@mc3-aether/aether NPM

Install | Usage | Example | Data Standards | API Docs

Docs at docs.mc3.network/aether
Aether-js

This is a library which allows you to set, get, and remove private and public data associated with an ethereum account. It can be used to store identity data, user settings, etc. by dapps that use a web3 enabled browser. The data will be retrievable as long as the user has access to the private key for the used ethereum account. The data is encrypted and can not be read by any third party that the user hasn't authorized. There is one shared space for data which all authorized dapps access by default, then there are spaces which dapps have to request explicit consent to access.

Getting Started

Installation

Install Æther in your npm project:

$ npm install Aether

Usage

Import Æther into your project

Import the Aether module

const Aether = require('Aether')

Import using the dist build in your html code

<script type="text/javascript" src="../dist/aether.js"></script>

Or optionally by loading remote copy from unpkg CDN.

<!-- The most recent version  -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/mc2-universe/aether/dist/aether.js"></script>
<!-- The most recent minified version  -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/mc2-universe/aether/dist/aether.min.js"></script>
<!-- Load specific versions by specifying the version as follows -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/mc2-universe/aether@<version>/dist/aether.js"></script>

Profiles API

Get the existing public profile of an address (or DID)

Æther allows users to create a public profile for their Ethereum address. In your dapp you might have multiple ethereum addresses that you would like to display a name, image, and other basic social metadata for. The getProfile method allows you to fetch the public profile of any ethereum address (if it has one). This is a static method so you can call it directly from the Box object.

const profile = await Aether.getProfile('0x12345abcde')
console.log(profile)

Update (get, set, remove) public and private profile data

Æther allows applications to create, read, update, and delete public and private data stored in a user's Æther. To enable this functionality, applications must first authenticate the user's Æther by calling the auth method. This method prompts the user to authenticate (sign-in) to your dapp and returns a promise with a threeBox instance. You can only update (set, get, remove) data for users that have authenticated to and are currently interacting with your dapp. Below ethereumProvider refers to the object that you would get from web3.currentProvider, or window.ethereum.

1. Create a Æther instance

To create a Æther session you call the create method. This creates an instance of the Box class which can be used to openThreads and authenticate the user in any order. This is best to call on page load, so it can begin initializing and connecting services like IPFS in background.

const mc3 = await Aether.create()

2. Authenticate user

Calling the auth method will authenticate the user. If you want to authenticate the user to one or multiple spaces you can specify this here. A provider needs to be passed, this can be an ethereum provider (from web3.currentProvider, or window.ethereum) or a UPI Provider (from IdentityWallet). If using an ethereum provider you need to pass an ethereum address to the auth method as well. If the user does not have an existing Æther account, this method will automatically create one for them in the background.

const address = '0x12345abcde'
const spaces = ['myDapp']
await mc3.auth(spaces, { address, provider })

3. Sync user's available Æther data from the network

When you first authenticate the box in your dapp all data might not be synced from the network yet. You should therefore wait for the data to be fully synced. To do this you can simply await the mc3.syncDone promise:

await mc3.syncDone

This will allow you to know when all the user's data is available to you. We advise against setting any data before this sync has happened. However, reading data before the sync is complete is fine and encouraged - just remember to check for updates once the sync is finished! Please note, mc3.syncDone can only be called once the user has been authenticated, it is not possible if only the Aether.create method has been called.

If you prefer to not use promises you can add a callback using the onSyncDone method.

3. Interact with Æther profile data

You can now use the box instance object to interact with public and private data stored in the user's profile. In both the public and the private data store you use a key to set a value.

// use the public profile
// get
const nickname = await mc3.public.get('name')
console.log(nickname)
// set
await mc3.public.set('name', 'oed')
// remove
await mc3.public.remove('name')

// use the private store
// get
const email = await mc3.private.get('email')
console.log(email)
// set
await mc3.private.set('email', 'oed@email.service')
// remove
await mc3.private.remove('email')

Set multiple fields at once:

const fields = ['name', 'website', 'employer']
const values = ['Jon Schwartz', 'openworklabs.com', 'Open Work Labs']

await mc3.public.setMultiple(fields, values)

const privateFields = ['age', 'coinBalance']
const privateValues = ['xxx', 'yyy']

await mc3.private.setMultiple(privateFields, privateValues)

Open a thread

Once you have created a Æther session you can open a thread to view data in it. This can be done before you authenticate the user (required for them to post in the thread). When opening a thread the moderation options need to be given. You can pass firstModerator, a UPI (or ethereum address) of the first moderator, and a members boolean which indicates if it is a members thread or not.

const thread = await mc3.openThread('myDapp', 'myThread', { firstModerator: 'did:3:bafy...', members: true })

Once a thread has been opened you can call the getPosts() method to retrive the posts.

Spaces API (Storage)

Open a space

A space is a named section of a users Æther. Each space has both a public and a private store, and for every space you open the user has to grant explicit consent to view that space. This means that if your dapp uses a space that no other dapp uses, only your dapp is allowed to update the data and read the private store of that particular space. To open a space called narwhal you simply call:

const space = await mc3.openSpace('narwhal')

Sync user's available space data from the network

Similarly to how you need to wait for data to sync in a users main data storage, you may also do the same thing for a space:

await space.syncDone

Get, set, and remove space data

Interacting with data in a space is done in the same way as interacting with mc3.public and mc3.private (see here). For example:

const config = await space.private.get('dapp-config')

Threads API (Messaging)

Add public and confidential message threads to your app

Threads are a shared datastore that enable decentralized communication between users, by allowing one or more users to post messages in a sequence. This functionality is great for adding commenting, chat, messaging, feed, and stream features to your application. Threads are saved within a space and users that join a thread (with the same name, space, moderation configs, and access configs) will be able to communicate in that thread.

For the fully detailed spec, view the documentation.

Viewing a Public Thread

You can get all posts made in a public thread without opening a space. This is great for allowing visitors of your site view comments made by other users. This is achieved by calling the getThread method on the Box object. A thread can be referenced by all its configuration options or by its address.

const posts = await Aether.getThread(spaceName, threadName, firstModerator, membersThread)
console.log(posts)

Threads can also be viewed without opening space, or authenticating by calling the getPosts() method on the thread object returned from openThread (see Open a thread section above).

const posts = await Aether.getThreadByAddress(threadAddress)
console.log(posts)

However if applications want to add interactivity to the thread, such as allowing the user to post in a thread or follow updates in a thread, you will need to open their space to enable additional functionality. Same is true for a confidential thread, which requires you autheticate to get access to view the posts in a confidential thread.

Interacting with a Thread

1.a Creating a Public Thread

To create and join a public thread, you can simply join the thread. This will implicitly use the moderation options where the current user is the firstModerator and members is false.

const thread = await space.joinThread('myThread')

A thread can also be given the moderation options when joining. You can pass firstModerator, a UPI of the first moderator, and a members boolean which indicates if it is a members thread or not. Moderators can add other moderators, add members, and delete any posts in the thread. Members can post in member only threads.

const thread = await space.joinThread('myThread', { firstModerator: 'someUPI', members: true })

1.b Creating a Confidential Thread

To create and join a confidential thread.

const thread = await space.createConfidentialThread('myConfThread')

At creation you will likely want to add other members so that they can read and write messages to the thread, as shown below.

2. Joining a Thread

An existing public or confidential thread can be joined by its address. Confidential threads are best referenced by their address.

const thread = await space.joinThreadByAddress('/orbitdb/zdpuAp5QpBKR4BBVTvqe3KXVcNgo4z8Rkp9C5eK38iuEZj3jq/aether.thread.testSpace.testThread')

While public threads can be joined by address or by passing known configs (same as above).

const publicThread = await space.joinThread('myThread', { firstModerator: 'someUPI', members: true })

An address of a thread can be found as follows once joined.

const threadAddress = thread.address

3. Posting to a thread

This allows the user to add a message to the thread. The author of the message will be the user's UPI / DID. When a user posts in a thread, they are automatically subscribed to the thread and it is saved in the space used by the application under the key thread-threadName.

await thread.post('hello world')

4. Getting all posts in a thread

This allows applications to get the posts in a thread.

const posts = await thread.getPosts()
console.log(posts)

5. Listening for updates in thread

This allows applications to listen for new posts in the thread, and perform an action when this occurs, such as adding the new message to the application's UI.

thread.onUpdate(myCallbackFunction)

6. Handling moderation and capabilities

Add a moderator and list all existing moderators

await thread.addModerator('someUPI')

const mods = await thread.listModerators()

Add a member and list all existing members, if a members only thread

await thread.addMember('someUPI')

const members = await thread.listMembers()

Listen for when there has been moderators or member added.

thread.onNewCapabilities(myCallbackFunction)

Example Application

You can quickly run and interact with some code by looking at the files in the /example folder. You run the example with the following commands:

$ npm ci
$ npm run example:start

This runs a simple server at http://localhost:3000/ that serves the static example/index.html file. This allows it easily interact with metamask. You can edit the example/index.html file to try differnt code.

Build

Optimize build for read-only Æther API

If you only want to fetch profile data from Æther's profile APIs you can optimize by importing only those functions or the API specific dist file. Since this includes minimal dependencies, file size is ~ 80kb vs 4+mb for the full build.

const { profileGraphQL, getProfile, getProfiles, getVerifiedAccounts } = require('aether/lib/api')

<script src="https://unpkg.com/mc2-universe/aether/dist/aether.api.min.js"></script>

Resolving build size issues and out of memory errors

Some platforms, tooling, or configs have caused the build process to throw out of memory errors. This is a combination of the size of our library (plus dependencies) and the specific configs you have for your build. It could be things like tooling running on dependencies and not just your source or dependencies be recursively resolved. You can attempt to build the library anyways by adding the follow environment variable to increase memory for the node process.

NODE_OPTIONS=--max_old_space_size=4096 npm run build

Data Standards

Dapps can store data about users that relate to only their dapp. However we encurage dapps to share data between them for a richer web3 experience. Therefore we have created Key Conventions in order to facilitate this. Feel free to make a PR to this file to explain to the community how you use Æther

Validate claims

Use the idUtils module to validate claims. See the did-jwt library for more details.

const { idUtils } = require('aether')

const claim = 'eyJ0eX...'
idUtils.verifyClaim(claim)
  .then(valid => console.info('details:', valid)
  .catch(err => console.error('claim verification failed:', err)

API Documentation

Box ⇐ BoxApi

Kind: global class
Extends: BoxApi

Box ⇐ BoxApi
- new Box()
- instance
  - .public
  - .private
  - .verified
  - .spaces
  - .syncDone
  - .DID
  - .auth(spaces, opts)
  - .openSpace(name, opts) ⇒ Space
  - .openThread(space, name, opts) ⇒ Thread
  - .onSyncDone(syncDone) ⇒ Promise
  - .linkAddress([link])
  - .removeAddressLink(address)
  - .isAddressLinked([query])
  - .listAddressLinks() ⇒ Array
  - .logout()
- static
  - .idUtils
    - .verifyClaim ⇒ Object
    - .isSupportedDID(did) ⇒ * | boolean
    - .isClaim(claim, opts) ⇒ Promise.<boolean>
  - .create(provider, opts) ⇒ Box
  - .supported() ⇒ Boolean
  - .openBox(address, provider, opts) ⇒ Box
  - .isLoggedIn(address) ⇒ Boolean
  - .getIPFS() ⇒ IPFS