Running a sample CorDapp

To help you get up and running on Corda, a number of sample CorDapps for both Java and Kotlin are available from the Corda page on GitHub — see the Java samples repository and the Kotlin samples repository. This topic describes how to deploy and run a sample CorDapp.

Scenario

The local Corda network includes one notary, and three nodes, each representing a party in the network. A Corda node is an individual instance of Corda representing one party in a network. For more information on nodes, see the node documentation.

The sample CorDapp allows nodes to agree IOUs with each other, as long as they obey the following contract rules:

• The IOU’s value is strictly positive
• A node is not trying to issue an IOU to itself

This section describes how to deploy and run the sample CorDapp on the following four test nodes:

• Notary, which runs a notary service
• PartyA
• PartyB

Because data is only propagated on a need-to-know basis, any IOUs agreed between PartyA and PartyB become “shared facts” between PartyA and PartyB only.

Downloading a sample CorDapp

To download the sample CorDapp, open a command prompt or terminal in the directory where you want to download the sample CorDapp, and run the following command to clone the samples repository:

git clone https://github.com/corda/samples-java

git clone https://github.com/corda/samples-kotlin

The samples-java and samples-kotlin repositories each contain a number of sample CorDapps. For details of all the sample CorDapps and their features and usage, see the Readme file located within the samples-java or samples-kotlin folder.

The sample CorDapp that we are going to run and deploy is the Basic CorDapp — the source files for this CorDapp are located in the Basic\cordapp-example sub-folder.

Opening the sample CorDapp in IntelliJ IDEA

To open the sample CorDapp in IntelliJ IDEA:

1. Open IntelliJ.
2. From the splash screen, click Open, navigate to the Basic\cordapp-example sub-folder, and click OK. The project containing the sample CorDapp should open.

Project structure

The cordapp-example folder is structured as follows:

.

├── clients
│   ├── build.gradle
│   └── src
│       └── main
│           ├── java
│           │   └── com
│           │       └── example
│           │           └── server
│           │               ├── CONSTANTS.java
│           │               ├── MainController.java
│           │               ├── NodeRPCConnection.java
│           │               └── Server.java
│           │  
│           └── resources
│               ├── application.properties
│               └── public
│                   ├── index.html
│                   └── js
│                       └── angular-module.js
├── config
│   ├── dev
│      └── log4j2.xml
│  
│  
├── contracts-java
│   ├── build.gradle
│   └── src
│       └── main
│           └── java
│               └── com
│                   └── example
│                       ├── contract
│                       │   └── IOUContract.java
│                       ├── schema
│                       │   ├── IOUSchema.java
│                       │   └── IOUSchemaV1.java
│                       └── state
│                           └── IOUState.java
├── contracts-kotlin
│   ├── build.gradle
│   └── src
│       └── main
│           └── kotlin
│               └── com
│                   └── example
│                       ├── contract
│                       │   └── IOUContract
│                       ├── schema
│                       │   └── IOUSchema.kt
│                       └── state
│                           └── IOUState
├── gradle
│   └── wrapper
│       ├── gradle-wrapper.jar
│       └── gradle-wrapper.properties
│ 
├── lib
│   ├── README.txt
│   └── quasar.jar
│ 
├── workflows-java
│   ├── build.gradle
│   └── src
│       ├── integrationTest
│       │   └── java
│       │       └── com
│       │           └── example
│       │               └── DriverBasedTests.java
│       ├── main
│       │   └── java
│       │       └── com
│       │           └── example
│       │               └── flow
│       │                   └── ExampleFlow.java
│       └── test
│           └── java
│               └── com
│                   └── example
│                       ├── NodeDriver.java
│                       ├── contract
│                       │   └── IOUContractTests.java
│                       └── flow
│                           └── IOUFlowTests.java
├──  workflows-kotlin
│    ├── build.gradle
│    └── src
│        ├── integrationTest
│        │   └── kotlin
│        │       └── com
│        │           └── example
│        │               └── DriverBasedTests.kt
│        ├── main
│        │   └── kotlin
│        │       └── com
│        │           └── example
│        │               └── flow
│        │                   └── ExampleFlow.kt
│        └── test
│            └── kotlin
│                └── com
│                    └── example
│                        ├── NodeDriver.kt
│                        ├── contract
│                        │   └── IOUContractTests.kt
│                        └── flow
│                            └── IOUFlowTests.kt
├── build.gradle
├── gradle.properties
├── gradlew
├── gradlew.bat
├── LICENCE
├── README.md
├── repositories.gradle
├── settings.gradle
└── TRADEMARK

The key files and directories are as follows:

• The root directory contains some gradle files, a README, a LICENSE and a TRADEMARK statement
• clients contains the source code for Spring Boot integration
• config contains the log4j2 configuration
• contracts-java and workflows-java contain the source code for the sample CorDapp written in Java
• contracts-kotlin and workflows-kotlin contain the same source code, but written in Kotlin. CorDapps can be developed in either Java and Kotlin
• gradle contains the gradle wrapper, which allows the use of Gradle without installing it yourself and worrying about which version is required
• lib contains the Quasar jar, which rewrites our CorDapp’s flows to be checkpointable

Starting the sample CorDapp

Starting the sample CorDapp is a two step-process:

• First, you must deploy the sample CorDapp to a set of test nodes running locally, as described in the section that follows.
• Once you have deployed the CorDapp to the nodes, you must then start the nodes to launch the CorDapp.

Deploying the CorDapp locally

The first step is to deploy the CorDapp to nodes running locally. To do this:

1. Open a terminal window in the cordapp-example directory.

2. Run the deployNodes Gradle task to build four nodes with the CorDapp installed on them:

   • Unix/macOS: ./gradlew deployNodes
   • Windows: ./gradlew.bat deployNodes

3. When the build finishes, go to the samples-java/Basic/cordapp-example/build/nodes or samples-kotlin/Basic/cordapp-example/build/nodes folder. You will see the following output:

   • A folder for each generated node
   • A runnodes shell script for running all the nodes simultaneously on macOS
   • A runnodes.bat batch file for running all the nodes simultaneously on Windows

   Each node in the nodes folder is structured as follows:

. nodeName
├── additional-node-infos  //
├── certificates
├── corda.jar              // The Corda node runtime
├── cordapps               // The node's CorDapps
│   ├── config
│   ├── corda-example-contracts-0.1.jar
│   └── corda-example-workflows-0.1.jar
├── djvm
├── drivers
├── logs
├── network-parameters
├── node.conf              // The node's configuration file
├── nodeInfo-<HASH>        // The hash will be different each time you generate a node
├── persistence.mv.db      // The node's database
└── persistence.trace.db   // The node's database

Launching the sample CorDapp

To start the nodes and the sample CorDapp, run the command that corresponds to your operating system:

• Unix/macOS: ./build/nodes/runnodes
• Windows: .\build\nodes\runnodes.bat

Start a Spring Boot server for each node by opening a terminal/command prompt for each node and entering the following command, replacing X with A and B.

• Unix/macOS: ./gradlew runPartyXServer
• Windows: gradlew.bat runPartyXServer

Look for the Started Server in X seconds message — don’t rely on the % indicator.

For each node, the runnodes script creates a node tab/window:

   ______               __
  / ____/     _________/ /___ _
 / /     __  / ___/ __  / __ `/         Top tip: never say "oops", instead
/ /___  /_/ / /  / /_/ / /_/ /          always say "Ah, Interesting!"
\____/     /_/   \__,_/\__,_/

--- Corda Open Source corda-4.4 (4157c25) -----------------------------------------------


Logs can be found in                    : /Users/cordauser/Desktop/cordapp-example/workflows-java/build/nodes/PartyA/logs
Database connection url is              : jdbc:h2:tcp://localhost:59472/node
Incoming connection address             : localhost:10005
Listening on port                       : 10005
Loaded CorDapps                         : corda-finance-corda-4.4, cordapp-example-0.1, corda-core-corda-4.4
Node for "PartyA" started up and registered in 38.59 sec


Welcome to the Corda interactive shell.
Useful commands include 'help' to see what is available, and 'bye' to shut down the node.

Fri Mar 02 17:34:02 GMT 2018>>>

It usually takes around 60 seconds for the nodes to finish starting up. Each node will display “Welcome to the Corda interactive shell” along with a prompt when ready.

You can read more about how to generate nodes here.

Interacting with the sample CorDapp

You can interact with the sample CorDapp in various ways:

• Via HTTP
• Via the interactive shell (terminal only)
• Via the h2 web console

Via HTTP

The Spring Boot servers run locally on the following ports:

• PartyA: localhost:50005
• PartyB: localhost:50006

These ports are defined in clients/build.gradle.

Each Spring Boot server exposes the following endpoints:

• /me
• /peers
• /ious
• /create-iou with parameters iouValue and partyName which is CN name of a node

There is also a web front-end served from the home web page e.g. localhost:50005.

Creating an IOU via the endpoint

An IOU can be created by sending a PUT request to the /create-iou endpoint directly, or by using the the web form served from the home directory.

To create an IOU between PartyA and PartyB, run the following command from the command line:

curl -i -X POST 'http://localhost:50005/create-iou?iouValue=12&partyName=O=PartyB,L=New%20York,C=US' -H 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded'

Note that both PartyA’s port number (50005) and PartyB are referenced in the PUT request path. This command instructs PartyA to agree an IOU with PartyB. Once the process is complete, both nodes will have a signed, notarised copy of the IOU.

Via the interactive shell (terminal only)

Nodes started via the terminal will display an interactive shell:

Welcome to the Corda interactive shell.
Useful commands include 'help' to see what is available, and 'bye' to shut down the node.

Fri Jul 07 16:36:29 BST 2017>>>

Type flow list in the shell to see a list of the flows that your node can run. In our case, this will return the following list:

net.corda.samples.example.flows.ExampleFlow$Initiator
net.corda.core.flows.ContractUpgradeFlow$Authorise
net.corda.core.flows.ContractUpgradeFlow$Deauthorise
net.corda.core.flows.ContractUpgradeFlow$Initiate

Creating an IOU via the interactive shell

We can create a new IOU using the ExampleFlow$Initiator flow. For example, from the interactive shell of PartyA, you can agree an IOU of 50 with PartyB by running flow start ExampleFlow$Initiator iouValue: 50, otherParty: "O=PartyB,L=New York,C=US".

This will print out the following progress steps:

✅   Generating transaction based on new IOU.
✅   Verifying contract constraints.
✅   Signing transaction with our private key.
✅   Gathering the counterparty's signature.
    ✅   Collecting signatures from counterparties.
    ✅   Verifying collected signatures.
✅   Obtaining notary signature and recording transaction.
    ✅   Requesting signature by notary service
            Requesting signature by Notary service
            Validating response from Notary service
    ✅   Broadcasting transaction to participants
✅   Done

Checking the output

We can also issue RPC operations to the node via the interactive shell. Type run to see the full list of available operations.

You can see the newly-created IOU by running run vaultQuery contractStateType: net.corda.samples.example.states.IOUState.

Via the h2 web console

You can connect directly to your node’s database to see its stored states, transactions and attachments. To do so, please follow the instructions in Node database.

Running nodes across machines

The nodes can be configured to communicate as a network even when distributed across several machines:

• Deploy the nodes as usual:

  • Unix/macOS: ./gradlew deployNodes
  • Windows: gradlew.bat deployNodes

• Navigate to the build folder (/build/nodes)

• For each node, open its node.conf file and change localhost in its p2pAddress to the IP address of the machine where the node will be run (e.g. p2pAddress="10.18.0.166:10007")

• These changes require new node-info files to be distributed amongst the nodes. Use the network bootstrapper tool (see Network Bootstrapper) to update the files and have them distributed locally:java -jar network-bootstrapper.jar /build/nodes

• Move the node folders to their individual machines (for example, using a USB key). It is important that none of the nodes - including the notary - end up on more than one machine. Each computer should also have a copy of runnodes and runnodes.bat. For example, you may end up with the following layout:

  • Machine 1: Notary, PartyA, runnodes, runnodes.bat
  • Machine 2: PartyB, runnodes, runnodes.bat

• After starting each node, the nodes will be able to see one another and agree IOUs among themselves

Testing the CorDapp

Corda provides several frameworks for writing unit and integration tests for CorDapps. To access test flows in IntelliJ, select an option from the ‘Run Configurations’ dropdown next to the hammer icon.

Integration tests

You can run the CorDapp’s integration tests with the Run Integration Tests - Java run configuration.

First, run an integration test to calibrate your environment.

1. Go to Workflows > src > IntegrationTest > DriverBasedTest.
2. Select the green arrow next to the test code. This will open the Run Terminal.

Contract tests

You can run the CorDapp’s contract tests by running the Run Contract Tests - Java run configuration.

1. Go to Workflow > src > test > ContractTests.
2. Select the arrow next to the test code. Choose the arrow at the top to run all the tests at once, or select the arrow next to a particular section to test it individually.

Flow tests

You can run the CorDapp’s flow tests by running the Run Flow Tests - Java run configuration.

1. Go to Workflow > src > test > FlowTests.
2. Select the arrow next to the test code. Choose the arrow at the top to run all the tests at once, or select the arrow next to a particular section to test it individually.

Debug a test

If your test fails, run a Gradle test instead of a unit test.

1. Open the Gradle tab on the right-hand side of your IntelliJ window.
2. Open Build Tool Settings (wrench icon) and select Gradle Settings.
3. Set Gradle as the default in your Build and Run settings and click Apply.
4. Go to Run Configurations (next to the hammer icon) and select Edit Configurations.
5. Delete the unit test driver and click Apply.
6. Return to your test code. You will see the Gradle icon (an elephant).
7. Select the Gradle icon to run your test.

Debugging the CorDapp

See Debugging a CorDapp.