js-ipfs 0.40.0 released

Alan Shaw
js-ipfs 0.40.0 released
#js-ipfs #CID
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# 🔦 Highlights

Migrations are not just for ducks. We're paving the way for the dweb in the browser by laying foundations to switch to a hash format that can be used in URL origins 🛣

# 🦆 New repo migrations tool

Ever worked on an application where you've had to write a database migration? Yeah, us too. Up until now js-ipfs hasn't been able to migrate repo's to a new format. Well, that's not strictly true, you could have used the go-ipfs repo migration tool on a repo created when running js-ipfs in Node.js (yes, we have repo compatibility!), but in the browser you were stuck.

..and I mean really stuck, if we'd updated the format of a repo that ships with js-ipfs then your applications would just have to catch an error that the repo version was not compatible. You couldn't use it, and you couldn't upgrade. Bad news bears 🐻.

We had a cunning strategy to avoid this situation - do not change the repo 😂, but this is rapidly becoming unsustainable since we actually want to add a migration to achieve our dream of base32 encoded v1 (by default) CIDs (opens new window).

Good news friends! The new version of js-ipfs now ships with a repo migration tool that'll automatically migrate repo's in the browser. So now all our ducks are in a line, stay tuned for a migration and a switch to v1 CIDs ✨!

# 🎻 base32 encoded CIDs in IPNS paths

My violin strings gently weep for being able to use Peer IDs in a domain, and let me tell you why.

Peer IDs currently cannot be used in a domain name because their string format is base58 - a case SENSITIVE encoding. In domain names the following are equivalent:

QmNib2c1qCVSbp9QPT81RmDSg3n8kFgPsMCdj4gpveJESE
qmnib2c1qcvsbp9qpt81rmdsg3n8kfgpsmcdj4gpvejese
QMNIB2C1QCVSBP9QPT81RMDSG3N8KFGPSMCDJ4GPVEJESE

So, bad times.

...but wait, Peer IDs ARE CIDs (opens new window)! I know, weird, but also rad because in theory we should be able to re-encode them as base32. Right now though, everything expects a base58 encoded string (a v0 CID) because they're actually just a multihash.

In this js-ipfs release we've made a small change to allow you to take your Peer ID (a v0 CID), convert it to a base32 encoded v1 CID and use it in an IPNS path like /ipns/bafybeidta3hkxk3ihxfsk765oswgsjhmvcnkeestyuov6r2t5tyts4xuoe. You can take advantage of cid.ipfs.tech (opens new window) (base32 version is provided for your convenience at the very bottom of the page) or do the conversion with the command line tools:

jsipfs id | json id | jsipfs cid base32
bafybeidta3hkxk3ihxfsk765oswgsjhmvcnkeestyuov6r2t5tyts4xuoe

This is really, seriously cool, because now Peer IDs can be used in domain names and so an IPFS gateway operating at bafybeidta3hkxk3ihxfsk765oswgsjhmvcnkeestyuov6r2t5tyts4xuoe.ipns.dweb.link for example, will have origin isolation (hooray for security 🔒) AND IPNS enabled mutable data 🚀⚡️

To ease the transition we support CID v0 converted to v1 (with dag-pb multicodec). In the future, new Peer IDs will be v1 CIDs with self-describing libp2p-key codec (opens new window) that is base32 encoded by default...but that's a change for another day.

# 🌲 Implemented dag put and dag resolve CLI commands

These have been available in core for a while now and we finally got round to surfacing them in the CLI. e.g.

$ jsipfs dag put '""IPLD RULEZ""'
bafyreia5coklfzblgd3reqwaieafmpasdceqmcnjrowre3623mtb4nxlhm

$ jsipfs dag put '{"to": {"/": "bafyreia5coklfzblgd3reqwaieafmpasdceqmcnjrowre3623mtb4nxlhm"}}'
bafyreiequnkfflujkwhxk6wud5w64hmijdqdmx7p55fgrbiizw32kdrb7e

$ jsipfs dag put '{"path": {"/": "bafyreiequnkfflujkwhxk6wud5w64hmijdqdmx7p55fgrbiizw32kdrb7e"}}'
bafyreidgfdsoupe747qnjzkjk2yirgv76wr4drev3i7kv6dht4dkypusze

$ jsipfs dag resolve bafyreidgfdsoupe747qnjzkjk2yirgv76wr4drev3i7kv6dht4dkypusze/path/to
bafyreia5coklfzblgd3reqwaieafmpasdceqmcnjrowre3623mtb4nxlhm

$ jsipfs dag get bafyreia5coklfzblgd3reqwaieafmpasdceqmcnjrowre3623mtb4nxlhm
IPLD RULEZ

# 🏗 API Changes

  • dag.put got a pin option to save you from calling the pin API separately (and potentially losing your node if GC runs inbetween!)

# ❤️ Huge thank you to everyone that made this release possible

# 🙌🏽 Want to contribute?

Would you like to contribute to the IPFS project and don't know how? Well, there are a few places you can get started:

  • Check the issues with the help wanted label in the js-ipfs repo (opens new window)
  • Join an IPFS All Hands, introduce yourself and let us know where you would like to contribute - https://github.com/ipfs/team-mgmt/#weekly-ipfs-all-hands
  • Hack with IPFS and show us what you made! The All Hands call is also the perfect venue for demos, join in and show us what you built
  • Join the discussion at https://discuss.ipfs.tech/ and help users finding their answers.
  • Join the 🚀 IPFS Core Implementations Weekly Sync 🛰 (opens new window) and be part of the action!

# ⁉️ Do you have questions?

The best place to ask your questions about IPFS, how it works and what you can do with it is at discuss.ipfs.tech (opens new window). We are also available at the #ipfs channel on Freenode.