Corda Node Explorer R3

The node explorer provides views into a node’s vault and transaction data using Corda’s RPC framework.

README

Node Explorer

Stand alone desktop app for Win/Osx/Linux that allows connecting to a local or remote Corda node. Examine transactions, run flows and view node and network properties in a few simple clicks.

Downloading the Node Explorer Binaries

If you're looking to download the node explorer and get started using it; download the latest packaged release on this repo's releases page.

There are install packages for Linux, OSX and Windows.

To login to your Corda node, you will need to provide the:

• Hostname (domain, IP, or localhost)
• Rpc Port
• Username
• Password

Notes: You can find the Rpc port in your node config under rpcSettings->address or as displayed in a CraSH shell instance. If you have not explicitly set a username/password project defaults are user1 and test.

Full instructions for using the Node-Explorer application at the documentation

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Setting up for Node Explorer for Development

Note: This repository uses sub-modules. If cloning use git clone --recursive to automatically initialize and update the submodules.

Installation:

Requirements: NodeJS and Npm package manager.

1. git clone --recursive <this repo> <optional: target dir>
2. cd node-explorer (or target directory)
3. npm install

Note this project uses the node-server submodule available at https://github.com/corda/node-server this must be initialised either by passing the --recursive option when running git clone OR executing the following commands.

1. git submodule init
2. git submodule update*

*this command must also be run after any pull request which includes updates to the submodule. An alternative is to do pull requests with the following option: git pull --recurse-submodules

Other submodule commands:

• Fetch and merge the latest node-server submodule code

  • git submodule update --remote

• Doing work on the submodule i.e. changing files in ./server

  • submodules default to a detached head, so change to server directory and checkout a branch
  • cd ./server
  • git checkout master
  • Add or commit your changes as usual.

• To PULL submodule updates from server side, if there are changes on your local branch either merge or rebase with the pull

  • From MAIN project directory
  • git submodule update --remote --merge OR
  • git submodule update --remote --rebase

• To PUSH submodule updates to server side

  • From MAIN project directory
  • git push --recurse-submodules=on-demand

Running the Node Explorer w/o packaging

To test your changes or run the node explorer without packaging you must:

1 Build and run the server jar first

• cd server
• ./gradlew assemble
• java -jar ./server/build/libs/explorer-server-<version>.jar .

2 Then run the front end from the main project directory

• npm start

3 The application can then be used through your browser at http://localhost:3000

Packaging electron installers / app files

Note: You must have a compiled server jar in the directory root

• cd ./server && ./gradlew bootJar, move compiled jar in ./server/build/libs to the root.

Then run: npm run electron-pack

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Deploy or Run Node Explorer with Docker

You can build docker images using the provided DockerFile(s). You will need to build two images, one for the Node Explorer front end ./DockerFile and another for the backend Node Server ./server/DockerFile (the Node Server DockerFile utilizes layers so you will need to extract the jar - see A Better Dockerfile)

If you DO NOT want to build your own images you can simply run Node Explorer using the docker-compose.yml and with contributed images. Follow the steps below:

#####1. Set cordapps path

export CORDAPPS_PATH=Your cordapps path here

example

export CORDAPPS_PATH=/home/karthik/github/samples-java/Basic/yo-cordapp/build/nodes/PartyA/cordapps

#####2. Run docker-compose file

docker-compose up -d

#####3. Browse to Node explorer UI

explorer runs at port 3000

http://localhost:3000/

#####4. Set cordapps directory in settings

Provide cordapps path as /cordapps in settings tab.

/cordapps