Verida Data Connector Server

Overview

This server enables a user to authenticate with third party services to take ownership of their personal data stored with the third party.

The Verida Vault utilizes this server, redirecting a user to connect to an API. Once connected, the Verida Vault makes regular sync requests to the API in order to keep up-to-date with the user's latest data in that third party service.

Running the Server

Configuration

Create a local configuration file:

cp src/serverconfig.example.json src/serverconfig.local.json

Update src/serverconfig.local.json to:

1. Specify the details of each provider you want to run. You will need to obtain the necessary API keys for each provider.
2. Specify the correct serverUrl and assetsUrl that point to the correct address of your server. Don't use localhost as it breaks sessions, use 127.0.0.1 instead (*).
3. testVeridaKey: A Verida private key (or seedphrase) that controls a DID. This is used by the command line when connecting a provider, and also used by the unit tests to load providers and save test data.
4. Update any connection credentials

(*) Sessions are used to track redirect URLs in the connection request. Sessions do not work locally if you specify localhost for the hostname. Use an IP address instead.

Starting the server

Once off initialization:

npm use
yarn

Start the server:

yarn run dev

Tests

Before running tests, ensure src/serverconfig.json has a Verida identity private key set in testVeridaKey. The tests use this identity to store test data. Use a new identity as the tests will delete any existing data and potentially add junk data. See steps below on how to create a new test Verida identity.

yarn run core-cli 

Run all tests:

yarn run tests

Run a specficic test:

yarn run test tests/providers/facebook.test.ts

Create a Test Verida Identity

Create a new Verida identity:

yarn run core-cli CreateAccount -n banksia -s

You also need to create the Verida: Vault context for the account that will become the container for all the databases storing your personal data. This can be achieved by creating a basic profile:

yarn run core-cli SetProfile -k <privateKey> --network banksia -n "John" -c "Australia"

Replace <privateKey> with the key output from the CreateAccount command above.

By default, this will select three storage nodes on the Verida network to store and replicate your encrypted data. Alternatively, it is possible to run a local instance of the Verida Storage Node server and use it to store your data.

You can link your local storage node to your Verida identity by running this command instead:

yarn run core-cli SetProfile -k <privateKey> --network banksia --storageNodes "http://localhost:5000/" -n "John" -c "Australia"

Note: storageNodes are only linked the first time the profile is set, so it's important to specify your local storage node the first time you run SetProfile

You can learn how to use all the core Verida command line tools with:

yarn run core-cli --help
yarn run core-cli CreateAccount --help

Learn more

• How to contribute
• API Endpoints to establish connections, sync data and get provider metadata
• Command Line Tools to help establish provider connections, manually sync data and view data
• Implementation notes that explain the inner workings and design details