TIP
We now offer $5/month hosting, you can get started by heading to Tovy Cloud
Setting up Tovy
In this guide, we will walk you through both the installation and hosting process for Tovy. This page will also mention how to setup Tovy in a Railway project. df
For starter groups, we recommend using the Railway method as it is much easier to begin with. Larger groups can consider using Railway too! Just not the free tier.
Table of Content
Setting up Tovy in your server
WARNING
You are expected to know how to use the terminal as well as the NodeJS runtime. Tovy is not responsible for any user errors caused during the setup process, this includes money/playerbase losses, server crashes, et cetera.
This guide does not provide instructions on getting a PostgreSQL database, please use this resource from DigitalOcean instead, if you use Ubuntu!
As long as the corresponding platform is supported by the NodeJS runtime, Tovy can be installed and hosted for your fellow group members to use.
Prerequisites
- A machine that can run Console/Terminal tasks, as well as self-hosting your Tovy instance.
- NodeJS 16+ installed with a package manager (Yarn, pnpm, or npm (included with NodeJS))
- Git installed
- A PostgreSQL database
- Internet connection
Connecting to your server
You can download & setup Tovy in your computer first, then move Tovy back to your server. However, please be aware that we will be assuming you are doing all this in your server.
If you do not have direct access to your server, connect to the server via Secure Shell.
Downloading Tovy and required dependencies
WARNING
Install Git and the NodeJS runtime first
Once you are in your server, type the following commands in your terminal session to download Tovy:
git clone https://github.com/tovyblox/tovy && cd tovy
After it finishes downloading, you should now be in Tovy's directory, run this command so the required dependencies for Tovy are installed:
npm install
pnpm install
yarn install
Database Setup
From the resource from DigitalOcean linked here, you should have PostgreSQL with a user with password, and database setup!
WARNING
Occasionally, PostgreSQL does not prompt for a password when making a new user, so you can try the following commands below.
- Log into PostgreSQL user as root/admin, and type
\password <username>
Here's a template for your Database URL that you'll need later.
postgresql://username:password@<host>:<port>/<tovy db name>
- Username: User
(String) - Password: User Password
(String) - Host: IP Address of PostgreSQL server or
localhostif Tovy is on the same machine as your PostgreSQL installation.(IP/Domain/localhost) - Port: Specify PostgreSQL Port / 5432 if you didn't modify it.
(Number) - Tovy DB Name: Database Name that the user has access to
(String)
Setting up Tovy for the first time
Tovy requires some configuration before it can actually run. Configuring a system can be a hassle. However, luckily, we have made it very easy to do.
For the secret key go to https://1password.com/password-generator/ and generate a password with 64 charactars that has symbols and copy it
In the root of the file make a file called .env and copy/paste the below contents in it
DATABASE_URL="<Database URL from Database Setup>"
SESSION_SECRET="<your-secret-key-with-32-chars>"
2
Then, replace the database URL with the postgres database you made
Finishing Up
We use NextJS, so you have to build the website first if you want to officially use this in production. If not, skip to Starting Tovy
Build the website for production:
npm run build
pnpm run build
yarn run build
This takes a few seconds/minutes depending on your machine's performance. Move on to Starting Tovy
Starting Tovy
If you built your website for production, using the step above, use this to start Tovy.
npm run start
pnpm run start
yarn run start
Otherwise, if you didn't build Tovy, you cannot use the section "Serving Tovy", unless you build it. On the other hand, you can use Dev Start to instantly start Tovy to see any file changes without building it!
npm run dev
pnpm run dev
yarn run dev
Setting up login and your group
Once Tovy has started running, Tovy should reside in localhost:3000. Head to that page and setup login.
Password
Use an unique password. You should not use your own Roblox account's password for this!
Enter your Roblox username (Not to be confused with display name), as well as a password to log into Tovy. And click next.
Now, you should be able to see a new page, asking for your Roblox group's information. Enter your Group ID to the specified text field in order to proceed. To find your Group ID, head to your group first, the number sequence in the URL is the Group ID.
🎉 Setup should be complete now!
Serving Tovy
We will be using a tool to keep Tovy's instance always online –– pm2, this can be installed with your NodeJS package manager.
Starting without Building
Stop! Do not use this section if you did not build Tovy. Go back to Finishing Up.
If you want to try Tovy without building it, you can go to Starting Tovy and start a Dev Build.
npm i -g pm2
pnpm i -g pm2
yarn global add pm2
Once that has been done, run the command:
pm2 start npm --name="Tovy" -- start
and it should start serving Tovy under the location localhost:3000. Point it to the server's IP and map it to a (sub)domain.
Setting up Tovy as a Railway project (free plan)
WARNING
Again, this solution is free, but if your group is relatively large, avoid the free plan and go for the paid tiers.
Railway offers a free tier, if your group is small, we highly recommend using Railway as a temporary platform.
Prerequisites
- A GitHub account at least older than 30 days
- A credit card (if you are going for the paid tiers)
Deploying Tovy onto Railway
To begin, click the button below
Signup/login Railway with your GitHub account, make sure you have installed the Railway app into your account/organisation.
For the secret key go to https://1password.com/password-generator/ and generate a password with 64 charactars that has symbols and copy it
Then in SESSION_SECRET paste the code you just made Check Private repo? and click Deploy.
Railway will now create a PostgreSQL database and complete the initial setup for you. Just wait until you see Success at the top.
Setting up Tovy for the first time
When deploying Tovy with Railway, the database creation is automatically done for you, there is no need to create a database manually or whatsoever.
When Railway finished building Tovy, you will see two links just below the build status text (psss: the one that says Success). Click the first one as the second is for development purposes only.
Password
Use an unique password. You should not use your own Roblox account's password for this!
Enter your Roblox username (Not to be confused with display name), as well as a password to log into Tovy. And click next.
Now, you should be able to see a new page, asking for your Roblox group's information. Enter your Group ID to the specified text field in order to proceed. To find your Group ID, head to your group first, the number sequence in the URL is the Group ID.
🎉 Setup should be complete now!