ipld-eth-server/documentation/apis.md

ipfs-blockchain-watcher APIs

We can expose a number of different APIs for remote access to ipfs-blockchain-watcher data

Table of Contents

1. Postgraphile
2. RPC Subscription Interface
3. Native API Recapitulation

Postgraphile

ipfs-blockchain-watcher stores all processed data in Postgres using PG-IPFS, this includes all of the IPLD objects. Postgraphile can be used to expose GraphQL endpoints for the Postgres tables.

e.g.

postgraphile --plugins @graphile/pg-pubsub --subscriptions --simple-subscriptions -c postgres://localhost:5432/vulcanize_public?sslmode=disable -s public,btc,eth -a -j

This will stand up a Postgraphile server on the public, eth, and btc schemas- exposing GraphQL endpoints for all of the tables contained under those schemas. All of their data can then be queried with standard GraphQL queries.

RPC Subscription Interface

A direct, real-time subscription to the data being processed by ipfs-blockchain-watcher can be established over WS or IPC through the Stream RPC method. This method is not chain-specific and each chain-type supports it, it is accessed under the "vdb" namespace rather than a chain-specific namespace. An interface for subscribing to this endpoint is provided here.

When subscribing to this endpoint, the subscriber provides a set of RLP-encoded subscription parameters. These parameters will be chain-specific, and are used by ipfs-blockchain-watcher to filter and return a requested subset of chain data to the subscriber. (e.g. BTC, ETH).

Ethereum RPC Subscription

An example of how to subscribe to a real-time Ethereum data feed from ipfs-blockchain-watcher using the Stream RPC method is provided below

    package main 

    import (
    	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/rlp"
    	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/rpc"
    	"github.com/spf13/viper"
    	
        "github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/pkg/client"
        "github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/pkg/eth"
        "github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/pkg/streamer"
        "github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/pkg/watch"
    )

    config, _ := eth.NewEthSubscriptionConfig()
    rlpConfig, _ := rlp.EncodeToBytes(config)
    vulcPath := viper.GetString("watcher.ethSubscription.path")
    rawRPCClient, _ := rpc.Dial(vulcPath)
    rpcClient := client.NewRPCClient(rawRPCClient, vulcPath)
    stream := streamer.NewSuperNodeStreamer(rpcClient)
    payloadChan := make(chan watcher.SubscriptionPayload, 20000)
    subscription, _ := stream.Stream(payloadChan, rlpConfig)
    for {
        select {
        case payload := <- payloadChan:
            // do something with the subscription payload
        case err := <- subscription.Err():
            // do something with the subscription error
        }
    }

The .toml file being used to fill the Ethereum subscription config would look something like this:

[watcher]
    [watcher.ethSubscription]
        historicalData = false
        historicalDataOnly = false
        startingBlock = 0
        endingBlock = 0
        wsPath = "ws://127.0.0.1:8080"
        [watcher.ethSubscription.headerFilter]
            off = false
            uncles = false
        [watcher.ethSubscription.txFilter]
            off = false
            src = []
            dst = []
        [watcher.ethSubscription.receiptFilter]
            off = false
            contracts = []
            topic0s = []
            topic1s = []
            topic2s = []
            topic3s = []
        [watcher.ethSubscription.stateFilter]
            off = false
            addresses = []
           intermediateNodes = false
        [watcher.ethSubscription.storageFilter]
            off = true
            addresses = []
            storageKeys = []
            intermediateNodes = false

These configuration parameters are broken down as follows:

ethSubscription.wsPath is used to define the SuperNode ws url OR ipc endpoint we subscribe to

ethSubscription.historicalData specifies whether or not ipfs-blockchain-watcher should look up historical data in its cache and send that to the subscriber, if this is set to false then we only streams newly synced/incoming data

ethSubscription.historicalDataOnly will tell ipfs-blockchain-watcher to only send historical data with the specified range and not stream forward syncing data

ethSubscription.startingBlock is the starting block number for the range we want to receive data in

ethSubscription.endingBlock is the ending block number for the range we want to receive data in; setting to 0 means there is no end/we will continue streaming indefinitely.

ethSubscription.headerFilter has two sub-options: off and uncles.

• Setting off to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to not send any headers to the subscriber
• setting uncles to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to send uncles in addition to normal headers.

ethSubscription.txFilter has three sub-options: off, src, and dst.

• Setting off to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to not send any transactions to the subscriber
• src and dst are string arrays which can be filled with ETH addresses we want to filter transactions for, if they have any addresses then ipfs-blockchain-watcher will only send transactions that were sent or received by the addresses contained in src and dst, respectively.

ethSubscription.receiptFilter has four sub-options: off, topics, contracts and matchTxs.

• Setting off to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to not send any receipts to the subscriber
• topic0s is a string array which can be filled with event topics we want to filter for, if it has any topics then ipfs-blockchain-watcher will only send receipts that contain logs which have that topic0.
• contracts is a string array which can be filled with contract addresses we want to filter for, if it contains any contract addresses the watcher will only send receipts that correspond to one of those contracts.
• matchTrxs is a bool which when set to true any receipts that correspond to filtered for transactions will be sent by the watcher, regardless of whether or not the receipt satisfies the topics or contracts filters.

ethSubscription.stateFilter has three sub-options: off, addresses, and intermediateNodes.

• Setting off to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to not send any state data to the subscriber
• addresses is a string array which can be filled with ETH addresses we want to filter state for, if it has any addresses then ipfs-blockchain-watcher will only send state leafs (accounts) corresponding to those account addresses.
• By default ipfs-blockchain-watcher only sends along state leafs, if we want to receive branch and extension nodes as well intermediateNodes can be set to true.

ethSubscription.storageFilter has four sub-options: off, addresses, storageKeys, and intermediateNodes.

• Setting off to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to not send any storage data to the subscriber
• addresses is a string array which can be filled with ETH addresses we want to filter storage for, if it has any addresses then ipfs-blockchain-watcher will only send storage nodes from the storage tries at those state addresses.
• storageKeys is another string array that can be filled with storage keys we want to filter storage data for. It is important to note that the storage keys need to be the actual keccak256 hashes, whereas the addresses in the addresses fields are pre-hashed ETH addresses.
• By default ipfs-blockchain-watcher only sends along storage leafs, if we want to receive branch and extension nodes as well intermediateNodes can be set to true.

Bitcoin RPC Subscription:

An example of how to subscribe to a real-time Bitcoin data feed from ipfs-blockchain-watcher using the Stream RPC method is provided below

    package main 

    import (
    	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/rlp"
    	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/rpc"
    	"github.com/spf13/viper"
    	
    	"github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/libraries/shared/streamer"
    	"github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/pkg/eth/client"
    	"github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/pkg/super_node"
    	"github.com/vulcanize/ipfs-blockchain-watcher/pkg/super_node/btc"
    )

    config, _ := btc.NewBtcSubscriptionConfig()
    rlpConfig, _ := rlp.EncodeToBytes(config)
    vulcPath := viper.GetString("watcher.btcSubscription.path")
    rawRPCClient, _ := rpc.Dial(vulcPath)
    rpcClient := client.NewRPCClient(rawRPCClient, vulcPath)
    stream := streamer.NewSuperNodeStreamer(rpcClient)
    payloadChan := make(chan super_node.SubscriptionPayload, 20000)
    subscription, _ := stream.Stream(payloadChan, rlpConfig)
    for {
        select {
        case payload := <- payloadChan:
            // do something with the subscription payload
        case err := <- subscription.Err():
            // do something with the subscription error
        }
    }

The .toml file being used to fill the Bitcoin subscription config would look something like this:

[watcher]
    [watcher.btcSubscription]
        historicalData = false
        historicalDataOnly = false
        startingBlock = 0
        endingBlock = 0
        wsPath = "ws://127.0.0.1:8080"
        [watcher.btcSubscription.headerFilter]
            off = false
        [watcher.btcSubscription.txFilter]
            off = false
            segwit = false
            witnessHashes = []
            indexes = []
            pkScriptClass = []
            multiSig = false
            addresses = []

These configuration parameters are broken down as follows:

btcSubscription.wsPath is used to define the SuperNode ws url OR ipc endpoint we subscribe to

btcSubscription.historicalData specifies whether or not ipfs-blockchain-watcher should look up historical data in its cache and send that to the subscriber, if this is set to false then ipfs-blockchain-watcher only streams newly synced/incoming data

btcSubscription.historicalDataOnly will tell ipfs-blockchain-watcher to only send historical data with the specified range and not stream forward syncing data

btcSubscription.startingBlock is the starting block number for the range we want to receive data in

btcSubscription.endingBlock is the ending block number for the range we want to receive data in; setting to 0 means there is no end/we will continue streaming indefinitely.

btcSubscription.headerFilter has one sub-option: off.

• Setting off to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to not send any headers to the subscriber.
• Additional header-filtering options will be added in the future.

btcSubscription.txFilter has seven sub-options: off, segwit, witnessHashes, indexes, pkScriptClass, multiSig, and addresses.

• Setting off to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to not send any transactions to the subscriber.
• Setting segwit to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to only send segwit transactions.
• witnessHashes is a string array that can be filled with witness hash string; if it contains any hashes ipfs-blockchain-watcher will only send transactions that contain one of those hashes.
• indexes is an int64 array that can be filled with tx index numbers; if it contains any integers ipfs-blockchain-watcher will only send transactions at those indexes (e.g. [0] will send only coinbase transactions)
• pkScriptClass is an uint8 array that can be filled with pk script class numbers; if it contains any integers ipfs-blockchain-watcher will only send transactions that have at least one tx output with one of the specified pkscript classes; possible class types are 0 through 8 as defined here.
• Setting multisig to true tells ipfs-blockchain-watcher to send only multi-sig transactions- to send only transaction that have at least one tx output that requires more than one signature to spend.
• addresses is a string array that can be filled with btc address strings; if it contains any addresses ipfs-blockchain-watcher will only send transactions that have at least one tx output with at least one of the provided addresses.

Native API Recapitulation:

In addition to providing novel Postgraphile and RPC-Subscription endpoints, we are working towards complete recapitulation of the standard chain APIs. This will allow direct compatibility with software that already makes use of the standard interfaces.

Ethereum JSON-RPC API

ipfs-blockchain-watcher currently faithfully recapitulates portions of the Ethereum JSON-RPC api standard.

The currently supported endpoints include:
eth_blockNumber
eth_getLogs
eth_getHeaderByNumber
eth_getBlockByNumber
eth_getBlockByHash
eth_getTransactionByHash

Additional endpoints will be added in the near future, with the immediate goal of recapitulating the largest set of "eth_" endpoints which can be provided as a service.

Bitcoin JSON-RPC API:

In the near future, the standard Bitcoin JSON-RPC interfaces will be implemented.