Hyperledger Explorer Proposal

July 13, 2016

HIP identifier: Hyperledger Explorer

Sponsor(s):

Pardha S Vishnumolakala, DTCC (pvishnumolakala@dtcc.com)

Satheesh Kathamuthu, DTCC ( skathmuthu@dtcc.com )

• Abstract: Explorer/Dashboard for the Hyperledger framework that will allow for recent transactions, blocks, network status and other information related to the state of the ledger to be quickly and easy examined in a web application that is easy to use. Created for hyperledger developers and non-technical users who wish to see the framework in action.

• Context: Based off of existing cryptocurrency explorers (such as https://blockchain.info/ and https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/ ), the long term goal would be to have and explorer with a similar level of advanced functionality.

• Motivation: Currently CLI commands must to used to query information from the ledger, other options include dumping the entire database or using existing gRPC APIs to individually query information from the blockchain. At times it can be for a non-technical audience that wishes to examine information or see the blockchain in action, it is difficult to see the full picture. Each cryptocurrency and blockchain has an explorer so it is imperative that Hyperledger also have one.

• Status: Proposal

• Solution:

  • An Angular JS web application that utilizes the existing gRPC APIs to query the most recent blocks, transactions, and display the information in tables and graphs to make it easy for information lookup and analysis.

  • The Explorer will make it easy for non-technical users outside of the development environment to be able to examine the state of the blockchain without needing experience dealing with CLI, databases or REST APIs by providing them with a familiar UI that works in a browser.

  • Will also assist developers who are working with the project by allowing the aforementioned information to be quickly examined in a web application.

  • Developed using HTML, CSS, Angular JS a little bit of vanilla Javascript, and JQuery for the UI and backend of the application

  • Graphs and advanced visuals written using D3.js library and in the future can be expanded upon to include more advanced information as more APIs become available.

• Effort and resources:

  • Initial version of the application has already been implemented. DTCC plans to continue to make further enhancements based on community feedback and also as additional functions are exposed over gRPC.

  • Current graphs are just templates at the moment that don’t display any meaningful data, will update in the future as more APIs are available to retrieve appropriate information

  • The current version is inspired from UI screenshot provided by Sean Barkley on Dec 02, 2015 Issue #294. The application has to be updated based on the latest UI screenshot.

  • Make the explorer configurable to connect to multiple peers and add ability to switch to different peers and verify the integrity of blockchain.

• How to: To run the explorer, an HTTP server must be started up to handle all of the REST API requests and a script file must be modified to point to the IP of the server. In addition, at least one validating peer must be running on the ledger. Afterwards, an html file can be opened up in a browser and the explorer will run. Explained in README.md file.

• References. UI screenshot provided by Sean Barkley in Issue #294 on github.

• Closure: