Hook web assembly bytecode is installed onto an Xahau account using the SetHook
transaction.
An example appears below:
The transaction is deceptively simple, but hides significant complexity, described below.
The main body of the SetHook transaction is the hooks array:
This array mirrors the Hook Chain installed on the account:
Position 0 in the array corresponds to position 0 in the Hook Chain.
Position 3 in the array corresponds to position 3 in the Hook Chain, etc.
Each entry in the Hooks Array (in the SetHook Transaction) is called a HookSet Object, and its corresponding Hook in the account's Hook Chain is called the Corresponding Hook.
Each Corresponding Hook is an object containing a reference (pointer) to a HookDefinition
object.
The HookDefinition object is an unowned reference-counted ledger object that provides for de-duplication of identical web assembly bytecode. Two users using an identical hook will both point to the same HookDefinition.
For more information see: Reference Counting
When a HookDefinition
is created it contains the initial Parameters, Namespace and Grants supplied by the user. These become the Hook Defaults. Any Hook referencing this Hook Definition will use these defaults unless the SetHook Transaction that creates that reference explicitly overrides those defaults, or a subsequent Update Operation overrides them.
There are six possible operations: No Operation, Create, Update, Delete, Install and Namespace Delete
Each operation is specified by the inclusion or omission of certain HookSet Object fields. This might seem confusing at first but by working through a few examples the reader should find it intuitive; Essentially HookSet operations are a type of diff between a specific Hook's defaults, existing and newly specified fields.
Achieving each type of operation is explained in a subsection below.
Occurs when:
The HookSet Object is empty
Behaviour:
No change of any kind is made.
Example:
Occurs when:
All of the following conditions are met:
The Corresponding Hook does not exist orFLAG_OVERRIDE
is specified.
CreateCode
field is specified and is not blank and contains the valid web assembly bytecode for a valid Hook.
No instance of the same web assembly bytecode already exists on Xahau. (If it does and all other requirements are met then interpret as an Install Operation — see below.)
Behaviour:
A reference counted HookDefinition
object is created on Xahau containing the fields in the HookSet Object, with all specified fields (Namespace, Parameters, HookOn) becoming defaults (but not Grants.)
A Hooks
array is created on the executing account, if it doesn't already exist. (This is the structure that contains the Corresponding Hooks.)
A Hook
object is created at the Corresponding Hook position if one does not already exist.
The Hook
object points at the HookDefinition
.
The Hook
object contains no fields except HookHash
which points at the created HookDefinition
.
If hsfNSDELETE
flag is specified then any HookState entires in the destination namespace are deleted if they currently exist.
Example:
Occurs when:
All of the following conditions are met:
The Corresponding Hook does not exist orFLAG_OVERRIDE
is specified.
HookHash
field is specified and is not blank and contains the hash of a Hook that already exists as a HookDefinition
on the ledger or CreateCode
field is specified and is not blank and contains the valid web assembly bytecode for a valid hook that already exists on the ledger as a HookDefinition
.
Behaviour:
The reference count of the HookDefinition
object is incremented.
A Hooks
array is created on the executing account, if it doesn't already exist. (This is the structure that contains the Corresponding Hooks.)
A Hook
object is created at the Corresponding Hook position if one does not already exist.
The Hook
object points at the HookDefinition
.
The Hook
object contains all the fields in the HookSet Object, except and unless:
A field or key-pair within a field is identical to the Hook Defaults set on the HookDefinition
, in which case it is omitted due to defaults.
If hsfNSDELETE
flag is specified then any HookState entires in the destination namespace are deleted if they currently exist.
Example:
Occurs when:
All of the following conditions are met:
The Corresponding Hook exists.
HookHash
is absent.
CreateCode
is absent.
One or more of HookNamespace
, HookParameters
or HookGrants
is present.
General Behaviour:
The Corresponding Hook is updated in such a way that the desired changes are reflected in the Corresponding Hook.
Specific Behaviour:
If HookNamespace
is specified and differs from the Corresponding Hook's Namespace:
the Corresponding Hook's HookNamespace
is updated, and
if the hsfNSDELETE
flag is specified all HookState entires in the old namespace are deleted.
If HookParameters
is specified, then for each entry:
If HookParameterName
exists but HookParameterValue
is absent and the Corresponding Hook's Parameters (either specifically or via defaults) contains this HookParameterName
then the parameter is marked as deleted on the Corresponding Hook.
If HookParameterName
exists and HookParameterValue
exists then the Corresponding Hook's Parameters are modified to include the new or updated parameter.
If HookGrants
is specified then:
The Corresponding Hook's HookGrants
array is replaced with the array.
Example:
Occurs when:
All of the following conditions are met:
The Corresponding Hook exists.
hsfOVERRIDE
is specified.
optionally hsfNSDELETE
is also specified.
HookHash
is absent.
CreateCode
is present but empty.
Behaviour:
The reference count of the HookDefinition
object is decremented.
If the reference count is now zero the HookDefintion
is removed from the ledger.
The Hook
object in the Corresponding Hook position is deleted, leaving an empty position.
If hsfNSDELETE
is specified the namespace and all HookState entries are also deleted.
Example:
Occurs when:
All of the following conditions are met:
flags
is present and hsfNSDELETE
is set. hsfOVERRIDE
can optionally also be specified if the Hook at this position is to be deleted.
HookNamespace
is specified.
CreateCode
is absent.
HookHash
is absent.
HookGrants
, HookParameters
, HookOn
and HookApiVersion
are absent.
Behaviour:
If the Corresponding Hook exists, it remains, nothing happens to it.
A subset of HookState objects and the HookState directory for the specified namespace are removed from the ledger, up to the defined limit of 512. Further transactions are needed to continue the deletion process until all relevant records are removed.
Example: