MaidSafe Dev Update :safe: 23rd February 2016

So this week we shall deviate (temporarily) from the usual Dev Update format of walking through all the main libraries, mainly because as @dirvine stated in another thread, the team are completely focused on testing the MVP and having me interrupt this even for a small amount of time is not at all helpful. MVP testing is in full swing and we will be inviting the SAFE community to help us out with this later in the week, with details of how to get involved coming up later in this post. What is the current status with the outstanding TODOs we still have to complete before the MVP is ready?

  1. NAT Traversal integration into Crust (allows for people behind different types of routers to connect with each other and not just rely on direct connections between nodes in the network);
  2. Routing Integration with Refactored Crust;
  3. Churn Handling in the Vault library (showcasing with Routing and Vault examples);
  4. Completing the Launcher updates from the client libraries.

So as you can see, only task one is left to be completed, so the Crust guys will now update us with progress on this, the last TODO (I did bug them briefly).

##Crust - uTP / API

The nat_traversal crate has been integrated into Crust for utp connections. However, some bugs in the rust-utp implementation have been uncovered and these will need to be fixed before we support transporting data over udp.

One such bug, involving data occasionally being lost, has already been fixed. Another bug, involving connections disconnecting due to keepalive packets not being sent, has been identified and should be fixed very soon (check the git commits, looks like it has almost landed).

##Roadmap

@scott’s roadmap design is being developed by @shankar and the basic structure is now in place and ready for testing. The team will now start to add the roadmap content which is about 70% complete and the usual refinements will be required to ensure each item is documented in an understandable and approachable way. The guys will then need to complete the work required to make the roadmap responsive, catering for all the various screen sizes. So the roadmap is moving forward, but has been somewhat hampered by the focus on the MVP.

##Community testing Client / MVP

So what can you expect in the next few days? Firstly, and with your help, we will be testing the Launcher and releasing an application that demonstrates key features of the SAFE Network. This will not only represent the largest field test (if as many people as we hope participate) of the SAFE Network to date, it will also provide some essential real world feedback on several key (and some world first) areas:

  • Account creation (self authentication) and login;
  • Data storage and retrieval;
  • Running demo applications against the Launcher API; and
  • A demo application enabling the hosting of SAFE websites.

At the request of the engineers this testing phase will not enable the community to run their own vaults at this point, rather they will be able to store and retrieve data via the demo application on our test network. This allows the client to be tested in a stable environment, one without churn (nodes leaving and joining the network). It also enables other projects that people are currently developing or wish to begin development on to progress as we progress, allowing everyone the opportunity to move forward together. The next phase after the development team are happy with the way the network is behaving in this stable environment will be to add churn into the mix and get the MVP into everyone’s hands, enabling you to all run vaults from home. The team do not want to sign off on the MVP until this extensive round of testing has been completed and for this we need large scale participation from the community.

So later this week you will be able to download the Launcher and also a Demo app as binaries from Github that will connect to a network of around one hundred nodes that the Dev team will be closely monitoring. A post to the forum will provide details of where to download the software and a link to documentation outlining how to set up, connect and actively take part in the testing. The documentation will also include a list of limitations that currently exist, some self-imposed and some awaiting features to be added in future iterations. We also want to capture feedback from as many people in the community as possible and details of how to get involved with that will also be included within the forum post.

We expect (hope) that this initial field test will be completed pretty quickly and that adding churn to the network by releasing the MVP to everyone will happen at a brisk pace.


Please keep your eyes peeled for the forum post and we hope many of you guys will get involved - thanks again for all the support, here is a link to the transcript.

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getting place!
Lets see whats new!

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Nice.
I think that make the MVP works in a closed network it is a good idea because probably you should review the logs of all the vaults involved in the issues that could appear and then fixed it faster and easier. the issues about nodes that fall and go up again could be review after the initial testings.

I’m not a developer but that makes sense for me.

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I agree, seems smart to me to scale up slowly. Thanks for the update and all your hard work devs!

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Great update! Looking forward to installing and taking part in the testing! Exciting stuff!

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Great news and it makes absolutely sense to test it first extensively in a controlled environment, good move.

We talked briefly about this a couple of months back, but I’d like to know how bugs and problems, or even questions are going to be handled? bugs/problems as new issues on git? questions on the forum?

Since the documentation, especially the limitation will be a “living” document, it might make sense to shift the “source” to the wiki directly?

Anyway, great news and congratulations again!

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We have discussed this internally quite a bit and although it is difficult to direct everyone through one channel, folk will post on the forum, as git issues, via social media, etc. We are working on putting JIRA Service Desk in place, as this integrates with our current JIRA Core system and we plan to encourage people to use this channel to ask questions, report bugs, etc.

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Great update! This week! /swoon

As long as your instructions are idiot-proof I am standing by to do whatever… :slight_smile:

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Perfect, that sounds great, then I no longer have any excuse to get familiar with JIRA :slight_smile:

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Great news! Can’t wait to give it a try and help with testing and improving - from dev for devs :wink:

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Awesome news, I’m quite excited about this, keep up the good job!

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So during the first test phase the data will first go to maidsafe central vault ? ross said 100 nodes network but if i connect also its going to be 101 no? also what about messaging will we able to do that? this will have UI right? or is it command line still?
Sorry for the stupid question not very tech sawy

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Fantastic! Great news indeed. Congratulations to all of you! Really looking forward to participate.

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step by step the ants are coming


@Ross @dirvine @nicklambert @Scott @Shankar

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From what I read above it sounds like they may only provide a web hosting demo, so I’m thinking no messenger just yet but I may be wrong

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this will lead us to the Let's Create The First SAFE Web!

WUHUUU :smiley: the SafeNet is RISING! :smiley:

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My reading is: no extra vaults (otherwise we’d have churn). You client isn’t a vault, it will run on your machine (not a web interface) and will connect with the 100 node network. It will be a GUI but will not support messaging.

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You will run Launcher and a demo app (messaging will not initially be part of this demo); you will connect to our test Vault network where you will be able to: [quote=“Ross, post:1, topic:7302”]

  • Account creation (self authentication) and login;
  • Data storage and retrieval;
  • Running demo applications against the Launcher API; and
  • A demo application enabling the hosting of SAFE websites.
    [/quote]
    So you will not be running your own Vault, you will not be 101 …just yet :slight_smile: and this will be a UI, not a command line.
    This network will be brought up and down frequently during this period so anything stored will only be temporary, as testing progresses.
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Thanks for the answer. So to be a node in the SAFE network i need client+vault, i can’t be a node simply with my internet connection is that correct? does the 100 nodes network you were talking about consist of 100 vaults too?

I have another question regarding username and password, should i create these as if it was the real network or will i need to create new credentials at some point?

thank

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node = vault

client connects to network (of nodes/vaults)

so yes, 100 nodes means 100 vaults

This is a temporary test network, so use junk for data and you’ll have to create new credentials every time the network gets reset, as well as when the final real network is up.

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