IPFS Companion 2.2.0 brings window.ipfs to your Browser

We are pleased to announce to everyone in our community that a new version of our browser extension has been released!

🔦 Highlights

Your node is exposed as window.ipfs on every webpage

The API aims to be compatible with interface-ipfs-core, which means websites can now detect if the property exists in window context and opt-in to use it instead of creating their own js-ipfs node. It saves system resources and battery (on mobile), avoids the overhead of peer discovery/connection, enables shared repository access and more!

Make sure to read our notes on exposing IPFS API as window.ipfs, where we explain it in-depth and provide examples on how to use it your own dapp.

You can also play with simple demo apps that take advantage of window.ipfs :

IPFS Peer Map provides a visualization of ipfs.swarm.peers

PeerID-to-QRCode creates QR Codes based on ipfs.id

and obligatory TODO App, uses ipfs.files for storage

Embedded js-ipfs Node

The Browser Action menu provides a toggle for switching between external IPFS node accessed over HTTP API and embedded, in-memory instance of js-ipfs.

The embedded node is great for quickly sharing files with someone, or for testing a dapp that uses window.ipfs without having to install and start up your own IPFS daemon. Power users can provide own config (eg. to enable experimental pubsub) via Preferences.

Note: The embedded node does not run when external node is selected. Every time you switch back to the embedded node, a new instance is created on-demand. It can take a few seconds for a brand-new node to find peers.

…and more!

For a longer walkthrough of new features see Release Notes for v2.2.0.

Install it today!

Firefox Chrome / Chromium

Want to contribute?

Would you like to contribute to the IPFS browser extension and don’t know how? Well, there are a few places you can get started:

Do you have questions?

The best place to ask your questions about IPFS, how it works and what you can do with it is at discuss.ipfs.io. We are also available at the #ipfs channel on Freenode.

That is all for this post. Thank you for being part of the community. Have a great day!