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 typescript SDK currently supports the following chains:

• Ethereum

• Solana

• Substrate

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

• an address

• a publicKey

• a wallet object

➡️ With an existing blockchain account

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

Ethereum

import { ethereum } from 'aleph-sdk-ts/accounts'

// Import account from mnemonics
account = await ethereum.ImportAccountFromMnemonic('<YOUR PASSPHRASE HERE>')

// Import account from private key
account = await ethereum.ImportAccountFromPrivateKey("<YOUR PRIVATE KEY HERE>")

Solana

import { solana } from 'aleph-sdk-ts/accounts'

// Import account from private key
account = await solana.ImportAccountFromPrivateKey('<YOUR PRIVATE KEY>')

Substrate

import { substrate } from 'aleph-sdk-ts/accounts'

// Import account from private key
account = await substrate.ImportAccountFromPrivateKey('<YOUR PRIVATE KEY>')

// Import account from mnemonic
account = await substrate.ImportAccountFromMnemonic('<YOUR MNEMONICS>')

➡️ 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 NewAccount function.

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

Ethereum

import { ethereum } from 'aleph-sdk-ts/accounts'

(async() => {
    account = await ethereum.NewAccount()
})()

Solana

import { solana } from 'aleph-sdk/accounts'

(async() => {
    account = await solana.NewAccount()
})()

Substrate

import { substrate } from 'aleph-sdk/accounts'

(async() => {
    account = await substrate.NewAccount()
})()

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

2. Create a resource

import { post } from 'aleph-sdk'
import { ethereum } from 'aleph-sdk/accounts'
import { StorageEngine } from "aleph-sdk-ts/messages/message"

(async() => {
  // Import account from the correct chain to post to Aleph
  account = await ethereum.ImportAccountFromMnemonic('<YOUR PASSPHRASE HERE>')
  
  await post.Publish({
    account: account,
    postType: 'mytype',
    content: {'body': 'test post written on Aug 17th'},
    channel: 'TEST',
    APIServer: 'https://api2.aleph.im',
    inlineRequested: true,
    storageEngine: StorageEngine.STORAGE
  })
 })()

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

{
  chain: "<YOUR ACCOUNT CHAIN>",
  channel: "TEST",
  confirmed: false,
  item_content: "{\"type\":\"mytype\",\"address\":\"<YOUR ADDRESS APPEAR HERE>\",\"content\":{\"body\":\"test post written on Aug 17th\"},\"time\":1636137569.869}",
  item_hash: "8671a9bb4dac018a0bd8b5c56ac883fd551f43af2b01d34e60215a8419d555b0",
  item_type: "INLINE",
  sender: "<YOUR ADDRESS APPEAR HERE>",
  signature: "0x0338f9c3ae1eb4715a923094f4ee5459a3131e54b393b9640c137f11cb5fc8c131299723fb19c2cdd971ee60c6cd68bb9643c93d92e918e8be1ec787657da9631b",
  size: 0,
  time: 1636137569.869,
  type: "POST"
}

All posts, aggregates and stores 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.