ares-core

A JavaScript frontend library for interacting with ICP Backend Canisters and Identity Providers.

NOTE: This is a Beta version

How to use

To create a Client instance you must call the static method create and later you must call the init method:

const client = Client.create({});
await client.init();

Implement Identity Providers

Most implementations use Identity Providers to call canisters with autenticated identities, so its necesary to declare which Identity Providers you want to use:

const client = Client.create({
  providers: [
    new InternetIdentity({
      providerUrl: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_INTERNET_IDENTITY_URL!,
    }),
  ],
});

See following example to start an authentication process:

const provider = client.getProvider("internet-identity");
provider.connect();

Then, you can get all the authenticated identities:

const identities = client.getIdentities();

Register Canisters

Ares Client supports two kind of Canisters:

• Candid Canisters: Traditional Canisters that you can build according the Internet Computer Protocol
• Http Canisters: Canisters Build according the HTTP Gateway Protocol, this is an Experimental feature.

To use candid canisters you can follow the example below:

import { _SERVICE, idlFactory } from "path_to_canister_declarations/test.did.js";

export const candidTest: Canister = {
	idlFactory,
	configuration: {
		canisterId: "TEST_CANDID_CANISTER_ID",
	},
};

const client = Client.create({
  agentConfig: {
    host: "IC_HOST_URL",
  },
  ...
  candidCanisters: {
    candidTest
  }
});

const candidActor = client.getCandidActor("candidTest");

To use http canisters you can follow the example below:

export const httpTest: Canister = {
  baseUrl: "API_REST_URL"
};

const client = Client.create({
  ...
  restCanisters: {
    httpTest
  }
});

const candidActor = client.getRestActor("httpTest");

You can use both canisters (candid and http) at the same time:

const client = Client.create({
  agentConfig: {
    host: "IC_HOST_URL",
  },
  ...
  candidCanisters: {
    candidTest
  },
  restCanisters: {
    httpTest
  }
});

Advanced features

Build CustomProviders

Ares defines some prebuild Identity Providers, but if you like to implement your own, you neet to create a class that implements the IdentityProvider interface:

export class MyCustomIdentityProvider implements IdentityProvider {}

For a complete implementation you can see how the InternetIdentity provider is built.

Use Custom Storage

You can define custom storage (where identities and some configurations will be stored), for that, yo need to create a class that implements the ClientStorageInterface:

class MyCustomStorage implements ClientStorageInterface {}