@plebbit/plebbit-js v0.0.3

Telegram group for this repo https://t.me/plebbitjs

plebbit-js will be an NPM module to wrap around the IPFS APIs used by Plebbit. It will be used in all clients: CLI, Electron (Desktop GUI) and Web.

Glossary:

• CID: https://docs.ipfs.io/concepts/content-addressing/
• IPNS: https://docs.ipfs.io/concepts/ipns/#example-ipns-setup-with-cli
• IPNS name: hash of a public key, the private key is used by subplebbit owners for signing IPNS records, and by authors for signing posts and comments
• Pubsub topic: the string to publish/subscribe to in the pubsub https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/blob/master/docs/core-api/PUBSUB.md#ipfspubsubsubscribetopic-handler-options and https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/pubsub/gossipsub/gossipsub-v1.0.md#topic-membership
• IPNS record: https://github.com/ipfs/specs/blob/master/IPNS.md#ipns-record
• IPNS signature: https://github.com/ipfs/notes/issues/249
• Examples of how to sign: https://github.com/plebbit/whitepaper/blob/main/signature-examples/sign.js

Note: IPFS files are immutable, fetched by their CID, which is a hash of their content. IPNS records are mutable, fetched by their IPNS name, which is the hash of a public key. The private key's owner can update the content. Always use IPFS files over IPNS records when possible because they are much faster to fetch.

Schema:

Publication: {
  author: Author,
  timestamp: number,
  signature: Signature // sign immutable fields like author, title, content, timestamp to prevent tampering
}
Comment (IPFS file): {
  ...Publication,
  subplebbitIpnsKeyId: string, // required to prevent malicious subplebbits republishing as original and helps faster loading subplebbit info for comment direct linking
  postCid: string, // helps faster loading post info for comment direct linking
  parentCommentCid: string, // same as postCid for top level comments
  content: string,
  previousCommentCid: string, // each post is a linked list
  commentIpnsKeyId: string // each post/comment needs its own IPNS record (CommentIpns) for its mutable data like edits, vote counts, comments
}
Post (IPFS file): {
  ...Comment,
  parentCommentCid: null, // post is same as comment but has no parent and some extra fields,
  title: string
}
Vote {
  ...Publication,
  commentCid: string,
  vote: 1 | -1 | 0 // 0 is needed to cancel a vote
}
CommentIpns (IPNS record): {
  latestCommentCid: string, // the most recent comment in the linked list of posts
  preloadedComments: Comment[], // preloaded content greatly improves loading speed, it saves scrolling the entire linked list, should include preloaded nested comments and vote counts
  upvoteCount: number,
  downvoteCount: number
}
Author {
  displayName: string,
  ipnsKeyId: string
}
Signature {
  signature: string, // data in base64
  publicKey: buffer, // include public key (marshalled, like IPNS does it) because the IPNS name is just a hash of it
  type: string // multiple versions/types to allow signing with metamask/other wallet or to change the signature fields or algorithm
}
Subplebbit (IPNS record): {
  title: string,
  description: string,
  moderatorsIpnsNames: string[],
  latestPostCid: string, // the most recent post in the linked list of posts
  preloadedPosts: Post[], // preloaded content greatly improves loading speed, it saves scrolling the entire linked list, should include some preloaded comments for each post as well and vote counts
  pubsubTopic: string // the string to publish to in the pubsub, a public key of the subplebbit owner's choice
}

Message signature types:

• 'plebbit1':

const libp2pCrypto = require('libp2p-crypto')
const cborg = require('cborg')
const PeerId = require('peer-id')

const encryptedPemPassword = ''
const rsaInstance = await libp2pCrypto.keys.import(privateKeyPemString, encryptedPemPassword)

const messageToSign = cborg.encode({subplebbitIpnsName, author, title, content, timestamp}) // use cborg to stringify deterministically instead of JSON.stringify
const rsaInstanceSignature = await rsaInstance.sign(messageToSign)

// can also be done in node (but not browser compatible)
require('crypto').sign('sha256', messageToSign, privateKeyPemString)

// to get marshalled (serialized) public key for signature.publicKey field
signature.publicKey = rsaInstance.public.marshal()
// or
signature.publicKey = libp2pCrypto.keys.marshalPublicKey(rsaInstance.public, 'RSA')

// to verify a signed post
const post = {/* ...some post */}
const postToVerify = cborg.encode({subplebbitIpnsName: post.subplebbitIpnsName, author: post.author, title: post.title, content: post.content, timestamp: post.timestamp})
const rsaPublicKeyInstance = (await PeerId.createFromPubKey(post.signature.publicKey)).pubKey
const signatureIsValid = await rsaPublicKeyInstance.verify(postToVerify, post.signature.signature)

Pubsub message types

PubsubMessage: {
  type: 'CHALLENGEREQUEST' | 'CHALLENGE' | 'CHALLENGEANSWER' | 'CHALLENGEVERIFICATION'
}
ChallengeRequestMessage (sent by post author) {
  ...PubsubMessage,
  challengeRequestId: string, // random string choosen by sender
  acceptedChallengeTypes: string[], // list of challenge types the client can do, for example cli clients or old clients won't do all types
  publication: Publication // include the post so the nodes and subplebbit owner can blacklist it outright
}
ChallengeMessage (sent by subplebbit owner) {
  challengeRequestId: string,
  challenge: Challenge
}
ChallengeAnswerMessage (sent by post author) {
  challengeRequestId: string,
  challengeAnswerId: string, // random string choosen by sender
  challengeAnswer: string // for example 2+2=4
}
ChallengeVerificationMessage (sent by subplebbit owner) {
  challengeRequestId: string, // include in verification in case a peer is missing it
  challengeAnswerId: string, // include in verification in case a peer is missing it
  challengeAnswerIsVerified: bool,
  reason: string // reason for failed verification, for example post content is too long. could also be used for successful verification that bypass the challenge, for example because an author has good history
}
Challenge {
  type: 'captcha1', // will be dozens of challenge types, like holding a certain amount of a token
  challenge: buffer // data required to complete the challenge, could be html, png, etc.
}

API

• Plebbit API
  • Plebbit(options)
  • plebbit.getComment(commentCid)
  • plebbit.getSubplebbit(subplebbitIpnsName)
  • plebbit.publishComment(comment)
  • plebbit.publishVote(vote)
• Subplebbit API
  • Subplebbit(options)
  • subplebbit.update(subplebbit)
  • subplebbit.start()
  • subplebbit.stop()
• Subplebbit Events
  • post

Plebbit API

The plebbit API for reading and writing to and from subplebbits.

Plebbit(options)

Create a plebbit instance.

Parameters

Options

An object which may have the following keys:

Returns

Example

const Plebbit = require('@plebbit/plebbit-js')
const options = {
  ipfsGatewayUrl: 'https://cloudflare-ipfs/ipfs/',
  ipfsApiUrl: 'http://localhost:5001',
}
const plebbit = Plebbit(options) // should be independent instance, not singleton

plebbit.getComment(commentCid)

Get a plebbit comment by its IPFS CID. Posts are also comments.

Parameters

Returns

Object is of the form:

{
  author: Author,
  timestamp: number,
  signature: Signature,
  postCid: string,
  getPost: function, // if comment is a post, it gets itself
  parentCommentCid: string || null, // post don't have parent cids
  subplebbitIpnsName: string,
  getSubplebbit: function,
  title: string || null, // comments don't have titles
  content: string,
  previousCommentCid: string,
  getPreviousComment: function,
  commentIpnsName: string,
  getCommentIpns: function
}

Example

const commentCid = 'QmbWqx...'
const comment = await plebbit.getComment(commentCid)
console.log('comment:', comment)
if (comment.parentCommentCid) { // comment with no parent cid is a post
  comment.getPost(post => console.log('post:', post))
}
comment.getCommentIpns().then(commentIpns => console.log('commentIpns:', commentIpns))
comment.getSubplebbit().then(subplebbit => console.log('subplebbit:', subplebbit))
comment.getPreviousComment().then(previousComment => console.log('previousComment:', previousPost))
/*
Prints:
{ ...TODO }
*/

plebbit.getSubplebbit(subplebbitIpnsName)

Get a subplebbit comment by its IPNS name.

Parameters

Returns

Object is of the form:

{
  subplebbitIpnsName: string,
  title: string,
  description: string,
  moderatorsIpnsNames: string[],
  latestPostCid: string,
  preloadedPosts: Post[],
  pubsubTopic: string
}

Example

const subplebbitIpnsName = 'QmbWqx...'
const subplebbit = await plebbit.getSubplebbit(subplebbitIpnsName)
console.log(subplebbit)

let currentPostCid = subplebbit.latestPostCid
const scrollAllSubplebbitPosts = async () => {
  while (currentPostCid) {
    const post = await plebbit.getComment(currentPostCid)
    console.log(post)
    currentPostCid = post.previousPostCid
  }
  console.log('there are no more posts')
}
scrollAllSubplebbitPosts()
/*
Prints:
{ ...TODO }
*/

plebbit.publishComment(comment)

Publish a comment on a subplebbit. Posts are also comments.

Parameters

Comment

An object which may have the following keys:

Returns

Object is of the form:

{ // ...TODO }

Example

// TODO

plebbit.publishVote(vote)

Publish a vote on a comment or post.

Parameters

Vote

An object which may have the following keys:

Returns

Object is of the form:

{ // ...TODO }

Example

// TODO

Subplebbit API

The subplebbit API for creating, updating and running subplebbits.

Subplebbit(options)

Create a subplebbit instance.

Parameters

Options

An object which may have the following keys:

Returns

Example

const {Subplebbit} = require('@plebbit/plebbit-js')
const options = {
  ipfsGatewayUrl: 'https://cloudflare-ipfs/ipfs/',
  ipfsApiUrl: 'http://localhost:5001',
  subplebbitIpnsName: 'Qmb...'
}
const subplebbit = Subplebbit(options) // should be independent instance, not singleton
subplebbit.update({
  title: 'Memes',
  description: 'Post your memes here.',
  pubsubTopic: 'Qmb...'
})
subplebbit.on('post', (post) => console.log(post))
subplebbit.start()

subplebbit.update(subplebbit)

Update the content of a subplebbit.

Parameters

Subplebbit

An object which may have the following keys:

Returns

Object is of the form:

{ // ...TODO }

Example

// TODO

subplebbit.start()

Start listening for new posts on the pubsub, and publishing them every 5 minutes.

Example

const options = {
  ipfsGatewayUrl: 'https://cloudflare-ipfs/ipfs/',
  ipfsApiUrl: 'http://localhost:5001',
  subplebbitIpnsName: 'Qmb...'
}
const subplebbit = Subplebbit(options)
subplebbit.on('post', (post) => console.log(post))
subplebbit.start()

subplebbit.stop()

Stop listening for new posts on the pubsub, and stop publishing them every 5 minutes.

Subplebbit Events

The subplebbit events.

post

A new post is published.

Emits

Object is of the form:

{ // ...TODO }

Example

const options = {
  ipfsGatewayUrl: 'https://cloudflare-ipfs/ipfs/',
  ipfsApiUrl: 'http://localhost:5001',
  subplebbitIpnsName: 'Qmb...'
}
const subplebbit = Subplebbit(options)
subplebbit.on('post', (post) => console.log(post))
subplebbit.start()