Thing Maker

Create a distributed Thing using the BitTorrent network.

The idea behind the Thing Maker is to use BitTorrent to distribute Thing Tracker things. An overview of the idea can be found here, and an overview of signing and versioning can be found here.


This page helps with the steps of the process shown below:
image/svg+xml Step 3.Add or updateThing metadataby filling the form. Step 5.Seed and publishyour Thing. Step 1.Select the filesfor your Thing. Step 4.Optionallysign yourThing. Step 2.Provide any priorversion Thing fileas a template.

STEP 1

Identify the files to be included in your Thing.
Currently, you can either select a single file by clicking on the button below and using the "File Upload" dialog to navigate to and identify the file, or you can drag and drop a list of files onto the button (this only works in FireFox but will be fixed eventually), but then you must specify the directory for the files.
Select file(s):
Directory:

STEP 2

This step is optional.
Choose a torrent file that will be used as a basis for the Thing you create.
This can be a torrent file from a previous version of your Thing, or just a template torrent file that has mostly the same metadata as you will be filling in in Step 3.
Choose a base torrent file:

STEP 3

Fill in this form with the metadata for your Thing and press the Make Thing button.
For details about the fields, consult the specification. Authors, licenses and tags are comma separated.

STEP 4

You can optionally sign your Thing by providing the private key in PEM format. Also supply the corresponding public certificate if it has not been widely distributed already, and this will be included in the signatures section. If this is a new version of the Thing you supplied in step 2, include the new version identifier, the cleartext of the previous version's nonce, and a new nonce (that you must remember somehow for next time) for the next version.

STEP 5

Download the torrent file by clicking on the link below, save it, and together with the files that you specified in the base torrent file in Step 1, seed your thing in your BitTorrent client.
Then you can publish your Thing by proudly displaying this magnet link.