# Working with Chaincode In this guide we will launch the Asset Transfer Basic chaincode "as a service" on the Kubernetes test network. In addition, we will demonstrate how to connect the test network to a chaincode process running on your local machine as a local binary, attached in an IDE debugger, or in a Docker container. ## TL/DR : ```shell $ ./network chaincode deploy ✅ - Packaging chaincode folder chaincode/asset-transfer-basic ... ✅ - Transferring chaincode archive to org1 ... ✅ - Installing chaincode for org org1 ... ✅ - Launching chaincode container "ghcr.io/hyperledgendary/fabric-ccaas-asset-transfer-basic" ... ✅ - Activating chaincode basic_1.0:5e0c4db62c1f91599f58dcbfe2c37566453b1e02933646c49ba46f196723cc30 ... 🏁 - Chaincode is ready. ``` ```shell $ ./network chaincode invoke '{"Args":["CreateAsset","1","blue","35","tom","1000"]}' 2021-10-03 17:23:43.508 UTC [chaincodeCmd] chaincodeInvokeOrQuery -> INFO 001 Chaincode invoke successful. result: status:200 $ ./network chaincode query '{"Args":["ReadAsset","1"]}' | jq { "ID": "1", "color": "blue", "size": 35, "owner": "tom", "appraisedValue": 1000 } ``` ## Running Smart Contracts on Kubernetes In the Kubernetes Test Network, smart contracts are developed with the [Chaincode as a Service](link) pattern, relying on an embedded [External Builder](link) to avoid the use of a Docker daemon. With Chaincode-as-a-Service, smart contracts are deployed to Kubernetes as `Services`, `Deployments`, and `Pods`. When invoking smart contracts, the Peer network connects to the grpc receiver through the port exposed by the chaincode's Kube `Service` as described in the chaincode connection.json. Before installing chaincode to the network, a smart contract must: - Utilize the `ChaincodeServer` grpc receiver, as described in the [Fabric Operations Guide](https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cc_service.html#writing-chaincode-to-run-as-an-external-service). - Run as a Docker image published to a container registry. - Maintain a connection.json and metadata.json files in the `chaincode/$CHAINCODE_NAME` folder. - Accept the `CHAINCODE_ID` environment variable: _CHAINCODE_LABEL:sha_256(chaincode.tar.gz)_. ## Deploying Chaincode to the Network ```shell ✅ - Packaging chaincode "asset-transfer-basic" archive ... ✅ - Deploying chaincode "asset-transfer-basic" for org org1 ... ``` When working with chaincode, the `./network` script includes two parameters that define the Docker image launched in the cluster and the chaincode metadata: - `${TEST_NETWORK_CHAINCODE_NAME:-asset-transfer-basic}` refers to the _name_ associated with the chaincode. While packaging and deploying to the network, the `scripts/chaincode.sh` script uses this string to search the local `/chaincode` folder for associated metadata and connection json descriptor files. - `${TEST_NETWORK_CHAINCODE_IMAGE:-ghcr.io/hyperledgendary/fabric-ccaas-asset-transfer-basic}` defines the container image that will be used when running the chaincode in Kubernetes. To deploy the chaincode, the network script will: 1. Read the `connection.json` and `metadata.json` files from the `/chaincode/${TEST_NETWORK_CHAINCODE_NAME` folder, bundling the files into a chaincode tar.gz archive. 2. `kubectl cp` the chaincode archive from the local file system to the organization's persistent volume storage. 3. Install the chaincode archive on a peer in the organization: ```shell export CORE_PEER_ADDRESS='${org}'-peer1:7051 peer lifecycle chaincode install chaincode/asset-transfer-basic.tgz ``` 4. In typical Fabric operations, the output of the `chaincode install` command includes a generated ID of the chaincode archive printed to standard out. This ID is manually inspected and transcribed by the network operator when executing subsequent commands with the network peers. To avoid scraping the output of the installation command, the test network scripts precompute the chaincode ID as the `sha256` checksum of the tar.gz archive. 5. The chaincode docker [image is launched](../kube/org1/org1-cc-asset-transfer-basic.yaml) as a Kubernetes `Deployment` specifying _CHAINCODE_ID=sha-256(archive)_ in the environment and binding a `Service` port 9999 within the namespace. When the network sends messages to the chaincode process, it will use the host URL as defined in the `connection.json`, connecting to the kubernetes `Service` URL and `Deployment`. 6. Finally, the Admin CLI issues a series of peer commands to approve and commit the chaincode for the org: ```shell export CORE_PEER_ADDRESS='${org}'-peer1:7051 peer lifecycle \ chaincode approveformyorg \ --channelID '${CHANNEL_NAME}' \ --name '${CHAINCODE_NAME}' \ --version 1 \ --package-id '${cc_id}' \ --sequence 1 \ -o org0-orderer1:6050 \ --tls --cafile /var/hyperledger/fabric/organizations/ordererOrganizations/org0.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/org0-tls-ca.pem peer lifecycle \ chaincode commit \ --channelID '${CHANNEL_NAME}' \ --name '${CHAINCODE_NAME}' \ --version 1 \ --sequence 1 \ -o org0-orderer1:6050 \ --tls --cafile /var/hyperledger/fabric/organizations/ordererOrganizations/org0.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/org0-tls-ca.pem ``` ## Invoking and Querying the Chaincode Once the chaincode service has been deployed to the cluster, and the peers have approved the chaincode, the test scripts can issue adhoc invoke, query, and metadata requests to the network: ### Invoke ```shell $ ./network chaincode invoke '{"Args":["CreateAsset","1","blue","35","tom","1000"]}' 2021-10-03 17:23:43.508 UTC [chaincodeCmd] chaincodeInvokeOrQuery -> INFO 001 Chaincode invoke successful. result: status:200 ``` ### Query ```shell $ ./network chaincode query '{"Args":["ReadAsset","1"]}' | jq { "ID": "1", "color": "blue", "size": 35, "owner": "tom", "appraisedValue": 1000 } ``` ### Describe ```shell $ ./network chaincode metadata | jq | head { "info": { "title": "undefined", "version": "latest" }, "contracts": { "SmartContract": { "info": { "title": "SmartContract", "version": "latest" ``` ## Build a Chaincode Docker Image Before chaincode can be started in the network, it must be compiled, linked with the grpc `ChaincodeServer`, embedded into a Docker image, and pushed to a container registry visible to the Kubernetes cluster. By default, the `./network` script will launch the [asset-transfer-basic](../../asset-transfer-basic/chaincode-external) chaincode. When the test network installs this chaincode, there is no need to build a custom Docker image as it has previously been uploaded to a public container registry. As an exercise, we recommend making some updates to the asset transfer basic chaincode and then running the modified smart contract on your local Kubernetes cluster. For instance, the current version of the [assetTransfer.go](../../asset-transfer-basic/chaincode-external/assetTransfer.go) code is completely silent, printing nothing to the log when functions are invoked in the container. Try adding some debugging information to the stdout of this process, bundling into a Docker image, and pushing the docker image to the local development container registry. 1. Add some print statements to assetTransfer.go. E.g.: ```java fmt.Printf("reading asset %s\n", id) ``` 2. Build the docker image locally with: ```shell docker build -t asset-transfer-basic ../asset-transfer-basic/chaincode-external ``` 3. Override the test network's default chaincode image, pointing to our local container registry: ```shell export TEST_NETWORK_CHAINCODE_IMAGE=localhost:5000/asset-transfer-basic ``` 3. Publish the custom image to the local registry: ```shell docker tag asset-transfer-basic $TEST_NETWORK_CHAINCODE_IMAGE docker push $TEST_NETWORK_CHAINCODE_IMAGE ``` ## Debugging Chaincode One of the most compelling features of Fabric's _Chaincode-as-a-Service_ pattern is that when the peer connects to a chaincode URL, it can connect back to a port on the local host. Instead of connecting to a pod running in a container within Kubernetes, we can simply connect to a native binary running in a debugger, an IDE, or docker image running locally! Using a singular framework, we can employ this method to enable _rapid_ **edit/test/debug cycles** when authoring code, **verify** docker images generated by a CI/CD pipeline, and run integration tests on a local Kubernetes. For example, we can deploy the basic asset transfer smart contract with a [connection.json](../chaincode/asset-transfer-basic-debug/connection.json) referencing a service bound to the Docker network's IP address for the local host: ```json { "address": "host.docker.internal:9999", } ``` When the test network opens a TCP socket to the chaincode process, the connection will be made from containers running within Kubernetes to the port opened on the local system. Let's employ this to technique by running a chaincode endpoint in a local Docker container, native binary, or IDE debugger: 0. Edit assetTransfer.go and [Build the Chaincode Image](#build-a-chaincode-docker-image) 1. Bring up the test network with: ```shell $ ./network up $ ./network channel create ``` 2. Install the debug chaincode archive, using a connection to localhost:9999 : ```shell $ export TEST_NETWORK_CHAINCODE_NAME=asset-transfer-basic-debug $ export TEST_NETWORK_CHAINCODE_IMAGE=localhost:5000/asset-transfer-basic $ ./network chaincode install Installing chaincode "asset-transfer-basic-debug": ✅ - Packaging chaincode folder chaincode/asset-transfer-basic-debug ... ✅ - Transferring chaincode archive to org1 ... ✅ - Installing chaincode for org org1 ... 🏁 - Chaincode is installed with CHAINCODE_ID=basic_1.0:159ed2f227586f40c5804e157919903fda2b861488f35eefb365eb9d85a73da3 ``` 3. Set the `CHAINCODE_ID` and launch the chaincode binding to localhost:9999: ```shell $ export CHAINCODE_ID=basic_1.0:159ed2f227586f40c5804e157919903fda2b861488f35eefb365eb9d85a73da3 $ docker run \ --rm \ --name asset-transfer-basic-debug \ -e CHAINCODE_ID \ -e CHAINCODE_SERVER_ADDRESS=0.0.0.0:9999 \ -p 9999:9999 \ localhost:5000/asset-transfer-basic ``` 4. Activate the chaincode (commit and approve on the peer): ```shell $ ./network chaincode activate ``` When the peer communicates with chaincode in this fashion, the network will reach out to the grpc server bound to the localhost:9999, rather than connecting to services locked up behind the wall of Kubernetes networking. As an exercise, try using this approach to: - introduce some `fmt.Printf` logging output to the chaincode, attaching to a process running locally in an IDE / debugger. - build your local modifications into a docker container, publishing locally to localhost:5000/asset-transfer-basic - test your local modifications by running a chaincode referencing the image hosted in the local container registry. ## Next Steps: [Writing a Blockchain Application](APPLICATIONS.md)