Prototype

Decentralized science prototype (WIP)

Community

• join our community forum
• connect at our developers' chat

Requisites

To run and install this application you need:

• node and npm
• MongoDB

Download

First, clone this repo.

Then, run:

git submodule init

How to run this prototype

To install, run

npm install

Before running the server, you have to start the mongoDB service. Check if it is already running:

service mongod status

If it is not, start the service:

sudo service mongod start

Note: It might be mongodb insted of mongod for certain Linux distributions, such as OpenSuse

Run server

With mocked data

We use GraphQL Faker to generate mocked data. To use it, first install it globally:

npm install -g graphql-faker

Then, to start the server, run:

npm run mocked

The server is now running on http://localhost:4000. If you want to change the address the clien should connect to, you can set the host and port configuration at src/config.json.

With real data

Instead of using mocked data, you can connect to a real OJS database. To connect to a OJS database, copy server/src/serverConfig.json.example to server/src/serverConfig.json and set the database connection configuration variables host, port, user, password, and database.

Then, to start the server, run:

npm run server

Protect your data

Now your data is served at port 4000 and can probably be accessed from outside your computer.

To avoid access from outside your computer, you can close the port for external connections:

iptables -A INPUT ! -s 127.0.0.1 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 4000 -j DROP

See Deployment section for instructions on how to password protect the data to allow external usage.

Run the web app

To run the web app, run:

npm start

A browser window should then open, with our web app working and connected to the server's data.

Deployment

To deploy the app you sould build it and serve it.

Build

• configure your src/config.jsonfile, and set the host to your server name, port to 433 and path to the path you want to use for your server, for instance graphql npm run build commands builds the solution

Protect the data

Disallow external access to port 4000

To avoid access from outside your computer, you can close the port for external connections:

iptables -A INPUT ! -s 127.0.0.1 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 4000 -j DROP

Set your HTTPS certificates

You can use let's encrypt, and set it up for your system and nginx server using the recommended certbot.

Set passwords to access the data

You can use basic .htpaccess protection. For that, install apache2-utils and set the password for your users

sudo apt-get install apache2-utils sudo htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/.htpasswd <username>

Serve

• First install serve: npm install -g serve

• Then serve the app: serve -s build

• The static files of npm run build are at build/ folder should be served. For that you can use nginx, with a configuration similar to:

server {
    listen 443;
    server_name <your_server_name>;

    # SSL Configuration using letsencrypt and certbot
    ssl on;
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/<your_server_name>/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/<your_server_name>/privkey.pem;

    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains";

    location /decentralized-science {
        alias <your_path_to_build/_folder>;
    }

    location <path_at_your_/src/config.json> {
        proxy_pass     http://localhost:4000/graphql;
        auth_basic            "Restricted Area";
        auth_basic_user_file  /etc/apache2/.htpasswd;
    }

Using Bloxgerg's Blockchain peer-review-app

Decentralized Science connects to Bloxberg Blockchain and it's peer reviewing app. In their blockchain, users can register their previous peer reviews, and import their Publons and F1000Research profiles.

Database configuration

Following database configuration instructions, configure your mongodb connection information:

• Copy sample configuration file: cp peer-review-app/server/config_template.js peer-review-app/server/config.js

• Edit the configuration file to include your mongodb connection details, for instance, set exports.databaseURI to the default value = 'mongodb://localhost:27017'.

Running blockchain server

run npm run bloxberg-server to start the server

Enjoy!

Your can access your password protected Decentralized Science Prototype at https://<your_server_name>/decentralized-science/