web4

Table of Contents

• TL;DR
• What is web4?
• How it works?
  • Authentication
• Known web4 sites
• Useful tools
• Example contract
  • Request
  • Response
  • Loading data
  • Posting transactions
  • Caching considerations
• Rust support
• Deployment
  • near.page
  • testnet.page
• Running locally
• FAQ
• Priorities
• Roadmap
• Contributing

TL;DR

• Manage website frontend in smart contract
• Every .near account receives a subdomain under https://near.page
  • E.g. thewiki.near serves https://thewiki.near.page
• Use IPFS with Filecoin to host larger files

Quick Start:

# Create a simple website
mkdir my-web4-site && cd my-web4-site
echo '<h1>Hello Web4!</h1>' > index.html

# Deploy to your account
npx web4-deploy . --accountId your-account.near

Your site will be live at https://your-account.near.page 🎉

What is web4?

• Decentralised ownership and hosting
• Content permanence by default, no more expired links
• Offline friendly
• Web presence controlled by user
• Interactive mobile apps linked together as websites, no appstores

How it works?

You only need to deploy single smart contract using WebAssembly to host your app HTTP backend, static resources and blockchain logic. See Example contract or Rust support for implementation details.

There is an HTTP gateway to NEAR blockchain which allows smart contract to handle arbitrary GET requests.

Every smart contract on NEAR also gets corresponding API endpoint which can be accessed through regular HTTP requests.

Authentication

Web4 provides simplified authentication flow:

• Login via /web4/login endpoint
• Logout via /web4/logout endpoint
• Current account ID is available via web4_account_id cookie
• App-specific private key, if used, is stored in web4_private_key cookie
• Transactions can be submitted via POST requests to /web4/contract/{contract_id}/{method_name}

Example usage in JavaScript:

// Login
window.location.href = '/web4/login'

// Check if user is logged in
const accountId = Cookies.get('web4_account_id');

// Logout
window.location.href = '/web4/logout'

// Submit transaction
await fetch('/web4/contract/example.near/someMethod', {
    method: 'POST',
    body: JSON.stringify({ param1: 'value1' })
})

This allows seamless integration with existing web frameworks while maintaining security through NEAR wallet.

See also:

• FAQ: How does authentication work?
• FAQ: web4/login vs wallet integration

Known web4 sites

Featured sites:

• https://devhub.near.page - NEAR Developer Hub
• https://web4.near.page - Web4 project homepage
• https://treasury-auroralabs.near.page - NEAR Treasury DAOs
• https://svelt.near.page - Svelte starter template
• https://awesomeweb4.near.page - Web4 app catalog
• https://thewiki.near.page - Decentralized wiki

Community sites:

• https://slimebook.near.page
• https://lands.near.page
• https://zavodil.near.page
• https://psalomo.near.page
• https://oracle-prices.near.page
• https://orangejoe.near.page
• https://orderly.near.page
• https://theegg.near.page
• https://twelvetone.near.page
• https://sotg.near.page
• https://pcards.near.page
• https://aclot.near.page
• https://wlog.near.page
• https://1chess.near.page
• https://vlad.near.page

See more examples at https://awesomeweb4.near.page

Useful tools

• HTTP gateway https://github.com/vgrichina/web4
• High performance RPC https://github.com/vgrichina/fast-near
• Deploy tool https://github.com/vgrichina/web4-deploy
• Rust starter projects:
  • https://github.com/zavodil/near-web4-contract
  • https://github.com/frol/near-web4-demo
• Self-hosted Linktree https://github.com/vgrichina/web4-littlelink
• Svelte starter http://svelt.near.page
• Web4 app catalog https://awesomeweb4.near.page

Example contract (in AssemblyScript)

export function web4_get(request: Web4Request): Web4Response {
    if (request.path == '/test') {
        // Render HTML with form to submit a message
        return htmlResponse(form({ action: "/web4/contract/guest-book.testnet/addMessage" }, [
            textarea({ name: "text" }),
            button({ name: "submit" }, ["Post"])
        ]));
    }


    if (request.path == '/messages') {
        const getMessagesUrl = '/web4/contract/guest-book.testnet/getMessages';
        // Request preload of dependency URLs
        if (!request.preloads) {
            return preloadUrls([getMessagesUrl]);
        }

        // Render HTML with messages
        return htmlResponse('messages: ' + util.bytesToString(request.preloads.get(getMessagesUrl).body)!);
    }

    if (request.accountId) {
        // User is logged in, we can welcome them
        return htmlResponse('Hello to <b>' +  request.accountId! + '</b> from <code>' + request.path + '</code>');
    }

    // Demonstrate serving content from IPFS
    if (request.path == "/") {
        return bodyUrl('ipfs://bafybeib72whzo2qiore4q6sumdteh6akewakrvukvqmx4n6kk7nwzinpaa/')
    }

    // By default return 404 Not Found
    return status(404);
}

Basically smart contract just needs to implement web4_get method to take in and return data in specific format.

Request

@nearBindgen
class Web4Request {
    accountId: string | null;
    path: string;
    params: Map<string, string>;
    query: Map<string, Array<string>>;
    preloads: Map<string, Web4Response>;
}

Response

@nearBindgen
class Web4Response {
    contentType: string;
    status: u32;
    body: Uint8Array;
    bodyUrl: string;
    preloadUrls: string[] = [];
    cacheControl: string;
}

Loading data

You can load any required data in web4_get by returning list of URLs to preload in preloadUrls field.

E.g. contract above preloads /web4/contract/guest-book.testnet/getMessages. This class getMessages view method on guest-book.testnet contract.

After data is preloaded web4_get gets called again with loaded data injected into preloads.

Posting transactions

You can post transaction by making a POST request to corresponding URL.

E.g contract above preloads has form that gets posted to /web4/contract/guest-book.testnet/addMessage URL. This URL submits transaction which calls addMessage method on guest-book.testnet contract.

Note that both JSON and form data are supported. When transaction is processed by server user gets redirected to wallet for signing this transaction.

In future there is a plan to allow sending app-specific key as a cookie to sign limited subset of transactions without confirmation in wallet.

Caching considerations

By default all HTML responses can be cached for 1 minute (assumed dynamic content). All images, videos, audio and CSS can be cached for 1 day (assumed static content).

You can override this by setting cacheControl field in response.

It's not recommended to cache content for too long as then it not going to be hot on IPFS gateway.

See also:

• Rust support
• Known web4 sites for real-world examples

Rust support

Check out sample web4 project made with Rust.

near.page

You can access your deployed smart contract on https://near.page. This is hosted web4 gateway provided to all .near accounts. For now it's free, but in future you might have to pay depending on how much traffic you get.

Every contract gets corresponding domain, e.g. check out https://web4.near.page rendered by web4.near contract.

testnet.page

This works same as near.page but for contracts deployed on testnet. Every account.testnet gets corresponding account.testnet.page domain.

Running locally

1. Install mkcert.
2. Install local certificate authority (this allows browser to trust self-signed certificates):

   mkcert -install
   

3. Create *.near.page SSL certificate:

   mkcert "*.near.page"
   

4. Run web4 man-in-the-middle proxy locally:

   IPFS_GATEWAY_URL=https://ipfs.near.social NODE_ENV=mainnet WEB4_KEY_FILE=./_wildcard.near.page-key.pem WEB4_CERT_FILE=./_wildcard.near.page.pem npx web4-near
   

5. Setup browser to use automatic proxy configuration file at http://localhost:8080/ or to use localhost:8080 as an HTTPS proxy server.

See also:

• FAQ: How can I access my local app bundle?
• near.page and testnet.page for production deployment

Environment variables

• NODE_ENV - mainnet or testnet to select network ID to use with NEAR config and key store
• IPFS_GATEWAY_URL - URL of IPFS gateway to use for ipfs:// URLs
• WEB4_KEY_FILE - path to SSL key file
• WEB4_CERT_FILE - path to SSL certificate file
• PORT - port to listen on (default: 3000)
• PROXY_PORT - port to listen on for proxy requests (default: 8080). HTTPS MITM proxy is run on this port when WEB4_KEY_FILE and WEB4_CERT_FILE are provided.
• FAST_NEAR_URL - URL of fast-near RPC server to use for NEAR API