Conseil

Query API for the Tezos blockchain

Running Conseil

Conseil has two entry points:

• src/main/tech/cryptonomic/Conseil/Conseil.scala runs a server exposing a RESTful API over blockchain data, stored in its own database.
• src/main/tech/cryptonomic/Conseil/Lorre.scala is a background process that loops and synchronizes (Tezos) blockchain data to database.

Warning

The Conseil server should be run behind a proxy such as Nginx with TLS enabled through something like LetsEncrypt. Futhermore, HTTP Strict Transport Security and Certification Authority Authorization are highly recommended!

Prerequisites

Development

• JDK (> 8.x)
• Scala (> 2.12.x)
• SBT (> 1.2.6)
• A database supported by Typesafe Slick, e.g. Postgres

Deployment

• JRE (> 8.x)
• A database supported by Typesafe Slick, e.g. Postgres

Building, packaging and deploying Conseil

Package

Run the following command from the root directory of the repository:

sbt clean assembly -J-Xss32m

This will clean any existing local artifact, compile the project, and create a "fat JAR" with the runnable application, including all its dependencies.

Deploy

After the packaging step, check the SBT output for the path of the generated fat JAR file. Copy this file to the desired deployment area.

Running Locally

Run the packaged fat JAR with the JRE:

After deploying the jar and having started a database instance [see the 'Database set-up' section]

java -Dconfig.file={path to custom config file} -cp {path to fat JAR} tech.cryptonomic.conseil.Conseil

And..

java -Dconfig.file={path to custom config file} -cp {path to fat JAR} tech.cryptonomic.conseil.Lorre <network>

Run locally using SBT:

From the project root and having started a database instance [see the 'Database set-up' section]

env SBT_OPTS="-Dconfig.file={path to custom config file}" && sbt "runConseil"

And..

env SBT_OPTS="-Dconfig.file={path to custom config file}" && sbt "runLorre <network>"

Here network refers to a valid configuration key, defined in the application.conf file (or a custom one), and describing a blockchain node connection info. Such configuration should provide protocol, hostname, port, pathPrefix for a chain rpc node. Such key will be looked-up under the platforms.<blockchain-name> path in the config file. (The only supported blockchain at the moment is "tezos").

You can manually add your own in a local config file, as well: refer to the 'Custom Configurations' section for additional information about customizing the configuration files.

NOTE: Lorre can run with some extra argument for a different behaviour, run it with --help for a list of accepted options

Database set-up

The application expects to read and write from a database compatible with Typesafe Slick. One can either run against a database installed on the local system or, as described below, against a containerized database instance. In any case, the instructions in the 'Custom configurations' section below should be used to provide the correct database parameters to Conseil.

Using a database instance

Cryptonomic uses Postgres for all its Conseil deployments. Once a Postgres database is set up, doc/conseil.sql can be used to set up the latest schema.

For non-Postgres databases: the schema file might have to be updated to reflect the idiosyncrasies of the particular SQL dialect being used. Additionally you will probably need to generate the proper scala classes and update the codebase to use a different db-profile with Slick. To generate the code from a running up-to-date database you can run the sbt task from the project root:

env SBT_OPTS="-Dconfig.file={path to custom config file}" && sbt "genSchema"

Running in production

Build Conseil as a fat JAR file using the steps described in the previous sections.

Run this command using a script or as part of a service definition for Conseil:

java -Dconfig.file={path to custom config file} -cp {path to fat JAR file} tech.cryptonomic.conseil.Conseil

Then, run this command using a script or as part of a service definition for Lorre:

java -Dconfig.file={path to custom config file} -cp {path to fat JAR file} tech.cryptonomic.conseil.Lorre

See 'Custom Configurations' section for information about custom config files.

How to use Conseil

For a detailed description of the offered features look at the Usage Page

Local testing and development

The application expects to access a postgres database instance to run: you can run one locally, as already described, or you can use a Docker image to run it within a container.

We won't be explaining how Docker works in detail, please refer to the official documentation.

Using a Docker image for Postgres

A docker-compose.yml file is included in the root project directory that will launch a docker container with the database. You need to customize the credentials in the YAML file or in your custom configuration [see the following section].

To run the database, from the project root

docker-compose up -d

This will launch the db container and setup the schema as described by the file under doc/conseil.sql

To stop the database

docker-compose down

This will stop and remove the container, but will keep the db data in the pgdata project folder, hence you can restart the container without losing any information stored.

To clean and restart the db from scratch, simply remove all pgdata content while the container is not running.

Unit Testing

The project includes an automated test suite that gets improved constantly. To run the test you can use sbt from the root project directory

sbt test

There's currently no need to have a database running to run the test-suite.

Custom Configurations

Conseil uses Typesafe Config for managing its configurations (including database access via Slick). Please ensure you become familiar with both configuration systems before deploying Conseil. It is advisable to run with a custom config file which "inherits" from the default src/main/resources/reference.conf for production or src/main/resources/developer.conf for local development.

In the latter case, parent configuration can be defined in the custom file using the include directive.

In Production

You can store the custom configuration anywhere and pass it to the runtime with the -Dconfig.file={path to custom config file} command line option, as shown in the previous sections.

During local development

Any custom file can be stored in the project directory itself, under <path to Conseil>/Conseil/src/main/resources and referenced as a resource with the -Dconfig.resource={custom-config-filename} command line option, or as an external file, as explained before.

The configuration entries

At a minimum the configuration file should include three key pieces of information:

• database connection
• blockchain node connection
• conseil server registered apikeys

Here is an example showing a default local development configuration defining the afore-mentioned config entries:

include "developer"

#database connection
conseildb = {
  dataSourceClass = "org.postgresql.ds.PGSimpleDataSource" #jdbc source
  properties = {
    databaseName = "conseil"
    user = "redacted"
    password = "redacted"
  }
  #please make sure you know what you're doing before changing these values
  numThreads = 10
  maxConnections = 10
}

#available blockchain platforms
platforms: {
  tezos: {
    #networks available on 'tezos'
    alphanet : {
      node: {
        hostname: "localhost",
        port: 8732
        pathPrefix: ""
      }
    }
  }
}

The imported developer.conf resource will in turn provide a list of api-keys in the form

security.apiKeys.keys: [key1, key2, ...]

Such keys will be checked by the server when connecting via Http endpoints to Conseil, matching a required http-header with key apiKey.

The production configuration can override the default without resorting to inclusion of the dev conf.

---

For additional extra fine-grained configuration you can refer to this appendix

Publishing the artifacts

If you're a contributor and need to publish the artifacts on sonatype, you'll find instructions in the publishing doc