OrbitDB
OrbitDB is a serverless, distributed, peer-to-peer database. OrbitDB uses IPFS as its data storage and IPFS Pubsub to automatically sync databases with peers. It's an eventually consistent database that uses CRDTs for conflict-free database merges making OrbitDB an excellent choice for decentralized apps (dApps), blockchain applications and offline-first web applications.
Test it live at Live demo 1, Live demo 2, or P2P TodoMVC app!
OrbitDB provides various types of databases for different data models and use cases:
- log: an immutable (append-only) log with traversable history. Useful for "latest N" use cases or as a message queue.
- feed: a mutable log with traversable history. Entries can be added and removed. Useful for "shopping cart" type of use cases, or for example as a feed of blog posts or "tweets".
- keyvalue: a key-value database just like your favourite key-value database.
- docs: a document database to which JSON documents can be stored and indexed by a specified key. Useful for building search indices or version controlling documents and data.
- counter: Useful for counting events separate from log/feed data.
All databases are implemented on top of ipfs-log, an immutable, operation-based conflict-free replicated data structure (CRDT) for distributed systems. If none of the OrbitDB database types match your needs and/or you need case-specific functionality, you can easily implement and use a custom database store of your own.
Project status & support
- Status: in active development
- Compatible with js-ipfs versions <= 0.52 and go-ipfs versions <= 0.6.0
NOTE! OrbitDB is alpha-stage software. It means OrbitDB hasn't been security audited and programming APIs and data formats can still change. We encourage you to reach out to the maintainers if you plan to use OrbitDB in mission critical systems.
This is the Javascript implementation and it works both in Browsers and Node.js with support for Linux, OS X, and Windows. LTS versions (even numbered versions 8, 10, etc) are supported.
To use with older versions of Node.js, we provide an ES5-compatible build through the npm package, located in dist/es5/ when installed through npm.
Table of Contents
Usage
Read the GETTING STARTED guide for a quick tutorial on how to use OrbitDB.
For a more in-depth tutorial and exploration of OrbitDB's architecture, please check out the OrbitDB Field Manual.
Database browser UI
OrbitDB databases can easily be managed using a web UI, see OrbitDB Control Center.
Install and run it locally:
git clone https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit-db-control-center.git
cd orbit-db-control-center/
npm i && npm start
Module with IPFS Instance
If you're using orbit-db to develop browser or Node.js applications, use it as a module with the javascript instance of IPFS
Install dependencies:
npm install orbit-db ipfs
const IPFS = require('ipfs')
const OrbitDB = require('orbit-db')
// For js-ipfs >= 0.38
// Create IPFS instance
const initIPFSInstance = async () => {
return await IPFS.create({ repo: "./path-for-js-ipfs-repo" });
};
initIPFSInstance().then(async ipfs => {
const orbitdb = await OrbitDB.createInstance(ipfs);
// Create / Open a database
const db = await orbitdb.log("hello");
await db.load();
// Listen for updates from peers
db.events.on("replicated", address => {
console.log(db.iterator({ limit: -1 }).collect());
});
// Add an entry
const hash = await db.add("world");
console.log(hash);
// Query
const result = db.iterator({ limit: -1 }).collect();
console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2));
});
// For js-ipfs < 0.38
// Create IPFS instance
const ipfsOptions = {
EXPERIMENTAL: {
pubsub: true
}
};
ipfs = new IPFS(ipfsOptions);
initIPFSInstance().then(ipfs => {
ipfs.on("error", e => console.error(e));
ipfs.on("ready", async () => {
const orbitdb = await OrbitDB.createInstance(ipfs);
// Create / Open a database
const db = await orbitdb.log("hello");
await db.load();
// Listen for updates from peers
db.events.on("replicated", address => {
console.log(db.iterator({ limit: -1 }).collect());
});
// Add an entry
const hash = await db.add("world");
console.log(hash);
// Query
const result = db.iterator({ limit: -1 }).collect();
console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2));
});
});
Module with IPFS Daemon
Alternatively, you can use ipfs-http-client to use orbit-db with a locally running IPFS daemon. Use this method if you're using orbitd-db to develop backend or desktop applications, eg. with Electron.
Install dependencies:
npm install orbit-db ipfs-http-client
const IpfsClient = require('ipfs-http-client')
const OrbitDB = require('orbit-db')
const ipfs = IpfsClient('localhost', '5001')
const orbitdb = await OrbitDB.createInstance(ipfs)
const db = await orbitdb.log('hello')
// Do something with your db.
// Of course, you may want to wrap these in an async function.
API
See API.md for the full documentation.
Examples
Install dependencies
git clone https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit-db.git
cd orbit-db
npm install
Some dependencies depend on native addon modules, so you'll also need to meet node-gyp's installation prerequisites. Therefore, Linux users may need to
make clean-dependencies && make deps
to redo the local package-lock.json with working native dependencies.
Browser example
npm run build
npm run examples:browser
Using Webpack:
npm run build
npm run examples:browser-webpack
Check the code in examples/browser/browser.html and try the live example.
Node.js example
npm run examples:node
Eventlog
See the code in examples/eventlog.js and run it with:
node examples/eventlog.js
Workshop
We have a field manual which has much more detailed examples and a run-through of how to understand OrbitDB, at orbitdb/field-manual. There is also a workshop you can follow, which shows how to build an app, at orbit-db/web3-workshop.
More examples at examples.
Packages
OrbitDB uses the following modules:
- ipfs
- ipfs-log
- ipfs-pubsub-room
- crdts
- orbit-db-cache
- orbit-db-pubsub
- orbit-db-identity-provider
- orbit-db-access-controllers
OrbitDB Store Packages
- orbit-db-store
- orbit-db-eventstore
- orbit-db-feedstore
- orbit-db-kvstore
- orbit-db-docstore
- orbit-db-counterstore
To understand a little bit about the architecture, check out a visualization of the data flow at https://github.com/haadcode/proto2 or a live demo: http://celebdil.benet.ai:8080/ipfs/Qmezm7g8mBpWyuPk6D84CNcfLKJwU6mpXuEN5GJZNkX3XK/.
Community-maintained Typescript typings are available here: https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit-db-types
Development
Run Tests
npm test
Build
npm run build
Benchmark
node benchmarks/benchmark-add.js
See benchmarks/ for more benchmarks.
Logging
To enable OrbitDB's logging output, set a global ENV variable called LOG to debug,warn or error:
LOG=debug node <file>
Frequently Asked Questions
We have an FAQ! Go take a look at it. If a question isn't there, open an issue and suggest adding it. We can work on the best answer together.
Are there implementations in other languages?
Yes! Take a look at these implementations:
- Golang: berty/go-orbit-db
- Python: orbitdb/py-orbit-db-http-client
The best place to find out what is out there and what is being actively worked on is likely by asking in the Gitter. If you know of any other repos that ought to be included in this section, please open a PR and add them.
Contributing
Take a look at our organization-wide Contributing Guide. You'll find most of your questions answered there. Some questions may be answered in the FAQ, as well.
As far as code goes, we would be happy to accept PRs! If you want to work on something, it'd be good to talk beforehand to make sure nobody else is working on it. You can reach us on Gitter, or in the issues section.
If you want to code but don't know where to start, check out the issues labelled "help wanted".
Please note that we have a Code of Conduct, and that all activity in the @orbitdb organization falls under it. Read it when you get the chance, as being part of this community means that you agree to abide by it. Thanks.
Sponsors
The development of OrbitDB has been sponsored by:
If you want to sponsor developers to work on OrbitDB, please reach out to @haadcode.
License
MIT © 2015-2019 Protocol Labs Inc., Haja Networks Oy
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