web4-deploy

Deploy static content for Web4 webapps. Supports IPFS and NEARFS.

Designed to be used together with https://github.com/vgrichina/web4.

Usage

Obtain IPFS pinning API key (if not using NEARFS)

2 different pinning services are supported for now.

web3.storage

Go to https://web3.storage and sign up for an account or login with GitHub. Then go to https://web3.storage/docs/how-tos/generate-api-token/ and create a new token.

This token needs to be set as WEB3_TOKEN environment variable before running the script.

Estuary

See https://docs.estuary.tech/tutorial-get-an-api-key for more information.

This token needs to be set as ESTUARY_API_KEY environment variable before running the script.

Deploy to IPFS

When installed (use either npm or yarn):

web4-deploy <src-directory> <destination-account.near>

Run latest version from npm if not installed:

npx web4-deploy <src-directory> <destination-account.near>

Deploy default smart contract after uploading to IPFS:

npx web4-deploy <src-directory> <destination-account.near> --deploy-contract

This gonna deploy web4-min-contract to the account, so that .near account can be connected to respective IPFS hash.

Deploy custom smart contract after uploading to IPFS:

npx web4-deploy <src-directory> <destination-account.near> --deploy-contract path/to/contract.wasm

Deploy fully on-chain to NEARFS

When you want best availability guarantees and don't mind to pay for storage, you can deploy to NEARFS.

npx web4-deploy <src-directory> <destination-account.near>  --nearfs

Note that you need to either provide NEAR_SIGNER_KEY or have ~/.near-credentials/<networkId>/<destination-account.near>.json file with key. Use NEAR_ENV or NODE_ENV to specify NEAR network to use. Defaults to testnet.

Use in CI/CD pipeline like GitHub Actions

Make sure to store WEB3_TOKEN, ESTUARY_TOKEN and NEAR_SIGNER_KEY as GitHub secrets.

NEAR_SIGNER_KEY allows you to pass necessary private key to the deploy script without having key storage in ~/near-credentials as usually required by near-cli.

Note that you don't have to sign using destination account, account you sign for should just be accepted as valid owner by web4_setStaticUrl method.

Means that you can have GitHub-specific account which cannot do anything else besides updating static content.

CLI Options

• --deploy-contract [contract-name]: Deploy contract to the account. If contract name is not provided, default contract will be deployed.
• --network [network]: NEAR network ID. Default: mainnet for .near accounts, testnet otherwise.
• --nearfs: Deploy to NEARFS instead of IPFS. Enabled by default.
• --estuary: Use Estuary for IPFS pinning.
• --web3-storage: Use web3.storage for IPFS pinning.
• --yes: Skip confirmation prompt.

Environment variables

• WEB3_TOKEN - web3.storage API token. See https://web3.storage/docs/how-tos/generate-api-token/ for more information.
• ESTUARY_TOKEN - Estuary API token. See https://docs.estuary.tech/tutorial-get-an-api-key for more information.
• NEAR_ENV – NEAR network to use, defaults to testnet
• NODE_ENV - can be used instead of NEAR_ENV
• IPFS_GATEWAY_LIST – comma-separated list of IPFS gateways to hydrate
• NEAR_SIGNER_ACCOUNT - NEAR account to use for signing IPFS URL update transaction. Defaults to <destination-account.near>.
• NEAR_SIGNER_KEY - NEAR account private key to use for signing. Should have base58-encoded key starting with ed25519:. Defaults to using key from ~/.near-credentials/.
• NEARFS_GATEWAY_URL - URL of the NEARFS gateway.
• NEARFS_GATEWAY_TIMEOUT - time until requests to the NEARFS gateway time out, in milliseconds.
• NEARFS_GATEWAY_RETRY_COUNT - the maximum number of attempts to check if a block exists on NEARFS.

How it works

It does two things:

1. uploads and pins static content on Infura IPFS using ipfs-deploy
2. calls web4_setStaticUrl method in smart contract to point to latest IPFS hash to serve

Note that it currently assumes that you have full access key to smart contract account.

Smart contract integration

You need to implement web4_setStaticUrl method similar to this:

function assertOwner(): void {
    // NOTE: Can change this check to alow different owners
    assert(context.sender == context.contractName);
}

const WEB4_STATIC_URL_KEY = 'web4:staticUrl';

// Updates current static content URL in smart contract storage
export function web4_setStaticUrl(url: string): void {
    assertOwner();

    storage.set(WEB4_STATIC_URL_KEY, url);
}

Then in web4_get you can return static URL to be fetched:

// Demonstrate serving content from IPFS
if (request.path == "/") {
    return bodyUrl(`${storage.getString(WEB4_STATIC_URL_KEY)!}${request.path}`);
}

This allows to update static content without redeploying smart contract, which results in faster and safer deploys.

See example smart contract: https://github.com/vgrichina/web4/blob/main/contract/assembly/index.ts

You can also use defaulr smart contract for reference: https://github.com/vgrichina/web4-min-contract

Roadmap

• [x] Make sure every uploaded file is hot on IPFS gateways
• [x] Deploy default smart contract with web4_setStaticUrl method
• [x] Allow to pass NEAR account and private key in environment variables
• [ ] More robust CLI interface with both options and environment variables support
• [x] Deploy static website to NEAR account and NEARFS via single simple interactive command
• [ ] Automatically login without having to install near-cli
• [ ] Allow to create web4. subaccount automatically
• [x] Support testnet for NEARFS
• [x] Allow storing files directly on chain
• [ ] Support other storage providers?