the page. - The Messaging tab now ends with an Ignored Echomail section where users can review and remove saved echomail ignore rules. - The Messaging tab includes an Image Loading preference: images in Markdown messages can be set to load automatically or only on tap (default: tap to load).

User Profile - Users can now fill in an About Me field on their edit profile page (/profile). The content is rendered as Markdown and displayed in a card on their public profile (/profile/{username}). Profiles with no about-me text show a "Hasn't shared anything yet" placeholder. - The activity log on the admin view of a user's profile now displays timestamps in the viewing admin's configured timezone instead of raw UTC. - The "Last seen" label on the public profile has been corrected to "Last login". - The edit profile page (/profile) now has a View Profile button linking directly to the user's public profile.

Appearance - The Appearance page now includes a dedicated Login tab for configuring the shared /login experience across all shells. Sysops can choose between the standard form and an ANSI-driven login screen with the prompt appended after the ANSI display. - The BBS menu shell's ansi variant now supports size presets: 80x25, 132x24, 132x43, 132x50, and Full Screen. - 80x25 is the authentic baseline terminal presentation. Full Screen instead scales the rendered ANSI art to the available browser viewport below the shell header. - A new Term Server tab in Admin -> Appearance lets sysops edit or upload the supported custom ANSI screens used by the telnet and SSH terminal servers. - ANSI-capable admin editors now share a reusable editor widget with modal preview, an ANSI cheatsheet, and a 132-column ruler for alignment work.

Echomail MCP Server - An optional Model Context Protocol server (mcp-server/) gives AI assistants read-only access to your echomail. Each user generates a personal bearer key from Settings ? AI. See docs/MCPServer.md for setup.

File Areas - Non-admin uploads are placed in a pending approval queue. Sysops review, scan, approve, or reject uploads from Admin ? File Approvals. - Users have a My Uploads view in /files showing pending, approved, and rejected uploads with status badges. - Admins see a live notification badge on the Files menu when uploads are awaiting approval. The badge clears on visiting the approvals page and persists its seen state across page loads. - The Files nav entry for admins is now a dropdown containing Files and File Approvals. - The Activity Statistics page now excludes private file areas from its file-activity reports so public/admin-facing download and browse totals do not reveal private-area usage. - ISO file-area mount points entered through the web interface or API must now stay under data/iso_mounts. If you need a custom external mount path, set it directly in the database after upgrade.

Real-time Events (BinkStream) - Unread badge counts for echomail, netmail, files, and the file approval queue are now pushed from the server the moment something changes ? no more client-side polling. - Message lists update silently in the background without a loading spinner. - Marking a message as read in one tab immediately reflects in all other open tabs. - realtime_server.php is now a core daemon (alongside binkp_server.php) and appears in the Admin dashboard service status panel. pm.max_children must be sized for your expected concurrent user count ? see CONFIGURATION.md ? Server Sizing & Tuning.

AreaFix / FileFix Manager - New admin tool at /admin/areafix for managing echo area subscriptions with the upstream hub's robots. Quick-action buttons send common commands with one click; incoming replies are displayed in a Latest Reply panel. - AreaFix/FileFix message subjects are masked to ???????? in all views to protect the password. - areafix_password and filefix_password fields added to the BinkP uplink editor.

The Latest Reply panel now follows the newest incoming reply correctly, and the history table timestamps are localized to the viewing user's timezone.

Advertising - Content commands are now restricted to an approved whitelist; the admin editor uses a dropdown instead of free text. - Ads now support a Click-through URL. Impressions and clicks are tracked and displayed on a new Ad Analytics page at /admin/ad-analytics. - Uploaded ad files are auto-prefixed with [ANSI], [RIP], or [SIXEL] based on file type. - The ad content editor now uses the shared ANSI editor component, giving it a richer sequence helper, modal preview, cheatsheet, and column ruler.

AI Provider Layer - A new AI provider layer supports both OpenAI and Anthropic as backends for AI-assisted features. An admin usage report is available at /admin/ai-usage. See docs/AIProviders.md.

BinkP Configuration - Poll schedule inputs now have a schedule builder that breaks a cron expression into editable fields with a human-readable description. - The BinkP status page includes options to check uplinks for connectivity status. - Packet filenames in the queue lists are now clickable and open the packet inspector modal. - Uplinks have a new Allow insecure echomail delivery option for legacy nodes that cannot authenticate. ?? Not recommended ? use only as a last resort. - The BinkP Session Log now records normal outbound poll sessions and inbound server sessions, not just crash mail activity. - BinkP session records now include the handling process ID and log filename basename, and the admin sessions table can open the matching log lines for a session in a modal. - scripts/database_maintenance.php now purges old binkp_session_log rows after 30 days by default. Retention is configurable with BINKP_SESSION_LOG_RETENTION_DAYS.

Telnet / SSH BBS Server - After login, telnet users now see SYSTEM NEWS from data/systemnews.md rendered in a framed terminal screen before the recent shoutbox. The read-only recent shoutbox screen now also offers a quick S shortcut to post a shout before continuing. - Interests menu (I) added for browsing and subscribing to topic groups. - QWK Offline Mail (K) now supports ZMODEM file transfer for download (D) and upload (U) using a built-in PHP ZMODEM implementation ? no external tools required.

Dashboard - Content-command-backed advertisements now render correctly in all views. - Today's Callers is now a table with User, Time, and Online columns. - Admin dashboards now include an Active BinkP Sessions card that refreshes automatically as session progress changes.

Broadcast Manager - Campaign editor now has a Clone action to duplicate a campaign as a new disabled copy.

Registration - Registration page now advises applicants to expect an approval email and check their spam folder.

MRC Chat - /join <room> slash command added to the MRC chat input. - The MRC webdoor interface was restructured around a connect screen, a room dropdown, and a simplified chat layout. - The MRC connect form now lets each user choose a custom MRC handle instead of always using the BBS account username. - Private messages now render inline in the main message stream instead of switching the interface into a separate direct-message view. - MRC message delivery now uses BinkStream realtime events for room updates instead of relying on the old client polling flow for live chat updates.

CLI Tools - New scripts/fix_date_received.php resets date_received to date_written for echomail rows in specified areas. Useful after a %RESCAN import. - scripts/binktop.php gains interactive keyboard controls: press q to quit and i to change the refresh interval while running. The display no longer blinks on each refresh ? content is rewritten in place.

Admin Terminal - A floating xterm.js terminal panel is available to administrators when ADMIN_TERMINAL=true. Commands include who, finger, wall, msg, uplinks, and poll. The stream watch hidden command shows live BinkStream events in real time. Command history is persisted in localStorage per user and cleared on logout.

Weather Report Configuration - The OpenWeatherMap API key field in the weather report admin page is now masked by default. A Show / Hide toggle reveals or re-hides the value.

Advertising - Campaign scheduler now triggers an immediate outbound binkp poll after all messages are spooled, matching the behavior of user-posted messages. Previously, campaign-posted mail waited until the next scheduled poll.

Bug Fixes - Fixed FTP server rejecting REP packet uploads when a same-named file already existed in the inbound directory. - Fixed pipe code parser failing to render color codes that are immediately followed by a digit (e.g. |152 ? |15 is bright white, 2 is a literal character).

Interests

Overview

Interests are admin-defined topic groups that bundle echo areas (and optionally file areas) under a named theme. Users subscribe to an interest with a single click and are automatically subscribed to all its member echo areas, removing the need to hunt through hundreds of individual areas.

Two database migrations are included: v1.11.0.49_interests.sql (core schema) and v1.11.0.50_interest_echo_sources.sql (source-tracking table). Both run automatically via php scripts/setup.php.

Admin Management

Admins manage interests at /admin/interests. Each interest has:

  • Name and slug (URL-friendly identifier, auto-generated from the name)
  • Description shown to users on the interest card
  • Icon ? any FontAwesome class (e.g. `fa-gamepad`)
  • Color ? hex accent color shown on the card and in the area list
  • Sort order ? controls display order on the picker page
  • Active flag ? inactive interests are hidden from users

Echo areas and file areas are assigned via a searchable list. Saving a new echo area list automatically propagates new areas to all existing interest subscribers.

User Interest Picker

Active interests are shown at /interests as a card grid. Each card shows the icon, color accent, name, description, and echo area count. A Subscribe button on each card subscribes the user to all member echo areas at once. A details view lets the user pick individual areas before subscribing.

The Interests link appears in the user dropdown menu only when the feature is enabled and at least one active interest exists.

First-Time Onboarding

When a user visits /echomail for the first time after Interests is enabled and they have no interest subscriptions, they are redirected to /echo-onboarding first. That guide introduces echomail, explains how the network works, and then sends the user on to /interests. The onboarding redirect happens only once unless the user later resets the onboarding flag from Settings.

A Go to Echo Areas button at the bottom of the /interests page takes users directly back to /echomail after they have finished subscribing.

Echo Area List Integration

The echomail reader (/echomail) now shows an Interests tab in both the desktop sidebar card and the mobile "Viewing" accordion. The Interests tab appears first and is active by default when interests exist.

Selecting an interest from the tab loads a unified, paginated message feed from all its echo areas ? the same view used for individual echo areas, with the same filter and sort controls.

The Manage Subscriptions button (mobile) and the wrench icon link (desktop) swap to Manage Interests and link to /interests while the Interests tab is active, and revert to Manage Subscriptions ? /subscriptions when the Area List tab is active.

The reader remembers the user's last selected Area List or Interests tab using the p_listorinterest cookie. When an interest is selected from the Interests tab, the Area List tab's interest dropdown is also updated to match so switching back to the Area List view preserves the same interest context.

Subscription Mechanics

When a user subscribes to an interest:

  1. A row is inserted into `user_interest_subscriptions`.
  2. For each echo area in the interest, the system checks `user_echoarea_subscriptions`: - If the user has previously explicitly unsubscribed from that area (`is_active = false`), it is skipped ? explicit unsubscriptions are always respected. - If the user already has an active subscription, only a source-tracking row is added. - If no existing subscription exists, a new one is created with `subscription_type = 'interest'`.

When a user unsubscribes from an interest, only echo area subscriptions that were sourced by that interest (and not covered by another interest the user remains subscribed to) are removed.

Multi-Interest Source Tracking

The user_echoarea_interest_sources table tracks which interest(s) led to each of a user's echo area subscriptions. If two interests share an echo area and the user unsubscribes from one, the area is only removed if no other interest still covers it for that user.

This table is populated automatically and requires no manual configuration.

AI-Assisted Interest Generation

The admin interests page includes a Generate Suggestions wizard that analyzes the echo area catalog and proposes interest groupings with suggested names, descriptions, and area assignments. Suggestions are presented for review before any changes are saved.

The wizard uses keyword matching by default. If an AI provider is configured in .env (OPENAI_API_KEY or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY), it offers an additional AI-assisted mode that produces higher-quality groupings for areas with ambiguous or abbreviated tags.

Activity Statistics: Popular Interests Tab

The Activity Statistics admin page (/admin/activity-stats) includes a new Popular Interests tab (visible when the feature is enabled). It shows all active interests ranked by total subscriber count, with a progress bar for visual comparison. The tab appears next to the Popular Areas tab.

Feature Flag

ENABLE_INTERESTS=true

The feature is enabled by default. Set to false in .env to disable all Interests routes and hide all related UI. No data is deleted when the feature is disabled.

Echomail & Netmail

Compose Message Size Warning

The echomail and netmail compose forms now show a warning indicator when the message body exceeds 12 KB (75% of the 16 KB FidoNet message body limit) and an error if it exceeds 16 KB. This matches the enforced compose limit in the application and helps users avoid silent truncation or rejected posts at the network level.

Sender Name Popover Style

The sender name in the echomail message list is no longer underlined. The popover (showing BBS name, FTN address, and quick-action buttons) is still triggered by clicking the name; only the visual style has changed.

Advanced Search: Message ID Field

The echomail Advanced Search modal now includes a Message ID field. Entering a value performs a case-insensitive partial match (ILIKE) against the message_id column of the echomail table, allowing you to search by a fragment of a FidoNet message ID without knowing the full value. The field follows the same two-character minimum rule as the other Advanced Search text fields and is combined with them using AND logic.

Show Entire Conversation

In threaded message lists, the reply icon can now be used as a dedicated conversation-view action.

Clicking it switches the list into Show Entire Conversation mode, which loads the full visible conversation for the selected message and displays it as one threaded list without page-based thread splitting.

This applies to both:

  • echomail
  • netmail

While conversation mode is active, pagination is hidden and a Back to Message List button restores the normal paged view.

Message List Context Menu

The echomail and netmail message lists now support a custom message action menu on each message row.

On desktop, it opens with right-click. On touch devices, the same menu opens with a long press on the row.

This menu gives users quick access to common actions without opening the message first.

Common actions include:

  • View Conversation - loads the full visible conversation for the selected message
  • Download Message - uses the existing message download endpoint
  • Forward to me by EMail - shown only for users who have an email address configured

Additional echomail-only actions:

  • Save for later / Remove from saved
  • Share - opens the existing message-sharing dialog from the list view

Netmail: Save Message

Netmail now has the same Save for later feature that echomail has had. Users can bookmark individual netmail messages for retrieval at any time.

  • A bookmark icon appears in every message row in the netmail list. Clicking it toggles the saved state without opening the message.
  • The message reader footer includes a Save / Saved button that stays in sync with the bookmark icon.
  • A small bookmark icon in the message header area also toggles the saved state from within the reader.
  • The Saved filter tab in the netmail toolbar shows only saved messages, with a badge showing the count.
  • The Quick Stats panel sidebar includes a Saved count.
  • Saved messages can be unsaved from the right-click context menu via Remove from saved.

No database migration is required. The existing saved_messages table already stores a message_type column that accepts both echomail and netmail.

Delete Saved Message Confirmation

Deleting a saved message now requires a second confirmation dialog after the standard delete prompt, in both netmail and echomail.

  • Single message delete (netmail): if the message being deleted is currently saved, a second prompt appears: "This message is saved. Are you sure you want to delete it?"
  • Bulk delete (netmail and echomail): if any of the selected messages are saved, a second prompt identifies how many saved messages are in the selection: "{N} of the selected messages are saved. Are you sure you want to delete them?"

Cancelling either confirmation aborts the deletion entirely.

Context Menu: Shift-Click Passthrough

Holding Shift while right-clicking a message row in the echomail or netmail list now bypasses the custom context menu entirely and lets the browser show its own native context menu. This is useful for actions the custom menu does not expose, such as opening a link in a new tab or inspecting element.

Echomail Bulk Delete: Foreign Key Fix

The admin echomail bulk-delete endpoint could crash with a PostgreSQL foreign key violation when one of the messages being deleted was referenced by another message's reply_to_id column. The delete now clears those back-references before removing the rows, preventing the error.

Ignored Echomail Messages

Echomail now supports per-user ignore rules for hiding messages from the reader and API responses.

The echomail message list context menu includes Ignore message. Choosing it opens a dialog pre-filled from the selected message:

  • Sender - the exact sender name plus the sender's FTN node address
  • Subject contains - words from the selected subject line

Ignore matching is done on the backend. A message is hidden only when all populated parts of the rule match:

  • `from_name` matches exactly
  • `from_address` matches exactly
  • `subject` contains the saved text

If the Subject contains field is left blank, the rule hides all echomail from that sender identity regardless of subject.

Two migrations support this feature:

  • `v1.11.0.61_echomail_ignore_rules.sql` - creates the ignore-rule storage table
  • `v1.11.0.62_echomail_ignore_rule_sender_address.sql` - extends matching to include sender node address and installs the final uniqueness rule

Ignored Echomail: Multiple Rules per Sender

Each ignore rule is uniquely identified by the combination of sender name, sender node address, and subject substring. A sender who posts from multiple node addresses under the same display name can be silenced per address ? or across all addresses if the subject field is left blank ? and each rule is stored and managed independently.

No database migration is required. No configuration change is needed.

Markdown Image Support

Echomail and netmail messages written in Markdown can now include inline images using standard Markdown syntax: alt text.

Image rendering

alt syntax is rendered as a click-to-load placeholder showing an image icon and the alt text as a link. Clicking it fetches the image and displays it inline, replacing the placeholder. A user setting in Settings ? Messaging controls whether images load automatically instead of requiring a tap (default: tap to load).

Insert Image toolbar button

The Markdown editor toolbar gains an Insert Image button beside the existing Insert Link button. Clicking it opens a dialog with three tabs:

  • Image URL ? paste an external URL and optional alt text; the syntax is inserted at the cursor.
  • Upload ? select a JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP file (up to the configured size limit). The file is stored privately under the user's file area in a dedicated subfolder, deduplicated by SHA-256 hash, and served through this BBS at `/echomail-images/{hash}`. The full absolute URL is inserted into the message.
  • My Images ? a dropdown list of images previously uploaded by this user; selecting one fills in the URL automatically.

Image URL construction

Hosted image URLs are built from the SITE_URL environment variable so they resolve correctly when a message is read on another system or client. Ensure SITE_URL is set correctly in .env for hosted image links to work in distributed messages.

Uploaded images are stored in the existing files table under the user's private file area. No new database migration is required for this feature.

Message Viewer: Raw Source Mode

The A key now cycles through one additional viewer mode: Raw Source.

Full cycle order: Auto ? RIPscrip ? ANSI ? Amiga ANSI ? Plain Text ? Raw Source ? Auto

| Mode | Behaviour | |---|---| | Plain Text | Strips ANSI escape sequences and pipe color codes; linkifies URLs | | Raw Source | Displays the message bytes exactly as received ? no stripping, no rendering, no linkification |

Raw Source is useful for inspecting the wire content of a message without any client-side transformation applied.

Pressing A now also shows a brief toast notification each time the mode changes, making the active mode clearly visible even for modes that look visually similar to Auto.

Pipe Code False Positive Fix

The pipe code detector previously matched any | followed by two characters that happened to be valid hexadecimal ? including letters in ordinary English words. For example, |Advertise was being treated as a Mystic-style hex color code (|AD = bright green background), causing all text after it to render on a green background.

Detection now requires uppercase letters for both hex color codes and two-letter special codes such as |CL and |PA. All real BBS software produces uppercase pipe codes. The same fix was applied to convertPipeCodesToAnsi and parsePipeCodes for consistency.

The detector and parser now also treat doubled pipes (||) as literal pipe characters instead of the start of a pipe code, and they no longer match partial two-character codes inside longer numeric strings. This prevents ordinary text such as FTP 229 Entering Extended Passive Mode (||22|) and 229 Entering Extended Passive Mode (|||2122|) responses from being mis-rendered.

A follow-up fix corrects the opposite problem: the negative lookahead that prevented false positives was also blocking legitimate pipe codes when the text immediately after the code started with a digit. For example, |152 users should parse as color code |15 (bright white) followed by the literal string 2 users, but the lookahead caused the entire sequence to go unmatched and render verbatim. The parser now matches exactly two decimal digits greedily, consuming the code and leaving the rest of the text untouched.

Messages explicitly marked as plain / Plain Text now bypass ANSI and pipe-code rendering entirely in the web viewer instead of being auto-rendered based on message contents.

QWK Offline Mail

HTTP Basic Auth Endpoints

QWK packet download and REP upload are now available through two HTTP Basic Auth endpoints:

  • `GET /qwk/download`
  • `POST /qwk/upload`

These endpoints authenticate with the user's regular BinktermPHP username and password and are intended for external offline-mail clients, scripts, or automation that cannot use the browser session-based /api/qwk/* routes.

They reuse the same QWK packet builder and REP processor as the in-app QWK page, so packet contents and import behavior remain consistent across both access methods.

The /qwk page now includes a help section for this automation workflow, including example curl commands for both endpoints.

It also now documents the JSON response returned by /qwk/upload, including the success, imported, skipped, and errors fields.

FTP Access

The standalone FTP daemon (scripts/ftp_daemon.php) provides a passive FTP service for moving QWK packets and file-area content without going through the browser.

The FTP virtual filesystem exposes:

  • `/qwk/download/<BBSID>.QWK` to generate and download the authenticated user's QWK packet
  • `/qwk/upload/.REPor/qwk/upload/.ZIP` to upload REP reply packets for import
  • `/incoming/<AREA>/...` to upload files into writable file areas using the same pending-approval path as the web interface
  • `/fileareas/...` to browse and download approved files from accessible file areas

Anonymous FTP login is supported for public downloads. Anonymous users are restricted to /fileareas/... and only see file areas marked public; they cannot access QWK paths or upload files.

This FTP service is disabled by default. To enable it, set FTPD_ENABLED=true and configure the control port plus passive port range in .env. If the daemon is behind NAT or bound to 0.0.0.0, also set FTPD_PUBLIC_HOST so passive-mode clients receive a usable address in PASV replies.

By default the FTP daemon listens on port 2121, not privileged port 21. If you want users to connect on the standard FTP port, set up a NAT or port-forward rule that redirects external port 21 to internal port 2121, and forward the configured passive port range as well.

Conference Area Selection

Users can now control exactly which echo areas are included in their QWK packets without changing their echomail subscriptions.

A sliders button on the Conferences panel opens a QWK Conference Areas modal. The modal shows all subscribed areas as checkboxes (all ticked by default) and a search box for adding areas that are not in the user's subscription list.

Behaviour:

  • Default ? when no custom selection has been saved, all subscribed echo areas are included (unchanged from previous behaviour).
  • Custom selection ? once saved, only the ticked areas appear in the packet. The Conferences panel displays a custom badge when a custom selection is active.
  • Personal mail only ? saving with zero areas ticked produces a packet that contains only conference 0 (Personal Mail / netmail) and no echo areas.
  • Reset ? the Reset button in the modal clears the custom selection and reverts to the all-subscribed default.

The selection is stored in the new qwk_area_selections table. An activation flag (qwk_custom_areas_active) in users_meta distinguishes "not configured" from "explicitly empty," making personal-mail-only packets possible.

Three new API endpoints support the feature:

| Endpoint | Purpose | |---|---| | GET /api/qwk/area-selections | Returns current selection and subscribed area list | | POST /api/qwk/area-selections | Saves selection; {"reset": true} reverts to default | | GET /api/qwk/area-search?q= | Searches active areas by tag or description |

Migration v1.11.0.56_qwk_area_selections.sql creates the qwk_area_selections table and its index.

BinkP Configuration

Poll Schedule Builder

The poll schedule input on the uplink configuration screen has a new schedule builder toggle button (sliders icon) appended to the right of the field. It is available on both the admin BinkP configuration page (/admin/binkp-config) and the user BinkP page (/binkp).

Clicking the button opens an inline panel that:

  • Parses the current cron expression into its five labelled fields: Minute, Hour, Day, Month, and Weekday, each with a range hint.
  • Rebuilds the cron expression in the main input live as you edit any field.
  • Shows a human-readable description of the resulting schedule (e.g. "Runs every 4 hours at minute 0", "Runs daily at 06:00").
  • Re-parses and repopulates the fields if you edit the main input directly while the panel is open.

Clicking the button again collapses the panel. No changes to the data model or API are involved.

Status Page Uplink Checks

Each uplink on the BinkP status page (/binkp) now has a button to trigger an on-demand connectivity check. The check is an authentication-only probe ? it stops after the BinkP handshake succeeds and does not proceed into file transfer or packet download processing.

Queue Packet Viewer

Packet filenames in the Inbound Queue and Outbound Queue lists on the BinkP Queues tab are now clickable. Clicking any .pkt filename opens the packet inspector modal ? the same modal used on the Kept Packets tab ? showing:

  • Packet header: originating address, destination address, creation date, size, packet version, product code, and password status.
  • Message list: message number, from, to, subject, date, and attribute flags for every message in the packet.
  • A Download button to save a copy of the raw `.pkt` file.

Non-.pkt files in the queue (e.g. file attachments) remain plain text.

This feature requires a valid registered license, consistent with the existing kept-packets inspector.

Scheduler

  • System-wide outbound queue timer: BinkP now has a configurable Outbound Queue Timer setting in minutes on the admin configuration page. The default is `30`. When a new outbound queue appears for an uplink, the scheduler attempts delivery immediately, then backs off until this timer elapses before retrying.
  • Per-uplink outbound routing check: Outbound-triggered polls are no longer treated as a global queue event. The scheduler inspects queued `.pkt` and `.tic` files, resolves their FTN destination, and only polls the uplink responsible for that destination.
  • No duplicate outbound poll after scheduled poll: When a scheduled inbound poll runs, its bidirectional binkp session already exchanges any outbound packets. The scheduler now tracks which uplinks were polled in the current loop iteration and skips same-iteration outbound polls for those uplinks, while still allowing independent outbound polls in subsequent iterations.

Insecure Session Enhancements

Allow Insecure Echomail Delivery (per uplink)

Each uplink now has an Allow insecure echomail delivery checkbox in the uplink modal. When enabled, the processor checks the FTN node address recorded in the .meta file written during the inbound session. If the address matches the uplink's configured address, echomail from that packet is accepted even though the session was unauthenticated. All other unauthenticated sessions continue to reject echomail as before.

> ?? This option is not recommended and should only be used as a last resort. An unauthenticated session provides no cryptographic proof of the caller's identity ? any connecting node can claim any FTN address. The correct solution is to configure a shared BinkP session password on both ends. Only enable this if the remote system genuinely cannot support passwords and the operator is aware of and accepts the risk.

Insecure Receive Only (enforced)

The Insecure Receive Only checkbox in the Security settings panel is now enforced. When enabled, unauthenticated inbound sessions will not receive any outbound files, hold-directory files, FREQ file serves, or have FREQ requests honoured. Previously the setting was read from configuration but had no effect.

CRAM-MD5 Handshake Ordering

When acting as the answering side of a BinkP session, BinktermPHP now sends OPT CRAM-MD5-<challenge> as the first M_NUL frame whenever CRAM-MD5 is available. Previously the challenge was sent later in the initial M_NUL sequence after SYS, ZYZ, LOC, VER, and TIME.

This change does not alter password timing (M_PWD is still sent after ADR) or plaintext password fallback behavior. It is an interoperability fix for peers that expect the CRAM challenge to be advertised first.

Admin ? BinkP Config

  • Uplinks table cleanup: The uplinks table columns have been consolidated ? Hostname and Port are now shown as a single Host column, and Enabled/Default are combined into a Status badge column. Markdown, Posting Name, and ADR @Domain are no longer shown in the table (they remain editable in the uplink modal).
  • Uplinks table responsive: The uplinks table is now responsive. On smaller screens, less critical columns are hidden progressively: Me and Domain are hidden below `sm`, Host below `md`, and Schedule below `lg`. Uplink, Status, and Actions are always visible.

BinkP Session Log Coverage

The binkp_session_log table now reflects actual BinkP traffic more completely. In addition to crash mail, the application now records:

  • normal outbound `binkp_poll` sessions
  • normal inbound `binkp_server` sessions
  • remote IP addresses for connected peers when available

This makes the Admin -> BinkP Sessions page and related dashboard widgets much more useful for operational monitoring. Sysops upgrading from earlier 1.8.9 builds should expect the session log to fill more quickly because ordinary BinkP traffic is now included instead of only crash mail activity.

BinkP Session Log Details and Log Viewer

New BinkP session rows now also store:

  • `process_id` ? the PID of the process that handled the session
  • `log_file` ? the basename of the log file being written, such as `binkp_poll.log`, `binkp_server.log`, or `crashmail.log`

This allows the Admin -> BinkP Sessions table to offer a session log viewer. Clicking a recent session row opens a modal that searches the relevant BinkP log for lines matching that session's PID.

The search uses the recorded log filename basename and checks rotated variants under data/logs/ as well, so a session can still be inspected even if the active log rolled over after the session completed.

BinkP Session Log Retention

Because binkp_session_log now captures all normal BinkP sessions, the database maintenance job now prunes older records automatically.

By default, scripts/database_maintenance.php deletes binkp_session_log rows older than 30 days.

To change that retention window, set this in .env:

BINKP_SESSION_LOG_RETENTION_DAYS=30

Set a larger value if you want a longer operational history, or a smaller value if you prefer to keep the session log compact.

Echomail MCP Server

An optional Model Context Protocol (MCP) server is included in mcp-server/. It allows AI assistants that support MCP ? such as Claude ? to query your echomail database in read-only mode over HTTP. The server requires a valid registered license.

Per-User Bearer Keys

Authentication is per-user. Each user generates a personal bearer key from Settings ? AI ? MCP Server Bearer Key. Keys are stored in the users_meta table and enforce the same access rules as the web interface ? inactive areas are always hidden, and sysop-only areas are hidden for non-admin users.

  • A key can be regenerated at any time; the old key is immediately invalidated.
  • The full key is shown only once at generation time.

To connect Claude, add to .mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "binkterm": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://your-bbs-hostname:3740/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <your-key-from-settings>"
      }
    }
  }
}

.mcp.json is listed in .gitignore ? do not commit it.

Daemon Mode and Reverse Proxy Support

The server supports --bind=<host> to restrict it to a specific interface (recommended when running behind a reverse proxy), --daemon for background/boot startup, and --help for usage. The MCP_BIND_HOST .env variable sets the default bind address.

For reverse proxy configuration (nginx, Caddy), systemd unit file, and cron @reboot examples, see docs/MCPServer.md.

Dashboard

Dynamic Advertisement Content

Advertisements that use Content Command now have their command output resolved when the ad is fetched for display.

This affects:

  • the dashboard advertisement widget on `/`
  • the full ad page at `/ads/{name}` and `/ads/random`
  • the admin advertisement preview modal

If the command succeeds, its stdout becomes the rendered ad body. If it fails, the system now falls back to any stored static content and also exposes the command error in the ad payload for troubleshooting.

Today's Callers Table

The Today's Callers list in the System Information box (visible to admins on the dashboard) is now rendered as a table with three columns: User, Time, and Online. Users who have been active within the last 15 minutes are marked with a green badge in the Online column.

Active BinkP Sessions Card

The admin dashboard now includes an Active BinkP Sessions card. It lists currently active BinkP sessions and updates automatically as sessions start, transfer data, and finish.

The feed is admin-only and uses the existing BinkStream realtime channel. This replaces the need to manually refresh the dashboard to watch poll progress.

Admin Help

In-App FAQ and README Viewer

The Admin Help menu entries for FAQ and README now open inside the built-in admin docs viewer instead of linking out to GitHub.

The docs controller now treats FAQ.md and README.md in the project root as special in-app documents. Their markdown links are rewritten so related documentation continues to open inside /admin/docs/view/....

This keeps admins inside the application while browsing operational documentation and avoids broken links when those files are not stored under docs/.

File Areas

Upload Approval Queue

User-uploaded files now support a moderation workflow.

  • Uploads from administrators continue to publish immediately.
  • Uploads from non-admin users are stored with `status = pending` and do not appear in public file listings, searches, recent uploads, downloads, or TIC distribution until approved.
  • Sysops can review the queue at `/admin/file-approvals`, inspect the uploaded file, optionally trigger an on-demand virus scan when scanning is enabled, and then choose Approve or Reject.
  • Approval promotes the file into the normal area storage path, updates file area statistics, and performs post-approval processing such as TIC generation.
  • Rejection keeps the upload hidden and records rejection metadata. When credits are enabled, the upload charge is refunded on rejection.
  • Uploaders can review the status of their own submissions from the new My Uploads entry on the `/files` page.

This change adds the migration v1.11.0.52_file_upload_approval.sql, which records approval and rejection metadata on the files table and adds an index for the pending queue.

Activity Statistics Exclude Private File Areas

The Admin ? Activity Statistics page now omits private file areas from the file-activity tab.

This affects:

  • Top Downloaded Files
  • Most Browsed File Areas

The change keeps private-area usage out of aggregate admin activity reports while leaving the underlying activity log table unchanged.

ISO Mount Point Restriction

When an ISO-backed file area is created or edited through the web interface or API, its mount point must now live under data/iso_mounts.

This restriction applies only to values entered through the application UI and API. It is intended to keep browser-configured ISO mount paths inside the application's managed mount tree and prevent accidental references to arbitrary filesystem locations.

If you intentionally use a custom external mount path for an ISO area, set that value directly in the database after the upgrade.

Broadcast Manager

Clone Campaign

The Broadcast Manager campaign list now includes a Clone action in the row actions menu.

Cloning opens the campaign editor pre-filled from the selected campaign, but as a new record:

  • the campaign ID is cleared
  • the campaign name is suffixed with ` (Copy)`
  • the cloned campaign is disabled by default

This makes it easier to reuse an existing campaign as a starting point without modifying the original or accidentally activating the copy immediately.

Registration Page

The approval notice on the registration page now includes an additional note informing applicants that:

  • An email will be sent when their account is approved.
  • Reminder emails may also be sent.
  • They should check their junk/spam folder if they don't see the email.

User Settings

Tabbed Layout

The user settings page (/settings) has been reorganized from a single scrolling card into a tabbed layout. A vertical navigation panel on the left lists four tabs:

  • Display ? messages per page, timezone, language, date format, theme, interface style, default echo list, message font and font size.
  • Messaging ? signature, default tagline, threading preferences, page position memory, quote display, forward netmail to email, echomail digest.
  • Notifications ? notification sounds for chat, echomail, netmail, and file events.
  • Account ? active sessions, logout all sessions, onboarding reset.

The Save button is hidden on the Account tab (which uses its own action buttons) and shown on all others. The active tab is persisted in localStorage so the page reopens on the last-used tab.

Notification Sound Preview

Each notification sound select box on the Notifications tab now has an adjacent ? button. Clicking it plays the currently selected sound so you can audition each option without saving.

Ignored Echomail Management

The Messaging tab in /settings now includes an Ignored Echomail section at the bottom of the page, separated from the forward-to-email and digest settings.

This section lists the user's saved echomail ignore rules and provides a remove action for each one, giving users a way to unhide messages by deleting the matching rule.

Markdown Image Load Preference

The Messaging tab includes a new Image Loading preference controlling how inline images in Markdown messages are handled:

  • Tap to load (default) ? images render as a placeholder; clicking fetches and displays the image inline.
  • Automatically load ? images are fetched and displayed as soon as the message is rendered.

This preference is stored per user and requires no database migration.

User Profile

About Me Field

Users can now fill in an About Me field on the edit profile page (/profile). The field is a multi-line textarea limited to 2 000 characters. Content is saved to a new about_me column on the users table.

On the public profile page (/profile/{username}), the about-me text is rendered as Markdown using the same MarkdownRenderer class used throughout the application ? supporting bold, italic, inline code, fenced code blocks, links, headings, lists, block quotes, and horizontal rules. The rendered output appears in a card directly below the user information block.

If a user has not entered anything, the card displays the message "Hasn't shared anything yet" in muted italic text.

This feature requires database migration v1.11.0.65_users_about_me.sql.

Activity Log Timezone

The timestamps shown in the activity log table on the admin view of a user's profile (/profile/{username}) were previously displayed as raw UTC values. They now use formatFullDate() ? the same date formatting utility used elsewhere in the web interface ? which converts timestamps to the viewing user's configured timezone and locale-appropriate format.

Last Login Label

The label "Last seen" on the public profile page has been corrected to "Last login", more accurately reflecting that the date comes from the last_login column on the users table.

View Profile Button

The edit profile page (/profile) now displays a View Profile button in the page header, next to the page title. Clicking it navigates to the user's public profile at /profile/{username}.

Appearance

Login Screen

The Appearance page now includes a dedicated Login tab for configuring the shared /login page used before shell selection comes into play.

This tab supports two modes:

  • Standard Form - the normal card-based login form
  • ANSI Screen + Prompt - a sysop-edited ANSI screen rendered first, with the username/password form and registration links appended after it

The login ANSI content is edited directly in the browser with the shared ANSI editor widget rather than by selecting a shell-art file. The configured ansi_size preset now affects the login page layout as well as the ANSI renderer, so wide presets such as 132x50 and Full Screen can use a wider container on /login.

The login page now also measures the rendered ANSI art against the actual width of its containing element and adjusts the terminal font size to fit that width precisely. This avoids intermittent right-edge overflow while still letting the art scale up to use the available space on larger screens.

The Login Page Splash editor is now part of the Login tab and only applies when the login display mode is set to Standard Form. The Registration Page Splash editor moved into the Content tab, and the separate Splash Pages tab was removed.

Terminal Server Screens

The Appearance page now includes a Term Server tab for managing the built-in ANSI screens used by the telnet and SSH terminal servers.

Supported screen slots are:

  • `welcome` -> `telnet/screens/login.ans`
  • `main_menu` -> `telnet/screens/mainmenu.ans`
  • `goodbye` -> `telnet/screens/bye.ans`

From this tab, a sysop can:

  • edit the screen contents directly in a textarea
  • upload a replacement `.ans`, `.asc`, or `.txt` file
  • reset a custom screen so the default terminal behavior is used again

The editor works directly with the same screen files already used by the terminal daemons, so saving a custom screen takes effect without any additional appearance configuration.

Shared ANSI Editor

ANSI editing in the admin interface is now handled through one shared editor component instead of separate page-specific controls.

Current behavior:

  • the Content Library ad editor and Admin -> Appearance -> Term Server editor use the same ANSI editing widget
  • preview opens in a modal and renders directly from the current textarea content
  • an ANSI Cheatsheet button opens a reference table of common escape sequences with rendered examples where that makes sense
  • a fixed ruler above the textarea marks columns from `1` through `132`, with stronger indicators every `10` columns, so ANSI art and terminal layouts can be lined up more reliably
  • soft wrapping is disabled in these editors so visible columns match actual character positions

This change does not add any migration or configuration requirement. It is an editing workflow improvement for sysops who maintain terminal server screens or ANSI advertisements.

The service worker asset update path for these JavaScript changes was also tightened so fresh editor code is fetched and precached more reliably during upgrades. If a browser still shows the old editor behavior immediately after deployment, reload once after the new service worker activates.

Real-time Events (BinkStream)

SharedWorker Architecture

BinktermPHP now delivers real-time browser events through a SharedWorker that owns one active BinkStream transport per logged-in user, shared across all browser tabs. Depending on configuration and runtime availability, that transport is either WebSocket or SSE.

Events are written to an UNLOGGED table sse_events with a BIGSERIAL id used as the stream cursor. GET /api/stream delivers outbound events over SSE. POST /api/stream accepts inbound commands when SSE is the active transport. The standalone PHP WebSocket daemon uses the same command and event services for bidirectional realtime delivery.

Two database migrations run automatically via php scripts/setup.php: - v1.11.0.54_chat_notify_trigger.php ? installs a Postgres trigger on chat_messages that inserts into sse_events - v1.11.0.55_sse_events_table.php ? creates the sse_events UNLOGGED table and its index

Chat Integration

The first event type delivered over BinkStream is incoming chat messages. When a chat message is saved, the insert trigger queues a BinkStream event immediately, while the sender's own message is returned in the /api/chat/send response and rendered locally without waiting for realtime delivery.

Long-lived Connections

When SSE is the active transport, each connection holds open for SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS (default 60) and sends a : keepalive comment every 15 seconds to prevent proxy and load-balancer timeouts. At the end of the window the server sends a reconnect event and the SharedWorker reconnects automatically.

SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS=60

On the built-in PHP development server the window is forced to 0 (immediate reconnect) because that server is single-threaded and cannot handle concurrent requests.

Testing has shown that some Apache + PHP-FPM (mod_proxy_fcgi) deployments buffer SSE responses instead of flushing events in real time. In those environments, sysops will need to use a lower SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS value to reduce how much data Apache can hold before releasing the response. As an interim mitigation, when BINKSTREAM_TRANSPORT_MODE=auto and Apache is detected, BinktermPHP automatically uses a default SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS of 2 unless the sysop explicitly sets SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS in .env.

BINKSTREAM_TRANSPORT_MODE currently supports:

  • `auto` ? prefer WebSocket when the daemon is available; otherwise use SSE
  • `sse` ? force SSE
  • `ws` ? force the standalone PHP WebSocket daemon

php-fpm Worker Capacity

When SSE is in use, each active browser session holds one php-fpm worker open for the full SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS duration (default: 60 s). This enables low-latency real-time event delivery, but worker count must be planned for your expected concurrent user load.

To minimize SSE requests hitting php-fpm, we recommend running the standalone real-time WebSocket server where possible. With BINKSTREAM_TRANSPORT_MODE=auto or ws and the realtime daemon available, browser sessions can use WebSocket transport instead of relying on repeated SSE connections through php-fpm.

Rule of thumb: pm.max_children ? (concurrent users × 1.1) + 5

If all workers are occupied by SSE connections, regular page loads and API calls will queue or fail. For a full sizing table, php-fpm and Apache configuration snippets, and PostgreSQL tuning guidance, see docs/CONFIGURATION.md ? Server Sizing & Tuning.

Low-RAM options ? if you cannot provision enough workers for the default window:

  • Reduce SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS (e.g. `15` or `30`). Shorter windows free workers more often; reconnect overhead stays low because the SharedWorker reconnects after a short pause on window expiry. Event latency impact is usually modest.
  • Set SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS=0 to disable long-polling entirely. The SharedWorker reconnects after a short pause on close, reducing hammering at the cost of more frequent HTTP round-trips per user.
  • Because all tabs for the same user on the same browser share one SharedWorker and therefore one SSE connection, multiple open tabs do not multiply worker usage.

BinkStream Test Tools

Two diagnostic tools are in the Admin Help ? Developer submenu:

  • BinkStream Test ? sends a test event through the database trigger and displays it in real time, confirming the full BinkStream pipeline is working.
  • Proxy Buffer Test ? flushes progressively larger chunks of data and reports whether each chunk arrives immediately or is held by an intervening proxy or web server buffer.

Real Time Server - Recommended Daemon

realtime_server is recommended to be started on system boot up to support web socket based BinkStream streaming. It appears in the Admin dashboard service status panel with a live indicator showing your current active transport mode (WebSocket or SSE). The README startup sequence and cron/systemd examples include it in the required services section. See docs/BinkStreamChannel.md for reverse proxy setup and diagnostics.

Dashboard Stats Push

Echomail, netmail, and files unread badge counts are now delivered via BinkStream instead of a 30-second client-side poll. A new shared Postgres trigger function (notify_dashboard_stats) fires on INSERT to the echomail, netmail, and files tables. It inserts a signal-only dashboard_stats broadcast event into sse_events and calls pg_notify. The trigger is debounced to one event per 5-second window to avoid flooding clients during a batch mail import. When the event arrives the browser calls /api/dashboard/stats for a fresh count.

Migration v1.11.0.58_dashboard_stats_triggers.php installs this trigger function and wires it to all three tables.

The echomail and netmail message lists also listen for dashboard_stats and update silently (no loading spinner) when the event fires, replacing the previous 5-minute and 2-minute polling intervals. A 2-second client-side debounce is applied on top of the DB-level debounce to handle concurrent imports where multiple transactions may each emit an event before the other has committed.

Cross-Tab Read Sync

When a user marks a message as read (single or bulk), the server inserts a user-targeted message_read event into sse_events in addition to the normal database write. The event payload contains the array of message IDs and the message type (echomail or netmail). Other browser tabs open to the same message list receive the event via BinkStream and immediately apply the read styling (open envelope icon, faded row) without reloading the list.

File Approval Queue Notifications

When a non-admin uploads a file it is inserted with status = 'pending'. The existing files INSERT trigger fires a dashboard_stats event, which causes all connected clients to re-fetch /api/dashboard/stats. For admin users the response now includes pending_file_approvals (new pending files since last seen) and pending_files_max_id (the highest ID seen).

The unread indicator logic follows the same pattern used for the Files and Chat badges:

  • The Files nav icon and link gain the `unread` class when either `new_files > 0` or `pending_file_approvals > 0`.
  • The File Approvals sub-item gains the `unread` class when `pending_file_approvals > 0`.
  • On page load, if the user is already on `/admin/file-approvals`, `markSeen('file-approvals', pending_files_max_id)` is called immediately so the badge clears and the seen position is persisted to `users_meta` (`last_pending_files_max_id`).
  • `DashboardStatsService` uses the stored `last_pending_files_max_id` to count only files added since the admin last visited the queue. On first visit the current max ID is recorded and the badge starts at zero.

Admin File Menu Dropdown

For administrators the Files entry in the top navigation has been converted to a Bootstrap dropdown. The dropdown contains two items:

  • Files ? links to `/files` as before.
  • File Approvals ? links to `/admin/file-approvals`; gains the `unread` badge independently when new pending uploads are waiting.

Non-admin users continue to see a plain Files nav link with no dropdown.

The ui.base.file_approvals i18n key has been added to all locale catalogs (en, fr, es).

AreaFix / FileFix Manager

AreaFix Overview

AreaFix and FileFix are Fidonet robots that manage echomail and file-area subscriptions by exchanging netmail with the upstream hub. The new admin tool at /admin/areafix provides a UI for sending commands to those robots and managing the results without using a separate mail client.

The tool is accessible from the Admin BinkP menu when at least one uplink has a configured areafix_password or filefix_password.

Quick Actions

Buttons for the most common AreaFix/FileFix commands are shown at the top of each robot tab: %QUERY (list subscribed areas), %LIST (list all available areas), %UNLINKED (list areas available but not subscribed), %HELP, %PAUSE, and %RESUME. Clicking any button sends the command immediately to the selected uplink.

Subscribe and Unsubscribe

A text field accepts a single area tag. The Subscribe and Unsubscribe buttons send +TAG and -TAG commands respectively. A freeform textarea below accepts multi-line command sets for bulk operations.

After every sent command the history table and latest reply panel refresh automatically. The latest reply panel also polls for new replies from the hub every 30 seconds.

Latest Reply Panel

The most recent incoming reply from the hub is displayed in the Latest Reply panel as raw pre-formatted text, showing the sender name, date, and full message body.

The panel now correctly follows the newest incoming reply instead of the oldest retained reply.

Message History

The message history table shows the last 50 netmail messages to or from AreaFix/FileFix for the selected uplink. Each row is expandable to show the full message body. The table is filtered client-side to the active robot tab (AreaFix or FileFix).

Subject Masking

AreaFix uses the netmail subject line as the robot password. To prevent that password from appearing on screen, any netmail message whose to_name or from_name contains areafix or filefix (case-insensitive) has its subject replaced with ???????? in all display contexts, including message lists, message detail views, and the history table on this page.

Uplink Password Fields

The BinkP uplink editor modal now includes AreaFix Password and FileFix Password fields. These are saved as areafix_password and filefix_password in config/binkp.json via the admin daemon and are used when sending commands to the respective robot. Both fields use a masked password input with a show/hide toggle.

History Table Improvements

The AreaFix/FileFix message history table now includes two additional columns:

  • Node Address ? the FTN address of the other party: the hub's address for outgoing messages, the hub's address for incoming replies.
  • Network ? the domain of the selected uplink (e.g. `fidonet`, `araknet`).

Dates in the history table are now formatted as human-readable local timestamps (e.g. Mar 25, 2026, 05:51 AM) instead of raw PostgreSQL timestamp strings.

Those timestamps are localized to the viewing user's timezone rather than shown as raw server or database time.

The Latest Reply panel now selects the newest incoming reply instead of the oldest reply still present in the retained history list.

Advertising Improvements

Content Command Whitelist and Dropdown

Ad content commands are now restricted to a server-side whitelist. Only the following are permitted: - scripts/weather_report.php - scripts/report_newfiles.php - scripts/generate_ad.php - Any file inside the content_commands/ directory in the project root

The admin ad editor's Content Command field is now a dropdown populated by scanning those locations, replacing the previous free-text input. This prevents arbitrary command injection through the ad configuration UI.

Custom ad scripts should be placed in content_commands/ with execute permissions.

Content Command Parameters

Content commands may now include space-separated arguments after the script path (e.g. scripts/report_newfiles.php 7 to report the last 7 days of new files). Arguments are passed to the script as $argv entries. The entire command string including arguments is validated against the whitelist before execution.

Click-through URLs and Impression Tracking

Each advertisement can now have an optional Click-through URL. When set, clicking the ad in the web interface records a click and redirects the user to the target URL.

Every ad display now records an impression. The migration v1.11.0.53_ad_tracking.sql adds: - click_url column on the advertisements table - advertisement_impressions table (ad id, user id, displayed_at) - advertisement_clicks table (ad id, user id, clicked_at)

Ad Analytics Admin Page

A new admin page at /admin/ad-analytics shows per-campaign analytics: - Total impressions and clicks - Click-through rate - A breakdown of performance by campaign

Ad Title File-type Prefix

When an ad file is uploaded, the title is now automatically prefixed based on the file extension: - .ans ? [ANSI] - .rip ? [RIP] - .six / .sixel ? [SIXEL]

The prefix is applied to both auto-generated titles and any title provided by the uploader, making it easier to identify the ad format at a glance in the admin list.

ANSI Editing Workflow

The advertisement editor now uses the same shared ANSI editor component as the terminal-screen editor.

In practice, this means:

  • the old ad-specific inline sequence helper has been replaced by a shared toolbar with a larger preset list
  • preview opens in a modal instead of taking space below the editor
  • an ANSI Cheatsheet button is available beside the preview button
  • a `1` to `132` column ruler is shown above the textarea so ANSI art can be aligned to traditional terminal widths while editing

No stored ad format changed in the advertisements table. Existing ANSI content continues to render as before; this is a usability improvement for editing and previewing content.

AI Provider Layer

A new abstracted AI provider layer (src/AI/) is used by all AI-assisted features in BinktermPHP. Supported backends:

| Provider | .env key | |---|---| | Anthropic (Claude) | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | | OpenAI | OPENAI_API_KEY |

The active provider is selected automatically based on which key is set. If both are set, Anthropic is preferred.

AI request usage is tracked in the ai_request_accounting table (migration v1.11.0.51_ai_request_accounting.sql). An admin usage summary is available at /admin/ai-usage.

See docs/AIProviders.md for supported models, configuration, and cost management guidance.

MRC Chat

Interface Refresh

The MRC webdoor now opens on a dedicated connect screen instead of dropping the user directly into the chat layout. After connecting, the interface switches to a simplified live-chat view with:

  • a room selector dropdown in the header
  • a clearer connection-status indicator
  • a disconnect button on the main toolbar
  • an inline direct-message badge when chatting privately

This replaces the earlier room-list-driven layout and reduces the amount of chrome on screen while keeping the main room controls visible at all times.

Custom MRC Handles

The username field on the MRC connect screen is now editable. It is pre-filled with the user's BBS account username for convenience, but the value entered there becomes the actual MRC handle used for that browser session.

This changes the MRC webdoor from a fixed-identity client to a session-scoped handle model:

  • the chosen handle is sent during connect and used for later MRC commands and messages
  • the browser remembers the last chosen handle for that user
  • local room presence and realtime delivery are keyed to the logged-in user account rather than assuming the MRC handle matches `users.username`

Upgrade note: run php scripts/setup.php so the newer MRC presence/handle migrations are applied before using custom handles.

Join Command

The MRC chat input now accepts /join <room> as a slash command. Typing /join myroom in the message input is equivalent to clicking the room in the room list ? it calls joinRoom() directly. The command is recognized before the user has joined any room and is included in the tab-completion command list.

Inline Private Messages

Private messages are now shown in the main message area instead of moving the user into a separate direct-message-only view.

In practice this means:

  • incoming private messages appear inline with the rest of the visible message flow
  • `/msg <user> <message>` still sends a direct message, but it no longer changes the page into a separate private-chat mode
  • the user list no longer acts as a click target for opening a DM thread
  • the private unread badge is no longer used in the sidebar

This keeps the MRC webdoor closer to a single-stream terminal-style chat presentation.

BinkStream Delivery

The MRC webdoor now consumes BinkStream realtime events for live room and direct-message updates. Incoming room messages, presence updates, and server notices are pushed through the same SharedWorker-based realtime channel used elsewhere in the web UI instead of depending on the older MRC-specific live-update path.

This means MRC now follows the site's main realtime transport selection:

  • WebSocket when the realtime daemon is available and transport mode allows it
  • SSE fallback when WebSocket is not available

On systems using BINKSTREAM_TRANSPORT_MODE=auto, make sure the realtime daemon is running so MRC can use WebSocket transport rather than the SSE fallback path.

Docs Viewer: HTML Pass-through

The admin docs viewer (/admin/docs/view/README) now renders raw HTML blocks and inline tags in README.md unescaped. This allows embedded HTML tables, badges, and image tags in the README to display correctly inside the application rather than appearing as escaped markup.

HTML pass-through is enabled only for README.md. All other documents continue to escape HTML for safety.

Telnet / SSH BBS Server

System News and Recent Shoutbox Flow

After a successful telnet login, the BBS now loads data/systemnews.md, renders its Markdown for terminal display, clears the screen, and shows it in a framed SYSTEM NEWS screen before the recent shoutbox.

The terminal Markdown renderer now formats headings and inline Markdown links into terminal-friendly output so system news can be maintained as ordinary Markdown without exposing raw # or label syntax to callers.

After the system news screen is dismissed, the read-only recent shoutbox screen appears. Users can:

  • press `S` to enter and post a new shout immediately
  • press any other key to continue into the normal BBS session

Interests Menu

When ENABLE_INTERESTS=true, a new I ? Interests option appears in the telnet and SSH BBS main menu. Pressing I opens the Interests browser:

  • Active interests are listed with a `[+]` (subscribed) or `[ ]` (not subscribed) badge and an echo area count.
  • Selecting a number opens a detail screen showing the interest name, description, current subscription status, and the full list of member echo areas (tag and description) displayed inline.
  • From the detail screen, `S` subscribes and `U` unsubscribes. The subscription status refreshes on every redisplay so it always reflects the current state.
  • After a first login when the user has no interest subscriptions, a one-time onboarding hint is shown suggesting they visit the Interests menu.

QWK Offline Mail via ZMODEM

The telnet and SSH BBS K ? QWK Offline Mail menu (controlled by BbsConfig::isFeatureEnabled('qwk')) now supports full ZMODEM file transfer in addition to showing the HTTP download URL.

Download (D)

  • Builds a QWK packet on the fly using `QwkBuilder::buildPacket()` for the logged-in user.
  • Transfers the packet to the terminal using the built-in PHP ZMODEM implementation. On telnet connections, IAC bytes are escaped during transfer.
  • Deletes the temporary packet file after transfer regardless of success or failure.

Upload (U)

  • Initiates a ZMODEM receive and waits for the terminal to send a REP packet.
  • Processes the received file with `RepProcessor::processRepPacket()` and reports how many messages were imported, skipped, and errored.

The HTTP download URL (for clients that prefer it) is shown on the status screen as a supplemental tip below the action menu.

Echomail Interest-Based Browsing

The echomail area picker (accessed when browsing echomail from the BBS menu) now includes an I ? Browse by Interest key when ENABLE_INTERESTS=true.

Pressing I shows a numbered list of active interests with subscribe/unsubscribe badges. Selecting one filters the area picker to only that interest's echo areas. The user can then select an area normally. Pressing Q from the interest list returns to the unfiltered area picker.

The paginated area picker itself retains an I hint in its navigation line so users are reminded the option is available while browsing a long area list. Selecting an area from an interest-filtered list opens the echomail reader for that area as usual.

CLI Tools

fix_date_received.php

scripts/fix_date_received.php resets date_received to date_written for echomail rows in one or more echo areas. This is useful after a %RESCAN import, where all imported messages land with the same date_received (the import time) instead of their original send date, causing them to appear sorted as a block at the top of the message list.

Only rows where date_written is non-NULL and not in the future are updated. Rows where date_written already matches date_received are skipped.

Usage:

# By area ID
php scripts/fix_date_received.php <echoarea_id> [echoarea_id ...]

# By area tag
php scripts/fix_date_received.php --tag <tag> [--tag <tag> ...]

# By domain
php scripts/fix_date_received.php --domain <domain>

# Combine tag and domain filters (both must match)
php scripts/fix_date_received.php --tag <tag> --domain <domain>

# All echo areas
php scripts/fix_date_received.php --all

# Preview without making changes
php scripts/fix_date_received.php --all --dry-run

binktop.php

scripts/binktop.php now provides a denser live dashboard for operational monitoring.

Current behavior:

  • compact three-line header with uptime, load, RAM, disk, queue totals, PostgreSQL connection totals, and refresh interval
  • `sess:` in the header now means `logged-in users / guest users`, rather than raw session totals
  • current users list with compact timestamps and truncated activity text for narrow terminals
  • daemon list rendered in a tighter two-column layout when terminal width allows
  • daemon state indicated by color instead of a separate `state` column
  • per-daemon RSS plus a total daemon RSS line
  • extra host-process rows for `postgres`, `httpd`, `apache2`, `php-fpm`, and `php-fpm:*` when detected
  • active door sessions shown at the bottom
  • press q to quit, i to enter a new refresh interval ? both take effect immediately without waiting for the current sleep to expire
  • display is rewritten in place each refresh cycle rather than clearing the screen first, eliminating the visible blink between updates

This makes binktop.php more practical as a persistent sysop console, especially on 80-column terminals and mixed-service hosts.

Admin Terminal

A floating xterm.js terminal panel is available to administrators, enabled with ADMIN_TERMINAL=true in .env. The button appears in the lower-right corner of every page on desktop; it is hidden on mobile. See docs/AdminTerminal.md for the full command reference.

Commands:

| Command | Description | |---|---| | help | List all available commands | | clear | Clear terminal output and saved log | | stream | Show BinkStream transport status and event counters | | who | List currently online users | | finger <username> | Show profile and session details for a specific user | | wall <message> | Broadcast a modal message to all connected users | | msg <username> <message> | Send a private modal message to one user | | uplinks | List configured binkp uplink addresses | | poll [<address>\|all] | Trigger a binkp poll synchronously and print results |

Command history (up to 100 entries) is persisted in localStorage per user and cleared on logout. Up/Down arrows navigate history; Ctrl-R performs reverse search.

The stream watch hidden command (not shown in help) toggles live BinkStream event output in cyan as events arrive.

Optional .env setting:

ADMIN_TERMINAL=true

Weather Report Configuration

The OpenWeatherMap API key field in the weather report admin page (/admin/weather-config) is now a password input by default. A Show button next to the field reveals the key in plain text; clicking it again re-hides it. This prevents the key from being visible over the shoulder or in screen recordings when reviewing the configuration page.

Upgrade Instructions

From Git

git pull origin main
composer install
php scripts/setup.php

setup.php runs all pending migrations automatically, including:

| Migration | Purpose | |---|---| | v1.11.0.49_interests.sql | Interests core schema | | v1.11.0.50_interest_echo_sources.sql | Interest subscription source tracking | | v1.11.0.51_ai_request_accounting.sql | AI request usage accounting | | v1.11.0.52_file_upload_approval.sql | File upload approval queue | | v1.11.0.53_ad_tracking.sql | Ad impression and click tracking | | v1.11.0.54_chat_notify_trigger.php | Postgres trigger for SSE chat events | | v1.11.0.55_sse_events_table.php | SSE events UNLOGGED table | | v1.11.0.56_qwk_area_selections.sql | QWK per-user conference area selection | | v1.11.0.57_sse_events_user_targeting.php | SSE event targeting: user_id and admin_only columns; fat-payload chat trigger | | v1.11.0.58_dashboard_stats_triggers.php | DB triggers on echomail, netmail, files for dashboard_stats BinkStream push | | v1.11.0.60_binkp_session_pid_log.sql | Adds process_id and log_file to binkp_session_log for session-to-log correlation | | v1.11.0.61_echomail_ignore_rules.sql | Creates per-user echomail ignore-rule storage | | v1.11.0.62_echomail_ignore_rule_sender_address.sql | Extends ignore rules to match sender node address and installs the final uniqueness rule | | v1.11.0.65_users_about_me.sql | Adds about_me TEXT column to users for the user profile About Me field |

Optional .env additions:

# Opt out of Interests feature
ENABLE_INTERESTS=false

# BinkStream transport strategy (currently supported: auto, sse, ws)
BINKSTREAM_TRANSPORT_MODE=auto

# Standalone BinkStream WebSocket daemon
BINKSTREAM_WS_BIND_HOST=127.0.0.1
BINKSTREAM_WS_PORT=6010
BINKSTREAM_WS_PUBLIC_URL=/ws

# Optional standalone FTP daemon
FTPD_ENABLED=false
FTPD_BIND_HOST=0.0.0.0
FTPD_PORT=2121
FTPD_PASSIVE_PORT_START=2122
FTPD_PASSIVE_PORT_END=2149

# SSE connection window duration in seconds (default 60)
SSE_WINDOW_SECONDS=60

# Purge BinkP session log entries older than this many days (default 30)
BINKP_SESSION_LOG_RETENTION_DAYS=30

Using the Installer

Re-run the BinktermPHP installer to upgrade the application files. When prompted to run php scripts/setup.php, allow it to complete ? this applies all pending database migrations.