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npChat is a photo and file sharing application built on Android and is inspired by Snapchat. The project'sgoals are to develop a completely decentralized application that runs over the Named Data Network (NDN), utilizea partial sync protocol, and utilize a Web-Of-Trust like model instead of the traditional NDN hierarchical model.

npChat requires the NDN Forwarding Daemon be run alongside it. NFD can be installed viaGoogle Play or directly from thesource.

This build depends on PSync JNI. CloneAndroid Crew Staging inyourAndroid/Sdk/ndk-bundle folder and install ndn-cxx and prerequisites.NFD is not needed unless you plan to buildNFD-android.Being in the ndk-bundle directory, execute the following commands:

CREW_OWNER=named-data-mobile crew.dir/crew install target/sqlite target/opensslCREW_OWNER=named-data-mobile crew.dir/crew install target/boost target/ndn_cxxCREW_OWNER=named-data-mobile crew.dir/crew install target/psync

Use--no-check-shasum if there are problems with shasum.

Also add theselocal.properties file if not already added:

ndk.dir=/path/to/Android/Sdk/ndk-bundlesdk.dir=/path/to/Android/Sdk

After installing PSync, it is recommended that one uses Android Studio to build the app.Simply pull this repository and allow the project to build itself.No other installations are required at this point of time.All other dependencies are pulled from external sources when the build file executes.This application only works on Android OS 6.0 and above.

Launch NFD and check "NFD is started."

npChat can communicate via:

1. NFD's Wifi Direct feature: Within the NFD app setup WiFi direct between phones manually. Usually this is done once and NFD remembers. If there are problems, please force close NFD and setup the WiFi direct again. More details about NFD's wifi direct feature can be foundhere.

2. Automatically over a network that supports UDP multicast or DNS Service Discovery. Please note that UDP multicast has been known to exhibit higher packet loss than UDP unicast over WiFi direct.

Once NFD is started, launch npChat and register a username and password for that device. Friends are added under the "Friends" menu by having each device display its QR code and the other device scanning the code in turn.

Click "Camera," take a picture, and follow the on-screen steps to share a picture with friends.

For our tests, we have been using two MotoX (2nd Gen) phones running LineageOS version 13 with Android 6.0.1.

Please read theNDN Contributing Guide. We are not currently using Gerrit on this project, so that part can be ignored for now. Contributions should follow theNDN Style Guide.

A list of noteable issues can be found at ourRedmine.

Our chat channel is onSlack

Please join our mailing list to discuss questions regarding the project:https://named-data.net/codebase/platform/support/mailing-lists/