orbitdb / orbit-db, Hacker News

OrbitDB is a serverless, distributed, peer-to-peer database . OrbitDB uses IPFS as its data storage and IPFS Pubsub to automatically sync databases with peers. It’s an eventually consistent database that uses CRDTs for conflict-free database merges making OrbitDB an excellent choice for decentralized apps (dApps), blockchain applications and offline-first web applications.

it is live at (Live demo 1 , Live demo 2 , or P2P TodoMVC app !

OrbitDB provides various types of databases for different data models and use cases:

(log : an immutable (append-only) log with traversable history. Useful for “latest N” (use cases or as a message queue.) feed : a mutable log with traversable history. Entries can be added and removed. Useful for

“shopping cart” (type of use cases, or for example as a feed of blog posts or “tweets”. (keyvalue) : a key-value database just like your favorite key-value database. docs : a document database to which JSON documents can be stored and indexed by a specified key. Useful for building search indices or version controlling documents and data. counter
: Useful for counting events separate from log / feed data.

All databases are implemented on top of ipfs -log , an immutable, operation-based conflict-free replicated data structure (CRDT) for distributed systems. If none of the OrbitDB database types match your needs and / or you need case-specific functionality, you can easily implement and use a custom database store of your own.

(Project status & support)

Status: in active development

(NOTE!) OrbitDB is alpha-stage software. It means OrbitDB hasn’t been security audited and programming APIs and data formats can still change. We encourage you to reach out to the maintainers if you plan to use OrbitDB in mission critical systems.
This is the Javascript implementation and it works both in Browsers and Node.js with support for Linux and OS X and Windows. The minimum required version of Node.js is now 8.6.0 due to the usage of … spread syntax. LTS versions (even numbered versions 8, , etc) are preferred.

To use with older versions of Node.js, we provide an ES5-compatible build through the npm package, located in (dist / es5 / when installed through npm. () Community Calls

We also have regular community calls, which we announce in the issues in the @orbitdb welcome repository

. Join us!

Table of Contents Usage CLI Module with IPFS Instance Module with IPFS Daemon the API

(Examples) Install dependencies Browser example Node .js example Workshop (Packages) (OrbitDB Store Packages) Development Run Tests Build Benchmark Logging Frequently Asked Questions Are there implementations in other languages? Contributing (Sponsors ) (License ) Usage

Read the GETTING STARTED guide for a quick tutorial on how to use OrbitDB.

For a more in-depth tutorial and exploration of OrbitDB’s architecture, please check out the OrbitDB Field Manual

. (CLI)

For the CLI tool to manage orbit-db database, see OrbitDB CLI

.

It can be installed from npm with:

npm install orbit-db-cli -g Module with IPFS Instance
If you're using (orbit-db) to develop browser or Node.js applications, use it as a module with the javascript instance of IPFS Install dependencies: npm install orbit-db ipfs (const) (IPFS) (= require ( ' (ipfs) ' ) (const) OrbitDB = require ' orbit-db (') ) // (For js-ipfs>=0.) // Create IPFS instance (const) initIPFSInstance = (async) () =={ (return) (await) (IPFS) . create ({repo : ./ path-for-js-ipfs-repo }); }; (initIPFSInstance) (). then () (async) (ipfs) => { (const) orbitdb = (await) (OrbitDB) . createInstance (ipfs); // Create / Open a database (const) (db) = (await) orbitdb . (log) ( " hello ); (await) (db) . (load) (); // Listen for updates from peers (db) . (events) (on) ( (replicated) , (address) ==> { (console) . (log) () (db) . iterator ({limit : - (1) }). (collect) ()); }); // (Add an entry) (const) (hash) = (await) (db) . (add) () " (world) ); (console) . (log) (hash); // (Query) (const) (result) = (db) . (iterator) ({limit : - (1) }). (collect (); (console) . (log) () (JSON) . (stringify) (), (null) , (2) ); }); // (For js-ipfs (const) (ipfsOptions) ={ (EXPERIMENTAL) { pubsub : (true) } }; ipfs=(new) (IPFS) (ipfsOptions); (initIPFSInstance) (). then () (ipfs) (=>) { (ipfs) . (on) () " (error) , (e) => (console) . (error) (e)); (ipfs) . (on) () " (ready) , (async) () => { (const) orbitdb = (await) (OrbitDB) . createInstance (ipfs); // Create / Open a database (const) (db) = (await) orbitdb . (log) ( " hello ); (await) (db) . (load) (); // Listen for updates from peers (db) . (events) (on) ( (replicated) , (address) ==> { (console) . (log) () (db) . iterator ({limit : - (1) }). (collect) ()); }); // (Add an entry) (const) (hash) = (await) (db) . (add) () " (world) ; (console) . (log) (hash); // (Query) (const) (result) = (db) . (iterator) ({limit : - (1) }). (collect (); (console) . (log) () (JSON) . (stringify) (), (null) , (2) ); }); }); Module with IPFS Daemon Alternatively, you can use
ipfs-api

to use orbit-db with a locally running IPFS daemon. Use this method if you're using orbitd-db (to develop backend or applications, eg. with (Electron) .

Install dependencies:

npm install orbit-db ipfs-http-client
(const) (IpfsClient) (= require ( ' ipfs-http-client ' ) (const) OrbitDB = require ' orbit-db (') ) (const) (ipfs) = IpfsClient ' (localhost) ' , ' ' (const) (orbitdb)==(await) OrbitDB . createInstance (ipfs) (const) (db) = (await) orbitdb . (log) ( ' hello // (Do something with your db.) // Of course, you may want to wrap these in an async function. (API) See API.md for the full documentation. () (Examples) Install dependencies git clone https://github.com/ orbitdb / orbit-db.git cd orbit-db npm install You'll also need babel and webpack, if you don't have them installed already: npm install - global babel-cli npm install --global webpack Some dependencies depend on native addon modules, so you'll also need to meet node-gyp's installation prerequisites. Therefore, Linux users may need to make clean && make to redo the local package-lock.json with working native dependencies. Browser example In macOS: npm run build npm run examples: browser-macos In Linux: npm run build npm run examples: browser-linux Check the code in (examples / browser / browser.html and try the (live example) . (Node.js example) npm run examples: node Eventlog See the code in examples / eventlog.js and run it with: node examples / eventlog.js Workshop We have a field manual which has much more detailed examples and a run-through of how to understand OrbitDB, at orbitdb / field-manual . There is also a workshop you can follow, which shows how to build an app, at orbit-db / web3-workshop . More examples at (examples .) Packages OrbitDB uses the following modules: (ipfs (ipfs-log ipfs- pubsub-room crdts orbit-db-cache orbit-db-pubsub orbit-db-identity-provider orbit-db-access-controllers (OrbitDB Store Packages) orbit-db-store orbit-db-eventstore orbit-db-feedstore orbit-db-kvstore orbit-db-docstore orbit-db-counterstore To understand a little bit about the architecture, check out a visualization of the data flow at https://github.com / haadcode / proto2 or a live demo: http: //celebdil.benet.ai: 72672 / ipfs / Qmezm7g8mBpWyuPk6D CNcfLKJwU6mpXuEN5GJZNkX3XK / . Community-maintained Typescript typings are available here: https: // github .com / orbitdb / orbit-db-types Development npm test Build npm run build Benchmark node benchmarks / benchmark-add.js See (benchmarks / for more benchmarks. Logging To enable OrbitDB's logging output, set a global ENV variable called (LOG) to (debug) , warn or (error) : (LOG=debug node) Frequently Asked Questions We have an FAQ! Go take a look at it . . If a question isn't there, open an issue and suggest adding it. We can work on the best answer together. Are there implementations in other languages? Yes! Take a look at these implementations: (Golang:) berty / go-orbit-db Python: orbitdb / py-orbit-db-http-client The best place to find out what is out there and what is being actively worked on is likely by asking in the Gitter . If you know of any other repos that ought to be included in this section, please open a PR and add them. () Contributing Take a look at our organization-wide (Contributing Guide . You'll find most of your questions answered there. Some questions may be answered in the (FAQ) , as well. As far as code goes, we would be happy to accept PRs! If you want to work on something, it'd be good to talk beforehand to make sure nobody else is working on it. You can reach us on Gitter , or in the (issues section . We also have regular community calls , which we announce in the issues in the @orbitdb welcome repository . Join us! If you want to code but don't know where to start, check out the issues labeled "help wanted" . Please note that we have a Code of Conduct , and that all activity in the @ orbitdb organization falls under it. Read it when you get the chance, as being part of this community means that you agree to abide by it. Thanks. () (Sponsors) The development of OrbitDB has been sponsored by: Haja Networks (Protocol Labs Maintainer Mountaineer If you want to sponsor developers to work on OrbitDB, please reach out to @ haadcode . License (MIT) (© - Protocol Labs Inc., Haja Networks Oy (Read More)