taler-paivana-manual.rst (3447B)
1 .. 2 This file is part of GNU TALER. 3 4 Copyright (C) 2026 Taler Systems SA 5 6 TALER is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the 7 terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software 8 Foundation; either version 2.1, or (at your option) any later version. 9 10 TALER is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY 11 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR 12 A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details. 13 14 You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with 15 TALER; see the file COPYING. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/> 16 17 @author Christian Grothoff 18 19 20 Paivana Operator Manual 21 ####################### 22 23 Introduction 24 ============ 25 26 Paivana is an approach to implement paywalls using GNU Taler. 27 28 For the seller, the Paivana design offers a scalable, cachable, static paywall 29 with flexible payment options to sell access to digital assets. Aside from 30 selling digital articles, Paivana can be used to protect servers against 31 DDoS-attacks (say from botnets ignoring rate-limits), providing an alternative 32 to Anubis. 33 34 For buyers, Paivana offers all of the conveniences, privacy and security 35 features of the GNU Taler system. Paivana paywalls are also suitable for 36 agentic payments, as agents can easily be provisioned with access to a 37 GNU Taler wallet enabling them to purchase digital goods and services 38 while limiting the financial risk to the amount of money placed into the 39 agent's wallet. 40 41 About this manual 42 ----------------- 43 44 This manual targets system administrators who want to install, 45 operate or integrate Paivana-based paywalls. To report issues 46 or learn about known limitations, please check our 47 `bug tracker <https://bugs.taler.net>`__. 48 49 50 Overview 51 -------- 52 53 At this point, there are several integration options for Paivana-style 54 paywalls: 55 56 - Using the Paivana reverse proxy: This is a generic solution suitable 57 for any HTTP-based service. By placing the Paivana reverse proxy 58 before the existing HTTP service, clients can be required to pay before 59 accessing the service, without requiring any changes to the service 60 itself. One consideration is that integrating the Paivana reverse 61 proxy seamlessly into the site’s existing look-and-feel can require 62 additional customization, and payment rule configurations are managed 63 separately from the site’s core content. 64 - Using the Drupal Paivana extension: This extension works basically 65 for any Drupal site, making it easy to keep the overall look-and-feel 66 of the site. Prices can be configured per article within the site 67 itself. The extension only works for Drupal. 68 - Using the Wordpress Paivana extension: This extension works basically 69 for any Wordpress site, making it easy to keep the overall look-and-feel 70 of the site. Prices can be configured per article within the site 71 itself. The extension only works for Wordpress. 72 73 In all cases, Paivana additionally requires access to a GNU Taler 74 merchant backend. It is assumed that such a backend is available 75 and configured to process orders. When setting up the respective 76 Paivana service, you must have the base URL, username and password 77 of the selected merchant backend at hand. 78 79 .. include:: frags/paivana-httpd-manual.rst 80 81 .. include:: frags/drupal-paivana-manual.rst 82 83 .. include:: frags/wordpress-paivana-manual.rst