Blockchain Explorer

Explorer is a simple, powerful, easy-to-use, well-maintained, open-source utility to browse activity on the underlying blockchain network. Users can configure and build Hyperledger Explorer on macOS and Ubuntu.

Current Release

Explorer Version	Fabric Version Supported	NodeJS Version Supported
v2.0.0 (Sep 05, 2023)	v2.2, v2.4, v2.5	^12.13.1, ^14.13.1, ^16.14.1

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Legacy Releases (NOT SUPPORTED)

Explorer Version	Fabric Version Supported	NodeJS Version Supported
v1.1.8 (Aug 14, 2021)	v1.4 to v2.3	^12.13.1, ^14.13.1, ^16.14.1
v1.1.7 (Jul 04, 2021)	v1.4 to v2.3	^12.13.1, ^14.13.1
v1.1.6 (Jun 06, 2021)	v1.4 to v2.3	^12.13.1, ^14.13.1
v1.1.5 (Apr 20, 2021)	v1.4 to v2.3	^12.13.1, ^14.13.1
v1.1.4 (Jan 29, 2021)	v1.4 to v2.2	^12.13.1, ^14.13.1
v1.1.3 (Sep 28, 2020)	v1.4.0 to v2.2.0	12.16.x
v1.1.2 (Aug 12, 2020)	v1.4.0 to v2.2.0	12.16.x

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There are 2 options to get Explorer started. Following are the software dependencies required for each option. And if you want to know more about each configuration, please refer README-CONFIG.md.

Quick start (using Docker)

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose

  • Note(for v2.0.0 and above): The following docker images are automatically pulled from GHCR instead of Docker Hub when starting docker-compose.

    • Hyperledger Explorer ghcr repository
    • Hyperledger Explorer PostgreSQL ghcr repository

  • Note(for v1.1.8 and below): The following docker images are automatically pulled from Docker Hub when starting docker-compose.

    • Hyperledger Explorer docker repository
    • Hyperledger Explorer PostgreSQL docker repository

Start Hyperledger Fabric network

This guide assumes that you've already started the test network by following Hyperledger Fabric official tutorial.

Configure

• Create a new directory (e.g. explorer)

  mkdir explorer
  cd explorer

• Copy the following files from the repository

  • .env
  • docker-compose.yaml
  • examples/net1/connection-profile/test-network.json
  • examples/net1/config.json

  wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyperledger/blockchain-explorer/main/examples/net1/config.json
  wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyperledger/blockchain-explorer/main/examples/net1/connection-profile/test-network.json -P connection-profile
  wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyperledger/blockchain-explorer/main/docker-compose.yaml

• Copy entire crypto artifact directory (organizations/) from your fabric network (e.g /fabric-samples/test-network)

  cp -r ../fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/ .

• Now, you should have the following files and directory structure.

  docker-compose.yaml
  config.json
  connection-profile/test-network.json
  organizations/ordererOrganizations/
  organizations/peerOrganizations/
  

• Edit environmental variables in docker-compose.yaml to align with your environment

      networks:
      mynetwork.com:
          external:
              name: fabric_test
  
      ...
  
      services:
        explorer.mynetwork.com:
  
          ...
  
          volumes:
            - ./config.json:/opt/explorer/app/platform/fabric/config.json
            - ./connection-profile:/opt/explorer/app/platform/fabric/connection-profile
            - ./organizations:/tmp/crypto
            - walletstore:/opt/explorer/wallet

  An alternative option is to export environment variables in your shell.

  export EXPLORER_CONFIG_FILE_PATH=./config.json
  export EXPLORER_PROFILE_DIR_PATH=./connection-profile
  export FABRIC_CRYPTO_PATH=./organizations

• When you connect Explorer to your fabric network through the bridge network, you need to set DISCOVERY_AS_LOCALHOST to false for disabling hostname mapping into localhost.

  services:
  
    ...
  
    explorer.mynetwork.com:
  
      ...
  
      environment:
        - DISCOVERY_AS_LOCALHOST=false

• Replace the user's certificate with an admin certificate and a secret (private) key in the connection profile (test-network.json). You need to specify the absolute path on the Explorer container.

  Before:

  "adminPrivateKey": {
      "path": "/tmp/crypto/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/User1@org1.example.com/msp/keystore/priv_sk"
  }

  After:

  "adminPrivateKey": {
      "path": "/tmp/crypto/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/Admin@org1.example.com/msp/keystore/priv_sk"
  }

  Make sure you replace all paths.

Start container services

• Run the following to start up explore and explorer-db services after starting your fabric network:

  $ docker-compose up -d

Clean up

• To stop services without removing persistent data, run the following:

  $ docker-compose down

• In the docker-compose.yaml, two named volumes are allocated for persistent data (for Postgres data and user wallet). If you would like to clear these named volumes up, run the following:

  $ docker-compose down -v

Quick start (using codebase)

Prerequisites

• Nodejs 12, 14 and 16 (12.22.12, 14.21.3, 16.20.1 tested)
• PostgreSQL 9.5 or greater
• jq
• Linux-based operating system, such as Ubuntu or MacOS
• golang (optional)
  • For e2e testing

Start Hyperledger Fabric network

This guide assumes that you've already started the test network by following Hyperledger Fabric official tutorial.

Clone GIT Repository

Clone this repository to get the latest using the following command.

$ git clone https://github.com/hyperledger/blockchain-explorer.git
$ cd blockchain-explorer

Database Setup

$ cd blockchain-explorer/app

• Modify app/explorerconfig.json to update PostgreSQL database settings.

  "postgreSQL": {
      "host": "127.0.0.1",
      "port": "5432",
      "database": "fabricexplorer",
      "username": "hppoc",
      "passwd": "password"
  }

  • Another alternative to configuring database settings is to use environment variables:

    export DATABASE_HOST=127.0.0.1
    export DATABASE_PORT=5432
    export DATABASE_DATABASE=fabricexplorer
    export DATABASE_USERNAME=hppoc
    export DATABASE_PASSWD=pass12345

  Important repeat after every git pull (in some cases, you may need to apply permission to db/ directory, from blockchain-explorer/app/persistence/fabric/postgreSQL run: chmod -R 775 db/

Update configuration

• Modify app/platform/fabric/config.json to define your fabric network connection profile:

  {
      "network-configs": {
          "test-network": {
              "name": "Test Network",
              "profile": "./connection-profile/test-network.json",
              "enableAuthentication": false
          }
      },
      "license": "Apache-2.0"
  }

  • test-network is the name of your connection profile and can be changed to any name
  • name is a name you want to give to your fabric network. You can change the only value of the key name
  • profile is the location of your connection profile. You can change the only value of the key profile

• Modify connection profile in the JSON file app/platform/fabric/connection-profile/test-network.json:

  • Change fabric-path to your fabric network disk path in the test-network.json file:
  • Provide the full disk path to the adminPrivateKey config option. It usually ends with _sk, for example: /fabric-path/fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/Admin@org1.example.com/msp/keystore/priv_sk
  • exploreradmin and exploreradminpw is the credential for the user of Explorer to log in to the dashboard
  • enableAuthentication is a flag to enable authentication using a login page. Setting to false will skip authentication.

Run create database script:

• Ubuntu

  $ cd blockchain-explorer/app/persistence/fabric/postgreSQL/db
  $ sudo -u postgres ./createdb.sh
  

• MacOS

  $ cd blockchain-explorer/app/persistence/fabric/postgreSQL/db
  $ ./createdb.sh
  $ createdb `whoami`
  

Connect to the PostgreSQL database and run DB status commands. To export the settings from app/explorerconfig.json to the environment, run source app/exportConfig.sh; this will set $DATABASE_DATABASE and related envvars.

• Ubuntu

  sudo -u postgres psql -c '\l'
  sudo -u postgres psql $DATABASE_DATABASE -c '\d'

• MacOS

  psql -c '\l'
  psql $DATABASE_DATABASE -c '\d'

Expected output

$ sudo -u postgres psql -c '\l'
                                     List of databases
      Name      |        Owner        | Encoding | Collate |  Ctype  |   Access privileges
----------------+---------------------+----------+---------+---------+-----------------------
 fabricexplorer | $DATABASE_USERNAME  | UTF8     | C.UTF-8 | C.UTF-8 |
 postgres       | postgres            | UTF8     | C.UTF-8 | C.UTF-8 |
 template0      | postgres            | UTF8     | C.UTF-8 | C.UTF-8 | =c/postgres          +
                |                     |          |         |         | postgres=CTc/postgres
 template1      | postgres            | UTF8     | C.UTF-8 | C.UTF-8 | =c/postgres          +
                |                     |          |         |         | postgres=CTc/postgres
(4 rows)

$ sudo -u postgres psql $DATABASE_DATABASE -c '\d'
                   List of relations
 Schema |           Name            |   Type   |       Owner
--------+---------------------------+----------+-------------------
 public | blocks                    | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | blocks_id_seq             | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | chaincodes                | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | chaincodes_id_seq         | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | channel                   | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | channel_id_seq            | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | orderer                   | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | orderer_id_seq            | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | peer                      | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | peer_id_seq               | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | peer_ref_chaincode        | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | peer_ref_chaincode_id_seq | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | peer_ref_channel          | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | peer_ref_channel_id_seq   | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | transactions              | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | transactions_id_seq       | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | write_lock                | table    | $DATABASE_USERNAME
 public | write_lock_write_lock_seq | sequence | $DATABASE_USERNAME
(18 rows)

(On MacOS, expect to see your `whoami` rather than postgres. Entries with $DATABASE_USERNAME will have the valuei of that parameter, whether set as an environment variable or as a JSON keyval; it will not show the literal string.)

Build Hyperledger Explorer

Important: repeat the below steps after every git pull

From the root of the repository:

• ./main.sh clean
  • To clean the /node_modules, client/node_modules client/build, client/coverage, app/test/node_modules directories

• ./main.sh install
  • To install, run tests, and build project

Or

$ cd blockchain-explorer
$ npm install
$ cd client/
$ npm install
$ npm run build

Run Hyperledger Explorer

Bootup Mode

The Bootup Mode feature allows you to specify how many blocks should be loaded when starting the Hyperledger Explorer. You can choose from the below two modes:

• ALL: Load all available blocks.
• CUSTOM: Load a specific number of blocks as configured in the config.json file.

To set the Bootup Mode, update the app/platform/fabric/config.json file in your project with the desired mode.

• ALL

    {
        "network-configs": {
            "test-network": {
                "name": "Test Network",
                "profile": "./connection-profile/test-network.json",
                "enableAuthentication": false,
                "bootMode": "ALL",
                "noOfBlocks": 0
            }
        },
        "license": "Apache-2.0"
    }

Note: In ALL Mode, Please make sure that noOfBlocks paramater is set to 0

• CUSTOM

  The noOfBlocks parameter allows you to specify the number of blocks that the Hyperledger Explorer will use when booting up. If you are using custom mode and want to control the number of blocks, make sure to pass your desired value to the noOfBlocks parameter.

    {
        "network-configs": {
            "test-network": {
                "name": "Test Network",
                "profile": "./connection-profile/test-network.json",
                "enableAuthentication": false,
                "bootMode": "CUSTOM",
                "noOfBlocks": 5
            }
        },
        "license": "Apache-2.0"
    }

Note: Setting noOfBlocks to 0 will load Hyperledger Explorer with the latest block.

Bootup Mode example for reference

Let's say your blockchain network consists of a total of 20 blocks, numbered from 1 to 20. You are interested in loading only the latest 5 blocks, which are blocks 20, 19, 18, 17, and 16.

Here is an example of how you can configure Hyperledger Explorer to achieve this:

      {
          "network-configs": {
              "test-network": {
                  "name": "Test Network",
                  "profile": "./connection-profile/test-network.json",
                  "enableAuthentication": false,
                  "bootMode": "CUSTOM",
                  "noOfBlocks": 5
              }
          },
          "license": "Apache-2.0"
      }

Run Locally in the Same Location

• Modify app/explorerconfig.json to update sync settings.

  "sync": {
    "type": "local"
  }

• npm start

  • It will have the backend and GUI service up, for as long as the process runs

• npm run app-stop

  • It will stop the node server

Note: If the Hyperledger Fabric network is deployed on other machines, please define the following environment variable

$ DISCOVERY_AS_LOCALHOST=false npm start

Run Standalone in Different Location

• Modify app/explorerconfig.json to update sync settings.

  "sync": {
    "type": "host"
  }

• If the Hyperledger Explorer was used previously in your browser, be sure to clear the cache before relaunching

• ./syncstart.sh

  • It will have the sync node up

• ./syncstop.sh

  • It will stop the sync node

Note: If the Hyperledger Fabric network is deployed on other machines, please define the following environment variable

$ DISCOVERY_AS_LOCALHOST=false ./syncstart.sh

Updating Docker image

To build a new version of the Docker image, use npm run-script docker_build. This creates a new image, which will become hyperledger-explorer:latest (distinct from the canonical images, which are hyperledger/explorer, with a /). This is a distinct build from the local version used in the Quick Start process. Run this image with docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d; both commands are needed.

Configuration

Please refer README-CONFIG.md for more detail on each configuration.

Logs

• Please visit the ./logs/console folder to view the logs relating to the console and ./logs/app to view the application logs, and visit the ./logs/db to view the database logs.

Troubleshooting

Please visit the TROUBLESHOOT.md to view the Troubleshooting TechNotes for Hyperledger Explorer.

License

Hyperledger Explorer Project source code is released under the Apache 2.0 license. The README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md files, and files in the "images", "snapshots" folders are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may obtain a copy of the license, titled CC-BY-4.0, at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.