Chat

Openfire XMPP Server

Install and Setup Openfire XMPP Server
Encrypted messaging has become a hot mess of one off platforms, and painful setups over the past 10 to 15 years.  Before that, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, used a standardized protocol that was awesome, and still is.  XMPP was used by Microsoft, Yahoo, Excite, Google, Apple, and hundreds of other platforms for their chat communications.  Then, for some reason they all started branching off, creating their own communication mechanisms and protocols, close-sourcing most of them, and segregating their users.  We've had a few successes in bridging those chat gaps like WhatsApp (now owned by Facebook or Meta as they like to be called...so there went privacy), Telegram, Facebook Messenger (same story as WhatsApp), and on, and on.  So, if you want to run a secure, encrypted server, you are really left to do it yourself. Every company that insists they'll stand by your privacy probably initially means it, but will eventually cave to the pressures of government, revenue, or who knows what else.  

 Today, we add to our collection of great chat options that are self-hostable, open source, and secure.  Openfire is an XMPP server that provides a lot of control in the way you run it from the server side. It's not hard to get setup and running, and really does a terrific job of messaging. 

 What you'll need 

 

 A machine or server to run Openfire on 

 comfort with the CLI for a very simple install step. 

 A MySQL/MariaDB Database (don't worry, we'll install and set it up in this article and the accompanying video) 

 Either a local FQDN / Hostname for your server, or a publicly set FQDN / hostname for your VPS / Server with an A Record that points to it properly (public is optional) 

 About 20 minutes of your time 

 

 Installation of Openfire 

 We will first download Openfire as a .deb (if you're using Arch, fedora, redhat, or other non-debian based distribution) simply look for the appropriate file in the downloads for OpenFire. 

 To pull this, we'll use wget to download it. 

 wget https://www.igniterealtime.org/downloadServlet?filename=openfire/openfire_4.7.4_all.deb -o openfire.deb 

 Once downloaded, we want to install it using the apt tool with the command: 

 sudo apt install ./openfire.deb -y 

 This will install the Openfire server, and start the service running inisitally. But, we want to make sure it runs each time the server is started, so let's set that up real quick with the command: 

 sudo systemctl enable --now openfire 

 Now, just to be safe, let's restart the service: 

 sudo systemctl restart openfire 

 and then check that's active with: 

 sudo systemctl status openfire 

 You should see the status as "active" here. 

 Installing MariaDB / MySQL 

 Next, we need to install a database for openfire to use.  I'm going to install mariadb, but feel free to use mysql if you prefer to do so. 

 Luckily, MariaDB is in the debian/ ubuntu repositories already, so we can just run: 

 sudo apt install mariadb-server -y 

 Once installed, we need to secure the installation with the command: 

 mysql-secure-installation 

 You'll be prompted to enter the root password, but we haven't create a root password yet, so just press 'Enter' without typing anything in. 

 Next, you'll be asked if you want to convert to the 'unix socket' security model. Answer 'Y" for yes, and press enter. 

 Now enter a long, strong, complex password, then press enter.  This is the password for your 'root' user.  You'll be prompted to confirm the password as well, so make sure to store it in an encrypted password manager like Vaultwarden . 

 Now, answer each of the remaining questions with 'Y', then press enter. Once done, your MariaDB system is ready to use.  

 We need to do a few things in the MariaDB system to get it ready for Openfire.  First, let's log into it. Use the command 

 mysql -u root -p 

 You'll be prompted for the root password you just created. Enter it, then press 'Enter'. You should now be logged into your MariaDB install. 

 You'll see the prompt with something like: 

 | mariadb> or | mysql> 

 Now we need to create the database and 'openfire' user, and a password for that user, as well as give that user privileges over the openfire database.  We'll then run a script that was installed with the openfire server earlier, and it will do the rest of the work on the database for us. 

 

 Create the openfire database. 

 

 CREATE DATABASE openfire; 

 2. Give privileges to an new user called 'openfire', and assign a password (long and strong).  

 GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON openfire.* TO openfire@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'longandstrongpasswordhere'; You really need to put this into a password manager or save it somewhere. You'll need it during the Openfire setup wizard. 

 3. Now let's clear and reset privileges on the database properly. 

 FLUSH PRIVILEGES; 

 4. Let's tell the system we want to use our new 'openfire' database 

 USE openfire; 

 5. Let's run the scripts 

 source /usr/share/openfire/resources/database/openfire_mysql.sql; 

 You should get a set of 'query ok' messages.  

 If so, you're ready to o to your new Openfire server in the web browser. 

 Run the Setup Wizard 

 Now, let's run through the Openfire setup wizard. 

 First, set your preferred language, then Continue. Next, You need to make sure that Openfire is setting the proper FQDN and XMPP Domain.  You can also adjust the ports.  

 Next, ,select your preferred encryption, and give a strong encryption key. 

 Now, choose the Standard Database type. Leave the driver alone, but in the connection URL space, you'll want to change the "HOSTNAME" placeholder to the IP of your MySQL server, or use 127.0.0.1 if both servers are running on the same machine.  Now, change the "DATABASE" placeholder to "openfire". Leave everything else alone.  Enter the user as 'openfire', and the password you created for the 'openfire' user during the GRANT PRIVILEGES step above.  Once entered, click 'Continue'. 

 Choose the type of profile settings you want, if using LDAP, you need to have an LDAP server, and now the settings to use it. 

 Now enter an email for your admin user, and a long, strong password for your admin user to log into the web admin system with. Click 'Continue / Finish', and you are done. 

 Now click the 'Login' button, and enter 'admin' as the user with the admin password you just created. You'll now be logged into the admin dashboard.  

 Check out the video for the overview, setting up users, and connecting clients to your server. 

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RocketChat
Self hosted Slack / Teams alternative

Install RocketChat
RocketChat is an open source, self hostable chat application that rivals the likes of Teams and Slack.  It allows administratos incredible power in permissions and role setup, Room / Channel setup and organization, private / public channels, private group discussions, private 1 to 1 chats, audio / video integration with systems like Jitsi Meet, and so much more.  

 As a business, particularly in the tech service industry, your communication internally as well as with clients is key to success.  A system like RocketChat can open communication avenues for you, your team, and your clients to have fast, live-time interactions. 

 What You'll Need 

 

 A server to run Rocketchat On (ideally running Linux) 

 Docker / Docker Compose installed 

 A domain / sub-domain for your chat system to be reached on 

 A Reverse Proxy 

 About 30 minutes of your time. 

 

 Installation via a Simple Script 

 You can easily install Docker-CE, Docker-Compose, Portainer-CE, and NGinX Proxy manager by using this quick install script I created and maintain on Github.  Just use the command: 

 wget https://gitlab.com/bmcgonag/docker_installs/-/raw/main/install_docker_nproxyman.sh 

 To download the script to your desired host. 

 Change the permissions to make the script executable: 

 chmod +x ./install_docker_nproxyman.sh 

 and then run the script with the command: 

 ./install_docker_nproxyman.sh 

 When run, the script will prompt you to select your host operating system, then will ask you which bits of software you want to install. 

 Simply enter 'y' for each thing you want to install. 

 At some point, you may be asked for your super user (sudo) password as well. 

 Allow the script to complete installation. 

 At this point, you might want to log out and back in, as this will allow you to use the docker and docker-compose commands without the need of sudo in front of them. 

 Install RocketChat 

 First, we need to download two files.  The docker compose file (compose.yaml) and the example .env file they provide.  We can do that with the wget tool in our terminal. 

 Let's make a directory for our RoacketChat install and move into it 

 mkdir -p docker/rocketchat 

 cd docker/rocketchat 

 Now we can download the two files into our rocketchat directory. 

 wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RocketChat/Docker.Official.Image/master/compose.yml -O compose.yaml

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RocketChat/Docker.Official.Image/master/env.example -O .env 

 Next, we need to set some of the environment variables to be specific to our needs for this RocketChat instance.  We can edit the .env file using the nano editor in the terminal, or you can edit it with any text editor you prefer. 

 nano .env 

 Inside the .env file we need to uncomment a few lines. To do this, we remove the hastag (pound sign, number sign) at the beginning of the lines we need to edit.  See my cleaned up example below and make yours look similar. 

 ### Rocket.Chat configuration

# Rocket.Chat version

# see:- https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat/releases

#RELEASE=

# MongoDB endpoint (include ?replicaSet= parameter)

#MONGO_URL=

# MongoDB endpoint to the local database

#MONGO_OPLOG_URL=

# IP to bind the process to

#BIND_IP=

# URL used to access your Rocket.Chat instance

ROOT_URL=https://chat.<your domain>.<org / com / net>

# Port Rocket.Chat runs on (in-container)

PORT=3000

# Port on the host to bind to

HOST_PORT=3000

### MongoDB configuration

# MongoDB version/image tag

MONGODB_VERSION=5.0

# See:- https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnami/mongodb

### Traefik config (if enabled)

# Traefik version/image tag

#TRAEFIK_RELEASE=

# Domain for https (change ROOT_URL & BIND_IP accordingly)

#DOMAIN=

# Email for certificate notifications

#LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=

 

 In the file above I have removed the hashtag in front of the lines for ROOT_URL, PORT, HOST_PORT, and MONGODB_VERSION.  You should do the same. If you use the Traefik reverse proxy, uncomment and fill in those items as well. I use Nginx Proxy Manager, so those can remain commented out. 

 For ROOT_URL you should enter the url you want users to access the site from. For instance I set mine to "https://chat.sysmainit.com".  

 PORT and HOST_PORT can both be set as 3000 unless you already have something running on port 3000 on the system, in which case you should change HOST_PORT to some other port, and then make sure to use that port number in your reverse proxy setup. 

 Once you've made the necessary changes, you can save the file with CTRL + O, then press Enter to confirm, and finally close the nano editor with CTRL + X. 

 Next, let's quickly open the compose.yaml file with nano, and make a small modification there as well. 

 NOTE: This change is only necessary if you won't be using the Traefik reverse proxy. If you do use Traefik, then DO NOT make this change. 

 nano compose.yaml 

 In this file, we want to remove the section for the Traefik reverse proxy.  If you are using Traefik as your reverse proxy, then feel free to leave it in. 

 volumes:

 mongodb_data: { driver: local }

services:

 rocketchat:

 image: registry.rocket.chat/rocketchat/rocket.chat:${RELEASE:-latest}

 restart: always

 labels:

 traefik.enable: "true"

 traefik.http.routers.rocketchat.rule: Host(`${DOMAIN:-}`)

 traefik.http.routers.rocketchat.tls: "true"

 traefik.http.routers.rocketchat.entrypoints: https

 traefik.http.routers.rocketchat.tls.certresolver: le

 environment:

 MONGO_URL: "${MONGO_URL:-\

 mongodb://${MONGODB_ADVERTISED_HOSTNAME:-mongodb}:${MONGODB_INITIAL_PRIMARY_PORT_NUMBER:-27017}/\

 ${MONGODB_DATABASE:-rocketchat}?replicaSet=${MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_NAME:-rs0}}"

 MONGO_OPLOG_URL: "${MONGO_OPLOG_URL:\

 -mongodb://${MONGODB_ADVERTISED_HOSTNAME:-mongodb}:${MONGODB_INITIAL_PRIMARY_PORT_NUMBER:-27017}/\

 local?replicaSet=${MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_NAME:-rs0}}"

 ROOT_URL: ${ROOT_URL:-http://localhost:${HOST_PORT:-3000}}

 PORT: ${PORT:-3000}

 DEPLOY_METHOD: docker

 DEPLOY_PLATFORM: ${DEPLOY_PLATFORM:-}

 REG_TOKEN: ${REG_TOKEN:-}

 depends_on:

 - mongodb

 expose:

 - ${PORT:-3000}

 ports:

 - "${BIND_IP:-0.0.0.0}:${HOST_PORT:-3000}:${PORT:-3000}"

 mongodb:

 image: docker.io/bitnami/mongodb:${MONGODB_VERSION:-5.0}

 restart: always

 volumes:

 - mongodb_data:/bitnami/mongodb

 environment:

 MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_MODE: primary

 MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_NAME: ${MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_NAME:-rs0}

 MONGODB_PORT_NUMBER: ${MONGODB_PORT_NUMBER:-27017}

 MONGODB_INITIAL_PRIMARY_HOST: ${MONGODB_INITIAL_PRIMARY_HOST:-mongodb}

 MONGODB_INITIAL_PRIMARY_PORT_NUMBER: ${MONGODB_INITIAL_PRIMARY_PORT_NUMBER:-27017}

 MONGODB_ADVERTISED_HOSTNAME: ${MONGODB_ADVERTISED_HOSTNAME:-mongodb}

 MONGODB_ENABLE_JOURNAL: ${MONGODB_ENABLE_JOURNAL:-true}

 ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD: ${ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD:-yes}

 

 From the above we want to remove these lines: 

 labels:

 traefik.enable: "true"

 traefik.http.routers.rocketchat.rule: Host(`${DOMAIN:-}`)

 traefik.http.routers.rocketchat.tls: "true"

 traefik.http.routers.rocketchat.entrypoints: https

 traefik.http.routers.rocketchat.tls.certresolver: le 

 In nano, you can put your cursor on the line with "lables:", and then use the CTRL + K hotkey to remove the entire line. Just keeping pressing CTRL + K repeatedly until all of these lines are gone.  

 next, le'ts change the volume mapping line for our MongoDB database to be kept inside of our rocketchat folder.  To do that change the line that says: 

 - mongodb_data:/bitnami/mongodb 

 to instead say 

 - ./mongodb_data:/bitnami/mongodb 

 This will keep our compose.yml, .env, and mongodb data all in this folder which makes it much easier to zip up and backup as needed. 

 Now save your changes with CTRL + O, then press Enter to confirm, and exit the nano editor with CTRL + X. 

 Finally, we are ready to pull down the images for our RocketChat instance.  

 docker compose pull 

 As the images are pulled, be patient. It can take a bit of time as the images can be large sometimes, and then also have to be extracted (uncompressed).  

 Once the images are pulled down, we'll want to do one more thing.  This is just based on my experience, but let's make that "mongodb_data" folder now, and give it the appropriate permissions it needs: 

 mkdir mongodb_data 

 chmod 777 ./mongodb_data 

 Let's start our system running with the command: 

 docker compose up -d && docker compose logs -f 

 This is really two commands concatenated with the &&.  First we tell docker to start the containers, and then we tell it we want to see the logs as it starts.  We can stop seeing the logs using the CTRL + C hotkey combination. 

 Once it's up and running, you'll see a lot of text output. You are just looking for errors.  If you don't see any errors, you can stop following the logs. Give the system a few minutes to be fully up and running. 

 Now, we just need to setup our reverse proxy.  

 We can open up NGinX Proxy Manager, and add a new Proxy Host.  In this case I'm using the IP through my Netbird VPN, but you can use the local network IP, or the Public IP if you prefer.  You just need to ensure that "chat.yourdomain.org" is pointing to your NGinx Proxy Manager instance.  NGinX will handle the routing from there. 

 In our new proxy host, we'll name our entry with the domain name we want people to use to reach our site.  In my case I entered "chat.sysmainit.com". You should use your domain. 

 Next we'll enter the IP we want NGinx proxy manager to use to reach the server where Rocketchat is running. After that enter the port that you set for the HOST_PORT variable.  In my case I set 3000, so that's what I'll enter. 

 Now enable the two options for "Block Common Exploits" and "Websocket Support".  

 Next, select the SSL tab, and in the dropdown that says 'None', select 'Request a New Certificate'.  Next, enable the options for 'Force SSL', 'HTTP/2 Support', 'HSTS for both of those entries, then make sure you email is filled in,and accept the LetsEncrypt terms of service. 

 Now click the 'Save' button.  You should see the new proxy addition pop-up just close on its own after about 30 seconds.  If you don't get any error in the pop up, your proxy is ready. You can now click on the entry in NGinX Proxy Manager, or simply go to the site in your favorite modern browser. 

 You'll be presented with a create account screen to create your first user. This user will be a system admin with all privileges needed to manage your server.  

 Check Out the video for an overview and walk through of the UI. There's a ton here, and you want to make sure to go through and get it setup right. 

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Zulip
Chat for Teams and Organizations

Install and Configure Zulip Chat
Zulip is an awesome open source, self hosted chat system made for teams and organizations. I was reached out to by the Zulip team to do a new, updated video on the project, and I'm so very glad they came to me. This project has gotten so incredibly good since I covered it way back when I was first starting my channel. I hope you'll enjoy it. I think it's an amazing option for all kinds of organizations. I really love the way it functions. It makes things so clean.  

 My child is now in 9th grade. Each year her teachers tell her she needs to download some new app for their specific communication. These are usually some app with at least some level of free tier, and I hate this. They are all apps that want to send ads, and use my child's information for data gathering to sell for advertising, or some other form of profit. Understand, I do not blame these teachers. I blame the school district. This should not even be an option. The school district should be hosting their own communication platform, not using Slack, or Teams, or anything else hosted on other companies' servers, but they should be hosting their own. Setting it up for the teachers and students to login and have communication with their peers and teachers.  This shouldn't be something where I have to constantly worry about my child's information.  Zulip is just such a tool in my opinion.  I want to go and tell the school board my thoughts on this, but honestly, I just don't know what good it will do unless I determine the right way to convey that privacy is so very important.  

 Setup a Server 

 Zulip recommends using a Debian 12 or Debian 13, or a Ubuntu 22..04 or 24.04 server for this installation. I'll be installing it in a container known as Incus. This is just a very tiny, efficient virtual machine. I'll be using Ubuntu 24.04 server for my container base OS. Feel free to use one you're comfortable with, but the commands should be the same. 

 In most self hosted applications these days, you'll need a machine to act as a server. This can be a machine in your home / business (such as an old laptop or desktop, a Raspberry PI or Single Board Computer (SBC), or even the computer you're reading this article from), a VM / Container hosted on one of your machines, or a VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosted by companies like RackNerd, Digital Ocean, Linode, Vultr, and so many more. Regardless of which option you choose, you'll want to do a few things to get the server setup properly. 

 Install updates to our Server 

 Ubuntu / Debian 

 sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y 

 Add a non-root / sudo user on the server 

 Generally, when you setup a new server, the VPS (Virtual Private Server) service sets up a default "root" user for you. It's considered unsafe to do everything as "root", so let's setup a non-root user who has super user (sudo) privileges. 

 adduser <username> You'll be prompted to enter and confirm a password for this user. You'll also be asked for some user information like Name, etc, but this is not required information. At the end, confirm the entries, and you'll have your new user. 

 Next, we need to add the user to the super user group. 

 Ubuntu / Debian 

 usermod -aG sudo <username> 

 Now, you can log out of the system, and log back in as your new non-root super user. 

 Installing Zulip 

 

 

 Make a Temp Directory for the Install 

 

 

 cd $(mktemp -d) 

 

 

 Download the Install Archive 

 

 

 curl -fLO https://download.zulip.com/server/zulip-server-latest.tar.gz 

 

 

 Unzip the Archive 

 

 

 tar -xf zulip-server-latest.tar.gz 

 

 

 From the temp folder we made, become the super user (root) temporarily, and run the install script 

 

 

 sudo -s 

 If you want to run Zulip on a seerver that has it's own publicly accessible IPv4 Address use this command: 

 ./zulip-server-*/scripts/setup/install --push-notifications --agree-to-terms-of-service --hostname=<chat.mygreatdomain.example> --email=<you@mygreatdomain.example> --certbot 

 If you don't want push notification, change --push-notifications to be --no-push-notifications . 

 The command below if for those wanting run behind a reverse proxy. as well as are the steps that follow it. ./zulip-server-*/scripts/setup/install --push-notifications --agree-to-terms-of-service --hostname=<chat.mygreatdomain.example> --email=you@mygreatdomain.example --self-signed-cert 

 This script does a lot! Be ready, it will take a while. On my system it took about 10 minutes or so to complete. Once it starts, it should not prompt you for anything if you use the command I have above. 

 Flags on the script are as follows: 

 

 

 --push-nitofications - Enable push notifications for your site. This uses the Zulip hosted servers, so there are limitations depending on your organization, size, type, etc. (not a required flag) 

 

 

 --agree-to-terms-of-service - Telling Zulip you agree to their terms of service for the push notification service (only required if you use the --push-notifications option as well. 

 

 

 -hostname - The hostname you want to use for your site. For instance "chat.mycooldomain.com", or "zulip.awesomesauce.net". Only required if you want an FQDN (but highly recommended). 

 

 

 --email - The email address of the person who will be the site administrator. 

 

 

 --self-signed-cert - Allows you to get a self signed certificate for SSL. Zulip requires SSL connections for security reasons. This is only needed if you intend to use a Reverse Proxy to reach your zulip site, or you are using the IP of your server directly. 

 

 

 Additionally, the script creates a user called 'zulip', as well as a home directory for that user. There are command scripts stored here, so please do not delete this user or directory, or you will break your installation. 

 !!! IMPORTANT When the installer completes successfully, you'll be provided a one time use link to be able to setup your initial organization and administrative user. You need to copy this link and keep it somewhere safe before continuing. We'll use this link once the site is up and we can reach it successfully. 

 Adjusting our Server Configuration for a Reverse Proxy 

 If you, like me, use a reverse proxy in order to get to your sites from the internet (if you don't, you should really consider it), then you'll need to do a bit of extra configuration setup. it's actually only about 3 lines of actual setup, but needs to be done. If you are not using a reverse proxy, then you can skip this section. 

 Adjust the .conf file to allow http_only connections so we can setup our reverse proxy: 

 nano /etc/zulip/zulip.conf 

 Change the contents by adding the following: 

 [application_server]

http_only = true 

 Use CTRL + O to save your changes, press Enter to confirm, and exit the nano editor with CTRL + X. 

 Apply our changes using the command script: 

 /home/zulip/deployments/current/scripts/zulip-puppet-apply 

 If prompted, answer 'y' for the application of changes. 

 Now we need to restart the Zulip server with the command script: 

 /home/zulip/deployments/current/scripts/restart-server 

 Next, depending on your proxy, you may need to setup header forwarding in the proxy itself. 

 Additionally, you'll need to add the IP(s) that your proxy will forward to the Zulip server in order to make sure Zulip can validate any connections. 

 This portion of the setup really threw me for a bit, but there are some logs you can use to help you figure out which IPs to show. 

 The two logs you can (should) check if needed are located at /var/log/zulip/errors.log and /var/log/zulip/server.log . Looking at these two logs after getting a few error pages when first attempting to reach my site, helped me resolve which IP addresses the Zulip seerver was getting from my reverse proxy. 

 I initially assumed that only the Pulbic IP address would be forwarded, but because I use Pangolin, it really has a 2 part setup. The server which has a public IPv4 address, and then a client running inside the network (called Newt), which acts as the entry point to the network for Pangolin. In my case, after looking through the logs, I found that Zulip was getting both the public IPv4 address of my Pangolin proxy server, as well as the private IPv4 address of the Newt node inside my network. To resolve the issues, I added both IPv4 addresses to the etc/zulip/zulip.conf file as follows: 

 nano /etc/zulip/zulip.conf 

 Add the following lines to your configuration file at the end. Make sure to replace my two placeholder IPv4 addresses with the actual IPv4 address(es) for your setup. 

 [loadbalancer]

# Use the IP addresses you determined above, separated by commas.

ips = 192.168.1.210,128.165.17.22 

 Where the first address is the Newt private IPv4 address, and the second is the Pangolin public IPv4 address. 

 Again, after adding this, I saved, my changes, applied them, and restarted the Zulip server. 

 Use CTRL + O to save your changes, press Enter to confirm, and exit the nano editor with CTRL + X. 

 Apply the changes with the command script: 

 /home/zulip/deployments/current/scripts/zulip-puppet-apply 

 Answer with 'y' if prompted about the changes. Next, restart the Zulip server with: 

 /home/zulip/deployments/current/scripts/restart-server 

 Try again to reach your site. If you can reach it successfully, then you should be able to use the special one-time use URL you copied earlier, and generate your first organization and administrative user. 

 Congratulations! You now have Zulip setup and running. You'll see an inbox, and a couple of walk throughs to help you understand how Zulip works. I highly recommend you check it out. It's really a robust, powerful system. 

 Special thanks go out to the Product Manager for Zulip, as she reached out and asked if I'd do an updated video on it, and I'm so glad she did. Additional thanks tot he Zulip community for helping me realize I should have been running some of the commands one line at a time, vs. in blocks like they appeared on the documentation, and for immediately updating the documentation to make this more clear to other users in the future!