When you create a new channel you expect it to be empty. When you join an existing channel you won't. Text Stores provide a mechanism to remember and provide old content when you join an existing channel.

Adding a Text Store ... or two ... or three

Every node could be a text store and provide old data to new users joining a channel, but that places an unnecessary burden on every node. Instead it makes sense to add a few text stores to the network so old message are always accessible from somewhere, even if one store if temporarily unreachable.

We suggest adding text stores on nodes with plenty of flash or other persistent storage. Mikrotik hAP ac3's are a good choice as they have lots of NAND flash. AREDN VMs are another good alternative.

Configuring a Text Store

To add a text store you will need to edit the Raven configuration by hand (see Advanced Configuration for details on how to do this) and add the following:

"textstore": {
  "stores": [
    {
      "namekey": "*"
    }
  ]
},

This create a generic store which is used to store any channel on your network.

You can also create store for specific channels. For example:

"textstore": {
  "stores": [
    {
      "namekey": "AREDN og==",
      "size": 100
    },
    {
      "namekey": "*"
    }
  ]
},

In the above we've added an additional store specifically for the AREDN channel. This stores a maximum of 100 recent messages (if not define, the default is 50).

Limitations

Local traffic only

Text Stores only store traffic from your local networks. They do not store traffic received via a Supernode.

Configuration ignored on Supernodes

If you define text stores on your supernode they will be ignored. We don't want text stores holding traffic for everything in every network as this would be an unnecessarily burden.