bc-explorer: a comprehensive blockchain explorer

bc-explorer is a block explorer for **bestchains** which has three components :

• viewer: view formatted blockchain network data with http apis,including:
  • networks
  • blocks
  • transactions
• listener: listen on blockchain network events and inject formatted data to database(postgresql).Also support:
  • register a new blockchain network
  • deregister a blockchain network
• observer: observe network status in bestchains platform and automatically register/deregister networks into listener
• client: fabric test client to help generate contract calls

NOTE: For API authorization & authentication,we will use kube-rbac-proxy.

Prerequsities

• Go1.18
• Postgresql

Build Image

# output: hyperledgerk8s/bc-explorer:v0.1.0
WHAT=bc-explorer GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 make image

Quick start

Listener

1. build bc-explorer listener

go build -o bin/listener cmd/listener/main.go

2. verify listener

Usage of ./bin/listener:
  -add_dir_header
        If true, adds the file directory to the header of the log messages
  -addr string
        used to listen and serve http requests (default ":9999")
  -alsologtostderr
        log to standard error as well as files (no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -dsn string
        database connection string (default "postgres://bestchains:Passw0rd!@127.0.0.1:5432/bc-explorer?sslmode=disable")
  -injector string
        used to initialize injector (default "pg")
  -log_backtrace_at value
        when logging hits line file:N, emit a stack trace
  -log_dir string
        If non-empty, write log files in this directory (no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -log_file string
        If non-empty, use this log file (no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -log_file_max_size uint
        Defines the maximum size a log file can grow to (no effect when -logtostderr=true). Unit is megabytes. If the value is 0, the maximum file size is unlimited. (default 1800)
  -logtostderr
        log to standard error instead of files (default true)
  -one_output
        If true, only write logs to their native severity level (vs also writing to each lower severity level; no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -skip_headers
        If true, avoid header prefixes in the log messages
  -skip_log_headers
        If true, avoid headers when opening log files (no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -stderrthreshold value
        logs at or above this threshold go to stderr when writing to files and stderr (no effect when -logtostderr=true or -alsologtostderr=false) (default 2)
  -v value
        number for the log level verbosity
  -vmodule value
        comma-separated list of pattern=N settings for file-filtered logging

3. start bc-explorer listener

./bin/listener -addr localhost:9999 -injector pg -dsn postgres://username:password@127.0.0.1:5432/bc-explorer?sslmode=disable

Viewer

1. build bc-explorer viewer

go build -o bin/viewer cmd/viewer/main.go

2. verify viewer

Usage of ./bin/viewer:
  -add_dir_header
        If true, adds the file directory to the header of the log messages
  -addr string
        used to listen and serve http requests (default ":9998")
  -alsologtostderr
        log to standard error as well as files (no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -db string
        which database to use, default is pg(postgresql) (default "pg")
  -dsn string
        database connection string (default "postgres://bestchains:Passw0rd!@127.0.0.1:5432/bc-explorer?sslmode=disable")
  -log_backtrace_at value
        when logging hits line file:N, emit a stack trace
  -log_dir string
        If non-empty, write log files in this directory (no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -log_file string
        If non-empty, use this log file (no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -log_file_max_size uint
        Defines the maximum size a log file can grow to (no effect when -logtostderr=true). Unit is megabytes. If the value is 0, the maximum file size is unlimited. (default 1800)
  -logtostderr
        log to standard error instead of files (default true)
  -one_output
        If true, only write logs to their native severity level (vs also writing to each lower severity level; no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -skip_headers
        If true, avoid header prefixes in the log messages
  -skip_log_headers
        If true, avoid headers when opening log files (no effect when -logtostderr=true)
  -stderrthreshold value
        logs at or above this threshold go to stderr when writing to files and stderr (no effect when -logtostderr=true or -alsologtostderr=false) (default 2)
  -v value
        number for the log level verbosity
  -vmodule value
        comma-separated list of pattern=N settings for file-filtered logging

3. start bc-explorer viewer

# test the service by logging, which will print the request and return a false data
./bin/viewer -v=5 -db=log 

# connect to pg database test service
./bin/viewer -v=5 -dsn='postgres://username:password@127.0.0.1:5432/bc-explorer?sslmode=disable'

Client

1. build bc-explorer client

go build -o bin/client cmd/client/*

2. verify client

Usage of ./bin/client:
  -args value
        a list of arguments for contract call
  -contract string
        contract name (default "samplecc")
  -method string
        contract method (default "PutValue")
  -profile string
        profile to connect with blockchain network (default "./network.json")

3. example for client

For a contract samplecc, we use client to call PutValue

./bin/client -profile ./test/sample_fabric_network.json -contract samplecc -method PutValue -args platform -args bestchains

After this contract call, a transaction will be injected to bc-explorer with network id blkexp_blkexp6. A pair of Key-Value({"platform":"bestchains"}) will be stored into blockchain statedb.

Contract call can be verified by GetValue

./bin/client -profile ./test/sample_fabric_network.json -contract samplecc -method GetValue -args platform

Output:

I0324 10:24:01.523211   21170 main.go:71] Result: bestchains

observer

1. build bc-explorer observer

go build -o bin/observer cmd/observer/main.go

2. verify observer

Usage of ./bin/observer:
  -add_dir_header
        If true, adds the file directory to the header of the log messages
  -alsologtostderr
        log to standard error as well as files
  -host string
        the host of listener (default "localhost:9999")
  -kubeconfig string
        Paths to a kubeconfig. Only required if out-of-cluster.
  -log_backtrace_at value
        when logging hits line file:N, emit a stack trace
  -log_dir string
        If non-empty, write log files in this directory
  -log_file string
        If non-empty, use this log file
  -log_file_max_size uint
        Defines the maximum size a log file can grow to. Unit is megabytes. If the value is 0, the maximum file size is unlimited. (default 1800)
  -logtostderr
        log to standard error instead of files (default true)
  -one_output
        If true, only write logs to their native severity level (vs also writing to each lower severity level)
  -skip_headers
        If true, avoid header prefixes in the log messages
  -skip_log_headers
        If true, avoid headers when opening log files
  -stderrthreshold value
        logs at or above this threshold go to stderr (default 2)
  -v value
        number for the log level verbosity
  -vmodule value
        comma-separated list of pattern=N settings for file-filtered logging

3. start bc-explorer observer

# test the service by logging
./bin/observer -v=5

# out of cluster
./bin/observer -v=5 --host host_of_listener --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config

Development

Models

See the documentation

APIs

• Viewer APIs : See the documentation
• Listener APIs : See the documentation

Contribute to bc-explorer

If you want to contribute to bc-explorer,refer to contribute guide

Support

If you need support, start with the troubleshooting guide, or create github issues