How it Works

Soapbox is a single-page application (SPA) that runs entirely in the browser with JavaScript.

It has a single HTML file, index.html, responsible only for loading the required JavaScript and CSS. It interacts with the backend through XMLHttpRequest (XHR).

Here is a simplified example with Nginx:

nginx

location /api {
  proxy_pass http://backend;
}

location / {
  root /opt/soapbox;
  try_files $uri index.html;
}

(See mastodon.conf for a full example.)

Soapbox incorporates much of the Mastodon API, Pleroma API, and more. It detects features supported by the backend to provide the right experience for the backend.

How it Works ​

How it Works