MNS integration in an application encompasses several critical features, each of which can be implemented independently. While comprehensive MNS integration is ideal, even basic support can be a huge benefit to users.
Below, we outline three levels of MNS integration. Level 1 is easily achieved and provides high impact for users, while levels 2 and 3 provide more functionality to your users, improving your dApp's usability and your users' experience interacting with your DApp.
Full or partial integratiion can be achieved by using one of the MNS Libraries.
The first step to supporting MNS in your application is making your application understand MNS names, and accepting them anywhere an address is accepted.
If possible, when a user enters an MNS name instead of an address, remember the MNS name, not the address it currently resolves to. This makes it possible for users to update their MNS names and have applications they used the name in automatically resolve to the new address, in the same way that you would expect your browser to automatically direct you to the new IP address if a site you use changes servers.
If your application deals with user funds or other critical resources, you may want to keep track of the address a name resolves to and warn them when it changes, to ensure they are aware of the change.
By accepting MNS names in your application, you remove the need for users to copy and paste - or worse, type out - long and opaque MetrixCoin addresses, which leads to errors and lost funds.
The second level of MNS integration involves displaying MNS names wherever your app currently displays addresses.
If a user entered an MNS in your DApp, you should retain this name and show it to them whenever you would normally show the address.
If a user entered an address, or the address was obtained from elsewhere, you may still be able to show an MNS name, by doing Reverse Resolution. This permits you to find the canonical name for an address and display that when possible. If no canonical name is provided, your application can fall back to displaying the address as it did previously.
By supporting reverse resolution, you make it easier for your users to identify accounts they interact with, associating them with a short human-readable name instead of a long opaque MetrixCoin address.
The final step for comprehensive MNS integration is to facilitate associating MNS names with resources created by or managed with your application. This can take two forms:
By obtaining an MNS name for your product and allowing users to easily register subdomains, you can provide users with an easy way to name resources created in your DApp. For example, if your DApp is a cryptocurrency wallet, you can make it easy for users to obtain an MNS domain of the form theirname.yourwallet.mrx, allowing them to give their name out to others more easily.
To learn how to do this, see Writing a Registrar in the Developer Guides.
By providing users with an easy way to update a name they own to point at your application’s resources, users can assign names they already own to your DApp's resources.