elixxir/client
This repo contains the Elixxir command-line client (used for integration testing) and related libraries that facilitate making more full-featured clients for all platforms.
##Running the Command Line Client
First, make sure dependencies are installed into the vendor folder by running
glide up. Then, in the project directory, run go run main.go.
If what you're working on requires you to change other repos, you can remove the other repo from the vendor folder and Go's build tools will look for those packages in your Go path instead. Knowing which dependencies to remove can be really helpful if you're changing a lot of repos at once.
If glide isn't working and you don't know why, try removing glide.lock and ~/.glide to brutally cleanse the cache.
Mutually exclusive (almost) required args:
| Long flag | Short flag | Effect | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| --userid | -i | ID of precanned user to use | -i 5 |
| --regcode | -e | Registration code to use for logging in a new user | -e AAAA |
The above args are mutually exclusive and are not fully required.
For example, to login as canned user 18, use -i 18 and any registration code specified with -e will be ignored.
To login as a new user, -i MUST not be specified, and -e will be the registration code to be used.
NOTE: There is a third way of starting the client, which ONLY works without specifying any of the above args. This will internally ignore the registration address, if specified, and will do registration directly on the Nodes only.
Optional args:
| Long flag | Short flag | Effect | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| --gwaddresses | -g | Addresses:port of the gateways to connect to, separated by commas (Overrides config file) | -g localhost:8443,localhost:8444 |
| --destid | -d | ID of the user to send messages to | -d 6 |
| --message | -m | Text message to send | -m "let's both have a good day" |
| --verbose | -v | Prints more logging messages for debugging | -v |
| --version | -V | Show the generated version information. Run $ go generate cmd/version.go if the information is out of date. |
--version |
| --sessionfile | -f | File path for storing the session. If not specified, the session will be stored in RAM and won't persist. | -f mySuperCoolSessionFile |
| --noBlockingTransmission | Disables transmission rate limiting (useful for dummy client) | --noBlockingTransmission | |
| --help | -h | Prints a help message with all of these flags | -h |
| --gwcertpath | -c | Enables TLS by passing in path to the gateway certificate file | -c "~/Documents/gateway.cert" |
| --registrationcertpath | -r | Enables TLS by passing in path to the registration server certificate file | -r "~/Documents/registration.cert" |
| --registrationaddr | -a | Address:Port for connecting to the registration server | -a "localhost:11420" |
| --dummyfrequency | How often dummy messages should be sent per second. This flag is likely to be replaced when we implement better dummy message sending. | --dummyfrequency 0.5 | |
| --end2end | Send messages with E2E encryption to destination user | --end2end | |
| --keyParams | Set E2E key generation parameters. Pass values in comma separated list, with the following order: MinKeys,MaxKeys,NumRekeys,TTLScalar,MinNumKeys | --keyParams 100,200,32,1.2,50 | |
| -E | Email to register for User Discovery (default "default@default.com") | ||
| --nick | Nickname to register for User Discovery (default "Default") | ||
| --ndfPubKey | -p | Path to the public key for the network definition JSON file | |
| --ndf | -n | Path to the network definition JSON file | |
| --skipNDFVerification | Specifies if the NDF should be loaded without the signature (default false) | ||
| --ndfRegistration | Overwrite the Registration values for the NDF | ||
| --ndfUDB | Overwrite the UDB values for the NDF |
##Project Structure
api package contains functions that clients written in Go should call to do
all of the main interactions with the client library.
bindings package exists for compatibility with Gomobile. All functions and
structs in the bindings package must be able to be bound with $ gomobile bind
or they will be unceremoniously removed. There are many requirements for
this, and if you're writing bindings, you should check the gomobile
documentation listed below.
In general, clients written in Go should use the api package and clients
written in other languages should use the bindings package.
bots contains code for interacting with bots. If the amount of code required
to easily interact with a bot is reasonably small, it should go in this package.
cmd contains the command line client itself, including the dummy messaging
prototype that sends messages at a constant rate.
crypto contains code for encrypting and decrypting individual messages with
the client's part of the cipher.
globals contains a few global variables. Avoid putting more things in here
without seriously considering the alternatives. Most important is the Log
variable:
globals.Log.ERROR.Println("this is an error")
Using this global Log variable allows external users of jww logging, like the console UI, to see and print log messages from the client library if they need to, so please use globals.Log for all logging messages to make this behavior work consistently.
If you think you can come up with a better design to deal with this problem, please go ahead and implement it. Anything that moves towards the globals package no longer existing is probably a win.
io contains functions for communicating between the client and the gateways.
It's also currently responsible for putting fragmented messages back together.
parse contains functions for serializing and deserializing various specialized
information into messages. This includes message types and fragmenting messages
that are too long.
payment deals with the wallet and payments, and keeping track of all related
data in non-volatile storage.
switchboard includes a structure that you can use to listen to incoming
messages and dispatch them to the correct handlers.
user includes objects that deal with the user's identity and the session
and session storage.
##Gomobile
We bind all exported symbols from the bindings package for use on mobile
platforms. To set up Gomobile for Android, install the NDK and
pass the -ndk flag to $ gomobile init. Other repositories that use Gomobile
for binding should include a shell script that creates the bindings.
###Recommended Reading for Gomobile
https://godoc.org/golang.org/x/mobile/cmd/gomobile (setup and available subcommands)
https://godoc.org/golang.org/x/mobile/cmd/gobind (reference cycles, type restrictions)
Currently we aren't using reverse bindings, i.e. calling mobile from Go.
###Testing Bindings via Gomobile
The separate bindings-integration repository exists to make it easier to
automatically test bindings. Writing instrumented tests from Android allows
you to create black-box tests that also prove that all the methods you think
are getting bound are indeed bound, rather than silently getting skipped.
You can also verify that all symbols got bound by unzipping bindings-sources.jar
and inspecting the resulting source files.
Every time you make a change to the client or bindings, you must rebuild the
client bindings into a .aar to propagate those changes to the app. There's a
script that runs gomobile for you in the bindings-integration repository.