🤫Handling Secrets

How to set your secrets in core settings for your Phat Contract.

Storing Secrets in Your Application: A Step-by-Step Guide

In the world of software development, it's crucial to keep certain pieces of information, such as API keys, passwords, and other sensitive data, hidden and secure. This is where the concept of secrets comes into play. In this guide, we'll walk you through the process of storing secrets in your Phat Contract using the secrets parameter in main(request: HexString, secrets: string) function.

Note: The example provided is a simple example, but the customization of passing secrets and the variable names is solely up to the developer.

The secrets are passed via end-to-end encrypted communication between the deployer and a secure off-chain worker in a cluster of workers on Phala Network. Security and privacy of the secrets are guaranteed by Intel SGX Trusted Execution Environment. To learn more about Phala's decentralized off-chain computation architecture, read our docs here.

Step 1: Passing a JSON String

The first step in this process involves using the secrets parameter. This parameter is designed to accept a string that is in JSON format. JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a lightweight data-interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate.

Here's how you can pass a JSON string using the secrets parameter:

let secrets = JSON.stringify({
    apiUrl: "http://myapi.com",
    superSecret: "mySuperSecret",
    secretProof: "mySecretProof"
});

In this example, we're creating a JSON string that contains three properties: apiUrl, superSecret, and secretProof. If you are setting your secrets in the Phat Contract 2.0 UI, you will set the secrets like this in the "Settings" of your deployed Phat Contract.

Step 2: Parsing the JSON String

Once you've passed the JSON string, the next step is to parse it. Parsing is the process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures. In this case, we're parsing the JSON string to store variables for apiUrl, superSecret, and secretProof.

Here's how you can parse the JSON string:

let parsedSecrets = JSON.parse(secrets);

In this example, we're using the JSON.parse() method to convert the JSON string back into an object, which allows us to store the variables.

Step 3: Understanding the Variables

Now that we've parsed the JSON string, let's take a closer look at the variables we've stored:

1. apiUrl: This variable is used to store the URL of your API. It's where your application will send requests to retrieve or manipulate data.

2. superSecret: This variable is typically used to store a secret key or password. It's crucial to keep this information secure as it can be used to authenticate your application and protect sensitive data.

3. secretProof: This variable is often used as an additional layer of security. It can be used to verify the authenticity of the 'superSecret' variable.

The Main Function

The function that brings all these steps together looks like this:

export default function main(request: HexString, secrets: string): HexString {
    let parsedSecrets = JSON.parse(secrets);
    // use parsedSecrets.apiUrl, parsedSecrets.superSecret, parsedSecrets.secretProof
}

In this function, we're accepting two parameters: request and secrets. The request parameter is a hexadecimal string, while the secrets parameter is a string that we parse into a JSON object. The function then returns a hexadecimal string.

And there you have it! You've successfully stored secrets in your application. Remember, keeping your sensitive data secure is crucial in software development, so always make sure to handle your secrets with care.