PowerPlatformConnectors/independent-publisher-conne.../Infura Ethereum
sebastianzolg f891a6c83f
Infura Ethereum (Independent Publisher) (#1410)
* Adds Infura Ethereum Connector v1

* Passing Swagger Verification

* Adds README.md

* Improved security and transformation docs

* Simplified usage of eth_getBalance method

* Update README.md to match template

* Remove empty properties from swagger.json

Co-authored-by: Sebastian Zolg <sebastian.zolg@swisscom.com>
2022-03-07 19:10:42 -08:00
..
README.md Infura Ethereum (Independent Publisher) (#1410) 2022-03-07 19:10:42 -08:00
apiDefinition.swagger.json Infura Ethereum (Independent Publisher) (#1410) 2022-03-07 19:10:42 -08:00
apiProperties.json Infura Ethereum (Independent Publisher) (#1410) 2022-03-07 19:10:42 -08:00
script.csx Infura Ethereum (Independent Publisher) (#1410) 2022-03-07 19:10:42 -08:00

README.md

Infura Ethereum Connector

Infura provides services to access the Ethereum Blockchain without your own Ethereum Node. This connector allows you to interact with the Ethereum Blockchain JSON-RPC API through Infura. Common use cases include checking your Ethereum account's (Wallet) balance, current gas fees, or information on the current block.

Publisher: Sebastian Zolg

Prerequisites

  • An Infura Free Plan (or higher)
  • An Infura Ethereum Project
  • The Project Id of the Infura Ethereum Project

Supported Operations

The connector supports the following operations:

Operation Id Name Description Support
eth_getBlockNumber Block Number Returns the number of most recent block.
eth_getBalance Balance Returns the balance of the account of given address.
eth_gasPrice Gas Price Returns the current price per gas in wei.

Obtaining Credentials

The Infura Ethereum Connector uses the Infura Project Id to communicate with the JSON-RPC endpoint. See the Getting Started section on how to get a new Project Id. The Project Id is considered a secret and securely stored inside the Power Platform connection. Do not share the Project Id.

Getting Started

  1. Signup for an Infura Free Plan.
  2. Go to your Infura Dashboard and click Create New Project.
  3. Select Ethereum as Product, and provide a new name, e.g. Power Platform Ethereum Connector.
  4. Inside your new project, click Project Settings.
  5. Copy the Project Id (not the Project Secret).
  6. Create a new Connection to the Infura Ethereum Connector, and provide the Project Id.

Known Issues and Limitations

  • Currently, there is no support for basic or JWT token authentication. Please refer to the Securing Infura section for further details.

Deployment Instructions

In addition to what is listed in the Getting Started section, please implement the connector according to the Securing Infura section for additional security. Please refer to the Transformation and Routing section to better understand how the connector works.

Securing Infura

As mentioned above, the Infura Project Id should be treated as a secret. Although the Power Platform is considered a secure environment, and the Project Id is stored as a secure string, it is used as part of the url path, which could result in leakage of your Project Id, e.g., through log files. There are more advanced security scenarios, such as JWT token auth, which isn't supported by this version of the connector.

To improve security, it is recommended to do the following:

  1. Go to your Infura Dashboard and click Settings on your project.
  2. Under Security configure PER SECOND REQUESTS RATE-LIMITING and PER DAY TOTAL REQUESTS according to your usage pattern.
  3. If known in advance, add every account and contract address you interact with to the CONTRACT ADDRESSES list.
  4. Set the allowed ORIGINS to *.flow.microsoft.com.
  5. Limit API REQUEST METHOD to the methods you use, e.g., eth_getBalance. See Supported Operations.

Transformation and Routing

Custom Code

This connector uses a custom code script (script.csx) to transform the API request from REST into JSON-RPC as used by the Infura API. JSON-RPC has a few downsides compared to REST when it comes to UX. To have the best possible UI support inside the Power Platform, we do the necessary transformation inside the connector's custom code. The most important transformation steps are as follows:

  • Flattening objects and their properties into a positional array understood by JSON-RPC.
  • Transforming the response (result) from HEX encoded byte strings into decimal values for ease of use.

Path Templates

Unlike RESTful APIs, JSON-RPC doesn't rely on url path templates. Instead, every request hits the exact same url. The action to be invoked, such as eth_getBalance is provided as a method property in the post body. This pattern can't be modeled as OpenAPI (swagger) natively. Since the Power Platform experience relies on this pattern, we model the connector as a RESTful API and use a Route request policy template to redirect every incoming request to a single JSON-RPC endpoint. Furthermore, we use this approach to append the necessary Project Id to the path template on the fly. See the apiProperties.json file for details.