09 · The baobab in your pocket: the XMPP bot

You can't always open the website. But you can almost always send a message.

What it is

XMPP is a free way of exchanging messages, like a WhatsApp nobody owns: each community can have its own XMPP — on the mucua, which the protocol calls a "server" (we prefer mucua: care, not exploitation) — and they talk to each other. Baobáxia has a bot — a contact that answers — to publish and search saberes by chatting: send a photo, it becomes a saber; write "search jongo", it answers with what it found.

It works well on a weak connection: a message is small, and the app sends it when the connection comes back.

What you need

1. An XMPP app. On Android, Conversations or Monocles; on the iPhone, Monal or Siskin; on the computer, Dino or Gajim.
2. An XMPP account. Ask whoever looks after the mucua. On many mucuas your Baobáxia account already works on XMPP: the address is your-username@mucua-address and the password is the same.
3. The bot's address — something like baobaxia-bot@mucua-address. Add it as a contact and send help.

If the bot asks, log in with login <username> <password>. On mucuas where the XMPP account is the same as the Baobáxia one, it already knows who you are.

The commands

The bot understands Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian — the commands too (buscar, search, cerca…). It answers in your app's language; to change it, language en (or pt, es, it).

🌳 Baobáxia Bot

🔐 login <user> <password> | logout | ping
📋 status | galaxies (list w/ uuid) | galaxy <name|uuid|no.>
📤 publish | article <title> | url <url> | youtube <url>
✅ send (confirm) | 🛑 cancel
🔍 search <term>  (in the detail: edit title/description/tags, etc.)
⚙️ title | description | tags | quality | uuid (existing saber)
🗺️ territory (choose among existing ones) | 📍 location <lat>,<lon>
📋 extra <field> <value> (metadata: language, rights, etc.)
📬 share <jid> (sends the current saber to someone else)
🌐 language <pt|en|es|it>

💡 Send a photo/file → it becomes media.
💡 For an article: `article <title>` → send the text → `send`.
💡 Share your location in the app → it becomes the saber's location.
💡 Plain text = search (publishes nothing).

Publishing a photo

Send the photo. If it comes with a caption, the caption becomes the title; if not, the bot asks. The answer brings the saber's link — in your language.

> [📷 fogueira.jpg]
📝 What's the title? (`-` to use *fogueira*, `cancel` to abort)

> Bonfire at the mucua
✅ Published: *Bonfire at the mucua*
🔗 http://abdias.local/en-US/saber/f98c3321-…
📌 `f98c3321-…` (send more to add to this saber)

Sent more photos right after? They go into the same saber. To start another, cancel and send again.

Before sending, you can prepare: tags festival, bonfire, territory (the bot lists the territories to choose from), location -22.9,-47.06 — or share your position from the app. Videos are converted to play well on the website; quality chooses the size.

You can also publish from a link: url <address> downloads the file, and youtube <address> downloads the video.

Writing an article

> article Seeds that travel
📝 *Seeds that travel*
Send the article text:

> Baobab seeds cross the sea inside the fruit.
📝 *Seeds that travel*

Baobab seeds cross the sea inside the fruit.

🏷️ (no tags)
Send *send* to publish, or *cancel* to discard.

> send
✅ Article published: *Seeds that travel*
🔗 http://abdias.local/en-US/saber/3afb2dfc-…

The text can have markdown (**bold**, lists…), as on the website.

Searching and editing

Any loose text is a search. Answer with the number to see the saber and the actions:

> search seeds
🔍 3 result(s) for 'seeds':
1. Seeds that travel [artigo]
2. Baobab fruit flour [artigo]
3. 08 · The seeds: federation [artigo]

> 1
📌 *Seeds that travel*
   nature: artigo
   🔗 http://abdias.local/en-US/saber/3afb2dfc-…

⚙️ *Edit this saber* — each command SAVES immediately:
   • `title <new title>`
   • `description <new description>`
   • `tags <a, b, c>`  (or `tags clear`)
   • `territory`  ·  `location <lat>,<lon>`
   • `add` (send files)  ·  `share <jid>`
   • `delete`  ·  `cancel` (leave)

> tags baobab, seeds
✅ tags saved: baobab, seeds

> description A travel story.
✅ Saved — description: A travel story.

> exit
🛑 Ok, leaving the saber.

You can only edit what you can edit on the website too: your own saberes, the ones you are an editor of, or everything, if you administer.

Saberes in several languages

The bot shows each saber in the conversation's language, and tells which versions it has:

📌 *Workshop: Baobáxia on your phone*
   nature: evento
   languages: English ◀ · Español · Italiano · Português

If there is no version in your language, it says so and shows the one that exists. Then title … and description … write the version in your language, next to the others — nothing gets erased. And whatever you publish through the bot is born in the conversation's language, as on the website with Writing in.

Sharing

share <xmpp-address> sends the current saber to someone else, with the link. Good for letting people know: "look at the festival photo I uploaded".

To talk about in the circle

• Who in the community publishes most from their phone? An afternoon workshop with the bot helps everyone get started.
• Which conversations in the community's message group should become kept saberes?