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Upgrading a CorDapp to Corda Enterprise 4.6

Upgrading from Open Source

Running on Corda Enterprise 4.6

A prerequisite to upgrade to Corda Enterprise 4.6 is to ensure your CorDapp is upgraded to Corda open source 4.6. Please follow the instructions in Upgrading CorDapps to newer Platform Versions section to complete this initial step.

There is no requirement to re-compile your CorDapp to Corda Enterprise in order to run it on Corda Enterprise. If you wish your CorDapp to be compatible with nodes running Open Source, then compiling against Open Source Corda V4.x will suffice. However, if you wish to leverage Corda Enterprise specific features, such as 3rd party commercial database support, and do not intend for your CorDapp to run in an open source production environment, then please follow the instructions here

Re-compiling for Corda Enterprise 4.6

Re-compiling your CorDapp requires updating its associated Gradle build file as follows:

ext.corda_release_distribution = 'com.r3.corda'
ext.corda_core_release_distribution = 'net.corda'
ext.corda_release_version = '4.6'
ext.corda_core_release_version = '4.6'
ext.corda_gradle_plugins_version = '5.0.12'
ext.kotlin_version = '1.2.71'
ext.quasar_version = '0.7.13_r3'

and specifying an additional repository entry to point to the location of the Corda Enterprise distribution and Corda dependencies. Any dependencies on corda-core and/or corda-serialization must use the corda_core_release_distribution and corda_core_release_version - as Corda is moving to an open core model, these core APIs are only available in open source and need to be imported from there. Therefore, a repository entry pointing to a matching Corda Open Source version is always required.

If your project is based on one of the official cordapp templates, it is likely you have a lib/quasar.jar checked in. It is worth noting that you only use this if you use the JUnit runner in IntelliJ. In the latest release of the cordapp templates, this directory has been removed.

As an example:

repositories {
    // Example for Corda Enterprise
    maven {
        credentials {
            username "username"
            password "XXXXX"
        }
        url 'https://artifactory.mycompany.com/artifactory/corda-enterprise'
    }

    // Dependency on Corda Open Source
    maven { url "https://software.r3.com/artifactory/corda" }

    // Corda dependencies for the patched Quasar version
    maven { url "https://software.r3.com/artifactory/corda-dependencies" } // access to the patched Quasar version
}
  • Upgrade your quasar.jar to the version consistent with your Corda version
  • Delete your lib directory and switch to using the Gradle test runner

While the Corda Gradle Plugins need no changes apart from the version, ensure that Corda Enterprise dependencies are referenced with the right distribution. As an example:

cordaCompile "net.corda:corda-core:$corda_release_version"
testCompile "net.corda:corda-node-driver:$corda_release_version"

becomes:

cordaCompile "$corda_core_release_distribution:corda-core:$corda_core_release_version" // core depends on Open Source
testCompile "$corda_release_distribution:corda-node-driver:$corda_release_version"     // node based tests from Enterprise

Upgrading from Enterprise 4.3 or earlier

As of Corda Enterprise 4.4 we have moved towards an open core strategy. Therefore, the common APIs are only available in Corda Open Source, and Corda Enterprise has a binary dependency on the matching Open Source version. As a result, any CorDapps written against Corda Enterprise 4.4 or later will have to depend on the open source version of corda-core.

Therefore you have to add the following variables to your build configuration:

ext.corda_core_release_distribution = 'net.corda'
ext.corda_core_release_version = '4.6'

Any dependency on corda-core (or corda-serialization) has to use these new variables to depend on the open source version of those libraries, so:

cordaCompile "$corda_release_distribution:corda-core:$corda_release_version"

becomes:

cordaCompile "$ext.corda_core_release_distribution:corda-core:$ext.corda_core_release_version"

Upgrading from Enterprise 3.x

Firstly, please update all your CorDapp project dependencies as described in re-compiling for Corda Enterprise .

Adjust your CorDapp source code as necessary to take into account the following upgrade constraints:

  • Contract CorDapps .jar files with external dependencies. Refers to a Contract CorDapp .jar file that depends on one or more classes from another independently classloaded .jar file (which may be another Contract CorDapp .jar file or a third-party library). Prior to Corda 4, the node used a single applications classloader for loading all CorDapps and 3rd party .jar files (including node dependencies themselves). Corda 4 introduced an isolated classloader - the attachments classloader - for the sole purpose of transaction verification. Upon transaction verification, this classloader will attempt to resolve Contract CorDapp attachments from its internal attachments storage (this holds all versions of all Contract CorDapps loaded by the node from its /cordapps directory or manually uploaded using the RPC uploadAttachment secure API). However, Contract CorDapps do not currently have a mechanism to explicitly specify dependencies on external classes from other .jar files so the attachments classloader has no means of knowing what other dependent .jar files to classload. The implications of this are as follows:
  • Contract CorDapps should be packaged as fat JARs in Corda 4: they should be self-contained and include all classes required by the attachments classloader.
  • Contract states created pre-Corda 4 using CorDapps that, purposefully or inadvertently had external dependencies on other .jar files, would seamlessly verify in transactions a pre-Corda 4 node due to the lack of classloader isolation of attachment JARs (for example, all classloaded .jar files are visible to all other classloaded .jar files). To maintain backwards compatibility, Corda 4 introduced a “classloader fallback mechanism” which attempts to resolve and classload any referenced classes not found by the attachments classloader by scanning the applications classloader.

Example

CorDapps built using the new Token SDK fall into this category, specifically any CorDapp that extends the Token SDK EvolvableTokenType which is an abstract class that indirectly implements Contract. The build.gradle file of the third-party Contract CorDapp should specify inclusive Token SDK CorDapp dependencies as follows:

ext.tokens_sdk_release_group = 'com.r3.tokens-sdk'
ext.tokens_sdk_version = '1.0-SNAPSHOT'
...

dependencies {
    ...
    // Token SDK dependencies.
    compile "$tokens_sdk_release_group:contract:$tokens_sdk_version"
    compile "$tokens_sdk_release_group:money:$tokens_sdk_version"
    ...
}
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