ssb-dht-invite

A scuttlebot plugin that shares connection invites via a Distributed Hash Table. Like the standard invite plugin, but over a DHT.

npm install --save ssb-dht-invite

Pre-requisites:

• ssb-conn
• secret-stack >=6.2.0
• Node.js 6 or higher, because it utilizes some ES6 features

Usage

 const createSbot = require('scuttlebot/index')
   .use(require('scuttlebot/plugins/plugins'))
   .use(require('ssb-master'))
   .use(require('ssb-conn'))
   .use(require('ssb-lan'))
+  .use(require('ssb-dht-invite'))
   .use(require('ssb-replicate'))
   .use(require('ssb-friends'))
   .call(null, cfg)

Important: also setup the DHT transport in your ssb-config object:

 ...
 "connections": {
   "incoming": {
     "net": [{ "scope": "private, "transform": "shs", "port": 8008 }]
+    "dht": [{ "scope": "public", "transform": "shs", "port": 8423 }]
   },
   "outgoing": {
     "net": [{ "transform": "shs" }]
+    "dht": [{ "transform": "shs" }]
   }
 },
 ...

Plugin API

start() (async)

The start() API provides an explicit initialization procedure so that apps can decide what is the best time to initialize non-essential resources and plugins such as this one.

You must call this before using DHT invites in any way.

create() (async)

Creates a new invite code and notifies the multiserver DHT transport to host a peer on the DHT addressed with this invite. One invite can only be use once with another friend.

Returns the invite code (as a callback) to the caller of this function.

An invite code looks like dht:<seed>:<invite-creator-id>

accept(code) (async)

Pass an invite code to this API and wait for your sbot to connect with the remote friend.

hostingInvites() (source)

Pull stream that delivers arrays of {seed: string, claimer: string, online: boolean} DHT peers that are being hosted for remote friends.

Primarily purpose of this is for the frontend to know what's going on with the invite hosting.

claimingInvites() (source)

Pull stream that delivers arrays of invite codes (strings) that are being claimed and still pending to be accepted by the invitation creator.

(Internal API)

use({seed, feed}) (async)

Used internally by this plugin to exchange the invite code over RPC. Don't bother about this.

This API is called remotely by a trusted-or-untrusted peer who wants to "claim" an invite and make us follow them. The remote peer claims the invite by passing it ("seed") alongside the remote peer's id ("feed").