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Eclipse Connector

Introduction

The Eclipse Dataspace Components (EDC) provide a framework for sovereign, inter-organizational data sharing. They implement the IDS Dataspace Protocol (DSP) as well as relevant protocols associated with GAIA-X. The EDC are designed in an extensible way in order to support alternative protocols and integrate in various ecosystems.

Eclipse also offers the Minimum Viable Dataspace (MVD), a sample implementation of a dataspace that leverages the Eclipse Dataspace Components (EDC). The main purpose is to demonstrate the capabilities of the EDC, make dataspace concepts tangible based on a specific implementation, and to serve as a starting point to implement a custom dataspace.

Below is a step-by-step description of deploying this example locally, and some first impressions are documented.

Getting started

The example shows three companies forming a data space through their corresponding connectors. In addition, each company has access to a web dashboard where, among other things, they can see a catalog of the data offered by the other companies.

The dashboard lets you "negotiate contracts" to access the data offered by the other companies. Once a contract has been negotiated, the data can be downloaded.

The data exchanged are files stored in Azurite (a local Azure instance, just like Amazon's buckets). In other words, the Eclipse Minimum Viable Data space essentially provides a controlled environment for file exchange.

Set-up

  1. First, make sure that Java 17 is installed in your system. If you are on Ubuntu / Debian you can install it by: 

    sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk

  2. Once your system is ready, clone the web dashboard: 

    git clone https://github.com/eclipse-edc/DataDashboard

  3. Then set the environment variable MVD_UI_PATH to the path of the cloned DataDashboard repository: 

    export MVD_UI_PATH="/path/to/mvd-datadashboard"

  4. Now, clone the MVD repository and navigate to its root folder: 

    git clone https://github.com/eclipse-edc/MinimumViableDataspace && cd MinimumViableDataspace

  5. Build the MVD 
    ./gradlew build -x test
  6. Build the EDC Connector and RegistrationService runtimes. As we are running MVD locally, we include useFsVault to indicate that the system will be using the local file-system based key vault. Execute the following command to build the connector JAR and registration service JAR: 
    ./gradlew -DuseFsVault="true" :launchers:connector:shadowJar
./gradlew -DuseFsVault="true" :launchers:registrationservice:shadowJar

  7. Then, to bring up the dataspace with the ui profile, please execute the following command from the MVD root folder: 

    docker compose --profile ui -f system-tests/docker-compose.yml up --build

  8. Set the environment variable `TEST_ENVIRONMENT`` to local to enable local blob transfer test and then run MVD system test using the following command: 

    export TEST_ENVIRONMENT=local
./gradlew :system-tests:test -DincludeTags="ComponentTest,EndToEndTest"

File transfer demo

  1. Download and install Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer to connect to the Azurite storage container. It will let us view the transferred files.

  2. Using Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer, connect to the local blob storage account on localhost:10000 (provided by Azurite) of company1:

    • Account name: company1assets
    • Password: key1

  3. Create a container named src-container.

  4. Upload a dummy text-document.text file into the newly created container.
  5. The following steps initiate and complete a file transfer with the provided test document:
    1. Open the website of company1 (e.g. http://localhost:7080) and verify the existence of two assets in the section Assets.
    2. Open the website of the company2 (e.g. http://localhost:7081) and verify six existing assets from all participants in the Catalog Browser.
      • In the Catalog Browser click Negotiate for the asset test-document_company1.
        • There should be a message Contract Negotiation complete! Show me! in less than a minute.
    3. From the previous message click Show me!. If you missed it, switch manually to the section Contracts.
      • There should be a new contract. Click Transfer to initiate the transfer process.
      • A dialog should open. Here, select as destination AzureStorage and click Start transfer.
      • There should be a message Transfer [id] complete! Show me! in less than a minute. (Where id is a UUID.)
    4. To verify the successful transfer the Storage Explorer can be used to look into the storage account of company2.
      • Storage account name and key is set in system-tests/docker-compose.yml for the service azurite. Default name is company2assets, key is key2.
      • There should be new container in the storage account containing two files .complete and text-document.txt.