NEX Deployment

Steps to deploy the NEX for production on chain:

1. Prerequisites

Install the build dependencies on Linux using apt-get command line tool. It is the tool which helps in handling the packages in Linux. The main purpose of the tool is to retrieve the information and packages from an authenticated source for installation, upgrade, and removal of packages with dependencies.

$ apt-get update 

// update the package index files on the system, display information about available package, version.

$ apt-get install build-essential nasm

// Install the build to compile software

2. Installation

Node v16+ is required and it can be installed using nvm following the below instruction

Installing & updating

To install or update nvm run the install script. There are many ways to install, download and run the script manually, or use cURL or Wget command

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.3/install.sh | bash

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.3/install.sh | bash

Running either of the above commands download the script and run it. The script clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm, and attempts to add the source lines from the snippet below to the correct profile file (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.bashrc).

Command to load the nvm is given below

export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

Click the below link to learn in detail about the nvm installation, troubleshooting, and usage

GitHub - nvm-sh/nvm: Node Version Manager - POSIX-compliant bash script to manage multiple active node.js versionsGitHub

Check whether you are in the application's root directory and then install app dependencies:

To install node using nvm

nvm install 16 && nvm use 16

The script create a nvm repository and it will be used for cloning.

Clone the repository created by using the below command:

git clone https://gitlab.com/PBSA/NEX.git 

If the user creates a node in their own network, then <branch name> has to given by the User. By default, the branch name will be the production branch name.

git clone https://gitlab.com/PBSA/NEX.git -b <branch name>

Install npm using the below command

npm install

3. ENV configuration

Create a file name .env in the root of the repository:

cp .env.example .env

In the .env file update the required details,

# Token symbol
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_TOKEN=''

# Token symbol
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_QUOTE=''

# Full URL to the blockchain's faucet
NEXT_PUBLIC_FAUCET_URL=''

# Chain ID of the blockchain
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_CHAIN_ID=''

Example code to fill the .env file,

# Used for connecting to the mainnet:
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_TOKEN='PPY'
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_QUOTE='BTC'
NEXT_PUBLIC_FAUCET_URL='https://faucet.peerplays.download/faucet/api/v1/accounts'
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_CHAIN_ID='6b6b5f0ce7a36d323768e534f3edb41c6d6332a541a95725b98e28d140850134'

If the NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_CHAIN_ID is not equal to mainnet chain id (6b6b5f0ce7a36d323768e534f3edb41c6d6332a541a95725b98e28d140850134), then the app will use testnet nodes.

4. Node list

The node list has the collection of nodes and their respective region. If the user has created a node in their own network, then the information has to be updated to the nodeslist.ts file.

The file is available in the location: /src/api/params/nodesList.ts

nodesList.ts

import counterpart from "counterpart";

import { Node } from "../../common/types";

import { testnetCheck } from "./networkParams";

export const nodeRegions = [
  // region of the node follows roughly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subregion#/media/File:United_Nations_geographical_subregions.png
  "Northern Europe",
  "Western Europe",
  "Southern Europe",
  "Eastern Europe",
  "Northern Asia",
  "Western Asia",
  "Southern Asia",
  "Eastern Asia",
  "Central Asia",
  "Southeastern Asia",
  "Australia and New Zealand",
  "Melanesia",
  "Polynesia",
  "Micronesia",
  "Northern Africa",
  "Western Africa",
  "Middle Africa",
  "Eastern Africa",
  "Southern Africa",
  "Northern America",
  "Central America",
  "Caribbean",
  "South America",
];

// node location could be the city name

export const testnetNodes: Node[] = [
  {
    url: "wss://fake.automatic-selection.com",
    location: counterpart.translate("settings.api_closest"),
  },
  {
    url: "wss://devnet.peerplays.download/api",
    location: "",
    region: "Northern America",
    country: "Canada",
    user: {
      name: "Peerplays Witnesses",
      status: "Witness",
    },
  },
];

export const prodNodes: Node[] = [
  {
    url: "wss://fake.automatic-selection.com",
    location: counterpart.translate("settings.api_closest"),
  },
  {
    url: "wss://ca.peerplays.info",
    location: "",
    region: "Northern America",
    country: "Canada",
    user: {
      name: "Peerplays Witnesses",
      status: "Witness",
    },
  },
  {
    url: "wss://de.peerplays.xyz",
    location: "",
    region: "Western Europe",
    country: "Germany",
    user: {
      name: "Peerplays Witnesses",
      status: "Witness",
    },
  },
  {
    url: "wss://pl.peerplays.org",
    location: "",
    region: "Eastern Europe",
    country: "Poland",
    user: {
      name: "Peerplays Witnesses",
      status: "Witness",
    },
  },
];

export const automaticSelection = "wss://fake.automatic-selection.com";

export const defaultNodesList = testnetCheck ? testnetNodes : prodNodes;me code

The User has to add their node and region in the file. An example is shown below,

{
    url: "<Provide the new network URL>",  
    #Example:    "wss://devnet.peerplays.download/api"
    location: "",
    region: "Northern America", # Replace with the Region & Country of New node
    country: "Canada",
    user: {
      name: "Peerplays Witnesses", # Replace the Name and status of New node
      status: "Witness",
    },
  },

5. Manual starting after installation and ENV configuration

Development

npm run dev
# or
yarn dev

Open http://localhost:3000 with your browser to see the results.

Production

Install pm2 globally

 npm install pm2 -g

Make sure you are in the application's root directory,

A. Build production distribution

npm run build

B. Serve the application

pm2 start npm --name <must be unique> -- start

Now, the application is ready to be used.

6. NGINX configuration - Example configuration to create Proxy

server {
        listen 80;
        server_name <domain name or serve ip address>;
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.html index.htm;

        location / {
                proxy_pass             http://127.0.0.1:3000;
                proxy_read_timeout     60;
                proxy_connect_timeout  60;
                proxy_redirect         off;

                # Allow the use of websockets
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
                proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
                proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        }
}

Click the below link to have a glance at the readme.md file to check the steps

https://gitlab.com/PBSA/NEX/-/blob/main/README.md

Glossary

Glossary	Description
APT	Advanced Packaging Tool
Build Essential	Form of meta packages that are essential to compile software.
nvm	Node version manager for node.js designed to be installed per-user and invoked per-shell.
nasm	Netwide Assembler, a portable 80x80 assembler
pm2	PM2 is a node.js process manager that comes with a built-in load balancer. It helps facilitate production deployments and enables you to keep running applications alive indefinitely.
NGINX	NGINX is open source software for web serving, reverse proxying, caching, load balancing, media streaming, and more. It started out as a web server designed for maximum performance and stability.