allow overriding of DWN hosts

[michaelneale]

adds this enhancement: #86

Note: @TBD54566975/tbd-developer-relations external API changes:

• Web5.connect() now takes an options object which is documented here

[csuwildcat]

Would rather call the property dwnEndpoints, as host makes it seem like an external entity is always involved, when it could simply be a static IP to a box in your own home.

[michaelneale]

@csuwildcat yeah I agree - was struggling for a name. endpoints is also what DID spec calls them, will change.

[michaelneale]

@csuwildcat how does this look?

[csuwildcat]

Lgtm

[frankhinek]

@mistermoe were you going to push up some additions to the PR we discussed yesterday to make overriding other properties possible? Or should we start with dwnEndpoints and open a separate PR?

[mistermoe]

i didn't get a chance to add those additional overrides we discussed yesterday. let's start with dwnEndpoints. i'll open a separate PR that introduce the other options

[mistermoe]

the only thing that gives me pause at the moment is that this dwnEndpoints override option only makes sense in a scenario where an embedded user agent is being used. That said, the only agent that exists today is an embedded agent haha! the long term goal is for desktop & mobile agents to exist and it's in those external agents where you'd be providing your custom dwn endpoints or any other custom did configurations. that wouldn't happen via the web5 api.

Given that we haven't yet finished the first external agent, i think there's value in allowing people to provide custom dwn endpoints today. I think we could do it like so:

const { web5, did } = await Web5.connect({
  techPreview: {
    dwnEndpoints: []
 }
});

namespacing the dwnEndpoints option within a techPreview object hopefully makes it more clear that the option is temporary

[frankhinek]

Spotted a couple issues with the existing PR:

• only 1 of the 2 README files was updated
• README example was const { web5, did: myDid } = await connect(... instead of const { web5, did: myDid } = await Web5.connect(....

both resolved with Commit 05e4e34

Still one remaining issue which is if dwnEndpoints is an empty array, the messageAuthorizationKeys and recordEncryptionKeys values aren't populated in the DID document:

with { techPreview: { dwnEndpoints: [] } }:

with { techPreview: { dwnEndpoints: ['https://dwn.your-domain.org'] } }:

Discussing with @mistermoe and @csuwildcat as to how we should handle.

[michaelneale]

yeah calling connect with dwnEndpoints specified is in some ways assuming that is the special case that a did will be created for you, but wasn't sure where else it belongs in the short term.

[mistermoe]

🥇