TechnicSolder

TechnicSolder is an API that sits between a modpack repository and the Technic Launcher. It allows you to easily manage multiple modpacks in one single location.

Using Solder also means your packs will download each mod individually. This means the launcher can check MD5's against each version of a mod and if it hasn't changed, use the cached version of the mod instead. What does this mean? Small incremental updates to your modpack doesn't mean redownloading the whole thing every time!

Solder also interfaces with the Technic Platform using an API key you can generate through your account there. When Solder has this key it can directly interact with your Platform account. When creating new modpacks you will be able to import any packs you have registered in your Solder install. It will also create detailed mod lists on your Platform page! (assuming you have the respective data filled out in Solder) Neat huh?

-- Technic

TechnicSolder was originaly developed by Technic using the Laravel Framework. However, the application is difficult to install and use. Technic Solder - Solder.cf by TheGameSpider runs on pure PHP with zip and MySQL extensions and it's very easy to use. To install, you just need to install zip extension, setup MySQL database and download Solder to your server (No composer needed). And the usage is even easier! Just Drag n' Drop your mods.

Docker installation (requires Docker + Docker Compose and SSH access)

Easiest method, but requires docker, ssh, and docker-compose on the host machine.

Runs on port 80.

On the remote machine, as root (or prefix everything with sudo) Clone repository to a location of your choice (likely in your home folder)

git clone https://github.com/TheGameSpider/TechnicSolder TechnicSolder

CD to cloned folder

cd ./TechnicSolder/docker

Open the compose.yaml file in nano

nano compose.yaml

Set MYSQL_PASSWORD to something secure, such as

      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=put_secure_password_here

Save and exit.

Now build the image

docker-compose build

Run it in background.

docker-compose up -d

By default, the MySQL login details are:

host: docker-db-1
database: solder
username: solder
password: solder (which you changed previously)

Generic installation and configuration (without SSH/CLI access)

If you are using a shared host, or for some reason don't have access to the command-line interface, the general set-up is as follows. This assumes you'll be using something like cPanel.

Set PHP version to 8.3.
Install the PHP ZIP, PDO extensions.
- Enable one or both of pdo_mysql, pdo_sqlite
In Apache2 settings, enable rewriteengine, and the PHP module.
Upload the contents of this git to your document root, such that index.php is directly in your document root folder. This is usually in /var/www/html
- Alternatively, you can modify the document root in cPanel to point to the folder containing this repository. Ie. /var/www/html/TechnicSolder
Using phpMyAdmin, or any built-in cPanel MySQL editor, Create a new user solder, database solder, and grant the user access to the database. Make sure you write down your password.

Now open your server address, ie. http://localhost if running on a your local machine, and follow the set-up prompt there.

If using MySQL, set the user of the database to solder, database name to solder, host to either localhost (if the database is on the same machine and network as the web server) or the IP address of your database, and the password you created earlier.
If using SQLite, simply set the type to SQLite.
For the Solder API key, go to https://technicpack.net, log in/create an account, go to my settings/profile, and click on "solder" on the left menu.

Detailed Installation (SSH/CLI access required)

Note: If you already have a working web server with PDO and ZIP extensions and enabled rewrite mod, you can skip to step 6.

1. Install Ubuntu Server (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/server)
2. Login to Ubuntu with credentials you set.
3. Become root Root is basically the "god account" that controls everything on the system. You should never, EVER use root to do simple tasks, unless you want your computer to be destroyed.

sudo su -

4. Install Prerequisites (Apache-based)
This command installs what's known as a LAMP Stack, which includes Apache2, MariaDB, and PHP.
Note: the name of packages may vary depending on your Linux distribution.

apt update

Then install the packages

apt -y install mariadb-server apache2 libapache2-mod-php php8.3 php8.3-pdo php8.3-zip libzip-dev

...Or the following if you intend to only use sqlite

apt -y install apache2 libapache2-mod-php php8.3 php8.3-pdo php8.3-zip libzip-dev

Then, restart apache.

service apache2 restart

We're now going to test that Apache and PHP are working together. Open up a blank file:

nano /var/www/html/index.php

and put the following text, inside:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Save and close the file. (Ctrl-X, y, Enter)

Now we can test whether our web server can correctly display content generated by a PHP script. To try this out, we just have to visit this page in our web browser. You'll need your server's public IP address. If you haven't already, and need to, remember to port forward port 80 (TCP).

curl http://icanhazip.com

Open in your web browser: http://your_server_IP_address
This page basically gives you information about your PHP Compiler. It is useful for debugging and to ensure that your settings are being applied correctly.

Now look for the following to enable PHP extensions

Look for 'PDO Drivers' under PDO. If you don't have sqlite, mysql, you will also need to enable extensions pdo_mysql, pdo_sqlite (or just one of the sql extensions depending on your use) in your php.ini file.
Look for 'Zip' under zip. It should be enabled. If it isn't you'll need to enable the zip extension in your php.ini file.
Also look for 'Loaded Configuration File'. It should look something like /usr/local/etc/php/php.ini.

If you don't have a file here and it's instead blank, look for 'Configuration File (php.ini) Path', and append /php.ini to that path.

For example, /usr/local/etc/php would become /usr/local/etc/php/php.ini

Now that you have your php.ini path, open it in your editor

nano /usr/local/etc/php/php.ini

And uncomment (remove ; at the beginning of the line) the following, or add (without the comments) if a blank file:

;extension=zip
;extension=pdo_sqlite
;extension=pdo_mysql

Save and close the file. (Ctrl-X, y, Enter)

(max_execution_time, post_max_size, and upload_max_file_size are already set in .user.ini and .htaccess.)

Save and close the file. (Ctrl-X, y, Enter)

Now restart apache2.

service apache2 restart

Reload your site. The PHP info page should now display Zip enabled, and PDO drivers sqlite,mysql.

You probably want to remove this file after this test because it could actually give information about your server to unauthorized users. To do this, you can type

rm /var/www/html/index.php

5. Enable RewriteEngine, Configure Apache

a2enmod rewrite
cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/TechnicSolder.conf

Enable the site

a2ensite TechnicSolder

Edit site configuration file with nano (or some other editor)

nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/TechnicSolder.conf

Add the following above the DocumentRoot line:

ServerName <yourSolderDomainHere>

Change the DocumentRoot line to:

DocumentRoot /var/www/TechnicSolder

Add this before </VirtualHost> close tag:

    DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
    <Directory /var/www/TechnicSolder>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

Save and close the file and restart Apache:

service apache2 restart

6. Clone TechnicSolder repository

cd /var/www/
git clone https://github.com/TheGameSpider/TechnicSolder.git TechnicSolder

Installation is complete. Now you need to configure TechnicSolder before using it

If you are using nginx

Here is an incomplete example for nginx configuration. For a complete (but unrelated) example, see https://nginx.org/en/docs/example.html.

   listen 80; # for https, see https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/configuring_https_servers.html

   root /var/www/TechnicSolder;

   client_max_body_size 1G;

   location / {
       try_files   $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
       }

   location /api/ {
       try_files   $uri $uri/ /api/index.php?$query_string;
   }

   location ~* \.php$ {
       fastcgi_pass                    unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
       fastcgi_index                   index.php;
       fastcgi_split_path_info         ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
       include                         fcgi.conf;
       fastcgi_param PATH_INFO         $fastcgi_path_info;
       fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME   $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
       fastcgi_request_buffering off;
       fastcgi_max_temp_file_size 0;
   }

   location ~ /\.ht {
       deny all;
   }

   location ~ .*/\. {
       return 403;
   }

   # block access to sqlite database file
   location = ~* /db\.sqlite$ {
               deny all;
   }
   error_page 403 /403.html;

   location ~* \.(?:ico|css|js|jpe?g|JPG|png|svg|woff)$ {
           expires 365d;
   }

You will also need to configure a PHP server seperately, eg. PHP-FPM, and make it available at /run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock or update the nginx configuration accordingly.

Configuration

Configure MySQL (not applicable if you are using SQLite)

mysql

CREATE USER 'solder'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'secret';

NOTE: By writing IDENTIFIED BY 'secret' you set your password. Dont use secret

Create database solder and grant user solder access to it.

CREATE DATABASE solder;
GRANT ALL ON solder.* TO 'solder'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Configure TechnicSolder

chown -R www-data TechnicSolder

Go to http://your_server_IP_address and fill out the form. If you followed these instructions, database name and username is solder

The final step is to set your Solder URL in Solder Configuration (In your https://technicpack.net profile)

That's it. You have successfully installed and configured TechnicSolder. It's ready to use!

Updating

Install/update to PHP8.3, and install+enable PHP8.3-PDO and PHP8.3-ZIP. See Installation above for details.

Files/folders

If you originally used git clone to get these files:
- Simply run git pull in the cloned directory.
Or if you used some other method like FTP:
- Copy /var/www/TechnicSolder/functions/config.php, /var/www/TechnicSolder/forges, /var/www/TechnicSolder/mods,/var/www/TechnicSolder/others to a safe location.
- Delete folder (and contents) /var/www/TechnicSolder
- Re-upload new TechnicSolder folder to /var/www/
- Then move config.php back to /var/www/TechnicSolder/functions/

Database

If you were previously on v1.3.4, open http[s]://[your host name]/functions/upgrade1.3.5to1.4.0.php in your web browser.
If you are on a version before 1.3.4, first update to v1.3.4, and then 1.4.0.

Upload larger files > 1GB

This is a fairy simple process but can become complicated with nginx and apache2. Nextcloud has a great guide on this here.

Essentially, you'll want to update PHP's .user.ini file to something higher.

upload_max_filesize=10G  
post_max_size=10G

And then relevant settings in nginx/apache2, eg.

client_max_body_size 10G;

cowpod/TechnicSolder

TechnicSolder

Docker installation (requires Docker + Docker Compose and SSH access)

Generic installation and configuration (without SSH/CLI access)

Detailed Installation (SSH/CLI access required)

If you are using nginx

Configuration

Updating

Upload larger files > 1GB