Embark-Status Plugin Setup

Embark-status is a plugin for Embark that connects a DApp running in Embark to the Status.im mobile app. This plugin adds the Embark network (ie the blockchain node spun up by Embark) to the Status.im app, connects the Status app to the node, then opens the DApp in the Status app's DApp browser.

Installation

In your DApp directory, install the embark-status plugin: npm install status-im/embark-status --save-dev

NOTE: Please do not install embark-status directly from npm as this is a very old package. We are working with the package owner to get this updated as soon as possible. If you have already installed via npm, please uninstall embark-status (npm uninstall embark-status) before installing using the above command.

DApp configuration

Add this config in the DApp's embark.json:

  "plugins": {
    "embark-status": {
      "deviceIp": "your-device-ip",
      "name": "MyDapp"
    }
  }

If your DApp is hosted (ie on decentralised storage like IPFS or Swarm), the plugin option dappUrl can be specified to override the DApp URL that is opened in the Status DApp browser after embark-status is connected to the Status app.

  "plugins": {
    "embark-status": {
      "deviceIp": "your-device-ip",
      "name": "MyDapp",
      "dappUrl": "https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmSVa32dFs5SKRmd7EXzuztMbNsZd5LGpCoU1keSrxo9BK"
    }
  }

Development environment

To configure for a development environment, please ensure you are running the correct version of NodeJS. Additionally, the blockchain client, webserver, and storage need to be set up to accept outside connections.

NodeJS Version

The minimum version of NodeJS that can be used is 8.11.3. If you need to change your Node version, please use NVM.

$> node --version
v8.11.3

Blockchain client config

In your DApp, set config/blockchain.js > development > rpcHost to 0.0.0.0 (macOS/Linux) or 127.0.0.1 (Windows). This will open up your blockchain client (Geth or Parity) to outside connections.

Webserver config

In your DApp, set config/webserver.js > host to 0.0.0.0 (macOS/Linux) or 127.0.0.1 (Windows). This will open up your webserver to outside connections.

NOTE: When the Status browser opens the DApp, it will open the IP of the machine running Embark along with the port specified in the webserver config, ie http://192.168.0.15:8000. This is so that the device can connect to the webserver started by Embark.

Storage

Our machine will be running our storage node, and we need to access the node from our DApp, so we have to configure IPFS to run on our machine's IP, then tell embark to access the node via the machine IP.

NOTE: embark-status has only been tested with IPFS. This guide assumes you have ipfs installed and you are using it for your DApp.

DApp storage config

In your DApp, set config/storage.js > dappConnection to

dappConnection: [
  {
    provider: "ipfs",
    host: "your-machine-ip",
    port: 5001,
    getUrl: "http://your-machine-ip:8080/ipfs/"
  }
]

IPFS config

Next, we need to update our IPFS API and gateway configuration.

Backup

First, let's backup our working IPFS config:

cp ~/.ipfs/config ~/.ipfs/config.bak

Run IPFS first

In order to interact with IPFS's config CLI, we need IPFS to be running first (alternatively, ~/.ipfs/config (macOS/Linux) can be manually updated with the changes):

ipfs daemon

Run IPFS CLI config update commands

Then run the following commands in a new shell, (replacing your-machine-ip with your machine's IP):

ipfs config --json Addresses.API "\"/ip4/your-machine-ip/tcp/5001\""
ipfs config --json Addresses.Gateway "\"/ip4/your-machine-ip/tcp/8080\""

NOTE: In this case, we want the IPFS API and gateway to the be accessible from our machine's IP.

Stop IPFS daemon

In the first terminal where IPFS daemon is running, stop the IPFS daemon using Ctrl+c.

When you need to revert your IPFS config

If you'd like to revert to the default settings, run the following two commands:

ipfs daemon

In a separate shell, run:

ipfs config --json Addresses.API "\"/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/5001\""
ipfs config --json Addresses.Gateway "\"/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/8080\""

Alternatively, you could overwrite your IPFS config with your backup:

mv ~/.ipfs/config.bak ~/.ipfs/config # overwrite the config
rm ~/.ipfs/config.bak # delete the backup

Or, another option is to delete your modified config, and re-init IFPS:

rm ~/.ipfs/config
ipfs init

The last option will recreate a fresh IPFS config for you.

Status.im app

Please make sure the Status app has development mode enabled. To enable development mode:

Install Status mobile if not already done
Open the app.
Go to Profile (bottom right tab).
Scroll to the bottom and tap the "Advanced" button.
Enable the "Development mode" toggle

CORS

NOTE: The device IP specified in the plugin configuration above will be automatically added to CORS for the blockchain client (Geth/Parity) and the storage provider (IPFS/Swarm) when running Embark.

Now run Embark

Once all the above has been configured, run your DApp using Embark:

embark run

Known issues

Status app crashes

There is currently a bug in the Status app that crashes the app once the embark-status plugin attempts to open the DApp in the Status DApp browser. Simply re-open the Status app after this crash. You may have to manually open the DApp for now:

Tap the "+" in the top right of the Status app
Tap "Open DApp"
Enter your-machine-ip:8000 for the URL.

IPFS CORS not updated correctly

Embark up to 4.0.0 is not updating IPFS CORS correctly, due to the need for IPFS to be restarted after update. This has been fixed in a PR, but has not been released yet. In the meantime, it's probably easiest to simply modify your IPFS config manually. Open up ~/.ipfs/config (or equivalent in your OS), and edit both the API/Access-Control-Allow-Origin and Gateway/Access-Control-Allow-Origin sections to look like:

"Access-Control-Allow-Origin": [
  "http://your-device-ip",
  "http://your-machine-ip:8000",
  "http://your-machine-ip:8080",
  "http://0.0.0.0:8000",
  "http://0.0.0.0:8545",
  "ws://localhost:8546",
  "http://embark"
]

If this is still not working for you, as a last resort, try updating both the API/Access-Control-Allow-Origin and Gateway/Access-Control-Allow-Origin to:

"Access-Control-Allow-Origin": [
  "*"
]