Recently, through Twitter, Filecoin published a second report on the development of the Network indexer. It is a system that links content IDs to details concerning data owners.
The first Network Indexer was released earlier this year to make it easier to find information made available through storage platforms such as Filecoin. For Filecoin, the concept of a network indexer has proven crucial.
It is crucial because Filecoin stores a lot of data, and users need proper indexing to access it efficiently. Indexer nodes are applied to achieve this. These nodes are created to keep locations of content ID multi hashes.
When a user needs to access information from these platforms, the multi hash is applied to look for the data provided. Storage platforms/providers and retrieval clients/users use the indexer.
How Does The Indexer Work With These Two Groups?
After an agreement, a storage provider holds the data. It notifies clients when recent data is available by sending the content ID through a data-distributing and integrating channel, regularly delivered by mainnet nodes.
The indexer integrates the recent information from the storage provider. After cataloguing the recent information, the retrieval client can locate provider data via the content ID of the needed data. The system responds with an account of provider records and the most recent provider addresses for all requested content IDs.
The user obtains the information from the storage provider through the code defined in the provider record. After receiving the provider record from the user, the storage provider uses ID and metadata to find the content.
On Twitter, Filecoin released a diagrammatical representation explaining how storage clients and retrieval clients work together. The relationship established makes finding information simple. Through this feature, it would be easy to maintain user interest. Filecoin won’t be the last to utilize this feature.