The HTTP Client-Server API

This page assumes you already know an API Root URL for a BigchainDB node or reverse proxy. It should be something like https://example.com:9984 or https://12.34.56.78:9984.

If you set up a BigchainDB node or reverse proxy yourself, and you’re not sure what the API Root URL is, then see the last section of this page for help.

BigchainDB Root URL

If you send an HTTP GET request to the BigchainDB Root URL e.g. http://localhost:9984 or https://example.com:9984 (with no /api/v1/ on the end), then you should get an HTTP response with something like the following in the body:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "api": {
    "v1": {
      "assets": "/api/v1/assets/",
      "blocks": "/api/v1/blocks/",
      "docs": "https://docs.bigchaindb.com/projects/server/en/v2.2.2/http-client-server-api.html",
      "metadata": "/api/v1/metadata/",
      "outputs": "/api/v1/outputs/",
      "streams": "ws://localhost:9985/api/v1/streams/valid_transactions",
      "transactions": "/api/v1/transactions/",
      "validators": "/api/v1/validators"
    }
  },
  "docs": "https://docs.bigchaindb.com/projects/server/en/v2.2.2/",
  "software": "BigchainDB",
  "version": "2.2.2"
}

API Root Endpoint

If you send an HTTP GET request to the API Root Endpoint e.g. http://localhost:9984/api/v1/ or https://example.com:9984/api/v1/, then you should get an HTTP response that allows you to discover the BigchainDB API endpoints:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "assets": "/assets/",
  "blocks": "/blocks/",
  "docs": "https://docs.bigchaindb.com/projects/server/en/v2.2.2/http-client-server-api.html",
  "metadata": "/metadata/",
  "outputs": "/outputs/",
  "streams": "ws://localhost:9985/api/v1/streams/valid_transactions",
  "transactions": "/transactions/",
  "validators": "/validators"
}

Transactions Endpoint

Note

If you want to do more sophisticated queries than those provided by the BigchainDB HTTP API, then one option is to connect to MongoDB directly (if possible) and do whatever queries MongoDB allows. For more about that option, see the page about querying BigchainDB.

GET /api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}

Get the transaction with the ID transaction_id.

If a transaction with ID transaction_id has been included in a committed block, then this endpoint returns that transaction, otherwise the response will be 404 Not Found.

Parameters:
  • transaction_id (hex string) – transaction ID

Example request:

GET /api/v1/transactions/4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317 HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "asset": {
    "data": {
      "msg": "Hello BigchainDB!"
    }
  },
  "id": "4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "fulfillment": "pGSAIDE5i63cn4X8T8N1sZ2mGkJD5lNRnBM4PZgI_zvzbr-cgUCy4BR6gKaYT-tdyAGPPpknIqI4JYQQ-p2nCg3_9BfOI-15vzldhyz-j_LZVpqAlRmbTzKS-Q5gs7ZIFaZCA_UD",
      "fulfills": null,
      "owners_before": [
        "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "sequence": 0
  },
  "operation": "CREATE",
  "outputs": [
    {
      "amount": "1",
      "condition": {
        "details": {
          "public_key": "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD",
          "type": "ed25519-sha-256"
        },
        "uri": "ni:///sha-256;PNYwdxaRaNw60N6LDFzOWO97b8tJeragczakL8PrAPc?fpt=ed25519-sha-256&cost=131072"
      },
      "public_keys": [
        "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "version": "2.0"
}
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – A transaction with that ID was found.
  • 404 Not Found – A transaction with that ID was not found.
GET /api/v1/transactions

Requests to the /api/v1/transactions endpoint without any query parameters will get a response status code 400 Bad Request.

GET /api/v1/transactions?asset_id={asset_id}&operation={CREATE|TRANSFER}&last_tx={true|false}

Get a list of transactions that use an asset with the ID asset_id.

If operation is CREATE, then the CREATE transaction which created the asset with ID asset_id will be returned.

If operation is TRANSFER, then every TRANSFER transaction involving the asset with ID asset_id will be returned. This allows users to query the entire history or provenance of an asset.

If operation is not included, then every transaction involving the asset with ID asset_id will be returned.

if last_tx is set to true, only the last transaction is returned instead of all transactions with the given asset_id.

This endpoint returns transactions only if they are in committed blocks.

Query Parameters:
 
  • operation (string) – (Optional) CREATE or TRANSFER.
  • asset_id (string) – asset ID.
  • last_tx (string) – (Optional) true or false.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/transactions?operation=TRANSFER&asset_id=4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317 HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

[{
  "asset": {
    "id": "4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317"
  },
  "id": "79ef6803210c941903d63d08b40fa17f0a5a04f11ac0ff04451553a187d97a30",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "fulfillment": "pGSAIDE5i63cn4X8T8N1sZ2mGkJD5lNRnBM4PZgI_zvzbr-cgUAYRI8kzKaZcrW-_avQrAIk5q-7o_7U6biBvoHk1ioBLqHSBcE_PAdNEaeWesAAW_HeCqNUWKaJ5Lzo5Nfz7QgN",
      "fulfills": {
        "output_index": 0,
        "transaction_id": "4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317"
      },
      "owners_before": [
        "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "sequence": 1
  },
  "operation": "TRANSFER",
  "outputs": [
    {
      "amount": "1",
      "condition": {
        "details": {
          "public_key": "3yfQPHeWAa1MxTX9Zf9176QqcpcnWcanVZZbaHb8B3h9",
          "type": "ed25519-sha-256"
        },
        "uri": "ni:///sha-256;lu6ov4AKkee6KWGnyjOVLBeyuP0bz4-O6_dPi15eYUc?fpt=ed25519-sha-256&cost=131072"
      },
      "public_keys": [
        "3yfQPHeWAa1MxTX9Zf9176QqcpcnWcanVZZbaHb8B3h9"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "version": "2.0"
},
{
  "asset": {
    "id": "4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317"
  },
  "id": "1fec726a3b426498147f1a1f19a92c187d551a7f66db4b88d666d7dcc10e86a4",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "fulfillment": "pGSAICw7Ul-c2lG6NFbHp3FbKRC7fivQcNGO7GS4wV3A-1QggUARCMty2JBK_OyPJntWEFxDG4-VbKMy853NtqwnPib5QUJIuwPQa1Y4aN2iIBuoqGE85Pmjcc1ScG9FCPSQHacK",
      "fulfills": {
        "output_index": 0,
        "transaction_id": "79ef6803210c941903d63d08b40fa17f0a5a04f11ac0ff04451553a187d97a30"
      },
      "owners_before": [
        "3yfQPHeWAa1MxTX9Zf9176QqcpcnWcanVZZbaHb8B3h9"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "sequence": 2
  },
  "operation": "TRANSFER",
  "outputs": [
    {
      "amount": "1",
      "condition": {
        "details": {
          "public_key": "3Af3fhhjU6d9WecEM9Uw5hfom9kNEwE7YuDWdqAUssqm",
          "type": "ed25519-sha-256"
        },
        "uri": "ni:///sha-256;Ll1r0LzgHUvWB87yIrNFYo731MMUEypqvrbPATTbuD4?fpt=ed25519-sha-256&cost=131072"
      },
      "public_keys": [
        "3Af3fhhjU6d9WecEM9Uw5hfom9kNEwE7YuDWdqAUssqm"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "version": "2.0"
}]
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – A list of transactions containing an asset with ID asset_id was found and returned.
  • 400 Bad Request – The request wasn’t understood by the server, e.g. the asset_id querystring was not included in the request.
POST /api/v1/transactions?mode={mode}

This endpoint is used to send a transaction to a BigchainDB network. The transaction is put in the body of the request.

Query Parameters:
 
  • mode (string) – (Optional) One of the three supported modes to send a transaction: async, sync, commit. The default is async.

Once the posted transaction arrives at a BigchainDB node, that node will check to see if the transaction is valid. If it’s invalid, the node will return an HTTP 400 (error). Otherwise, the node will send the transaction to Tendermint (in the same node) using the Tendermint broadcast API.

The meaning of the mode query parameter is inherited from the mode parameter in Tendermint’s broadcast API. mode=async means the HTTP response will come back immediately, before Tendermint asks BigchainDB Server to check the validity of the transaction (a second time). mode=sync means the HTTP response will come back after Tendermint gets a response from BigchainDB Server regarding the validity of the transaction. mode=commit means the HTTP response will come back once the transaction is in a committed block.

Note

In the async and sync modes, after a successful HTTP response is returned, the transaction may still be rejected later on. All the transactions are recorded internally by Tendermint in WAL (Write-Ahead Log) before the HTTP response is returned. Nevertheless, the following should be noted:

  • Transactions in WAL including the failed ones are not exposed in any of the BigchainDB or Tendermint APIs.
  • Transactions are never fetched from WAL. WAL is never replayed.
  • A critical failure (e.g. the system is out of disk space) may occur preventing transactions from being stored in WAL, even when the HTTP response indicates a success.
  • If a transaction fails the validation because it conflicts with the other transactions of the same block, Tendermint includes it into its block, but BigchainDB does not store these transactions and does not offer any information about them in the APIs.

Note

The posted transaction should be valid. The relevant BigchainDB Transactions Spec explains how to build a valid transaction and how to check if a transaction is valid. One would normally use a driver such as the BigchainDB Python Driver to build a valid transaction.

Note

A client can subscribe to the WebSocket Event Stream API to listen for committed transactions.

Example request:

POST /api/v1/transactions?mode=async HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "asset": {
    "data": {
      "msg": "Hello BigchainDB!"
    }
  },
  "id": "4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "fulfillment": "pGSAIDE5i63cn4X8T8N1sZ2mGkJD5lNRnBM4PZgI_zvzbr-cgUCy4BR6gKaYT-tdyAGPPpknIqI4JYQQ-p2nCg3_9BfOI-15vzldhyz-j_LZVpqAlRmbTzKS-Q5gs7ZIFaZCA_UD",
      "fulfills": null,
      "owners_before": [
        "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "sequence": 0
  },
  "operation": "CREATE",
  "outputs": [
    {
      "amount": "1",
      "condition": {
        "details": {
          "public_key": "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD",
          "type": "ed25519-sha-256"
        },
        "uri": "ni:///sha-256;PNYwdxaRaNw60N6LDFzOWO97b8tJeragczakL8PrAPc?fpt=ed25519-sha-256&cost=131072"
      },
      "public_keys": [
        "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "version": "2.0"
}

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "asset": {
    "data": {
      "msg": "Hello BigchainDB!"
    }
  },
  "id": "4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "fulfillment": "pGSAIDE5i63cn4X8T8N1sZ2mGkJD5lNRnBM4PZgI_zvzbr-cgUCy4BR6gKaYT-tdyAGPPpknIqI4JYQQ-p2nCg3_9BfOI-15vzldhyz-j_LZVpqAlRmbTzKS-Q5gs7ZIFaZCA_UD",
      "fulfills": null,
      "owners_before": [
        "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "sequence": 0
  },
  "operation": "CREATE",
  "outputs": [
    {
      "amount": "1",
      "condition": {
        "details": {
          "public_key": "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD",
          "type": "ed25519-sha-256"
        },
        "uri": "ni:///sha-256;PNYwdxaRaNw60N6LDFzOWO97b8tJeragczakL8PrAPc?fpt=ed25519-sha-256&cost=131072"
      },
      "public_keys": [
        "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "version": "2.0"
}
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 202 Accepted – The meaning of this response depends on the value of the mode parameter. See above.
  • 400 Bad Request – The posted transaction was invalid.
POST /api/v1/transactions

This endpoint (without any parameters) will push a new transaction. Since no mode parameter is included, the default mode is assumed: async.

Transaction Outputs

The /api/v1/outputs endpoint returns transactions outputs filtered by a given public key, and optionally filtered to only include either spent or unspent outputs.

Note

If you want to do more sophisticated queries than those provided by the BigchainDB HTTP API, then one option is to connect to MongoDB directly (if possible) and do whatever queries MongoDB allows. For more about that option, see the page about querying BigchainDB.

GET /api/v1/outputs

Get transaction outputs by public key. The public_key parameter must be a base58 encoded ed25519 public key associated with transaction output ownership.

Returns a list of transaction outputs.

Parameters:
  • public_key – Base58 encoded public key associated with output ownership. This parameter is mandatory and without it the endpoint will return a 400 response code.
  • spent – (Optional) Boolean value (true or false) indicating if the result set should include only spent or only unspent outputs. If not specified, the result includes all the outputs (both spent and unspent) associated with the public_key.
GET /api/v1/outputs?public_key={public_key}
Return all outputs, both spent and unspent, for the public_key.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/outputs?public_key=1AAAbbb...ccc HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

[
  {
    "output_index": 0,
    "transaction_id": "2d431073e1477f3073a4693ac7ff9be5634751de1b8abaa1f4e19548ef0b4b0e"
  },
  {
    "output_index": 1,
    "transaction_id": "2d431073e1477f3073a4693ac7ff9be5634751de1b8abaa1f4e19548ef0b4b0e"
  }
]
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – A list of outputs was found and returned in the body of the response.
  • 400 Bad Request – The request wasn’t understood by the server, e.g. the public_key querystring was not included in the request.
GET /api/v1/outputs?public_key={public_key}&spent=true
Return all spent outputs for public_key.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/outputs?public_key=1AAAbbb...ccc&spent=true HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

[
  {
    "output_index": 0,
    "transaction_id": "2d431073e1477f3073a4693ac7ff9be5634751de1b8abaa1f4e19548ef0b4b0e"
  }
]
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – A list of outputs were found and returned in the body of the response.
  • 400 Bad Request – The request wasn’t understood by the server, e.g. the public_key querystring was not included in the request.
GET /api/v1/outputs?public_key={public_key}&spent=false
Return all unspent outputs for public_key.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/outputs?public_key=1AAAbbb...ccc&spent=false HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

[
  {
    "output_index": 1,
    "transaction_id": "2d431073e1477f3073a4693ac7ff9be5634751de1b8abaa1f4e19548ef0b4b0e"
  }
]
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – A list of outputs were found and returned in the body of the response.
  • 400 Bad Request – The request wasn’t understood by the server, e.g. the public_key querystring was not included in the request.

Assets

Note

If you want to do more sophisticated queries than those provided by the BigchainDB HTTP API, then one option is to connect to MongoDB directly (if possible) and do whatever queries MongoDB allows. For more about that option, see the page about querying BigchainDB.

GET /api/v1/assets

Return all the assets that match a given text search.

Query Parameters:
 
  • search (string) – Text search string to query.
  • limit (int) – (Optional) Limit the number of returned assets. Defaults to 0 meaning return all matching assets.
GET /api/v1/assets/?search={search}

Return all assets that match a given text search.

Note

The id of the asset is the same id of the CREATE transaction that created the asset.

Note

You can use assets/?search or assets?search.

If no assets match the text search it returns an empty list.

If the text string is empty or the server does not support text search, a 400 Bad Request is returned.

The results are sorted by text score. For more information about the behavior of text search, see MongoDB text search behavior.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/assets/?search=bigchaindb HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

[
    {
        "data": {"msg": "Hello BigchainDB 1!"},
        "id": "51ce82a14ca274d43e4992bbce41f6fdeb755f846e48e710a3bbb3b0cf8e4204"
    },
    {
        "data": {"msg": "Hello BigchainDB 2!"},
        "id": "b4e9005fa494d20e503d916fa87b74fe61c079afccd6e084260674159795ee31"
    },
    {
        "data": {"msg": "Hello BigchainDB 3!"},
        "id": "fa6bcb6a8fdea3dc2a860fcdc0e0c63c9cf5b25da8b02a4db4fb6a2d36d27791"
    }
]
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – The query was executed successfully.
  • 400 Bad Request – The query was not executed successfully. Returned if the text string is empty or the server does not support text search.
GET /api/v1/assets?search={search}&limit={n_documents}

Return at most n_documents assets that match a given text search.

If no assets match the text search it returns an empty list.

If the text string is empty or the server does not support text search, a 400 Bad Request is returned.

The results are sorted by text score. For more information about the behavior of text search, see MongoDB text search behavior.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/assets?search=bigchaindb&limit=2 HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

[
    {
        "data": {"msg": "Hello BigchainDB 1!"},
        "id": "51ce82a14ca274d43e4992bbce41f6fdeb755f846e48e710a3bbb3b0cf8e4204"
    },
    {
        "data": {"msg": "Hello BigchainDB 2!"},
        "id": "b4e9005fa494d20e503d916fa87b74fe61c079afccd6e084260674159795ee31"
    },
]
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – The query was executed successfully.
  • 400 Bad Request – The query was not executed successfully. Returned if the text string is empty or the server does not support text search.

Transaction Metadata

Note

If you want to do more sophisticated queries than those provided by the BigchainDB HTTP API, then one option is to connect to MongoDB directly (if possible) and do whatever queries MongoDB allows. For more about that option, see the page about querying BigchainDB.

GET /api/v1/metadata

Return all the metadata objects that match a given text search.

Query Parameters:
 
  • search (string) – Text search string to query.
  • limit (int) – (Optional) Limit the number of returned metadata objects. Defaults to 0 meaning return all matching objects.
GET /api/v1/metadata/?search={search}

Return all metadata objects that match a given text search.

Note

The id of the metadata is the same id of the transaction where it was defined.

Note

You can use metadata/?search or metadata?search.

If no metadata objects match the text search it returns an empty list.

If the text string is empty or the server does not support text search, a 400 Bad Request is returned.

The results are sorted by text score. For more information about the behavior of text search, see MongoDB text search behavior.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/metadata/?search=bigchaindb HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

[
    {
        "metadata": {"metakey1": "Hello BigchainDB 1!"},
        "id": "51ce82a14ca274d43e4992bbce41f6fdeb755f846e48e710a3bbb3b0cf8e4204"
    },
    {
        "metadata": {"metakey2": "Hello BigchainDB 2!"},
        "id": "b4e9005fa494d20e503d916fa87b74fe61c079afccd6e084260674159795ee31"
    },
    {
        "metadata": {"metakey3": "Hello BigchainDB 3!"},
        "id": "fa6bcb6a8fdea3dc2a860fcdc0e0c63c9cf5b25da8b02a4db4fb6a2d36d27791"
    }
]
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – The query was executed successfully.
  • 400 Bad Request – The query was not executed successfully. Returned if the text string is empty or the server does not support text search.
GET /api/v1/metadata/?search={search}&limit={n_documents}

Return at most n_documents metadata objects that match a given text search.

If no metadata objects match the text search it returns an empty list.

If the text string is empty or the server does not support text search, a 400 Bad Request is returned.

The results are sorted by text score. For more information about the behavior of text search, see MongoDB text search behavior.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/metadata?search=bigchaindb&limit=2 HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

[
    {
        "metadata": {"msg": "Hello BigchainDB 1!"},
        "id": "51ce82a14ca274d43e4992bbce41f6fdeb755f846e48e710a3bbb3b0cf8e4204"
    },
    {
        "metadata": {"msg": "Hello BigchainDB 2!"},
        "id": "b4e9005fa494d20e503d916fa87b74fe61c079afccd6e084260674159795ee31"
    },
]
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – The query was executed successfully.
  • 400 Bad Request – The query was not executed successfully. Returned if the text string is empty or the server does not support text search.

Validators

GET /api/v1/validators
Return the local validators set of a given node.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/validators HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

[
    {
        "pub_key": {
               "data":"4E2685D9016126864733225BE00F005515200727FBAB1312FC78C8B76831255A",
               "type":"ed25519"
        },
        "power": 10
    },
    {
         "pub_key": {
               "data":"608D839D7100466D6BA6BE79C320F8B81DE93CFAA58CF9768CF921C6371F2553",
               "type":"ed25519"
         },
         "power": 5
    }
]
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – The query was executed successfully and validators set was returned.

Blocks

GET /api/v1/blocks/{block_height}

Get the block with the height block_height.

Parameters:
  • block_height (integer) – block height

Example request:

GET /api/v1/blocks/1 HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "height": 1,
  "transactions": [
    {
      "asset": {
        "data": {
          "msg": "Hello BigchainDB!"
        }
      },
      "id": "4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317",
      "inputs": [
        {
          "fulfillment": "pGSAIDE5i63cn4X8T8N1sZ2mGkJD5lNRnBM4PZgI_zvzbr-cgUCy4BR6gKaYT-tdyAGPPpknIqI4JYQQ-p2nCg3_9BfOI-15vzldhyz-j_LZVpqAlRmbTzKS-Q5gs7ZIFaZCA_UD",
          "fulfills": null,
          "owners_before": [
            "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "sequence": 0
      },
      "operation": "CREATE",
      "outputs": [
        {
          "amount": "1",
          "condition": {
            "details": {
              "public_key": "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD",
              "type": "ed25519-sha-256"
            },
            "uri": "ni:///sha-256;PNYwdxaRaNw60N6LDFzOWO97b8tJeragczakL8PrAPc?fpt=ed25519-sha-256&cost=131072"
          },
          "public_keys": [
            "4K9sWUMFwTgaDGPfdynrbxWqWS6sWmKbZoTjxLtVUibD"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "version": "2.0"
    }
  ]
}
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – A block with that block height was found.
  • 400 Bad Request – The request wasn’t understood by the server, e.g. just requesting /blocks without the block_height.
  • 404 Not Found – A block with that block height was not found.
GET /api/v1/blocks

The unfiltered /blocks endpoint without any query parameters returns a 400 Bad Request status code.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/blocks HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Status Codes:
  • 400 Bad Request – The request wasn’t understood by the server, e.g. just requesting /blocks without the block_height.
GET /api/v1/blocks?transaction_id={transaction_id}

Retrieve a list of block IDs (block heights), such that the blocks with those IDs contain a transaction with the ID transaction_id. A correct response may consist of an empty list or a list with one block ID.

Note

In case no block was found, an empty list and an HTTP status code 200 OK is returned, as the request was still successful.

Query Parameters:
 
  • transaction_id (string) – (Required) transaction ID

Example request:

GET /api/v1/blocks?transaction_id=4957744b3ac54434b8270f2c854cc1040228c82ea4e72d66d2887a4d3e30b317 HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

[
  1
]
Response Headers:
 
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – The request was properly formed and zero or more blocks were found containing the specified transaction_id.
  • 400 Bad Request – The request wasn’t understood by the server, e.g. just requesting /blocks, without defining transaction_id.

Determining the API Root URL

When you start BigchainDB Server using bigchaindb start, an HTTP API is exposed at some address. The default is:

http://localhost:9984/api/v1/

It’s bound to localhost, so you can access it from the same machine, but it won’t be directly accessible from the outside world. (The outside world could connect via a SOCKS proxy or whatnot.)

The documentation about BigchainDB Server Configuration Settings has a section about how to set server.bind so as to make the HTTP API publicly accessible.

If the API endpoint is publicly accessible, then the public API Root URL is determined as follows:

  • The public IP address (like 12.34.56.78) is the public IP address of the machine exposing the HTTP API to the public internet (e.g. either the machine hosting Gunicorn or the machine running the reverse proxy such as NGINX). It’s determined by AWS, Azure, Rackspace, or whoever is hosting the machine.
  • The DNS hostname (like example.com) is determined by DNS records, such as an “A Record” associating example.com with 12.34.56.78
  • The port (like 9984) is determined by the server.bind setting if Gunicorn is exposed directly to the public Internet. If a reverse proxy (like NGINX) is exposed directly to the public Internet instead, then it could expose the HTTP API on whatever port it wants to. (It should expose the HTTP API on port 9984, but it’s not bound to do that by anything other than convention.)