Scuttlebot plugins intro

repo (ssb | github)

Check out a wide range of scuttlebutt learning resources here : scuttlebutt-guide (ssb | github)

In these 3 folders, I walk through a progression of making a simple plguin, through to making a plugins which creates and accesses flumeview

Project 1 : Simple Demo

I've put the code into folders because in this project, you need to run a couple of different file seperately

e.g.

▾ 1_simple_demo/
    client.js              // start this second
    config.js               
    server.js              // start this first
    ssb-server-counter.js  // our plugin

For each project you need to start a scuttlebutt-server (scuttlebot/ sbot), which loads in your plugin, and then run you can run the client code that connects to this, and executes commands. e.g.

node 1_simple_demo/server.js

// open another terminal in this repo
node 1_simple_demo/client.js

config.js

This first project has a config which starts the server with a test identity (ssb_demo). This means the database will start our empty (creates it at ~/.ssb_demo) and won't have any of your Patchwork data

manifest.json

This was a major gotcha for me. Basically ssb-client needs a list of methods which it is allowed to call remotely (on the server). This is provided by it consuming a manifest.json. You can pass this in as one of the options when you instantiate your client i.e. Client(keys, { manifest: ... }, fn). But it's easier to let ssb-client go and get it from the default location ~/.ssb/manifest.json (or more generally ~/.<appName>/manifest.json

That's why there's this line in the server file:

console.log('*** updating manifest ***')
// this is required for ssb-client to consume
// it's a list of methods that can be called remotely, without this code we won't be able to call our new plugin
const manifest = server.getManifest()
fs.writeFileSync(Path.join(config.path, 'manifest.json'), JSON.stringify(manifest))

Once the server has loaded all it's plugins, get it to generate that manifest. Then save that manifest in the place ssb-client will go looking for it.

Project 2

config.js

This project sets the your identity (in config.js) to ssb. This is the default identity, so if you'vebeen running Patchwork/ Patchbay etc, this is connecting to your real identity. Appending messages will publish them to your friends! Views are not published so messing around with those is chill.

Project 3

A trivial increment - I published the module as a plugin, and am requiring it in instead of using the local one.