Bitski ProviderEngine

Bitski's ProviderEngine is a refactored version of Metamask's original provider engine library. This is the base of the Bitski Javascript SDKs (both browser and node).

Installation

npm install @bitski/provider-engine

Differences from original package

• Written in Typescript
• Standard ES6 modules, designed for the browser first
• Designed to be extended with a properly exported Subprovider interface
• Base class implements new EthereumProvider standard
• Compatible with latest versions of web3.js
• Heavier dependencies removed to keep base package light (primarily all dependencies that rely on elliptic)
• Many small bug fixes and improvements

To Do

• Reimplement HookedWalletSubprovider as a separate package
• Reimplement VmSubprovider as a separate package
• Reimplement NonceTracker as a separate package
• Improve test coverage

Composable

Built to be modular - works via a stack of 'sub-providers' which are like normal web3 providers but only handle a subset of rpc methods.

The subproviders can emit new rpc requests in order to handle their own; e.g. eth_call may trigger eth_getAccountBalance, eth_getCode, and others. The provider engine also handles caching of rpc request results.

import {
  default as ProviderEngine,
  BlockCacheSubprovider,
  FixtureSubprovider,
  FilterSubprovider,
  FetchSubprovider
} from '@bitski/provider-engine';

const engine = new ProviderEngine();
const web3 = new Web3(engine);

// static results
engine.addProvider(new FixtureSubprovider({
  web3_clientVersion: 'ProviderEngine/v0.0.0/javascript',
  net_listening: true,
  eth_hashrate: '0x00',
  eth_mining: false,
  eth_syncing: true,
}));

// cache layer
engine.addProvider(new BlockCacheSubprovider());

// filters
engine.addProvider(new FilterSubprovider());

// data source
engine.addProvider(new FetchSubprovider({
  rpcUrl: 'https://testrpc.metamask.io/',
}));

// log new blocks
engine.on('block', (block) => {
  console.log('================================')
  console.log('BLOCK CHANGED:', '#'+block.number.toString('hex'), '0x'+block.hash.toString('hex'))
  console.log('================================')
});

// network connectivity error
engine.on('error', (err) => {
  // report connectivity errors
  console.error(err.stack);
});

// start polling for blocks
engine.start();

Writing your own Subprovider

It's easy to extend the functionality of this module by writing your own Subprovider instance.

See src/subprovider.ts for the full interface.

import { Subprovider } from '@bitski/provider-engine';

export default class MySubprovider extends Subprovider {

  // Only requirement is to implement handleRequest
  public handleRequest(payload, next, end) {
    // The payload includes the original JSON RPC request
    if (payload.method === 'eth_helloWorld') {
      // Call end() to handle the request in this subprovider
      end('hello world!');
    } else {
      // Call next() to fall-through to the next request in the stack
      next();
    }
  }

}

Acknowlegements

A special thanks to the folks at Metamask who conceived and wrote the original library.