Example: use in the browser

[jbenet]

browser examples do not show how to connect to network... no idea how to connect an in-browser js-ipfs to the rest of the network

[daviddias]

Did you get the chance to look at the transfer-files example? You should see this:

It is a very straight forward example using vanilla JS, no bundling or transpilation necessary

[grncdr]

I would support @jbenet's concern here, I'll explain the step I took:

1. I tried to start with ipfs.files.cat and a known multihash, but this will just hang indefinitely AFAICT.

2. I then looked at the browser-script-tag example, which worked, but only with data added to the same local repo.

3. I eventually looked at open issues, and this one was (thankfully) near the top of the list.

4. I then looked at the transfer-files example to find this note:

   js-ipfs currently doesn't support DHT peer discovery, the peer from which you are fetching data should be within the reach (local or in public IP) of the browser node.

5. After that, I still needed to read most of the example to understand that I needed actually manually add a peer with node.swarm.connect(...).

This info should be front and center in the project README wherever usage in-browser is mentioned.

[grncdr]

In case my previous comment sounded negative... it's awesome to see that this does in fact work! 👍

[daviddias]

All valid points, thanks for the feedback @grncdr :)

At the current moment, you can fetch any data that is available to the Bootstraper nodes/gateways due to the lack of DHT as you learned. That said though, we are really onto the DHT and Relay, the last to pieces to make this just work seamlessly for everyone.

I've updated the README to contain this information https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs#project-status

[daviddias]

Moar examples, now with video (thanks to @pgte):

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv_Teb--1zg&t=235s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kdx8rJd8rQ&t=64s

[daviddias]

Please see all the other examples at https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/tree/master/examples. Closing this issue for now :)