multiformats

This library is for building an interface for working with various inter-related multiformat technologies (multicodec, multihash, multibase, and CID).

The interface contains all you need for encoding and decoding the basic structures with no codec information, codec encoder/decoders, base encodings or hashing functions. You can then add codec info, codec encoders/decoders, base encodings, and hashing functions to the interface.

This allows you to pass around an interface containing only the code you need which can greatly reduce dependencies and bundle size.

import { create } from 'multiformats'
import sha2 from 'multiformats/hashes/sha2.js'
import dagcbor from '@ipld/dag-cbor'
const { multihash, multicodec, CID } = create()
multihash.add(sha2)
multicodec.add(dagcbor)

const buffer = multicodec.encode({ hello, 'world' }, 'dag-cbor')
const hash = await multihash.hash(buffer, 'sha2-256')
// raw codec is the only codec that is there by default
const cid = new CID(1, 'raw', hash)

However, if you're doing this much you should probably use multiformats with the Block API.

// Import basics package with dep-free codecs, hashes, and base encodings
import multiformats from 'multiformats/basics.js'
import dagcbor from '@ipld/dag-cbor'
import { create } from '@ipld/block' // Yet to be released Block interface
multiformats.multicodec.add(dagcbor)
const Block = create(multiformats)
const block = Block.encoder({ hello: world }, 'dag-cbor')
const cid = await block.cid()

Plugins

By default, no base encodings, hash functions, or codec implementations are included with multiformats. However, you can import the following bundles to get a multiformats interface with them already configured.

bundle	bases	hashes	codecs
multiformats/basics	base32, base64	sha2-256, sha2-512	json, raw

Base Encodings (multibase)

bases	import	repo
base16	multiformats/bases/base16	multiformats/js-multiformats
base32, base32pad, base32hex, base32hexpad, base32z	multiformats/bases/base32	multiformats/js-multiformats
base64, base64pad, base64url, base64urlpad	multiformats/bases/base64	multiformats/js-multiformats
base58btc, base58flick4	multiformats/bases/base58	multiformats/js-multiformats

Hash Functions (multihash)

hashes	import	repo
sha2-256, sha2-512	multiformats/hashes/sha2	multiformats/js-multiformats
sha3-224, sha3-256, sha3-384,sha3-512, shake-128, shake-256, keccak-224, keccak-256, keccak-384, keccak-512	@multiformats/sha3	multiformats/js-sha3
murmur3-128, murmur3-32	@multiformats/murmur3	multiformats/js-murmur3

Codec Implementations (multicodec)

codec	import	repo
raw	multiformats/codecs/raw	multiformats/js-multiformats
json	multiformats/codecs/json	multiformats/js-multiformats
dag-cbor	@ipld/dag-cbor	ipld/js-dag-cbor
dag-json	@ipld/dag-json	ipld/js-dag-json

API

multiformats([table])

Returns a new multiformats interface.

Can optionally pass in a table of multiformat entries.

multihash

multihash.encode

multihash.decode

multihash.validate

multihash.add

multihash.hash

multicodec

multicodec.encode

multicodec.decode

multicodec.add

multibase

multibase.encode

multibase.decode

multibase.add

CID

Changes from cids:

• All base encodings are cached indefinitely.
• CID's can be created without any multiformat data.
  • The new API is entirely based on parsing the varints so it doesn't need the table metadata in order to associate string names.

There are also numerous deprecations. These deprecations all stem from the fact that we no longer know the full set of available multicodec information. It's actually quite possible to provide a CID interface without this, you can still do everything you used to do, you just need to use ints instead of strings and do some of the fancier V0 coercions outside this library.

Deprecation List:

• the multibase encoding is no longer cached during instantiation.
  • this being indeterministic was causing some nasty problems downstream since toString() needs to be used as a cache key and it's not possible to encode V0 into anything but base58btc. this means that you can't have deterministic hash keys without also requiring base58btc support, so we removed this feature.
• no longer accept bare multihash buffers as V0, only base58btc encoded strings or the complete set of parts with the multihash as the third argument.
  • The logic for treating these as V0 was problematic and could lead to unwanted errors. In practice, the places we need to handle V0 are known and we can move this logic there if necessary and then instantiate a CID with all the necessary args.
  • Some of the prior code relied on knowing the full set of possible base prefixes, which we can no longer do.
• no more .toBaseEncodedString(), just toString()
• no more .multibaseName
• no more .prefix()
• no more .codec
  • new property ".code" is the multiformat integer.
  • this is going to be a painful transition but we have to get off of using the string if we ever want to drop the full table. while the DX for this is nice it forces into bloating the bundle and makes using new codecs very painful.