Ferdi

🤴🏽 Hard-fork of Franz, adding awesome features and removing unwanted ones.

Table of contents

What is Ferdi?

Ferdi is a messaging browser that allows you to combine your favorite messaging services into one application. It is based on Franz - a software already used by thousands of people - with the difference that Ferdi gives you many additonal features and doesn't restrict its usage! Ferdi is compatible with your existing Franz account so you can continue right where you left off. Find out more about Ferdi and its features on getferdi.com.

What does Ferdi look like?

Download Ferdi

You can find the installers in the latest stable release assets and all the other release here.

Or use homebrew (macOS only)

$ brew cask install ferdi

(Don't know homebrew? brew.sh)

Or use AUR (Arch Linux)

Ferdi has three seperate AUR packages you can use: - ferdi: Uses your system electron version to run the latest release - ferdi-bin: Uses the latest Fedora release and extracts it to Arch - ferdi-git: Uses your system electron version to run the latest commit from the develop branch

If you use an AUR Helper e.g. yay, simply install it via yay -S ferdi.

Ferdi-specific Features

• [x] Removes the counter-productive fullscreen app delay inviting users to upgrade
• [x] Removes pages begging you to donate after registration
• [x] Remove "Franz is better together" popup
• [x] Remove bug that would incorrectly display unread messages count on some services (more info in 7566ccd)
• [x] Makes all users Premium by default (#15)
• [x] Using the Ferdi API instead of Franz's servers
• [x] Upgrading to Electron 7
• [x] Add several new services
• [x] Add option to change server to a custom ferdi-server
• [x] Add option to use Ferdi without an account (#5)
• [x] Add "Private Notification"-Mode, that hides message content from notifications (franz#879)
• [x] Add Password Lock feature to keep your messages protected (#41, franz#810, franz#950, franz#1430)
• [x] Add an option to keep individual workspaces always loaded (#37)
• [x] Add Universal Dark Mode via the DarkReader extension (#71)
• [x] Add adaptable Dark Mode that will respect the system's Dark Mode setting (#173)
• [x] Add an option to auto-hide the menubar (#7, franz#833)
• [x] Add "Quick Switch" feature to help you navigate a long list of services (similar to Rambox's Quick Switcher)
• [x] Add "Service Hibernation" that will automatically unload services when they are unused
• [x] Add "Scheduled Do-not-Disturb" feature in which you won't get notifications (similar to Rambox's Work Hours)
• [x] Add CTRL+← and CTRL+→ shortcuts and menu options to go back and forward in the service browsing history(#39)
• [x] Add option to show a browser-like navigation bar on all services
• [x] Add option to change accent color
• [x] Add local recipe repository that removes the need of downloading recipes from a remote server
• [x] Add portable version for Windows
• [x] Add Process Manager to find services using a lot of resources
• [x] Add "npm run prepare-code" command for development to lint and beautify code
• [x] Add button to open darkmode.css for a service
• [x] Add user.css and user.js that allows users to inject custom code into services (#83)
• [x] Allow SVGs for service custom icon
• [x] Switch to electron-spellchecker to improve application size
• [x] Improve "About Ferdi" screen to better display versions
• [x] Minifying build files to improve app size
• [x] Makes it possible to edit the "Franz Todos" service (e.g. Todoist via https://todoist.com/app)
• [x] Makes RocketChat self-hosted generally available (#6)
• [x] Comes with a custom branding proper to Ferdi
• [x] UI improvements

Development

Install OS dependencies

Node.js

Please make sure you are running NodeJS v10 (v10.16.3 suggested). Versions above will throw an errow when trying to install due to an old fsevent dependency.

Git

The version 2.23.0 for Git is working fine for development. You can then use the console from Git to do the development procedure.

Debian/Ubuntu

$ apt install libx11-dev libxext-dev libxss-dev libxkbfile-dev

Fedora

$ dnf install libX11-devel libXext-devel libXScrnSaver-devel libxkbfile-devel

Windows

$ npm install --global windows-build-tools --vs2015

Clone repository with submodule

$ git clone https://github.com/getferdi/ferdi.git
$ cd ferdi
$ git submodule update --init --recursive

It is important you execute the last command to get the required submodules (recipes, server).

Install dependencies

Run the following command to install all dependencies, and link sibling modules with Ferdi.

$ npx lerna bootstrap

If you previously ran npm install it sometimes is necessary to delete your node_modules folder before running npx lerna bootstrap.

Fix native modules to match current electron node version

$ npm run rebuild

Start development app

Run these two commands simultaneously in different terminals:

$ npm run dev
$ npm run start

Optionally, you can run both commands in one terminal with misty (see misty.yml):

$ npx misty

Be aware that the development database will be reset regularly.

Packaging

$ npm run build

Deliverables will be available in the out folder.

Release

$ git checkout develop && git pull
$ git submodule update --remote --force
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "Update submodules"
$ git checkout master
$ git merge --no-ff develop
$ git tag v5.3.4-beta.4
$ git push --tags

When pushing a new tag, the CI builds will create a draft GitHub release and upload the deliverables in the draft release assets. Wait for all the assets to be uploaded before publishing the draft release.

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Bennett 💻 🎨 📖 🤔 🌍 💡 🐛 🖋 🚇 📓 💬 📆 👀	Stefan Malzner 💻 🖋 🎨 📖 🤔 🚇 📆 ⚠️ 🌍	Amine Mouafik 💬 💻 📖 🤔 🚧 📦 📆 👀 🚇 🔍 📝	ZeroCool 💻 🤔	rseitbekov 💻	Peter Bittner 🤔 🐛
Justus Saul 🐛 🤔	igreil 🤔	Marco Lopes 🤔	dayzlun 🐛	Tobias Günther 🤔	AGCaesar 📦
Makazzz 🐛 💻 🌍 🖋 📖 📦	xthursdayx 💻 📖 🚇 📦	Gaboris 💬 🐛	Ce 🐛	Stanislav N. 🐛	Patrick Curl 🤔
Benjamin Staneck 🎨	ammarmalhas 🐛 🛡️	Steliyan Stoyanov 💻 🤔	Bror Winther 📖	Felix W. Dekker 📖	Sauceee 🎨
Lennart Weller 📦	Andrzej Ressel 💻	Daniel Peukert 💻

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!

Backers via OpenCollective

Sponsors via OpenCollective