Build a Web3 notes app in 4 steps?

To create this app we will be using following tools-

• zk-block - boilerplate for zk and web3 dapps. ( NextJS, React, Typescript, Metamask)

• web3 storage - library for IPFS and provides an easy and scalable way to store data on IPFS

We wont be diving into UI or ReactJs part of the app. As these are outside the scope of the article.

When dealing with any storage, there are mainly two tings that we need to deal with -

• Storing data
• Retrieving data

Assuming you can handle creating a UI and user inputs in react, we can just focus on the code that will help you interact with the IPFS using web3.storage.

1. Install the web3.storage

npm install web3.storage

2. You need to get an access token

Getting an access token is free, and you can get yours at https://web3.storage/account/.

3. Create a storage client object

const storage = new Web3Storage({ token: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_WEB3_KEY });

4. Store & Retrieve Files

Storing

The Web3.Storage client's put method accepts an array of File objects. So, we will have to convert any data that we want to store in a File object.

const finalContent = JSON.stringify(content);
const file = new File([finalContent], await sha256(finalContent), {
      type: 'text/plain',
    });

Once, we have the File object. we can simply call put to store or upload the files to IPFS

const cid = await storage.put([file]);

CID you get back from the client when uploading is the CID of the directory and not the file itself.

To link to the file itself using an IPFS URI, just add the filename to the CID, separated by a / like this: ipfs://<cid>/<filename>.

For eg, to access this blog link stored on ipfs you can use the below link -

https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafybeicbv3pjrmkx7vy27puybjitqibzo6r5hrlc2exp6jh4kf4ijhpaqe

const onRootCidReady = (cid) => {
  console.log('uploading files with cid:', cid);
};

const onStoredChunk = (size) => {
  uploaded += size;
  const pct = totalSize / uploaded;
  console.log(`Uploading... ${pct.toFixed(2)}% complete`);
};

await storage.put(files, { onRootCidReady, onStoredChunk });

Retrieving

You can retrieve your uploaded data by -

https://<cid>.ipfs.dweb.link/

https://ipfs.io/ipfs/<cid>

or via code

const web3ResponseObject = await storage.get(cid); // Web3Response object

The web3ResponseObject extends the Response object from the Web Fetch API with two methods that provide access to the retrieved IPFS data: files and unixFsIterator().

The files method returns an array of Web3File objects, which represent all files contained in the content archive identified by the given CID. A Web3File is just like a regular web File object, with the addition of path and cid properties. These contain the relative path of the file within the archive and the CID of the file, respectively.

const files = await web3ResponseObject.files(); // return your files

You can checkout the notes app in action here

Optional: Encrypting the data

Since, all the data is publicly accessible and sometimes its best to store data in encrypted form.

const stringifiedContent = JSON.stringify(content);
const finalContent = CryptoJS.AES.encrypt(
  stringifiedContent,
  password
).toString();

and you can decrypt like below,

const retrievedContent = CryptoJS.AES.decrypt(reader.result, password).toString(
  CryptoJS.enc.Utf8
);
const actualContent = JSON.parse(retrievedContent);

That's all!