Installation proves to be very difficult and the documentation is lacking

[rgpublic]

Due to lots of severe bugs I tried to start from scratch (e.g. I tried to revoke the invitation because it didnt work but then I couldn't reinvite the user). Now my problems even got worse unfortunately:

The documentation is very thin on all this. If I'm on authenticated mode, the connection setup is supposed to work via the web interface AFAIU. Do I still need the config.json at all? Do I have to pass the corresponding environment variable the docker command line? I left that out completely, because the connection setup was the only thing in there.

I can't add a token via the UI either. Just an endless loop that takes forever.

Another problem: What do I have to configure so that those invitation emails actually get sent out? How do I debug this?

BTW: It would also be nice if the docs gave some hints on how to configure the reverse proxy at least for the common Apache and NGinx. I figured that out myself, though:

    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:3000/

The docs could really be a tad bit more verbose on all of this. It's very frustrating if you have so many problems right from the start before you can even use the software.

[msukkari]

Hey, sorry that you're hitting these issues!

The authentication flow in v3 isn't very battle hardened or well documented. We're currently reworking this completely for a v4 release which should be coming out in a couple days. In the meantime, I'll try to address the issues you've raised here:

I tried to revoke the invitation because it didnt work but then I couldn't reinvite the user

I'll try to repro this case

If I'm on authenticated mode, the connection setup is supposed to work via the web interface AFAIU. Do I still need the config.json at all?

In v3 if you're in authenticated mode then you can only configure your connections through the web interface, so no CONFIG_PATH env var is needed. This will change in v4 (our migration guide will go into detail on the differences). Will update docs to make this more clear

I can't add a token via the UI either. Just an endless loop that takes forever.

That's strange, are you seeing any error logs? My guess is there is something up with your Sourcebot's connection to the DB

What do I have to configure so that those invitation emails actually get sent out? How do I debug this?

Check out these docs to setup emails. Sourcebot just sends a request to your mailing server, so debugging would happen at the mail server level.

[rgpublic]

Hi, thanks a lot for your help - really appreciate it.

Well, after just waiting for a few hours it became unstuck. Don't know why. Invitation worked now as well, but the mails are never sent out. The docs on this are also very sparse as well. How exactly is the SMTP-URL supposed to be formed? Is SMTP authentication possible? I'm now using a simple local Postfix with no authentication, I tried: "smtp://127.0.0.1" as a URL. But it doesn't work.

If no email is configured, there should at least be an error message btw. You get absolutely no feedback at the moment whether there was even an attempt to send out a email and whether the SMTP server accepted the message.

And: It definitely should be possible to resend the inviation mail from the context menu IMO.

Okay my final problem is setting the correct URL:

#313

Users always get redirected to localhost after clicking on the invitation link.

This could also be so much easier if it was properly documented or if the domain field wasn't readonly :-/

Thanks again for helping me. With a few additional little features and docs, the first setup experience could be so much better, though and I wouldn't have to disturb you with my question ;-)

[msukkari]

How exactly is the SMTP-URL supposed to be formed?

It should be formatted in the standard connection format: smtp://[user[:password]@]host[:port]. Added to v4 docs

I tried to revoke the invitation because it didnt work but then I couldn't reinvite the user

I wasn't able to reproduce this in the v4 branch (which we'll be merging to main tomorrow). I was able to revoke the invite and then reinvite the same email and it worked. Once we release v4 you should try again and see if you hit the same issue

If no email is configured, there should at least be an error message btw.

Added some helper warnings in v4

[rgpublic]

Doesn't work. No error message. No mail. No nothing. Postfix is reachable (see below).

-e SMTP_CONNECTION_URL="smtp://127.0.0.1"

doesn't work though.

Adding and revoking an invite seems to work though now. Seems I'll have to wait for v4 and then hope, that it generates at least some error message.

[msukkari]

We have email error handling in Sourcebot, so it's not clear where the issue is here: https://demo.sourcebot.dev/~/browse/github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot@HEAD/-/blob/packages/web/src/actions.ts?highlightRange=799%3A1%2C802%3A22

In Sourcebot Cloud and our dev deployments we have emails working through Resend, but we've never tested with a locally hosted SMTP server. I would dig into the logs for the SMTP server itself to see if there's more info there.

If this problem persists and its a bug within Sourcebot feel free to open up an issue with repro details! Closing this discussion for now