NDN-JS is the first native version of the NDN protocol written in JavaScript. It is wire format compatible with PARC's NDNx.
The project by the UCLA NDN team - for more information on NDN, see http://named-data.net/ http://ndn.ucla.edu/
NDN-JS is open source under a license described in the file COPYING. While the license does not require it, we really would appreciate it if others would share their contributions to the library if they are willing to do so under the same license.
See the file INSTALL for build and install instructions.
This is a young project, with minimal documentation that we are slowly enhancing. Please submit any bugs or issues to the NDN-JS issue tracker: http://redmine.named-data.net/projects/ndn-js/issues
The primary goal of NDN-JS is to provide a pure Javascript implementation of the NDN API that enables developers to create browser-based applications using Named Data Networking. The approach requires no native code or signed Java applets, and thus can be delivered over the current web to modern browsers with no hassle for the end user.
Additional goals for the project:
The library currently requires a remote NDN daemon, and has been tested with ndnd, from the's NDNx package: http://ndnx.org/
Currently, the library has two APIs for developers:
1. The Javascript API for asynchronous Interest/Data exchange. This uses WebSockets for transport and currently requires a proxy for communication with a remote ndnd daemon. 2. A Firefox plug-in, which implements an "ndn:/" url scheme following NDNx repository conventions for file retrieval.
By default, both parts of the library connect automatically to a set of proxies and hubs that are part of the NDN research project's testbed. http://named-data.net/testbed.html There are currently no restrictions on non-commercial, research-oriented data exchange on this testbed. (Contact jburke@remap.ucla.edu for more details.) The developer can also specify a local or remote ndnd as well, as an argument to the NDN constructor.
See files in js/ and examples in tests/, examples/
NDN-JS currently supports expressing Interests (and receiving data) and publishing Data (that answers Interests). This includes encoding and decoding data packets as well as signing and verifying them using RSA keys.
** NDN connectivity ** The only way (for now) to get connectivity to other NDN nodes is via ndnd. For the Javascript API, a Websockets proxy that can communicate the target ndnd is currently required. Code for such a proxy (using Node.js) is in the wsproxy directory. It currently listens on port 9696 and passes messages (using either TCP or UDP) to ndnd on the same host.
** Including the scripts in a web page ** To use NDN-JS in a web page, one of two scripts must be included using a script tag:
ndn-js.js is a combined library (and ndn-js.min.js is a compressed version of the combined library), designed for efficient distribution. Bother can be either build in ./build/ndn-js.min.js using the following commands:
./waf configure ./waf
Or downloaded from the downloads branch (https://github.com/named-data/ndn-js/tree/downloads):
** Examples **
*** ndn-ping
You can check out examples/ndn-ping.html to see an example how to implement ndn-ping in NDN.js
*** Example to retrieve content ***
A simple example of the current API to express an Interest and receive data:
var ndn = new NDN(); // connect to a default hub/proxy
var AsyncGetClosure = function AsyncGetClosure() { // Inherit from Closure. Closure.call(this); }; AsyncGetClosure.prototype.upcall = function(kind, upcallInfo) { if (kind == Closure.UPCALL_CONTENT) { console.log("Received " + upcallInfo.contentObject.name.to_uri()); console.log(upcallInfo.contentObject.content); } return Closure.RESULT_OK; };
ndn.expressInterest(new Name("/ndn/ucla.edu/apps/ndn-js-test/hello.txt"), new AsyncGetClosure());
** Example to publish content **
// Note that publishing content requires knowledge of a // routable prefix for your upstream ndnd. We are working // on a way to either obtain that prefix or use the /local // convention.
For now, see tests/test-publish-async.html
See files in ndnProtocol/
NDN-JS includes a Firefox extension for the ndn protocol built using the Javascript library. It currently obtains NDN connectivity through the NDN testbed, but you can click Set on the NDN Toolbar to change the connected hub.
To install, either download https://github.com/named-data/ndn-js/raw/downloads/ndnProtocol.xpi
or use ndnProtocol.xpi from downloads branch. In Firefox, open Tools > Add-ons. In the "gear" or "wrench" menu, click Install Add-on From File and open ndnProtocol.xpi. (In Firefox for Android, type file: in the address bar and click the downloaded ndnProtocol.xpi.) Restart Firefox.
Firefox uses the protocol extension to load any URI starting with ndn. See this test page for examples:
ndn:/ndn/ucla.edu/apps/ndn-js-test/NDNProtocolExamples.html?ndn.ChildSelector=1
When the page is loaded, Firefox updates the address bar with the full matched name from the retrieved content object including the version, but without the implicit digest or segment number (see below).
You can add interest selectors. For example, this uses 1 to select the "rightmost" child (latest version):
ndn:/ndn/ucla.edu/apps/ndn-js-test/hello.txt?ndn.ChildSelector=1&key=value#ref
The browser loads the latest version and changes the address to:
ndn:/ndn/ucla.edu/apps/ndn-js-test/hello.txt?ndn.ChildSelector=1&key=value#ref
The child selector was used and removed. Note that the other non-ndn query values and ref "?key=value#ref" are still present, in case they are needed by the web application.
The following selector keys are supported: ndn.MinSuffixComponent= non-negative int ndn.MaxSuffixComponents= non-negative int ndn.ChildSelector= non-negative int ndn.AnswerOriginKind= non-negative int ndn.Scope= non-negative int ndn.InterestLifetime= non-negative int (milliseconds) ndn.PublisherPublicKeyDigest= % escaped value ndn.Nonce= % escaped value ndn.Exclude= comma-separated list of % escaped values or * for ANY
A URI for content with multiple segments is handled as follows. If the URI has a segment number, just retrieve that segment and return the content to the browser.
Otherwise look at the name in the returned ContentObject. If the returned name has no segment number, just return the content to the browser. If the name has a segment number which isn't 0, store it and express an interest for segment 0. Also express an interest for the highest segment to try to determine the FinalBlockID early. Fetch multiple segments in order and return each content to the browser (in order) as the arrive until we get the segment for FinalBlockID.