The HTTP Client-Server API

Note: The HTTP client-server API is currently quite rudimentary. For example, there is no ability to do complex queries using the HTTP API. We plan to add querying capabilities in the future. If you want to build a full-featured proof-of-concept, we suggest you use the Python Server API for now.

When you start Bigchaindb using bigchaindb start, an HTTP API is exposed at the address stored in the BigchainDB node configuration settings. The default is for that address to be:

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

but that address can be changed by changing the “API endpoint” configuration setting (e.g. in a local config file). There’s more information about setting the API endpoint in the section about BigchainDB Configuration Settings.

There are other configuration settings related to the web server (serving the HTTP API). In particular, the default is for the web server socket to bind to localhost:9984 but that can be changed (e.g. to 0.0.0.0:9984). For more details, see the “server” settings (“bind”, “workers” and “threads”) in the section about BigchainDB Configuration Settings.

The HTTP API currently exposes two endpoints, one to get information about a specific transaction, and one to push a new transaction to the BigchainDB cluster.

GET /transactions/{tx_id}

Get the transaction with the ID tx_id.

This endpoint returns only a transaction from a VALID or UNDECIDED block on bigchain, if exists.

Parameters:

• tx_id (hex string) – transaction ID

Example request:

GET /transactions/7ad5a4b83bc8c70c4fd7420ff3c60693ab8e6d0e3124378ca69ed5acd2578792 HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

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

{
  "id":"7ad5a4b83bc8c70c4fd7420ff3c60693ab8e6d0e3124378ca69ed5acd2578792",
  "transaction":{
      "conditions":[
          {
              "cid":0,
              "condition":{
                  "details":{
                      "bitmask":32,
                      "public_key":"CwA8s2QYQBfNz4WvjEwmJi83zYr7JhxRhidx6uZ5KBVd",
                      "signature":null,
                      "type":"fulfillment",
                      "type_id":4
                  },
                  "uri":"cc:4:20:sVA_3p8gvl8yRFNTomqm6MaavKewka6dGYcFAuPrRXQ:96"
              },
              "owners_after":[
                  "CwA8s2QYQBfNz4WvjEwmJi83zYr7JhxRhidx6uZ5KBVd"
              ]
          }
      ],
      "data":{
          "payload":null,
          "uuid":"a9999d69-6cde-4b80-819d-ed57f6abe257"
      },
      "fulfillments":[
          {
              "owners_before":[
                  "JEAkEJqLbbgDRAtMm8YAjGp759Aq2qTn9eaEHUj2XePE"
              ],
              "fid":0,
              "fulfillment":"cf:4:__Y_Um6H73iwPe6ejWXEw930SQhqVGjtAHTXilPp0P01vE_Cx6zs3GJVoO1jhPL18C94PIVkLTGMUB2aKC9qsbIb3w8ejpOf0_I3OCuTbPdkd6r2lKMeVftMyMxkeWoM",
              "input":{
                  "cid":0,
                  "txid":"598ce4e9a29837a1c6fc337ee4a41b61c20ad25d01646754c825b1116abd8761"
              }
          }
      ],
      "operation":"TRANSFER",
      "timestamp":"1471423869",
      "version":1
   }
}

Status Codes:

• 200 OK – A transaction with that ID was found.
• 404 Not Found – A transaction with that ID was not found.

GET /transactions/{tx_id}/status

Get the status of a transaction with the ID tx_id.

This endpoint returns the status of a transaction if exists.

Possible values are valid, invalid, undecided or backlog.

Parameters:

• tx_id (hex string) – transaction ID

Example request:

GET /transactions/7ad5a4b83bc8c70c4fd7420ff3c60693ab8e6d0e3124378ca69ed5acd2578792/status HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

Example response:

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

{
  "status": "valid"
}

Status Codes:

• 200 OK – A transaction with that ID was found and the status is returned.
• 404 Not Found – A transaction with that ID was not found.

POST /transactions/

Push a new transaction.

Example request:

POST /transactions/ HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "id":"7ad5a4b83bc8c70c4fd7420ff3c60693ab8e6d0e3124378ca69ed5acd2578792",
  "transaction":{
      "conditions":[
          {
              "cid":0,
              "condition":{
                  "details":{
                      "bitmask":32,
                      "public_key":"CwA8s2QYQBfNz4WvjEwmJi83zYr7JhxRhidx6uZ5KBVd",
                      "signature":null,
                      "type":"fulfillment",
                      "type_id":4
                  },
                  "uri":"cc:4:20:sVA_3p8gvl8yRFNTomqm6MaavKewka6dGYcFAuPrRXQ:96"
              },
              "owners_after":[
                  "CwA8s2QYQBfNz4WvjEwmJi83zYr7JhxRhidx6uZ5KBVd"
              ]
          }
      ],
      "data":{
          "payload":null,
          "uuid":"a9999d69-6cde-4b80-819d-ed57f6abe257"
      },
      "fulfillments":[
          {
              "owners_before":[
                  "JEAkEJqLbbgDRAtMm8YAjGp759Aq2qTn9eaEHUj2XePE"
              ],
              "fid":0,
              "fulfillment":"cf:4:__Y_Um6H73iwPe6ejWXEw930SQhqVGjtAHTXilPp0P01vE_Cx6zs3GJVoO1jhPL18C94PIVkLTGMUB2aKC9qsbIb3w8ejpOf0_I3OCuTbPdkd6r2lKMeVftMyMxkeWoM",
              "input":{
                  "cid":0,
                  "txid":"598ce4e9a29837a1c6fc337ee4a41b61c20ad25d01646754c825b1116abd8761"
              }
          }
      ],
      "operation":"TRANSFER",
      "timestamp":"1471423869",
      "version":1
   }
}

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "assignee":"4XYfCbabAWVUCbjTmRTFEu2sc3dFEdkse4r6X498B1s8",
  "id":"7ad5a4b83bc8c70c4fd7420ff3c60693ab8e6d0e3124378ca69ed5acd2578792",
  "transaction":{
      "conditions":[
          {
              "cid":0,
              "condition":{
                  "details":{
                      "bitmask":32,
                      "public_key":"CwA8s2QYQBfNz4WvjEwmJi83zYr7JhxRhidx6uZ5KBVd",
                      "signature":null,
                      "type":"fulfillment",
                      "type_id":4
                  },
                  "uri":"cc:4:20:sVA_3p8gvl8yRFNTomqm6MaavKewka6dGYcFAuPrRXQ:96"
              },
              "owners_after":[
                  "CwA8s2QYQBfNz4WvjEwmJi83zYr7JhxRhidx6uZ5KBVd"
              ]
          }
      ],
      "data":{
          "payload":null,
          "uuid":"a9999d69-6cde-4b80-819d-ed57f6abe257"
      },
      "fulfillments":[
          {
              "owners_before":[
                  "JEAkEJqLbbgDRAtMm8YAjGp759Aq2qTn9eaEHUj2XePE"
              ],
              "fid":0,
              "fulfillment":"cf:4:__Y_Um6H73iwPe6ejWXEw930SQhqVGjtAHTXilPp0P01vE_Cx6zs3GJVoO1jhPL18C94PIVkLTGMUB2aKC9qsbIb3w8ejpOf0_I3OCuTbPdkd6r2lKMeVftMyMxkeWoM",
              "input":{
                  "cid":0,
                  "txid":"598ce4e9a29837a1c6fc337ee4a41b61c20ad25d01646754c825b1116abd8761"
              }
          }
      ],
      "operation":"TRANSFER",
      "timestamp":"1471423869",
      "version":1
  }
}

Status Codes:

• 201 Created – A new transaction was created.
• 400 Bad Request – The transaction was invalid and not created.

Disclaimer

CREATE transactions are treated differently from TRANSFER assets. The reason is that a CREATE transaction needs to be signed by a federation node and not by the client.

The following python snippet in a client can be used to generate CREATE transactions before they can be pushed to the API server:

from bigchaindb import util
tx = util.create_and_sign_tx(my_privkey, my_pubkey, my_pubkey, None, 'CREATE')

When POSTing tx to the API, the CREATE transaction will be signed by a federation node.

A TRANSFER transaction, that takes an existing input transaction to change ownership can be generated in multiple ways:

from bigchaindb import util, Bigchain
tx = util.create_and_sign_tx(my_privkey, my_pubkey, other_pubkey, input_tx, 'TRANSFER')
# or
b = Bigchain()
tx_unsigned = b.create_transaction(my_pubkey, other_pubkey, input_tx, 'TRANSFER')
tx = b.sign_transaction(tx_unsigned, my_privkey)

More information on generating transactions can be found in the Python server API examples