Posting to the Network

Writing to the network requires a blockchain account which will serve as the referenced account on the resource generated.

Posting to the network is done in two steps:

1. Connect a blockchain account

2. Create a resource

1. Connect a blockchain account

The aleph-js library currently supports the following chains:

• NULS 1.0 and NULS 2.0

• Ethereum

• Polkadot - Substrate

• Cosmos & Cosmos SDK

• Solana

• Avalanche

Whether you connect to an existing blockchain account or create a new one, the account returned by the library is an object having:

• a type: which type of account it is ETH, NULS, ...

• an address

• a public_key

• a few other fields like a private_key, source, signer, name. Theprivate_key is needed by the signing and encryption modules.

• mnemonics that can be used to reconstruct the private_key.

// Example of a NULS account imported or created through aleph-js
{
  private_key:  '<PRIVATE KEY DISPLAYED HERE>',
  mnemonics: '<this would be a mnemonics phrase>',
  type: 'NULS2',
  public_key: '<PUBLIC KEY DISPLAYED HERE>',
  address: '<ACCOUNT ADDRESS>',
  name: '<ACCOUNT NAME OR ADDRESS>'
}

➡️ With an existing blockchain account

You can connect any existing blockchain account by using the import_account function and passing in either the private key or the mnemonics of the account depending on the chain used.

Avalanche

import { avalanche } from 'aleph-js'

// Import account from private key
account = await avalanche.import_account({private_key: '<YOUR PRIVATE KEY>'})

Cosmos

import { cosmos } from 'aleph-js'

// Import account from mnemonics
account = await cosmos.import_account({mnemonics: '<YOUR PRIVATE KEY>'})

Ethereum

import { ethereum } from 'aleph-js'

// Import account from mnemonics
account = await ethereum.import_account({mnemonics: '<YOUR PASSPHRASE HERE>'})

// Import account from private key
account = await ethereum.import_account({private_key: '<YOUR PRIVATE KEY HERE>'})

NULS

import { nuls2 } from 'aleph-js'

// From mnemonics:
account = await nuls2.import_account({mnemonics: '<YOUR MNEMONICS PASSPHRASE HERE>'})

// From private key:
account = await nuls2.import_account({private_key: '<YOUR PRIVATE KEY HERE>'})

Polkadot

import { substrate } from 'aleph-js'

// Import account from mnemonics
account = await substrate.import_account({mnemonics: 'YOUR PASSPHRASE HERE'})

// Import account from private key
account = await substrate.import_account({private_key: '<YOUR PRIVATE KEY>'})

Solana

import { solana } from 'aleph-js'

// Import account from private key
account = await solana.import_account({private_key: '<YOUR PRIVATE KEY>'})

➡️ With a web3 wallet provider

Ethereum

import { ethereum } from 'aleph-js'

let account = null

if (window.ethereum) {
  try {
    // Request account access if needed
    await window.ethereum.enable()
    account = await ethereum.from_provider(window['ethereum'] || window.web3.currentProvider)
  } catch (error) {
      // User denied account access...
  }
}

Solana

import { solana } from 'aleph-js'

await solana.from_provider(wallet)

➡️ With a newly created account

If your application user does not have a chain account yet, an account can be created for them with the new_account function.

Make sure the user has access and save the details of the account created for them.

Avalanche

import { avalanche } from 'aleph-js'

// Import account from private key
account = await avalanche.new_account()

Cosmos

import { cosmos } from 'aleph-js'

account = await cosmos.new_account()

Ethereum

import { ethereum } from 'aleph-js'

account = await ethereum.new_account()

Nuls

import { nuls2 } from 'aleph-js'

await nuls2.new_account()

Polkadot

import { substrate } from 'aleph-js'

account = await await substrate.new_account()

Solana

import { solana } from 'aleph-js'

account = await solana.new_account()

More details on importing and creating an account are available here.

2. Create a resource

import { posts, ethereum } from 'aleph-js'

// Import account from the correct chain to post to Aleph
account = await ethereum.import_account({mnemonics: '<YOUR PASSPHRASE HERE>'})

await posts.submit(
  account.address,
  'mytype',
  {'body': 'test post written on Aug 17th'},
  {
    'account': account,
    'channel': 'TEST',
    'api_server': 'https://api2.aleph.im'
  }
 )

🎉 A Message object, with a POST type, has been created and is returned.

{
  chain: 'ETH',
  channel: 'TEST',
  sender: '<YOUR ACCOUNT ADDRESS WILL DISPLAY HERE>',
  type: 'POST',
  time: 1629224958.629,
  item_type: 'inline',
  item_content: '{"type":"mytype","address":"<YOUR ACCOUNT ADDRESS WILL DISPLAY HERE>","content":{"body":"test post written on Aug 17th"},"time":1629224958.629}',
  item_hash: '7f146b0ecac264c8c2d48ffc3143b0be9329cad5f24861c8172a5f7a17d99385',
  signature: '0x3dab99351b5773a7d174ce71136c0f9ff23e26e8a347b1b3a90592f75ea4553300dbf7277243b7760f0ab4eede8ded26ae3d1228d7fc540379401d36639abcc71c'
}

All post, aggregate and store resources created in Aleph are inherently Message Objects. Depending on the type of resource created, the item_content object keys will differ.

3. Going further

Learn more about how you can create, update and query Post, Aggregate and Store objects.