[](https://gitter.im/vulcanizeio/VulcanizeDB?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)
Using Vulcanize for the first time requires several steps be done in order to allow use of the software. The following instructions will offer a guide through the steps of the process:
Once fetched, dependencies can be installed via `go get` or (the preferred method) at specific versions via `golang/dep`, the prototype golang pakcage manager. Installation instructions are [here](https://golang.github.io/dep/docs/installation.html).
In order to install packages with `dep`, ensure you are in the project directory now within your `GOPATH` (default location is `~/go/src/github.com/vulcanize/vulcanizedb/`) and run:
`dep ensure`
After `dep` finishes, dependencies should be installed within your `GOPATH` at the versions specified in `Gopkg.toml`.
Because we are working with a modified version of the go-ethereum accounts/abi package, after running `dep ensure` you will need to run `git checkout vendor/github/ethereum/go-ethereum/accounts/abi` to checkout the modified dependency.
This is explained in greater detail [here](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/issues/41).
Lastly, ensure that `GOPATH` is defined in your shell. If necessary, `GOPATH` can be set in `~/.bashrc` or `~/.bash_profile`, depending upon your system. It can be additionally helpful to add `$GOPATH/bin` to your shell's `$PATH`.
- Copy `environments/local.toml.example` to `environments/local.toml` to configure commands to run against a local node such as [Ganache](https://truffleframework.com/ganache) or [ganache-cli](https://github.com/trufflesuite/ganache-clihttps://github.com/trufflesuite/ganache-cli).
Syncs VulcanizeDB with the configured Ethereum node, populating only block headers.
This command is useful when you want a minimal baseline from which to track targeted data on the blockchain (e.g. individual smart contract storage values).
1. you will need to make sure you have ssh agent running and your ssh key added to it. instructions [here](https://developer.github.com/v3/guides/using-ssh-agent-forwarding/#your-key-must-be-available-to-ssh-agent)
A watcher is composed of at least a fetcher and a transformer or set of transformers, where a fetcher is an interface for retrieving raw Ethereum data from some source (e.g. eth_jsonrpc, IPFS)
and a transformer is an interface for filtering through that raw Ethereum data to extract, process, and persist data for specific contracts or accounts.
The `contractWatcher` command is a built-in generic contract watcher. It can watch any and all events for a given contract provided the contract's ABI is available.
This command operates in two modes- `light` and `full`- which require a light or full-synced vulcanizeDB, respectively.
This command requires the contract ABI be available on Etherscan if it is not provided in the config file by the user.
If method polling is turned on we require an archival node at the ETH ipc endpoint in our config, whether or not we are operating in `light` or `full` mode.
Otherwise, when operating in `light` mode, we only need to connect to a full node to fetch event logs.
- The `contract` section defines which contracts we want to watch and with which conditions.
-`network` is only necessary if the ABIs are not provided and wish to be fetched from Etherscan.
- Empty or nil string indicates mainnet
- "ropsten", "kovan", and "rinkeby" indicate their respective networks
-`addresses` lists the contract addresses we are watching and is used to load their individual configuration parameters
-`contract.<contractAddress>` are the sub-mappings which contain the parameters specific to each contract address
-`abi` is the ABI for the contract; if none is provided the application will attempt to fetch one from Etherscan using the provided address and network
-`events` is the list of events to watch
- If this field is omitted or no events are provided then by defualt ALL events extracted from the ABI will be watched
- If event names are provided then only those events will be watched
-`eventArgs` is the list of arguments to filter events with
- If this field is omitted or no eventArgs are provided then by default watched events are not filtered by their argument values
- If eventArgs are provided then only those events which emit at least one of these values as an argument are watched
-`methods` is the list of methods to poll
- If this is omitted or no methods are provided then by default NO methods are polled
- If method names are provided then those methods will be polled, provided
1) Method has two or less arguments
1) Arguments are all of address or hash types
1) Method returns a single value
-`methodArgs` is the list of arguments to limit polling methods to
- If this field is omitted or no methodArgs are provided then by default methods will be polled with every combination of the appropriately typed values that have been collected from watched events
- If methodArgs are provided then only those values will be used to poll methods
-`startingBlock` is the block we want to begin watching the contract, usually the deployment block of that contract
-`piping` is a boolean flag which indicates whether or not we want to pipe return method values forward as arguments to subsequent method calls
At the very minimum, for each contract address an ABI and a starting block number need to be provided (or just the starting block if the ABI can be reliably fetched from Etherscan).
With just this information we will be able to watch all events at the contract, but with no additional filters and no method polling.
Under this schema, tables are generated for watched events as `<lowercase event name>_event` and for polled methods as `<lowercase method name>_method`
The 'method' and 'event' identifiers are tacked onto the end of the table names to prevent collisions between methods and events of the same lowercase name
Modify `./environments/example.toml` to replace `"path_to_ethjson_rpc"` with a path that points to an ethjson_rpc endpoint (e.g. a local geth node ipc path or an Infura url).
This endpoint should be for an archival eth node if we want to perform method polling as this configuration is currently set up to do. To work with a non-archival full node,
remove the `balanceOf` method from the `0x8dd5fbce2f6a956c3022ba3663759011dd51e73e` (TrueUSD) contract.
by default we operate in `light` mode but the flag is included here to demonstrate its use.
The example config we link to in this example watches two contracts, the ENS Registry (0x314159265dD8dbb310642f98f50C066173C1259b) and TrueUSD (0x8dd5fbCe2F6a956C3022bA3663759011Dd51e73E).
Because the ENS Registry is configured with only an ABI and a starting block, we will watch all events for this contract and poll none of its methods. Note that the ENS Registry is an example
of a contract which does not have its ABI available over Etherscan and must have it included in the config file.
The TrueUSD contract is configured with two events (`Transfer` and `Mint`) and a single method (`balanceOf`), as such it will watch these two events and use any addresses it collects emitted from them
to poll the `balanceOf` method with those addresses at every block. Note that we do not provide an ABI for TrueUSD as its ABI can be fetched from Etherscan.
For the ENS contract, it produces and populates a schema with four tables"
Column ids and types for these tables are generated based on the event and method argument names and types and method return types, resulting in tables such as:
-`save` indicates whether or not the user wants to save the .go file instead of removing it after .so compilation. Sometimes useful for debugging/trouble-shooting purposes.
-`transformerNames` is the list of the names of the transformers we are composing together, so we know how to access their submaps in the exporter map
-`exporter.<transformerName>`s are the sub-mappings containing config info for the transformers
-`type` is the type of the transformer; indicating which type of watcher it works with (for now, there are only two options: `eth_event` and `eth_storage`)
-`eth_storage` indicates the transformer works with the [storage watcher](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/blob/staging/libraries/shared/watcher/storage_watcher.go)
-`eth_event` indicates the transformer works with the [event watcher](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/blob/staging/libraries/shared/watcher/event_watcher.go)
-`eth_contract` indicates the transformer works with the [contract watcher](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/blob/omni_update/libraries/shared/watcher/generic_watcher.go)
that is made to work with [contract_watcher pkg](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/tree/staging/pkg/omni)
based transformers which work with either a light or full sync vDB to watch events and poll public methods ([example](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/blob/working/transformers/domain_records/transformer.go))
Transformers of different types can be run together in the same command using a single config file or in separate instances using different config files
that exports a variable `TransformerInitializer`, `StorageTransformerInitializer`, or `ContractTransformerInitializer` that are of type [TransformerInitializer](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/blob/compose_and_execute/libraries/shared/transformer/event_transformer.go#L33)
or [StorageTransformerInitializer](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/blob/compose_and_execute/libraries/shared/transformer/storage_transformer.go#L31),
or [ContractTransformerInitializer](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/blob/omni_update/libraries/shared/transformer/contract_transformer.go#L31), respectively
* Design the transformers to work in the context of their [event](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/blob/compose_and_execute/libraries/shared/watcher/event_watcher.go#L83),
or [contract](https://github.com/vulcanize/maker-vulcanizedb/blob/omni_update/libraries/shared/watcher/contract_watcher.go#L68) watcher execution modes
To update a plugin repository with changes to the core vulcanizedb repository, replace the vulcanizedb vendored in the plugin repo (`plugin_repo/vendor/github.com/vulcanize/vulcanizedb`)
with the newly updated version
* The entire vendor lib within the vendored vulcanizedb needs to be deleted (`plugin_repo/vendor/github.com/vulcanize/vulcanizedb/vendor`)
* These complications arise due to this [conflict](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/20481) between `dep` and Go plugins
