# Setting up Buscarron (optional) The playbook can install and configure [buscarron](https://github.com/etkecc/buscarron) for you. Buscarron is bot that receives HTTP POST submissions of web forms and forwards them to a Matrix room. ## Adjusting the playbook configuration To enable Buscarron, add the following configuration to your `inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml` file: ```yaml matrix_bot_buscarron_enabled: true # Uncomment and adjust this part if you'd like to use a username different than the default # matrix_bot_buscarron_login: bot.buscarron # Generate a strong password here. Consider generating it with `pwgen -s 64 1` matrix_bot_buscarron_password: PASSWORD_FOR_THE_BOT # Adjust accepted forms matrix_bot_buscarron_forms: - name: contact # (mandatory) Your form name, will be used as endpoint, eg: buscarron.example.com/contact room: "!qporfwt:{{ matrix_domain }}" # (mandatory) Room ID where form submission will be posted redirect: https://example.com # (mandatory) To what page user will be redirected after the form submission ratelimit: 1r/m # (optional) rate limit of the form, format: r/, eg: 1r/s or 54r/m hasemail: 1 # (optional) form has "email" field that should be validated extensions: [] # (optional) list of form extensions (not used yet) matrix_bot_buscarron_spamlist: [] # (optional) list of emails/domains/hosts (with wildcards support) that should be rejected automatically ``` ### Adjusting the Buscarron URL By default, this playbook installs Buscarron on the `buscarron.` subdomain (`buscarron.example.com`) and requires you to [adjust your DNS records](#adjusting-dns-records). By tweaking the `matrix_bot_buscarron_hostname` and `matrix_bot_buscarron_path_prefix` variables, you can easily make the service available at a **different hostname and/or path** than the default one. Example additional configuration for your `inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml` file: ```yaml # Switch to the domain used for Matrix services (`matrix.example.com`), # so we won't need to add additional DNS records for Buscarron. matrix_bot_buscarron_hostname: "{{ matrix_server_fqn_matrix }}" # Expose under the /buscarron subpath matrix_bot_buscarron_path_prefix: /buscarron ``` ## Adjusting DNS records Once you've decided on the domain and path, **you may need to adjust your DNS** records to point the Buscarron domain to the Matrix server. By default, you will need to create a CNAME record for `buscarron`. See [Configuring DNS](configuring-dns.md) for details about DNS changes. If you've decided to reuse the `matrix.` domain, you won't need to do any extra DNS configuration. ## Installing After configuring the playbook and potentially [adjusting your DNS records](#adjusting-dns-records), run the [installation](installing.md) command: ```sh ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,ensure-matrix-users-created,start ``` **Notes**: - the `ensure-matrix-users-created` playbook tag makes the playbook automatically create the bot's user account - if you change the bot password (`matrix_bot_buscarron_password` in your `vars.yml` file) subsequently, the bot user's credentials on the homeserver won't be updated automatically. If you'd like to change the bot user's password, use a tool like [synapse-admin](configuring-playbook-synapse-admin.md) to change it, and then update `matrix_bot_buscarron_password` to let the bot know its new password ## Usage To use the bot, invite the `@bot.buscarron:example.com` to the room you specified in a config, after that any point your form to the form url, example for the `contact` form: ```html
``` **Note**: to fight against spam, Buscarron is **very aggressive when it comes to banning** and will ban you if: - if you hit the homepage (HTTP `GET` request to `/`) - if you submit a form to the wrong URL (`POST` request to `/non-existing-form`) - if `hasemail` is enabled for the form (like in the example above) and you don't submit an `email` field If you get banned, you'd need to restart the process by running the playbook with `--tags=start` or running `systemctl restart matrix-bot-buscarron` on the server. You can also refer to the upstream [documentation](https://github.com/etkecc/buscarron).