Webnative uses directory and file paths built from path segments by path functions.

// creates a directory path equivalent to "public/some/directory/"
const publicDirectoryPath = wn.path.directory("public", "some", "directory")

// creates a directory path equivalent to "private/some/directory/"
const privateDirectoryPath = wn.path.directory("private", "some", "directory")

// creates a file path equivalent to "public/some/file"
const publicFilePath = wn.path.file("public", "some", "file")

// creates a file path equivalent to "private/some/file"
const privateFilePath = wn.path.file("private", "some", "file")

// wn.path.Branch.Private is an alias for "private"
const privateHelperPath = wn.path.file(wn.path.Branch.Private, "some", "file")

// wn.path.Branch.Public is an alias for "public"
const publicHelperPath = wn.path.file(wn.path.Branch.Public, "some", "file")

All webnative SDK methods expect paths created by path functions. See the path API documentation for more path utility functions.

The Web Native File System (WNFS) is a file system built on top of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Each Fission user has their own WNFS, and apps store user files and data in it when granted permission.

Each file system has a public tree and a private tree, much like your macOS, Windows, or Linux desktop file system. The public tree is "live" and publicly accessible on the Internet. The private tree is encrypted so that only the owner can see the contents.

All information (links, data, metadata, etc.) in the private tree is encrypted. Decryption keys are stored so that access to a given directory grants access to all of its subdirectories.

WNFS is structured and functions similarly to a Unix-style file system, with one notable exception: it's a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), meaning that a given child can have more than one parent (think symlinks but without the "sym").

Permissions

Every file system action checks if an app has received sufficient permissions from the user. Apps request permissions when they initialize webnative. The Fission Auth Lobby grants authorization.

Apps request permission for app storage, additional private and public directories, and user apps published with the Platform APIs. For example, a notes app might request these permissions.

permissions: {
  app: {
    name: "Notes",
    creator: "Fission"
  },
  fs: {
    private: [ wn.path.directory("Notes") ],
    public: [ wn.path.directory("Notes") ]
  },
  platform: {
    apps: []
  }
}

The app would have access to its dedicated app storage and public and private Notes directories.

Apps request permissions.app to store user data in a default app storage directory and other public and private directories. Webnative creates these directories for your app if they do not already exist.

The initialize function will return a NotAuthorised scenario if one of the UCAN will expire in one day to minimize the likelihood of receiving an expired permissions error. But to be safe, apps should also account for this error.

WNFS

WNFS exposes a POSIX-style interface:

• add: add a file

• cat: retrieve a file

• exists: check if a file or directory exists

• ls: list a directory

• mkdir: create a directory

• mv: move a file or directory

• read: alias for cat

• rm: remove a file or directory

• write: alias for add

// After initialising …
const fs = state.fs

// List the user's private files that belong to this app
await fs.ls(fs.appPath())

// Create a sub directory and add some content
await fs.write(
  fs.appPath(wn.path.file("Sub Directory", "hello.txt")),
  "👋"
)

// Announce the changes to the server
await fs.publish()

Publish

The publish function synchronizes your file system with the Fission API and IPFS. WNFS does not publish changes automatically because it is more practical to batch changes in some cases. For example, a large data set is better published once than over multiple calls to publish.

Returns: CID the updated root CID for the file system.

API Summary

Methods

Methods for interacting with the filesystem all use absolute paths.

Paths created by path functions have a FilePath or DirectoryPath type. Methods with a DistinctivePath param accept either a FilePath or a DirectoryPath.

The FileContentthat WNFS can store includes FileContentRaw, Blob, string, number, and boolean. FileContentRaw is Uint8Array. In addition, the private file system can store Objects.

add

Adds file content at a given path.

Params:

• path: FilePath required

• content: FileContentrequired

Returns: CID the updated root CID for the file system

Example:

const content = "hello world"

// create a file called "file" at "public/path/to/a/"
await fs.add(
  wn.path.file("public", "path", "to", "a", "file"),
  content
)

cat

Retrieves some file content at a given path.

Params:

• path: FilePath required

Returns: FileContent

Example:

const content = await fs.cat(wn.path.file("public", "some", "file"))

exists

Checks if there is anything located at a given path.

Params:

• path: DistinctivePath required

Returns: boolean

Example:

const bool = await fs.exists(wn.path.file("private", "some", "file"))

get

Retrieves the node at the given path, either a File or Tree object

Params:

• path: DistinctivePath required

Returns: Tree | File | null

Example:

const node = await fs.get(wn.path.directory("public", "some", "directory"))

ls

Returns a list of links at a given directory path

Params:

• path: DirectoryPath required

Returns: { [name: string]: Link } Object with the file name as the key and its Link as the value.

Example:

// public directory
const publicPath = wn.path.directory("public", "some", "directory")
const publicLinksObject = await fs.ls(publicPath)

// private directory
const privatePath = wn.path.directory("private", "some", "directory")
const privateLinksObject = await fs.ls(privatePath)

// convert private links object to a list
const links = Object.entries(privateLinksObject)

// working with links
const data = await Promise.all(links.map(([name, _]) => {
  return fs.cat(
    wn.path.file("private", "some", "directory", `${name}`)
  )
}))

mkdir

Creates a directory at the given path

Params:

• path: DirectoryPath required

Returns: CID the updated root CID for the file system

Example:

// create a directory called "directory" at "public/some/"
const updatedCID = await fs.mkdir(wn.path.directory("public", "some", "directory"))

mv

Move a directory or file from one path to another.

Params:

• from: DistinctivePath required

• to: DistinctivePath required

Returns: CID the updated root CID for the file system

Example:

const fromPath = wn.path.file("public", "doc.md")
const toPath = wn.path.file("private", "Documents", "notes.md")
const updatedCID = await fs.mv(fromPath, toPath)

rm

Removes a file or directory at a given path.

Params:

• path: DistinctivePath required

Returns: CID the updated root CID for the file system

Example:

const updatedCID = await fs.rm(wn.path.file("private", "some", "file"))

write

Alias for add.

Params:

• path: FilePath required

• content: FileContent required

Returns: CID the updated root CID for the file system

Example:

const content = "hello world"
const updatedCID = await fs.write(
  wn.path.file("private", "some", "file"), 
  content
)

Versioning

Each file and directory has a history property, which you can use to get an earlier version of that item. We use the delta variable as the order index, primarily because the timestamps can be slightly out of sequence due to device inconsistencies.

const articlePath = wn.path.file("private", "Blog Posts", "article.md")
const file = await fs.get(articlePath)

file.history.list()
// { delta: -1, timestamp: 1606236743 }
// { delta: -2, timestamp: 1606236532 }

// List more than (by default) 5 versions
file.history.list(10)

// Get the previous version
file.history.back()

// Go back two versions
const delta = -2
file.history.back(delta)

// Get a version strictly before a timestamp
// The first version (delta -2) is prior to
// the second version (delta -1) timestamp
file.history.prior(1606236743)

Authentication

Users authenticate once per browser in the . If the user is new to Fission, they are prompted to sign up. They may also link an existing account from another browser.

Apps redirect users to the Auth Lobby to sign up and request authorization to use resources. Sign-up only happens once, and each subsequent visit from any app is for authorization only.

Authorization

The Auth Lobby grants apps authorization to access WNFS. Apps request permission to use app-specific storage and additional public and private directories. The Auth Lobby creates a User Controlled Authorization Networks (UCAN) token that reflects the requested permissions.

Webnative checks the UCAN at initialization and returns an auth scenario.

• AuthSucceded. The user has just returned from the Auth Lobby, and they granted the requested permissions.

• Continuation. The user has already granted permission, and the UCAN has not expired.

• AuthCancelled. The user denied the requested permissions.

• NotAuthorised. The user has not granted permission yet or the UCAN has expired.

UCANs expire and users must periodically re-authorize apps through the Auth Lobby. All user data is preserved in WNFS across authorizations, including the data stored in App Storage.

Initialization

Shared Devices

One case where logging out is desirable is on a shared device. Logging out on a shared device can be accomplished in two steps:

• Remove the UCAN token from apps that were granted permissions with the webnativewn.leave function

Debugging

Version

Check the webnative version.

Debug Logs

Add the following to your code to enable webnative debug logging.

When webnative makes a change to the user's filesystem, it logs:

Next, webnative links the change to make it available across the web.

When linking completes, the change is published and available to other browsers.

Forcing a Logout

While you are testing an app, you may want to force a logout to check the NotAuthorised authentication state. The wn.leave() method will log out and completely remove a user from your app. The user will still be authenticated with Fission, and they can sign back into your app to re-authorize.

WNFS File System Roots

WNFS comes with three separate top-level file systems "roots": public, pretty, and private.

Public

Not encrypted. Full metadata support. Starts with /public.

Pretty

Not encrypted. No metadata. Represented simply as /p to be nice and short when creating public URLs like /p/path/to/file.img. It does not support versioning, use the Public or Private trees for that.

Private

Encrypted. Structured so that file metadata as well as contents are obscured. Starts with /private.

Default folders

We initialize WNFS with a set of default private folders, which should be familiar to people from working with desktop operating systems.

Additionally, in apps like Drive or in file pickers, the user sees a top level Public folder, which maps to the Public system root

Web Worker

Can I use my file system in a web worker? Yes, this only requires a slightly different setup.

Versions

Since the file system may evolve over time, a "version" is associated with each node in the file system (tracked with semver).

Currently two versions exist:

• 1.0.0: file tree with metadata. Nodes in the file tree are structured as 2 layers where one layer contains "header" information (metadata, cache, etc), and the second layer contains data or links. This is the default version, use this unless you have a good reason not to.

• 0.0.0: legacy bare file tree of an early version.

Customization

Customization can be done using the setup module. Run these before anything else you do with the SDK.

Building Blocks

Warning: Here be 🐉! Only use lower level utilities if you know what you're doing.

You can use one instance for your whole application by doing the following:

The webnative platform API provides methods to work with the apps associated with users.

The platform API makes it possible to manage user apps and, combined with the webnative filesystem methods, create and manage apps entirely from the browser.

The API methods are prefixed with apps.

• apps.index: A list of all of your apps and their associated domain names

• apps.create: Creates a new app, assigns an initial subdomain, and sets an asset placeholder

• apps.publish: Publish a new app version

• apps.deleteByDomain: Destroy an app identified by domain

Permissions

Apps that use the platform API must request permission to work with a user's apps. Permissions are requested when a user signs in through the Fission Auth Lobby. See the for more on the webnative authentication flow.

Platform API permissions are requested at permissions.platform.apps in the initialization object.

The value at permissions.platform.apps can be

• "*": Grant complete app management access for all of the user's apps

• An array of domain names, e.g. [ "an-app.fission.app", "another-app.fission.app" ]: Grant permission to manage specific apps. Those apps can be published or deleted.

API

apps.index

Lists all user apps and their associated domain names.

Required permissions: { platform: { apps: "*" } } full app management permissions

Params: No parameters

Returns: { domain: string }[] an array of app domains

Example:

apps.create

Creates a new app, assigns an initial subdomain, and publishes a placeholder site.

Required permissions: { platform: { apps: "*" } } full app management permissions

Params:

• subdomain: string optional

Returns: { domain: string } the subdomain of the newly created app

Example:

apps.publish

Publishes a new app version by IPFS CID. If the app does not exist yet, create the app first with apps.create.

Params:

• domain: string required

• cid: string required

Returns: Nothing returned

Example:

Retrieving the CID depends on where you have staged the app code. One convenient way to do this is to publish the app's HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and assets to a public directory in WNFS and retrieve the CID of that directory.

apps.deleteByDomain

Delete an app by domain.

Params:

• url: string required

Returns: Nothing returned

Example:

Webnative

Version 0.24

The way paths are used throughout the webnative and filesystem APIs has changed.

In earlier versions of webnative, API calls expected UNIX style paths.

In webnative 0.24, paths are created by for files and directories.

The docs for the remain available for reference.

Version 0.26.0

The URL for loading webnative from UNPKG has changed. In previous versions, webnative was available as index.umd.js.

In webnative 0.26, webnative is available as index.min.js.

Version 0.26.1

The URL for loading webnative from UNPKG has changed. In webnative 0.26.0, webnative was available as index.min.js.

We found that some projects needed the UMD build and brought it back in webnative 0.26.1. We have replaced index.min.js with index.umd.min.js.

The webnative software development kit offers tools for:

• Auth. Users make an account and link their account across devices in the Fission Auth Lobby.

• Storage. The webnative file system (WNFS) stores user data for apps.

• UCAN and DID tools for working with UCANs and distributed identities

• Platform APIs for interacting with user apps

You can add the webnative SDK to a project by loading it from a CDN or installing it with a package manager.

CDN

For prototyping or experimentation, you can use the latest version of the SDK.

<script src="https://unpkg.com/webnative@0.26.1/dist/index.umd.min.js"></script>

We recommend linking to a specific version in production to avoid unexpected changes.

Package Manager

We recommend installing with a package manager for larger projects that use build tools or bundlers.

Install the SDK with npm or your preferred package manager.

npm install webnative

Import the SDK in your application.

// ES6
import * as wn from 'webnative'

// Browser/UMD build
const wn = self.webnative