Self-Hosting

How to self-host Friend Time.

Requirements

1. Node.js v16.6.0 or newer.

2. A MySQL or MariaDB database.

Setup

1. Copy example config files.

   • Navigate to the config folder of this project.

   • Copy all files ending in .example.json and remove the .example from the copied file names.

     • Ex: config.example.json should be copied and renamed as config.json.

2. Obtain a bot token.

   • You'll need to create a new bot in your Discord Developer Portal.

     • See here for detailed instructions.

     • At the end you should have a bot token.

3. Modify the config file.

   • Open the config/config.json file.

   • You'll need to edit the following values:

     • client.id - Your discord bot's user ID.

     • client.token - Your discord bot's token.

     • database.host- The ip address that your database is running on (or localhost)

     • database.database - The name of the database to use.

     • database.username - The username to use when accessing the database.

     • database.password - The password of the user accessing the database.

4. Install packages.

   • Navigate into the downloaded source files and type npm install.

5. Register commands.

   • In order to use slash commands, they first have to be registered.

   • Type npm run commands:register to register the bot's commands.

     • Run this script any time you change a command name, structure, or add/remove commands.

     • This is so Discord knows what your commands look like.

     • It may take up to an hour for command changes to appear.

Running

You can run the bot in multiple modes:

1. Normal Mode

   • Type npm start.

   • Starts a single instance of the bot.

2. Manager Mode

   • Type npm run start:manager.

   • Starts a shard manager which will spawn multiple bot shards.

3. PM2 Mode

   • Type npm run start:pm2.

   • Similar to Manager Mode but uses PM2 to manage processes.