How to Store and Pin JSON in IPFS

⚠️ Warning

This library is in the early stages of development.

The API is not stable and the code has not been audited.

Context

algobase provides an easy way to upload JSON to IPFS using nft.storage.

nft.storage provides a free IPFS pinning service.

Set Up

Make sure algobase is intalled before you start this tutorial (see intructions here).

Sign up for an nft.storage account and create an API key.

You will need to set the API key as an environment variable called AB_NFT_STORAGE_API_KEY, or add it to your .env file.

algobase uses the dotenv library. You can use its CLI to set the variable:

dotenv set AB_NFT_STORAGE_API_KEY <your-api-key>

Otherwise, to set the environment variable in Python:

import os

os.environ["AB_NFT_STORAGE_API_KEY"] = "<your-api-key>"

How to Store JSON in IPFS and Check it's Pinned

from algobase.ipfs.nft_storage import NftStorage
from algobase.settings import Settings

# Fetch settings from the environment
settings = Settings()

# Instantiate the client object by piping settings to it
client = settings | NftStorage.from_settings

# Store JSON in IPFS (returns the CID of the file if successful)
cid = client.store_json(
    json='{"integer": 123, "boolean": true, "list": ["a", "b", "c"]}'
)

print(f"Stored JSON on IPFS with CID {cid}")
"""
Stored JSON on IPFS with CID bafkreiaci6q6dolsy32cnqhtmgvf23gzphzzc7urfnka2omgzn7behvbx4
"""

# Check IPFS pin status ('queued', 'pinning', 'pinned', or 'failed')
pin_status = client.fetch_pin_status(cid)

print(f"IPFS pin status for CID {cid} is '{pin_status}'")
"""
IPFS pin status for CID bafkreiaci6q6dolsy32cnqhtmgvf23gzphzzc7urfnka2omgzn7behvbx4 is 'pinned'
"""