Create a zone

One JSON file can manage hundreds of zones and domain names. Let's setup our first zone in dappy.config.json.

A zone is simply the equivalent of a DNS (domain name system) zone, in the dappy name system. We will create a simple zone, the goal is to have a https website running on localhost (IP 127.0.0.1).

Maybe your zones are already up to date

Depending on how you started, your zones may already be in sync with the blockchain state, it's always worth checking.

npx @fabcotech/dappy-cli status

Let's create a new record in one of the zones that you have downloaded (you can also create from scratch).

dappy.config.json

{
  "options": { ... },
  "zones": [
    {
      "origin": "mydomain",
      "ttl": 3600,
      "records": [
        {
          "name": "@",
          "type": "A",
          "data": "127.0.0.1"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

🔍 Take the time to understand what is going on. Dappy CLI has created a new entry in the config.zones array. This new entry has three interesting properties:

• origin: "mydomain" : this must obviously be replaced by your domain (without the .d or .gamma at the end) this is the TLD.
• type "A" record with data: "127.0.0.1" : this tells dappy browser or any program that can resolve dappy names that "127.0.0.1" is the IP address at which the web app corresponding to "mydomain" will be served.

npx @fabcotech/dappy-cli push

The owner TXT record, what is it ?

If you created dappy.config.json file from scratch, you may have the following log.

Using dappy network gamma
⨯ mydomain           : local zone is invalid, no owner

That is great, it means the config file lacks the only record that is always needed for a zone to be valid : a TXT record with the owner (identified with the public key).

This record (and public key) is used by each member of a dappy network when he wants to check that a zone update is legitimate. Only you with your private key will be able to air messages that will be accepted by the dappy network as a whole.

If you don't know your public key :

npx @fabcotech/dappy-cli printpublickey

dappy.config.json

{
  "options": { ... },
  "zones": [
    {
      "origin": "mydomain",
      "ttl": 3600,
      "records": [
        ...
        { "name": "@", "type": "TXT", "data": "OWNER=mypublickey" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

The no owner error should be gone now.

npx @fabcotech/dappy-cli push

You should have the following log.

Using dappy network gamma
Will process the following zones        : mydomain
Dappy network   :  gamma
Public key      :  abcdefgh
Purchases and updates were deployed, now do dappy-cli check to verify the state of your domains

That's it, our zone is created or updated, you can check as many time as you want now that your DNS zone is stored in the dappy name system, and ready to be resolved (co-resolved) by clients.

npx @fabcotech/dappy-cli status

🔍 What's hapenning under the hood ?

When you do the push command, dappy CLI takes your private key, signes the zone, sends this signed message to a member of the dappy network it knows. The network members will each verify the message, update the zone and gossip the message to others. After few seconds everyone has the new version and clients can keep or start doing co-resolution !