Ipfs-companion: Captain.log - ipfs-companion

[lidel]

I feel it may be a good idea to maintain captain.log for this project.

Quoting ipfs/community guidelines, the log will be a short summary of what is going on, our the current challenges and will provide some direction to newcomers and current contributors on where the project could use some extra hands.

[lidel]

I've merged zh_CN translation (#262), decided to ignore package-lock.json feature of NPM5 due to stability issues (#261) and started working (https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-companion/commit/a10ce15950b3caf1b4e10fec5d728e8011f8f829) on serious refactoring in browser-action-port branch.

The goal is to replace alarm-based updates with more robust and portable message-based signaling based on browser.runtime.connect API. When finished and merged, it will fix multiple bugs (#259, #243) and improve UX under Chromium-based browsers (#218).

Update: merged #266 and released v2.0.0alpha7

[lidel]

Chrome

We now support one-click install via Chrome Web Store:

Firefox

Publishing of WebExtension for Firefox is blocked by https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-companion/issues/269.
Until it is resolved one can install it from Developer Channel instead.

[daviddias]

@lidel would you like to give a demo on the next IPFS All Hands?

[lidel]

Long time no log!

• Finished move to WebExtensions! (#20)
  IPFS Companion v2.0.13, has been approved and is now available for download in Mozilla's gallery at https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/ipfs-companion/ 🎉 ✨
  Most of features from the legacy add-on will still work, only regression being the lack of custom protocol in Location Bar. Users should get automatic updates in the following days.
  Big thanks to @dignifiedquire and @diasdavid for work related to removal of unsafe-eval from extension's CSP (#269), and to everyone testing beta versions in past months!
• I gave a small demo around 9:30 mark of Sep 4 2017 - IPFS all hands call 🙌🏽
• Opportunistic redirect to IPFS enabled by default (https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-companion/issues/16#issuecomment-336641844)
  
  
  
  • We have no false-positives anymore. For /ipfs/ paths, CID must be a valid v0 or v1. For /ipns/ peerid needs to be a valid CID or a FQDN with dnslink in TXT record
  
  
  • Due to the lack of proper APIs (#164) custom protocols (ipfs://, dweb:/ipfs/ etc) are normalized to HTTP gateway. This occurs when special URI/URL is pasted to Location Bar or present in src and href attribute of DOM element. This provides users with good UX in both Firefox and Chrome.
  
  
• Had a lot of fruitful discussion during the Lab Week!
  If anyone is interested in the future of browser extension, here are some notes on what's next:
  
  
  
  • _IPFS in Web Browsers & Future of Browser Extensions_ (session notes)
    
    https://github.com/protocol/lab-week-unconf/issues/23
  
  
  • _Roadblocks for IPFS in Browser Extension_ (memo)
    
    https://github.com/ipfs/in-web-browsers/pull/60
  
  

[dignifiedquire]

Great to hear things worked out! 🎉

[lidel]

We grew too big for old school captain log :)

For future updates, see:

• Companion: https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-companion/releases
• Integration with Web Browsers: https://github.com/ipfs/in-web-browsers/tree/master/meeting-notes
• IPFS in General: https://github.com/ipfs/newsletter/ || https://blog.ipfs.io/