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Backend

This guide assumes that you have already installed your stack.

The source code can be found at the Engine repository.

Structure

Minds follows an abstraction design pattern - by separating complex processes into standalone chunks with singular responsibilities, it's easier to conduct tests and update infrastructure.

The backend is split into two main areas, Core and Controllers:

  • Core is where all the heavy lifting modules and internal apis exist.
  • Controllers support both CLI and REST api's. These are publicly exposed, as are the public interfaces for the Core modules and managers.
engine
└───Core
│ │

└───Controllers
│ └───Cli
│ │ └───
│ └───api
│ │ └───v1
│ │ └───v2

└───Common

└───...

See the backend modules walk-through for detailed information about how to build a core module

Events

TODO: Add examples of how each type is used

There are two types of events handling in the backend:

  • Internal events dispatcher - when you want to do something inside the same thread
  • Event queue - when it's ok for the process to go to the background and do something at another time

Runners

The Core/Queue/Runners/ folder contains the things that use runners, such as notifications, emails, and feeds. See NotificationDispatcher.php for an example of how the notification runner works.

To start all runners:

docker-compose up runners

Runners are resource intensive, so you may wish to run just one, depending on what you're working on. For example, if you're testing a new notification, run:

docker-compose exec php-fpm php /var/www/Minds/engine/cli.php QueueRunner run --runner=NotificationDispatcher

Spec tests

Minds uses phpspec and encourages test-first development.

See the backend tests walk-through for detailed info on writing and running tests

Controllers

CLI

Available commands are stored in the Controllers/Cli/ folder.

To execute, use this syntax:

run php cli {CliClassName} {functionName}

So, for Controllers/Cli/QueueRunner.php, you would use:

run php cli QueueRunner run --runner=NotificationDispatcher

Or, for top feeds at Controllers/Cli/Top.php you could use:

run php cli Top sync_activity
  • file called CLI (in engine) php-CLI
  • how to set them up and run them - then the name of the cli class name (under controller/cli) then you can just execute them as functions
    • e.g cli.php.top sync_activity // rewards_issue(username)

api

Interacting with databases

Cassandra

  • Most of our data is stored in Cassandra - but we also dual write some things to Elasticsearch because querying/reading in Cassandra can be restrictive and cumbersome.
  • All communication with Cassandra should go through a Repository as described in the module diagram.
use Minds\Core\Di\Di;

...

$this->client = $client ?: Di::_()->get('Database\Cassandra\Cql');

See the infinite-scroll walk-through for a sample Cassandra interaction

Elasticsearch

Although we store almost all of our important data in Cassandra, we alse use Elasticsearch because it is better at querying/reading data than Casssandra. Besides metrics, everything in Elasticsearch - including the newsfeed and top feed - is ephemeral.

See Feeds/Repository.php for an example that includes dual writing to both Cassandra and Elasticsearch.

Caching with Redis

Minds uses Redis to cache certain types of data (e.g. channel subscriber counts) so we can access them in a lightweight, straightforward way without repeatedly performing complicated database queries.

The cache should be cleared whenever the data changes (e.g. a channel gets a new subscriber).

See Redis.php for the cacher, and Comments.php for an example.

Errors & Exceptions

TODO: Currently being reworked

Utilities

BigNumber

The Ethereum blockchain (upon which the Minds Token is based) uses 18-digit numbers that are too large to handle in the same way we handle smaller numbers. As a workaround, we use the BigNumber utility in BigNumber.php, which allows us to specify an especially large number as a string but still use it as a number.

use Minds\Core\Util\BigNumber;

...

$offChainBalanceVal = BigNumber::_($offChainBalance->get());
// or
$amount = (int) BigNumber::_($purchase->getAmount())->div(10 ** 18)->toString();`

Unique identifiers

GUIDS

Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDS) are being phased out. GUIDs are numerical and time-based and were originally used because Cassandra didn't have an autoincrementing ID system.

UUIDs

We are moving toward Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) as we move away from GUIDs.

Use UUIDs with Cassandra's UUID library and the UUIDGenerator.

use Cassandra\Uuid;
use Minds\Core\Util\UUIDGenerator;

...

$uuid = $entity->getUuid() ?: Core\Util\UUIDGenerator::generate();
$values = [
new Uuid($uuid),
...
];

See Notification/CassandraRepository.php for an example.

UUIDs can be version-2 (time-based) or version-4 (random). We generally use version-2 but have the option to use version-4 in scenarios where we are handling sensitive information that shouldn't be associated with creation time.

URNs

Uniform Resource Names (urns) include type information, which adds additional data into GUIDs/UUIDs and helps for indexing. Urns can be packed with multiple parts, each separated by a colon. Because they aren't limited like a single GUID/UUID, they can be used to neatly convey various types of information, including nesting contexts (which is helpful for comment threads - see Comment.php for more).

To create a new urn:

use Minds\Common\Urn;

...

$this->urn = $urn ?: new Urn;

To get an urn:

// Simple example: group
public function getUrn()
{
return "urn:group:{$this->guid}";
}
// Multi-part example: jury report
public function getUrn()
{
$parts = [
"({$this->getEntityUrn()})",
$this->getReasonCode(),
$this->getSubReasonCode(),
$this->getTimestamp(),
];
return "urn:report:" . implode('-', $parts);
}

Cookies

To generate a cookie, use Minds\Common\Cookie. See Cookie.php for details.

See pageview.php for an example that sets the Minds mwa cookie. Also see Controllers/api/v2/cookies.php.

Authentication

Two types of authentication:

  1. Session cookies
  2. OAuth (used on mobile)

To protect our apis from being used in Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF/XSRF) attacks, we leverage the Same-Origin Policy, which states that browsers may only perform certain sensitive operations (such as reading cookies and setting headers) by code running on our website, not another website.

So we store a unique XSRF-TOKEN cookie for every logged-in user session. When the application wants to make a request, it has to send a custom HTTP header along with the token. Because Minds is the only domain that can set the header or access the cookie, we know that the request is coming from Minds.com.

Access the current active user

In the backend, use Session.php to get the current active user:

Core\Session::getLoggedinUser();

In the frontend, import the Session service and:

const user = this.session.getLoggedInUser();

System logs

docker-compose logs -f php-fpm

Working with the newsfeed

We load in 150 items in a feed then hydrate them on the client side. Why? Because we can't maintain the pagination indexes for dynamic feeds (such as top feeds, which change depending on user votes) on the server side. It also allows caching on the client side, which means faster load times.