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https://github.com/interop-alliance/life-server

A decentralized personal data framework inspired by MIT's Solid Project
https://github.com/interop-alliance/life-server

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A decentralized personal data framework inspired by MIT's Solid Project

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README 

        
# Life Server _(life-server)_



[![Build status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/interop-alliance/life-server/Node.js%20CI)](https://github.com/interop-alliance/life-server/actions?query=workflow%3A%22Node.js+CI%22)

[![NPM Version](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/life-server.svg?style=flat-square)](https://npm.im/life-server)



> A decentralized personal data server inspired by Solid and Decentralized Web Node.



## Table of Contents



- [Background](#background)

    - [Audience](#audience)

    - [Roadmap](#roadmap)

    - [Differences from Solid Server](#differences-from-solid-server)

- [Install](#install)

- [Usage](#usage)

- [Security](#security)

- [Contribute](#contribute)

- [License](#license)



**Important:** For upgrade notes and change history, see 

**[CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md)**.



## Background



Life Server is personal data server written in Node.js, originally

based on MIT's [Solid Server](https://github.com/solid/node-solid-server).



### Audience



This server is intended for the following audiences:



1. (primarily) Myself. I'm using this as an experimental platform for incubating

    and implementing various [Solid-related](https://github.com/solid/specification)

    and Solid-adjacent specifications and standards.

1. (hopefully) Other developers of user centric offline-first decentralized 

    applications.

1. (to a much smaller extent) End-users interested in running their own file

    sharing server (a minimal Dropbox/Google Drive sort of setup). This server

    is not really ready for mainstream (or even early adopter) usage. 

1. (almost not at all) For system administrators / potential service providers

   interested in running their own multi-user data server.



To put it another way, due to a shortage of engineering resources, the

priorities will be: Developer QoL (Quality of Life) over User QoL over DevOps QoL.



### Roadmap



This is an experimental server focusing on interop exploration and rapid feature 

iteration. "Move fast and break things (and then fix them just as quickly)", to 

use a tired cliché.



#### Roadmap Phase One (Complete)



This phase focused on general cleanup and refactoring from the source

`node-solid-server` v4 baseline. (See [Phase One details](docs/roadmap.md#roadmap-phase-one-complete).)



#### Roadmap Phase Two



This phase focuses on exploring some advanced features that may make it into

Solid spec proposals, as well as integration with external Solid-adjacent

projects and specs.



* [x] Fix/update Dockerfile

* [ ] DID Integration

    * [x] Generate a [`did:web`](https://github.com/w3c-ccg/did-method-web) DID

      and corresponding keys for the Server itself, during installation.

    * [x] Generate a [`did:web`](https://github.com/w3c-ccg/did-method-web) DID

      and corresponding keys for each user on account registration.

    * [ ] (in progress) Implement DIDAuth for wallet, hook it up to Login page.

    * [ ] Add [`did:key`](https://github.com/digitalbazaar/did-method-key-js)

        support

    * [ ] Add [Veres One](https://github.com/w3c-ccg/didm-veres-one) DIDs support

* [ ] Interop with Verifiable Credentials

    * [x] Implement 

      [Credential Handler API Wallet](https://github.com/digitalbazaar/credential-handler-polyfill)

      registration when user creates an account.

* [ ] Implement an in-Memory based LDP backend, to go alongside the FS backend.

* [ ] Integrate or implement Static OIDC Client Registration functionality,

    to make interfacing with server-side Solid apps easier.

* [ ] Investigate level of effort required to switch from the current `oidc-op`

    OpenID Connect Provider library to a more widely supported one, such as

    Filip's [`node-oidc-provider`](https://github.com/panva/node-oidc-provider)

    lib.

* [ ] Implement a server-side metadata mechanism, to support being able to

    [record who created a resource](https://github.com/solid/specification/issues/66)

* [ ] _(in progress)_ Experimental integration with 

    [CouchDB](http://docs.couchdb.org/en/latest/intro/)

    (for synchronizing of graphs and documents to mobile and offline-first 

    clients).

* [ ] Explore using an [Encrypted Data Vault](https://github.com/decentralized-identity/secure-data-store)

    as a storage backend. This would require some basic Key Management capability,

    possible based on the [Web KMS spec](http://w3c-ccg.github.io/webkms/).

* [ ] Interop with the Fediverse by implementing [ActivityPub](https://activitypub.rocks/)

    protocol.



### Differences from Solid Server



Since [`node-solid-server`](https://github.com/solid/node-solid-server) (NSS) is 

being deprecated in favor of [`inrupt/pod-server`](https://github.com/inrupt/pod-server),

this repo intends to be another compatible implementation (the more the merrier!).



* Works on Windows 10 (WSL2)



**Does not support:**



* Using an external WebID on signup 

* `acl:origin` checking or Trusted Apps (uses [`solid-permissions`](https://github.com/interop-alliance/solid-permissions)  

    instead of [`acl-check.js`](https://github.com/solid/acl-check) for access control)

* `acl:trustedOrigin` (removed on purpose during refactoring)

* Password strength checking on account signup.

* Enforcement of storage space quotas

* WebID-TLS local authentication

* WebSockets

* Globbing



### Value Proposition for Developers



See [Solid and Life Server Value Proposition for Developers](docs/value-proposition.md) 

doc.



## Install



### Pre-requisites: Node.js v14+



* Linux, Mac OS X, or Windows 10

* Node 14+



To run Life Server, you will first need to install

Node.js. (The developers recommend using [`nvm`](https://github.com/creationix/nvm) 

to install Node.)



### Install `life-server` from Github



```bash

git clone https://github.com/interop-alliance/life-server.git

cd life-server

npm install

```



### Edit `/etc/hosts` (development/testing only)



`life-server`'s test suite uses the following localhost domains: `nic.localhost`, `tim.localhost`, and

`nicola.localhost`. You will need to create host file entries for these, in

order for the tests to pass.



Edit your `/etc/hosts` file, and append:



```

# Used for unit testing

127.0.0.1 nic.localhost

127.0.0.1 tim.localhost

127.0.0.1 nicola.localhost

```



### (Optional) Prepare the SSL/TLS certificate



**Local/Development:** `life-server` includes a default `localhost` self-signed

TLS certificate in the `config/` folder. Advanced users may want to create

their own certificates for local testing.



**Production:** Installing `life-server` in a production environment will

require a valid TLS certificate (self-signed certs will not work). In addition,

if you're running the server in Multi User mode, you will need a

[Wildcard Certificate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcard_certificate).



### (Optional) Generate a config file



The easiest way to customize `life-server` is by running the `init` wizard.

This will create a `config.dev.js` in your current folder:



```

./bin/server init

```



## Usage



To run your server:



```

./bin/server start

```



After startup, the server is available at the configured server URL (by default,

`https://localhost:7070`).



## Usage with Docker



See [docs/Usage With Docker](docs/usage-docker.md) for details.



## Security



TBD



Note: This is an experimental research server, not for production use.



## Contribute



Life Server is only possible because of a large community of 

[Solid contributors](https://github.com/solid/node-solid-server/blob/master/CONTRIBUTORS.md).

A heartfelt thank you to everyone for all of your efforts!



## License



[The MIT License](LICENSE.md)