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Helia logo

Getting started with Helia


Explore the docs · View Demo · Report Bug · Request Feature/Example

Table of Contents

About The Project

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Make sure you have installed all of the following prerequisites on your development machine:

Installation

> npm install

Running Examples

> npm run 101-basics
> npm run 201-storage
> npm run 301-networking

Usage

In this tutorial, we go through spawning a Helia node, adding a file and cating the file CID locally and through the gateway.

It it split into three parts, each part builds on the previous one - basics, storage and finally networking.

For this tutorial, you need to install all dependencies in the package.json using npm install.

101 - Basics

In the 101-basics.js example the first thing we do is create a Helia node:

import { createHelia } from 'helia'

// create a Helia node
const helia = await createHelia()

This node allows us to add blocks and later to retrieve them.

Next we use @helia/unixfs to add some data to our node:

import { unixfs } from '@helia/unixfs'

// create a filesystem on top of Helia, in this case it's UnixFS
const fs = unixfs(helia)

// we will use this TextEncoder to turn strings into Uint8Arrays
const encoder = new TextEncoder()
const bytes = encoder.encode('Hello World 101')

// add the bytes to your node and receive a unique content identifier
const cid = await fs.addBytes(bytes)

console.log('Added file:', cid.toString())

The bytes value we have passed to unixfs has now been turned into a UnixFS DAG and stored in the helia node.

We can access it by using the cat API and passing the CID that was returned from the invocation of addBytes:

// this decoder will turn Uint8Arrays into strings
const decoder = new TextDecoder()
let text = ''

for await (const chunk of fs.cat(cid)) {
  text += decoder.decode(chunk, {
    stream: true
  })
}

console.log('Added file contents:', text)

That's it! We've created a Helia node, added a file to it, and retrieved that file.

Next we will look at where the bytes that make up the file go.

201 - Storage

Out of the box Helia will store all data in-memory. This makes it easy to get started, and to create short-lived nodes that do not persist state between restarts, but what if you want to store large amounts of data for long amounts of time?

Take a look at 201-storage.js where we explore how to configure different types of persistent storage for your Helia node.

Blockstore

At it's heart the Interplanetary Filesystem is about blocks. When you add a file to your local Helia node, it is split up into a number of blocks, all of which are stored in a blockstore.

Each block has a CID, an identifier that is unique to that block and can be used to request it from other nodes in the network.

A blockstore is a key/value store where the keys are CIDs and the values are Uint8Arrays.

By default we're going to use an in-memory blockstore, though later you may wish to use one that stores blocks on a filesystem.

import { MemoryBlockstore } from 'blockstore-core'

const blockstore = new MemoryBlockstore()

There are many blockstore implementations available. Some common ones are:

Datastore

Some facility to store information is required, this needs a datastore.

Similar to the blockstore, a datastore is a key/value store where the keys are strings and the values are Uint8Arrays.

import { MemoryDatastore } from 'datastore-core'

const datastore = new MemoryDatastore()

Commonly used datastore implementations are:

301 - Networking

The final example is 301-networking.js.

Adding blocks to your local blockstore is great but using your Helia node's libp2p instance allows you to unlock the full power of the distributed web.

With libp2p configured you can retrieve blocks from remote peers, and those peers can retrieve blocks from you.

libp2p

libp2p is the networking layer that IPFS works on top of. It is a modular system, comprising of transports, connection encrypters, stream multiplexers, etc.

import { createLibp2p } from 'libp2p'
import { identifyService } from 'libp2p/identify'
import { noise } from '@chainsafe/libp2p-noise'
import { yamux } from '@chainsafe/libp2p-yamux'
import { webSockets } from '@libp2p/websockets'
import { bootstrap } from '@libp2p/bootstrap'
import { MemoryDatastore } from 'datastore-core'

const datastore = new MemoryDatastore()

const libp2p = await createLibp2p({
  datastore,
  transports: [
    webSockets()
  ],
  connectionEncrypters: [
    noise()
  ],
  streamMuxers: [
    yamux()
  ],
  peerDiscovery: [
    bootstrap({
      list: [
        "/dnsaddr/bootstrap.libp2p.io/p2p/QmNnooDu7bfjPFoTZYxMNLWUQJyrVwtbZg5gBMjTezGAJN",
        "/dnsaddr/bootstrap.libp2p.io/p2p/QmQCU2EcMqAqQPR2i9bChDtGNJchTbq5TbXJJ16u19uLTa",
        "/dnsaddr/bootstrap.libp2p.io/p2p/QmbLHAnMoJPWSCR5Zhtx6BHJX9KiKNN6tpvbUcqanj75Nb",
        "/dnsaddr/bootstrap.libp2p.io/p2p/QmcZf59bWwK5XFi76CZX8cbJ4BhTzzA3gU1ZjYZcYW3dwt"
      ]
    })
  ],
  services: {
    identify: identifyService()
  }
})

Putting it all together

Since your Helia node is configured with a libp2p node, you can go to an IPFS Gateway and load the printed hash. Go ahead and try it!

> npm run 301-networking

Added file: bafkreife2klsil6kaxqhvmhgldpsvk5yutzm4i5bgjoq6fydefwtihnesa
# Copy that hash and load it on the gateway, here is a prefilled url:
# https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafkreife2klsil6kaxqhvmhgldpsvk5yutzm4i5bgjoq6fydefwtihnesa

That's it! You just added and retrieved a file from the Distributed Web!

For more examples, please refer to the Documentation

Documentation

Contributing

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to be learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

  1. Fork the IPFS Project
  2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Commit your Changes (git commit -a -m 'feat: add some amazing feature')
  4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
  5. Open a Pull Request

Want to hack on IPFS?

The IPFS implementation in JavaScript needs your help! There are a few things you can do right now to help out:

Read the Code of Conduct and JavaScript Contributing Guidelines.

  • Check out existing issues The issue list has many that are marked as 'help wanted' or 'difficulty:easy' which make great starting points for development, many of which can be tackled with no prior IPFS knowledge
  • Look at the Helia Roadmap This are the high priority items being worked on right now
  • Perform code reviews More eyes will help a. speed the project along b. ensure quality, and c. reduce possible future bugs
  • Add tests. There can never be enough tests