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IOTA API Library Proposal

Purpose of this page is to both, propose a uniform API design which the libraries interfacing with IRI conform to, as well as act as a general guidance for library developers so that they better understand what needs to be implemented. Interoperability is key in making the lives of developers as easy as possible, as such, all libraries should stick to a commonly-agreed design. This will also make development and maintenance for core developers easier.

Join the Discussion

This is an early proposal, as such, public discourse is incredibly important in ensuring that the design is sound and will be adopted by developers. For discussions related to this proposal, and more importantly, if you want to engage in these discussions, I suggest you to join our Slack so that we can discuss the design.

Table of Contents

Core API

In total there are 14 API calls which are available through IRI. You can get the full list from our API docs: https://iota.readme.io/.

Crypto Functions

To be added

Proposed API Calls

This is a list of new API calls which will help do just about anything possible with IOTA. These are mostly wrapper functions, this means that there will be more functions required in achieving the results. We leave it open for the developers of the libraries to develop this extra functionality (the result should be universally the same obviously).

getInputs

Gets all possible inputs of a seed and returns them with the total balance. This is either done deterministically (by genearating all addresses until findTransactions is empty and doing getBalances), or by providing a key range to use for searching through.

Input

getInputs(seed, [, options] [, callback])
  1. seed: String tryte-encoded seed. It should be noted that this seed is not transferred
  2. options: Object which is optional:
  • start: int Starting key index
  • end: int Ending key index
  • threshold: int Minimum threshold of accumulated balances from the inputs that is required
  1. callback: Function Optional callback.

Return Value

  1. Object - an object with the following keys:
    • inputs Array - list of inputs objects consisting of address, balance and keyIndex
    • totalBalance int - aggregated balance of all inputs

prepareTransfers

Main purpose of this function is to get an array of transfer objects as input, and then prepare the transfer by generating the correct bundle, as well as choosing and signing the inputs if necessary (if it's a value transfer). The output of this function is an array of the raw transaction data (trytes).

An example implementation can be viewed here: https://github.com/domschiener/nostalgia/blob/master/js/iotajs.js#L535

Input

prepareTransfers(seed, transfersArray [, options] [, callback])
  1. seed: String tryte-encoded seed. It should be noted that this seed is not transferred
  2. transfersArray: Array of transfer objects:
  • address: String 81-tryte encoded address of recipient
  • value: Int value to be transferred.
  • message: String tryte-encoded message to be included in the bundle.
  • tag: String 27-tryte encoded tag.
  1. options: Object which is optional:
  • inputs: Array List of inputs used for funding the transfer
  • address: String if defined, this address will be used for sending the remainder value (of the inputs) to.
  1. callback: Function Optional callback.

Return Value

Array - an array that contains the trytes of the new bundle.

getNewAddress

Generates a new address from a seed and returns the address. This is either done deterministically, or by providing the index of the new address (see Questions for more information about this).

Input

getNewAddress(seed [, options] [, callback])
  1. seed: String tryte-encoded seed. It should be noted that this seed is not transferred
  2. options: Object which is optional:
  • index: Int If the index is provided, the generation of the address is not deterministic.
  • checksum: Bool Adds 9-tryte address checksum
  • total: Int Total number of addresses to generate.
  • returnAll: Bool If true, it returns all addresses which were deterministically generated (until findTransactions returns null)
  1. callback: Function Optional callback.

Returns

String | Array - returns either a string, or an array of strings.

getBundle

This function returns the bundle which is associated with a transaction. Input can by any type of transaction (tail and non-tail). If there are multiple bundles (because of a replay for example), it will return multiple bundles. It also does important validation checking (signatures, sum, order) to ensure that the correct bundle is returned.

Input

getBundle(transaction [, callback])
  1. transaction: String Transaction hash, can be tail or non-tail. Tail search is more specific and leads to more exact results.
  2. callback: Function Optional callback

Returns

Array - returns an array of arrays. Each array is a bundle, if there are multiple arrays it means that there are conflicting bundles.

getTransfers

Returns the transfers which are associated with a seed. The transfers are determined by either calculating deterministically which addresses were already used, or by providing a list of indexes to get the transfers from.

Input

getTransfers(seed [, options] [, callback])
  1. seed: String tryte-encoded seed. It should be noted that this seed is not transferred
  2. options: Object which is optional:
  • indexes: Array - optional. If the index of addresses is provided, it will be used to get all transfers associated with the addresses.
  • inclusionStates: Bool If True, it gets the inclusion states of the transfers.
  1. callback: Function Optional callback.

Returns

Array - returns an array of transfers. Each array is a bundle for the entire transfer.

replayTransfer

Takes a tail transaction hash as input, gets the bundle associated with the transaction and then replays the bundle by attaching it to the tangle.

Input

replayTransfer(transaction [, callback])
  1. transaction: String Transaction hash, has to be tail.
  2. callback: Function Optional callback

Returns

Array - returns an array containing the replayed transactions (bundle).

sendTransfer

Wrapper function that basically does prepareTransfers, as well as attachToTangle and finally, it broadcasts and stores the transactions locally.

Input

sendTransfer(seed, depth, minWeightMagnitude, transfers [, options] [, callback])
  1. seed String tryte-encoded seed. If provided, will be used for signing and picking inputs.
  2. depth Int depth
  3. minWeightMagnitude Int minWeightMagnitude
  4. transfers: Array of transfer objects:
  • address: String 81-tryte encoded address of recipient
  • value: Int value to be transferred.
  • message: String tryte-encoded message to be included in the bundle.
  • tag: String 27-tryte encoded tag.
  1. options: Object which is optional:
  • inputs: Array List of inputs used for funding the transfer
  • address: String if defined, this address will be used for sending the remainder value (of the inputs) to.
  1. callback: Function Optional callback.

Returns

Array - returns an array of the transfer (transaction objects).

sendTrytes

Wrapper function that does attachToTangle and finally, it broadcasts and stores the transactions locally.

Input

sendTrytes(trytes, depth, minWeightMagnitude, [, callback])
  1. trytes Array trytes
  2. depth Int depth
  3. minWeightMagnitude Int minWeightMagnitude
  4. callback: Function Optional callback.

Returns

Array - returns an array of the transfer (transaction objects).

broadcastAndStore

Wrapper function that does broadcastTransactions and storeTransactions

Input

broadcastAndStore(trytes [, callback])
  1. trytes Array trytes
  2. callback: Function Optional callback.

Returns

Array - returns an array of the transfer (transaction objects).

Utils

These are proposed utility functions.

addChecksum

Takes an 81-trytes address as input and calculates the 9-trytes checksum of the address.

Input

addChecksum(address)
  1. address String 81-trytes address

Returns

String - returns 90-trytes address (81-trytes address + 9-trytes checksum)

removeChecksum

Removes the 9-trytes checksum of the address.

Input

removeChecksum(address)
  1. address String 90-trytes address

Returns

String - returns 81-trytes address

isValidChecksum

Takes 90-trytes address with checksum as input, generates the checksum and compares the result.

Input

isValidChecksum(addressWithChecksum)
  1. addressWithChecksum String 90-trytes address

Returns

Bool - True/False if addressWithChecksum is valid or not.

convertUnits

Converts a unit to another. Units are from the standard system of units (here is a unitMap: https://github.com/iotaledger/iota.lib.js/blob/master/lib/utils/utils.js#L9)

Input

convertUnits(value, fromUnit, toUnit)
  1. value Int value to convert
  2. fromUnit String current unit of the value
  3. toUnit String unit to convert to

Returns

Int - returns the new converted value.

transactionObject

Converts transaction trytes into a transaction object so that the values of the transaction can be easily read.

Input

transactionObject(trytes)
  1. trytes Array - array of transaction trytes

Returns

Array - array of transaction objects

transactionTrytes

Converts transaction objects into trytes.

Input

transactionTrytes(transactionObjects)
  1. transactionObjects Array - array of transaction objects

Returns

Array - array of transaction trytes

readMessage

Takes a transaction bundle as input and correctly reads the associated message that was sent. In some cases when the message exceeds the 2187-trytes limit per transaction, this function might be really useful in correctly outputting the full message value.

Input

readMessage(transactionBundle)
  1. transactionBundle Array - array of transaction bundle

Returns

String - message which was sent with the transfer

toTrytes

Converts a string into trytes according to a standardized conversion schema. Works for either ASCII and UTF-8.

Input

toTrytes(string, encoding)
  1. string String
  2. encoding String - either ASCII or UTF-8

Returns

String - trytes

toString

Converts a trytes into a string according to a standardized conversion schema. Works for either ASCII and UTF-8.

Input

toString(trytes, encoding)
  1. trytes String
  2. encoding String - either ASCII or UTF-8

Returns

String - string

validate

Validator object which contains functions for the validation of certain inputs.

Input

Returns

Bool - True/False

Questions

  1. For prepareTransfers, should the user be able to define the remainder address?
  2. For prepareTransfers, should the user be able to define the inputs? (A problem is that the users of the libraries need to keep track of indexes of addresses.)
  3. For getTransfers, should we make it possible to define the indexes for addresses?