QuickStart

The project can be used in two ways either by using Docker or setting it up locally, we highly recommend using Docker as it removes complexity.

Building the Blockchain

Before we run anything we need to download the project:

>> git clone https://github.com/tvukasovic/blockchain

Once the repository has been cloned we can either build the docker image or run it locally

Docker

Docker install only needs one command:

>> cd /path/to/project/blockchain
>> docker-compose build -f docker/Dockerfile blockchain

Thats it, we just have to wait for the image to finish building. The advantage on this approach is that we are not installing anything on our local machines we build everything inside the container, once we are done we can delete it without having any side effects or having packages that we won’t use in the future.

Locally

To make the local installation we will need to run the following commands:

>> cd /path/to/project/blockchain/docker
>> pip install requirements.txt

Once PIP is done installing all the python packages, we will have to install textract. Following THIS tutorial.

Ater textract installation its done we are ready to run the blockchain.

Running the Blockchain

Docker

If you built the docker image, we just have to run it and thats that by doing:

>> docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up

And thats it. The blockchain is up and running at the port 5000.

You can try it by going to the browser or to Postman and making a GET request to:

localhost:5000/chain

You may also try to start a bash session inside the docker container to check the files by running the command:

>> docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml run blockchain bash

Locally

Running the project locally demands a few extra steps:

>> cd /path/to/project/blockchain/src
>> export FLASK_APP=app.py
>> flask run

And thats it!

Congratulations you have build and run the blockchain POC, now its time to use it!