Create isso user

First we create a new user with its own home directory, for easy backing up of data files and security:

useradd -m -s /bin/bash isso

Install packages

Install relevant packages:

apt install python3 python3-pip sqlite3 build-essential

Now:

sudo su - isso
pip3 install wheel
pip3 install isso

Note: Had to create this file for pip installs to work:

$ cat ~/.config/pip/pip.conf
[global]
break-system-packages = true

Add /home/isso/.local/bin to path.

Create a server configuration file from here.

Example from here:

vim /home/isso/isso.conf:

[general]
dbpath = /home/isso/comments.db
host = https://MYDOMAIN.com/
max-age = 5m
notify = smtp
log-file = /home/isso/isso.log
admin_password = ADMINPASSWORD

[moderation]
enabled = false

[server]
listen = http://localhost:8080
reload = off
profile = off
public-endpoint = https://isso.MYDOMAIN.com/

[guard]
enabled = true
ratelimit = 2
direct-reply = 3
reply-to-self = false
require-author = true
require-email = false

[smtp]
username =
password =
host =
port = 587
security = starttls
to =
from =
timeout = 10

Test the installation:

/home/isso/.local/bin/isso -c /home/isso/isso.conf

Nginx reverse proxy

Configure an isso subdomain. For me: isso.vectorspace.xyz. I did this by first making a simple site config in /etc/nginx/sites-available and making sure nginx correctly routes to it. It was only after this that I attempted to implement HTTPs. Look at my notes on nginx for further elaboration.

The Final nginx configuration looks like this. I adapted it from here.

/etc/nginx/sites-available/comments

server {
    listen 443 http2;
    listen [::]:80 http2;

    server_name isso.vectorspace.xyz;

    ssl on;
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/isso.vectorspace.xyz/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/isso.vectorspace.xyz/privkey.pem;

    location / {
            proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
            proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
    }
}

server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;

        server_name isso.vectorspace.xyz;
        return 301 https://isso.vectorspace.xyz$request_uri;

        access_log  /dev/null;
        error_log /dev/null;
}

Restart nginx with sudo systemctl restart nginx.service and make sure it works.

Test isso

Run isso as isso user:

sudo su - isso
cd ~
isso -c isso.conf

Mkdocs: replace disqus with isso (OLD WAY)

I adapted instructions from here, but modded so as that we can still disable comments in pages that don't need it.

cd to site direcotry and create overrides.

cd vectorspace
mkdir overrides

Create main.html: vim main.html with contents:

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block disqus %}

{% if page and page.meta and page.meta.isso is boolean %}
  {% set isso = page.meta.isso %}
{% else %}
  {% set isso = true %}
{% endif %}

{% if not page.is_homepage and isso %}
  <!-- replace disqus with isso -->
  <h2 id="__comments">{{ lang.t("meta.comments") }}</h2>
  <div id="disqus_thread"></div>
  <script 
    data-isso="https://isso.vectorspace.xyz/" 
    data-isso-css="true" 
    data-isso-require-author="true" 
    data-isso-require-email="true" 
    data-isso-reply-to-self="false"
    src="https://isso.vectorspace.xyz/js/embed.min.js">
  </script>
{% endif %}
<section id="isso-thread"></section>
{% endblock %}

According to the above code, if you set isso: false like:

---
title: Some page
isso: false
---

, the comments will get disabled for the page, otherwise its enabled by default.

Rebuild site and upload to server.

Mkdocs : NEW Way to add isso to mkdocs-material:

vector@resonyze ~/vectorspacexyz.github.io (git)-[main] % cat docs/overrides/partials/comments.html
{% if page and page.meta and page.meta.isso is boolean %}
  {% set isso = page.meta.isso %}
{% else %}
  {% set isso = true %}
{% endif %}

{% if not page.is_homepage and isso %}
  <!-- replace disqus with isso -->
  <br>
  <h2 id="__comments">{{ lang.t("meta.comments") }}</h2>
  <div id="disqus_thread"></div>
  <script
    data-isso="https://isso.vectorspace.xyz/"
    data-isso-css="true"
    data-isso-require-author="true"
    data-isso-require-email="true"
    data-isso-reply-to-self="false"
    src="https://isso.vectorspace.xyz/js/embed.min.js">
  </script>
{% endif %}
<section id="isso-thread"></section>

Patching comments.py

In my case, I had to patch comments.py to get Isso working. Details here.

cd ~/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages
wget 'https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/posativ/isso/pull/600.diff'
patch -p1 <600.diff

Incase you want to reverse the patch

patch -p1 -R <600.diff

Test to see if isso works now isso -c isso.conf

Enable admin page

vim /home/isso/isso.conf
# In admin block set admin = true and password
[admin]
enabled = true
password = set_strong_password

You can access the admin page at https://your-isso-site/admin

Setup systemd service

Adapted from this site

vim /etc/systemd/system/isso.service

[Unit]
Description=Isso Commenting Server
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
User=isso
WorkingDirectory=/home/isso
ExecStart=/home/isso/.local/bin/isso -c /home/isso/isso.conf
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

`

Reload systemctl dameon.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start isso.service

sudo systemctl start isso

sudo systemctl status isso

If status shows its working fine, enable it:

sudo systemctl enable isso