DEV Community: Mitrasish Mukherjee

Building a Scalable Drupal Website with Spheron Compute and MySQL Database: A Step-by-Step Guide

Mitrasish Mukherjee — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 05:39:58 +0000

Drupal is a popular open-source content management system (CMS) that can be used to build websites and web applications. It is known for its flexibility, scalability, and extensibility. If you want to build a Drupal website with Spheron Compute Marketplace and use a MySQL database, you have come to the right place. This blog post will guide you through setting up a Drupal website on Spheron and connecting it to a MySQL database.

What is Spheron?

Spheron is a Web3 cloud infrastructure platform that allows developers to manage web3 cloud infra quickly and easily. It is designed to simplify the process of building, deploying, and scaling applications, making it an ideal choice for Drupal websites.

You can follow these steps to launch your own Drupal application:

Step 1: Create a Spheron Account

The first step in building a Drupal website with Spheron is to create a Spheron Account. Sign up with Github, Gitlab, or Bitbucket on the Spheron platform.

Step 2: Choose a Drupal App from Spheron Compute Marketplace

Once you have a Spheron account, you can go to compute dashboard and browse the marketplace to find a Drupal app. You can do this by navigating to the "Marketplace App" section of the Spheron dashboard and searching for "Drupal". From there, you can select a compute plan that meets your needs and click the "Deploy" button to get started.

Step 3: Wait for Drupal instance to provision

Next, you must wait for Drupal instance to provision. Once the instance is provisioned, Spheron will share a link where you can start setting up your Drupal website's initial settings. When you are required to attach a database, please go to the next step.

Step 4: Set Up a MySQL Database

The next step is to set up a MySQL database for your Drupal website. You can do this by creating a new MySQL database separately. You can do this within Spheron, but since Spheron doesn’t support persistent storage, we recommend using another platform to launch your MySQL database.

Step 5: Connect Drupal to the MySQL Database

Once your MySQL database is set up, you must connect Drupal to the database. This can be done by configuring the database settings in the Drupal configuration file. You must provide the database name, host, port, username, and password, which can all be found in your MySQL dashboard settings.

Step 6: Test Your Drupal Website

With everything set up and connected, you can now test your Drupal website to ensure everything works as expected. You should be able to access your site and perform basic functions, such as creating and editing content.

Conclusion

Building a Drupal website with Spheron Compute and using an externally deployed MySQL for the database is a great way to quickly and easily deploy a robust, scalable website. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you should get your Drupal website up and running in no time. If you have any questions or need further assistance, don't hesitate to contact the Spheron team for help.

Unleash the Power of IPFS with Spheron Compute: A Step-by-Step Guide to Whitelabeling Your Own IPFS Gateway with Custom Domains

Mitrasish Mukherjee — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 05:04:56 +0000

Are you new to the tech community and wondering how to access content on the IPFS network using your domain name? Spheron simplifies this process by allowing you to use customized URLs for IPFS Gateway services. In this article, we will guide you through setting up an IPFS node using Spheron Compute and using your custom domain to Whitelabel IPFS Gateway.

How to set up an IPFS Node using Spheron Compute?

Setting up an IPFS node using Spheron Compute is a straightforward process. With Spheron Compute, you can quickly deploy an IPFS node and access its features like IPFS Web Interface and IPFS Gateway.

To get started, follow these simple steps:

Go to the Compute section in Spheron.
Create a new cluster by clicking on the "New Cluster" button.
Click on the "Select from marketplace app" button for fast-track deployment.
Select the IPFS template from the marketplace.
Choose your instance plan and click on the "Deploy" button.

Once your IPFS node is up and running, you can upload files to IPFS via WebUI or HTTP-Client, and access files using IPFS Gateway. Let’s take a look at how that works.

Upload files to IPFS

Using IPFS WebUI

If you are new to IPFS, you might wonder how to manage your files on the network. Luckily, IPFS provides an easy-to-use Web interface that makes it simple for anyone to add, pin, and share files. Whether you're a developer or a less experienced user, the interface has all the functionality you need to get started.

By default, the IPFS Web interface is configured on port 5001. To access the IPFS Web interface, simply click on the URL corresponding to internal port 5001 from your instance page. Then, add '/webui' to the end of the URL, and you're ready to go! With the IPFS Web interface, you can easily manage your content on the IPFS network.

Using IPFS Client SDK

The ipfs-http-client is a powerful package that simplifies the entire process, allowing you to effortlessly upload files to your IPFS node from your app with just a few simple steps.

First, install the package by running npm install ipfs-http-client.
Then, use the create method to connect to your IPFS node. Replace with your IPFS node URL corresponding to internal port 5001.

const ipfs = create({
    url: `http://${your-ipfs-url}/api/v0`,
});

With the version and id methods, you can easily retrieve information about your node.

const version = await ipfs.version();
const id = await ipfs.id();

Finally, use the add method to upload files directly to your node.

const uploadedFile = await ipfs.add(file, {
    progress: (prog) => console.log(`received: ${prog}`),
});

const fileHash = uploadedFile.cid.toString();

If you're looking for a helpful reference to guide you through the setup, check out this example.

Access files using IPFS Gateway

If you are looking for a way to easily access content stored on the IPFS network without installing any special software, IPFS Gateway has got you covered! As a user, you can use the Gateway to access content via HTTP requests. It acts as a bridge between the IPFS network and the traditional internet, making it easy to access content from anywhere.

By default, the IPFS gateway is configured on port 8080. To start, click on the URL corresponding to internal port 8080 from your instance page. Once you're there, you can copy the CID of your file, add the prefix /ipfs/your-cid to the end of the URL, and voila! You can now access your file directly from the IPFS network. It's that simple!

How to use your custom domain to Whitelabel IPFS Gateway using Spheron Compute?

Are you ready to take your IPFS Gateway experience to the next level? With Spheron, setting up your custom domain to whitelabel your Gateway is simple and easy. Just navigate to the Domains tab within the platform and unleash your creativity! Add your favorite domain or subdomain and select the instance where you want it to point. With just one click, you're on your way to a personalized IPFS Gateway experience.

Once you've added your domain, it's time to sit back and wait for the magic to happen. Usually, it only takes a few minutes for the domain records to propagate - some things are worth waiting for! But once your records have propagated, it's time to click Verify within Spheron to confirm your customized domain is connected to your instance.

And voila! Your custom domain is now set up and ready to go. Get ready to share and access your IPFS content with your customized domain name, all in a secure and decentralized manner. With Spheron, you don't have to be a tech genius to set up your custom domain to whitelabel IPFS Gateway. It's a straightforward process that anyone can enjoy.

You can visit https://dnschecker.org/ to verify if your DNS is propagated.

Benefits of using Spheron Compute for Whitelabeling

Spheron Compute simplifies the process, offering a range of benefits for users. Here are some reasons why you should consider using Spheron Compute for whitelabeling:

HTTPS

With Spheron, users can enjoy a secure and encrypted connection to the IPFS network, ensuring their content stays safe and protected from prying eyes.

Ownership

Spheron allows users to deploy their own IPFS nodes. That provides users more ownership over their content. They can add their custom domains and fully control how their content is served.

Custom domains

Spheron allows users to access content on the IPFS network using their customized domain name. That means you can brand your IPFS Gateway to match your business or personal identity.

Pay-as-you-use Model

Spheron Compute is available on a pay-as-you-use basis, which means users can scale their usage up or down as required without incurring additional costs. That makes it an affordable and flexible option for anyone accessing content on the IPFS network.

So why wait? Sign up for Spheron today and use your domain to whitelabel IPFS Gateway to personalize your experience! 🚀

How to use resolver SkyLink on Spheron

Mitrasish Mukherjee — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 13:36:39 +0000

WARNING: This blog will give you superpowers 🪄

As web3 developers, we've all wanted a time where the internet is fully decentralized, and we are closer to that time now, more than ever before. With technologies like Skynet, which provides decentralized cloud storage, it's even more exciting to push for more research to see that we achieve the goal of making the internet fully decentralized.

In this blog, we are going to learn how to use Skylink on Spheron Protocol (previously ArGoApp), and believe me, it's like having superpowers. So let’s ride! 🏄🏼‍♂️

Overview

Working with Skynet directly can be complicated because of how new the technology is and how web3, in general, is still new but Spheron handles that layer of complexity and helps you store dAPP on Skynet by just clicking a few buttons and also lets you manage it.

We are going to go through the steps and help you get your superpowers.

NB: the steps may be lengthy but I'm going to make it pretty visual so don't worry, it'll be an interesting ride

Let's start

1. Have an account in Spheron Protocol (previously ArGoApp)

First things first, you need to have an account on Spheron, if you don't, just head over to Spheron and create one, it's pretty simple!

2. Deploy a project

Now you have an Spheron (previously ArGoApp) account, you are closer to accessing your superpowers, the next thing to do is to deploy a project, and to do that, click on the deploy button on the overview page.

3. Choose provider

Choose a provider, at this point, we only support GitHub and will be listing other providers in our next launch

4. Choose repository

After a very short auth process, you'll see a list of your projects from GitHub, click on the project you want to deploy

5. Pick Protocol

Next, is to select a protocol, at this point we are going to choose Skynet you can read more about protocols here

6. Configure

At this point, just configure your build options and hit the deploy button! haha

7. Deploy in progress

just wait for things to load up, Spheron Protocol is running the magic behind the scene, just sit back relax and sip your water, yes you read it right, this is a soft reminder to drink water often, hehe

You did it! 🎊 You are a genius and will soon get a superpower! haha. let's get back to work and yes this is where the main fun begins

8. Skynet Resolver

Slide over to the Skynet resolver tab, to do that, just click on “Resolver SkyLinks” on the navbar.

Next is to click on the Generate Skynet Resolver button and you'll be prompted to log in with seed or MySky, click on MySky and you'll be redirected to create an account on Skynet if you don't have one already, after that you'll be prompted with another modal.

9. Generate

Enter any name of your choice and choose the deployed link you want it to point to and click on generate

Conclusion

OMG! you just acquired a superhero power! That is incredible!

One more thing!

We did an incredible job but there's a little bit more, let me explain what's going on in this part of your screen now

The name column holds the name you gave your resolver Skylink when you generated the link, the Resolver Skylink column contains the actual resolver Skylink which is the main link that is generated, and anytime you click on the generate button, the target Skylink holds the main immutable Skynet link that is unique to your deployed project

You can edit your link name by clicking on the edit icon and you'll be prompted with a modal to change your link name, you can also delete a particular resolver link by clicking on the delete icon and you'll also be prompted with a modal to confirm that you want to remove the resolver, if you want to go ahead, you can click on remove button to confirm the deletion.

Along with these, you can use the Homescreen feature of Skynet. Homescreen allows developers to easily deploy their front-ends to decentralized storage. From here, users can save immutable versions of the site, without relying on centralized services and they're always able to update to the developer's most recent deployment. We have also given option for developers to copy the homescreen markdown badge code, which they can place it in their repository readme.

Also, Resolver Skylink can be used in our Domain section, where developer can attach their resolver skylink to Domains, Handshake domains or ENS domains. The benefit developer get is that, they don't need to change the records again and again whenever there is a new deployment, rather they can update the resolver skylink's target skylink and the domain with automatically resolve to target skylink. Amazing right?

Summary

Phewww, wow, look what we just did, this is incredible, we just deployed an app on Spheron and our App data lives on a decentralized cloud (Skynet), come on, sip another water you deserve it, look at your arms, and tell me you're feeling the new superpower you just got, haha
But c'mon I'm happy for you, you know what will be even more awesome? tweeting about the new superpower you just got haha

You just joined forces with legends to help bring a fully decentralized internet closer to reality and that is amazing for real.

Thanks for taking the time to read through, I hope you use your superpowers for good

WAGMI! 🚀

If you have trouble deploying your website using Spheron Protocol (previously ArGoApp), contact us on our Discord Group.

Checkout Spheron Protocol (previously ArGoApp): https://argoapp.net
Join our Telegram channel: https://t.me/argoofficial
Join our Discord group: https://argoapp.live/contact
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpheronHQ
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/spheron

Host your next dapp onto IPFS using Spheron

Mitrasish Mukherjee — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 14:26:01 +0000

IPFS: A new way to host websites

IPFS is web3’s file system for handling storage and retrieval of data across the distributed networks. A unique use case of this is even websites can be hosted on this amazing network. To ensure that our files are held at least by a few nodes, we have a few pinning services that ensure this by instructing their own nodes to keep specific files.

At Spheron Protocol (previously ArGoApp), we provide complete support, from compiling your websites from Github, putting them on IPFS, and then pinning it with any of the two pinning services available with us Filecoin and Pinata. Users get to choose from 2 different IPFS pinning services: Filecoin & Pinata.

What is Filecoin?

Filecoin is a decentralized network that allows for storing data accessible from virtually anywhere. Users can offer their available storage as nodes on the network and earn Filecoin as data is stored and retrieved on those nodes. We are using Estuary, which is the solution sought by many developers who are coding for web3. The Estuary is, in essence, an IPFS node with an integrated minimal Filecoin library. Getting Filecoin to work with IPFS should not be a complicated process, but it can be a little tricky to get right, so we leverage Estuary API for interacting with Filecoin directly and pin IPFS hash on Filecoin.

What is Pinata?

Pinata builds tools and infrastructure that make it easy for Web3 developers to create and manage content on IPFS while also leading a change in how the world stores, accesses and verifies blockchain-linked content. With a friendly, intuitive user interface that makes the most of the IPFS Pinning Service API, Pinata truly is a game-changer for Web3, making development easier and improving data confidence for a wide variety of use cases.

Here's a video to help you deploy your site onto IPFS and pin it on Filecoin & Pinata using Spheron Protocol.

Let’s get started!🚀

Once your website is live on a censorship resilient network using the pinning service, Filecoin or Piñata, it will ensure that it stays there forever.

Sounds incredible. Right? 🎉

Hosting websites on decentralized storage providers such as IPFS, Arweave, and Skynet with Spheron Protocol is an easy yet powerful way to make sure you have 100% uptime and your website is censorship resilient. Give yourself a pat on the back for deploying your website on dWeb.

You can achieve the unachievable with Spheron Protocol now. 👀

If you have trouble deploying your website using Spheron Protocol (previously ArGoApp), contact us on our Discord Group.

Achieve Full Decentralization with ENS using Spheron!

Mitrasish Mukherjee — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:00:56 +0000

Leave no centralized stone unturned with an ENS domain! 👀

ENS (Ethereum Name Service) domains are the decentralized Ethereum-based naming system alternative to DNS (Domain Name Service). They both are lookup systems which use domain names to map and reference complex addresses. The difference being, while DNS uses domain names to translate a website’s underlying IP address, ENS uses .eth suffix domain names to reference Ethereum addresses, or on the other hand to remember resources, like IPFS file hashes.

What is Ethereum Name Service (ENS)?

ENS is an open source, distributed, and community-owned naming system that resides in the Ethereum blockchain. At its core, ENS is composed of two main pieces. Firstly, the ENS registry, which lives in a smart contract running on the Ethereum blockchain and has a record of all domains and subdomains, detailing the owner, resolver, and caching TTL (time-to-live) for all records under that domain.
The second key piece are resolvers, which are the actors responsible for translating the ENS domain names into the underlying referenced address or hash. These are also smart contracts on the blockchain, which carry the task of being asked what the “mywallet.eth” domain references, and responding with the resource’s address: “0xe9...42a2”.

Learn more about ENS domains here

Buy ENS Domains and Register Them

You can buy and register ENS domains instantly, with a slight one-minute delay. Instead of paying an undefined fee, there is a yearly rent model which costs approximately USD$5 payable in ETH (some domains are slightly more expensive due to popularity). These funds now go to initiatives and grants to help maintain/develop ENS and the Ethereum ecosystem overall.
Let’s go over the registration process.

1. Go to the ENS domain app

To register your first ENS domain, visit the ENS app and search for an address/name you want to register and is available. At the moment, you can register domains that are a minimum of 3 characters long (no maximum limit), and you can include emojis.

2. Connect to the Main Network.

To pay for the registration fee of your ENS domain, and declare your ownership for it, you will have to connect to the Mainnet using one of the offered integrations (MetaMask, WalletConnect, Portis, Authereum).

3. Define Registration Period and Confirm

Choose for how long you will want to rent that domain, and verify the final ETH fee to pay. Once you’re good to go, hit “Request to Register” and a transaction will begin. It takes about one minute to verify because during that period the platform is verifying no one else has already tried or is trying to acquire the same domain.

If everything is good, your wallet will pop up to execute the final transaction, and confirm your ownership and purchase.

4. Review Details

Once your transaction is successful, you will see a page similar to the one above (using the ens.eth domain as an example). Let’s go over the details on this page.

The registrant is the owner of the ENS domain, in this case, it will be you! The registrant can set the controller address, change the resolver, or transfer the registration to a new owner.

The records in your domain are where the magic happens! Here you can specify all the resources/addresses that your ENS domain name references. For example, an ETH, BTC, LTC, or DOGE address, content such as the IPFS hash to your website, or text records for things like email or Twitter handles.
Each time you modify a record, there is an ETH transaction to be made (You will need to pay the gas fee).

How to link ENS Domains to IPFS/Arweave/Skynet Sites?

Now that you have an ENS domain name, let’s see how we can configure and host Skynet, Arweave or IPFS deployed sites using Spheron Protocol (previously ArGoApp).

Currently managing ENS domains is a manual process, where you need to update the content hash and pay an ETH gas fee every time you make a new deployment to your website. Spheron Protocol eases that process, by providing an intuitive UI where you can update content hash with each new deployment on IPFS/Arweave/Skynet.

Here's a video to help you configure ENS domains for IPFS/Arweave/Skynet deployed applications using Spheron Protocol.

Let’s get started! 🚀

Or follow the steps below to deploy a dapp on decentralised storage and configure your ENS domains.

1. Host Your Site on Skynet/Arweave/IPFS using Spheron Protocol + Github

2. Add an ENS Domain to Your Site.

Once your deployment is successfully finished, you will see your website’s details. Navigate to the Project → Domain tab, where you will find the ENS Domain setup waiting for you.

Specify the ENS domain you want to use as your deployed site (Skynet, Arweave or IPFS) address and select the site which you want to map with your ENS domain name.

Secondly, you will need to update the content hash in your ENS domain. Spheron Protocol provides a seamless experience by updating your content hash automatically when you click the update button. It will trigger an on-chain transaction through MetaMask/Portis/WalletConnect/Authereum.

Upon completion of the transaction, you can verify the content in your ENS.

And that’s it! Once the transaction is verified, you can access your deployed website through your ENS domain name!

3. Test Your New ENS + Skynet/Arweave/IPFS Website!

In case you are using a browser not compatible with ENS, you need to append the “.link” or “.limo” suffix after your domain to visit your website on any browser.

If you’re using an ENS-compatible browser like brave or opera, you can just type your address in the search bar “address.eth/” (don’t forget the “/”) and it should be automatically resolved.

With this, your app is now fully decentralized, Incredible right? 🎉

Hosting websites on decentralized storage and configuring decentralized domains with Spheron Protocol is an easy yet powerful way to make sure you have 100% uptime and your website is censorship resilient.

You can achieve the unachievable with Spheron Protocol now.

If you have trouble deploying your website using Spheron Protocol (previously ArGoApp), contact us on our Discord Group.