Storing user profile's data on Blockchain

[qualwebs]

How can I allow the user to store its profile's data on blockchain ? My use case goes something like this :-

I want to store user profile's data like username, age, email and related fields on blockchain itself. However, the problem is when I try to make an API Call to store data, I get a missing_active_authority error.

Example : Based on my observations, If I am trying to store data inside nathan's account, then nathan's account must satisfy following two conditions inside cli_wallet :-

1. Nathan's Private keys must be imported inside the Cli_Wallet using the import_key account_name [private_key] command.
2. Nathan's Account must have sufficient amount of funds to perform custom operation (Store data)

Example :

1. User will have the following form to store the data, and the username will be the account's name.

2. When I click submit, a node API is hit that is connected with the CLI Wallet's API and calls the account_store_map function. But, the CLI Wallet is giving the missing required active authority error.

Missing Required Active Authority Error :-

I wanted to ask, is there any other way to allow user to store data? How a typical user on web wallet perform the operations, why don't they get this error and is there anyway to achieve something similar to this using an API built from scratch ?
The above operation can be easily done through CLI Wallet but if I am implementing this functionality in my app, then a typical user will not be using the cli wallet right ? That's why I want to explore if this would be possible, any guidance and help will be greatly appreciated from the community.

[abitmore]

1. Nathan's Private keys must be imported inside the Cli_Wallet using the import_key account_name [private_key] command.
2. Nathan's Account must have sufficient amount of funds to perform custom operation (Store data)

3. The wallet must be unlocked.

[abitmore]

When I click submit, a node API is hit that is connected with the CLI Wallet's API

Please be aware that web wallet connects to API nodes directly, just like cli_wallet (which connects to an API node too). And web wallet manages private keys too. In this case, you need to sign the transaction (which contains the "custom_operation") in the web wallet (just like what cli_wallet does), then broadcast the signed transaction to the network via the API node, but not call a wallet API in the web wallet - you should not call "wallet API" in web wallet but only "node APIs". See https://dev.bitshares.works/en/master/development/apps/network_general.html for network structure.

[qualwebs]

In this case, you need to sign the transaction (which contains the "custom_operation") in the web wallet

By signing the transaction in the web wallet, you mean I need to modify the web wallet code to sign a transaction in it by using some library like bitsharesjs ?

Also, for signing a transaction I will need a private key but when the user logs-in or creates an account from the web wallet they only have a random password generated by browser. Do you mean to say something like?.... - "I should extract the private key from other part of the codebase of the web wallet (bitshares-ui) in my Update Profile Form, and then sign a transaction in this form itself".

you should not call "wallet API" in web wallet but only "node APIs

Another thing, the node api as I saw doesn't have the account_store_map method, then how will I be able to store the data ?

[abitmore]

Since it looks like you're already adding the "Update Profile Form" in bitshares-ui, I think serialization of account_storage_map need to be implemented in bitsharesjs so that it can be used in bitshares-ui. Note that account_storage_map might be a little different than other operations there because it is wrapped in custom_operation. BTW you don't need to worry about how to get the private key from the password in bitshares-ui, usually you only need to call the sign() function or alike if all the required work in bitsharesjs is done.

[abitmore]

how will I be able to store the data

You store data on the blockchain by signing a transaction and broadcasting it to the network (then it gets included into a new block).

[qualwebs]

Since it looks like you're already adding the "Update Profile Form" in bitshares-ui

Indeed, yes.

I think serialization of account_storage_map need to be implemented in bitsharesjs

I explored the code base of bitsharesjs, found some piece of code that's implementing the various different operations, I've defined a temporary operation for storing data account_store_map inside operations.js, (will have to modify this according to account_storage_map's structure right ?) and inorder to implement the serialization for this operation based on your response I guess I have to implement the serialization part in some other separate file, probably under the serialization folder. But what I couldn't wrap my head around is, how do I get the account_storage_map accessible in bitsharesjs because it is a part of custom_operations plugin which cannot be installed using npm. I wonder whether it will work if I simply copy the plugins inside the bitsharesjs folder and then import it inside my serialization file.

(See the last operation below comments)

Structure of account_storage_map :-

struct account_storage_map : chain::base_operation
{
   bool remove;
   string catalog;
   flat_map<string, optional<string>> key_values;

   void validate()const;
};

BTW you don't need to worry about how to get the private key from the password in bitshares-ui

Got it, thanks.

[abitmore]

Disclaimer: I'm not a JS expert, so my answer here could be wrong.

By adding / defining a new Serializer for account_store_map in bitsharesjs, it becomes a part of the bitsharesjs library, then it can be used just like other types or operations. Nevertheless, it is not directly a part of an operation, but a structure to describe data in the data field of custom_operation, so it is a challenge - how to add it so that it works and how to use it. Not like other types, I guess we may need to explicitly call serialize() somewhere.

Please check examples in https://github.com/bitshares/bitsharesjs/tree/develop/examples for how to use and test the new structure.

BTW I think you need to modify the source code of bitsharesjs and then rebuild it, then install it (E.G. with npm) locally for development, but not directly editing code in node_modules/*/dist, because the code might get overwritten accidentally under some circumstances. For production use you need to submit your code to Github then create a pull request at https://github.com/bitshares/bitsharesjs/pulls .

[qualwebs]

So, to summarize what you mean is I have to do following things so that I might be able to store data in the user's account :-

1. Somehow figure out how to import the custom_operations_plugin from the bitshares-core/lib/plugins/custom_operations into the bitsharesjs and making it work is a challenge
2. Define my own custom object structure for account_storage_map (that will be available now because we imported custom_operations_plugin in previous step)
3. Define a custom serialization method to serialize a new operation that can be used to store data
4. And after all the modification is done, I gotta rebuild it.

[abitmore]

Maybe you misunderstood something or I misunderstood you, but we don't import a C++ plugin (custom_operations_plugin) into a javascript library (bitsharesjs), so your summary looks strange. There was a tool that we used to generate javascript code (for bitsharesjs) from C++ code (bitshares-core), but that tool is a bit outdated now and I guess it no longer works.