meteor-nodejs

Based on Offical CentOS image from centos:centos7

This Dockerfile stands for a JavaScript Runtime and App Platform where you can develop decentralized applications (Dapps) bundled as single html file connected to an running ethereum node with JavaScript web3 API communicating internally via JSON RPC API.

• Build context: 333 MByte
• DockerHub: https://hub.docker.com/r/blakeberg/meteor-nodejs
• Image Size: 1.108 GByte

Installed packages

• openssh-server
• sudo
• passwd
• git
• curl
• nodejs (with solc, web3 and meteor-build-client)
• meteor

Building & Running

Pull from dockerhub:

docker pull blakeberg/meteor-nodejs

or copy the sources to your docker host.

Build

docker build --force-rm -t blakeberg/meteor-nodejs .

Run

You can choose to run this container with or without a link to an Ethereum client geth.

without geth

docker run -d -h meteor --name meteor -p 10022:22 -p 3000:3000 blakeberg/meteor-nodejs

with geth

Container blakeberg/ssh:geth-node exists and is running.

docker run -d -h meteor --name meteor -p 10022:22 -p 3000:3000 --link=geth:geth blakeberg/meteor-nodejs

You will need this link for developing decentralized applications with Ethereum.

Connect

If you are connected to this container you can connect to linked container geth too.

If you us boot2docker you shoud add to your /etc/hosts under Windows or Mac OS X the IP and host name of the boot2docker VM 192.168.99.100 meteor (IP to verify)

If you have an issue with cross origin requests you can allow all domains with parameter --rpccorsdomain "*" and if you can't connect to geth node you can allow all adresses with parameter --rpcaddr "0.0.0.0". Both parameters can be set with geth command see container geth-node (link below)

to this container

Connect with ssh use the port that was just located:

ssh -p 10022 meteor@localhost

• initial passwd @see Dockerfile
• you can use sudo @ALL
• you can also connect via scp of course

to linked container

From this container you can connect to linked container geth via JSON RPC API:

curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"web3_clientVersion","params":[],"id":67}' http://geth:8545

If Ethereum node on geth is running you will get a JSON Response

{"id":67,"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":"Geth/v1.3.5/linux/go1.5.1"}

Meteor

Meteor is a full stack JavaScript App Platform used for creating Apps and Dapps (in case of Blockchain / Ethereum).

Sample App

Create a new dummy-app within a running container.

1. connect with ssh
2. create app dummy: meteor create --release 1.2.1 dummy-app (first meteor is installing)
3. change dir: cd dummy-app
4. start app dummy: nohup meteor &
5. show app in browser: http://meteor:3000

For a more sophisticated example complete the todo app! (link below)

Sample Dapp

A Dapp contains one or more contracts and a graphical user interface (UI) to handle it. There are some packages for Meteor includig UI you can simply use for that purpose.

create own

Create a new dummy-dapp within a running container. Approve that container blakeberg/ssh:geth-node exists, is linked and its Ethereum client is running.

1. connect with ssh
2. create app dummy: meteor create --release 1.2.1 dummy-dapp (first meteor is not installing if you done the dummy-app before)
3. change dir: cd dummy-dapp
4. install meteor packages for ethereum (every package show its dependencies and a description if available)
   • Ethereum JS API: meteor add ethereum:web3
   • helper functions: meteor add ethereum:tools
   • basic ui elements: meteor add ethereum:elements
   • CSS/LESS framework for dapps: meteor add ethereum:dapp-styles needs also meteor add less
   • Ethereum Accounts: meteor add ethereum:accounts
   • Ethereum Blocks: meteor add ethereum:blocks
5. add line @import '{ethereum:dapp-styles}/dapp-styles.less'; to dummy-dapp.css
6. rename mv dummy-dapp.css dummy-dapp.less
7. start app dummy: nohup meteor &
8. everything you edit in js, html, css will changed directly in your browser http://meteor:3000 (you can only run one meteor instance on that port)
9. Try some stuff from ethereum packages (link below)

run example

This example is included in this container and show at least on use case for each Meteor package for Ethereum. Approve that container blakeberg/ssh:geth-node exists, is linked and its Ethereum client is running.

1. run step 1-8 of create own sample dapp
2. copy files cp ~/dummy-dapp.* .
3. show again in your browser http://meteor:3000 (should updated immediately)

You see see the result "Hello World!" from sample contact "Greeter" greeter.greet() as example in container geth-node (link below)

Bundle (D)Apps

With Meteor Build Client you can bundle the client part of a Meteor app with a simple index.html and javascript (and maybe css and images), so it can be hosted on any server or even loaded via the file:// protocol.

Note that the Build Client could not executed successful for Meteor 1.3 projects so that is the reason why there built with option --release 1.2.1

There is no need for centralized server!

1. connect with ssh
2. change dir: cd dummy-app
3. bundle app: meteor-build-client ../bundled-dummy-app -p ""
4. change dir: cd ../bundled-dummy-app and see (there is only a html and js file)
5. change dir: cd ~/dummy-dapp
6. bundle dapp: meteor-build-client ../bundled-dummy-dapp -p ""
7. change dir: cd ../bundled-dummy-dapp and see (there is an additional css file and packages folder with images inside)

See bundled (d)apps examples:

• https://github.com/blakeberg/meteor-nodejs/tree/master/bundled-dummy-app
• https://github.com/blakeberg/meteor-nodejs/tree/master/bundled-dummy-dapp

You can download these files and run via the file:// protocol. The dapp need a running geth-node (link below)

NodeJS

NodeJS is a JavaScript Runtime Environment with Package Manager NPM which installed the Packages solc, web3 and also meteor-build-client described before. Approve that container blakeberg/ssh:geth-node exists, is linked and its Ethereum client is running.

with solc

You can also compile contracts with solc from NodeJS as a javascript console type node.

Load solc module:

var solc = require('solc');
solc.version();

Compile contract greeter:

var greeter = solc.compile("contract mortal { address owner; function mortal() { owner = msg.sender; } function kill() { if (msg.sender == owner) suicide(owner); } } contract greeter is mortal { string greeting; function greeter(string _greeting) public { greeting = _greeting; } function greet() constant returns (string) { return greeting; } }");
greeter.contracts.greeter.gasEstimates; 
greeter.contracts.mortal.gasEstimates; 

with web3

You can also execute JavaScript with web3.js from NodeJS as a javascript console type node.

Load web3 module and connect to Ethereum client:

var Web3 = require('web3');
var web3 = new Web3();
web3.setProvider(new web3.providers.HttpProvider('http://geth:8545'));

Get account information:

var coinbase = web3.eth.coinbase;
coinbase; 
web3.eth.getBalance(coinbase);

Call contract greeter (as in dapp example above):

var abi = [{"constant":false,"inputs":[],"name":"kill","outputs":[],"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"greet","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"string"}],"type":"function"},{"inputs":[{"name":"_greeting","type":"string"}],"type":"constructor"}]; 
var greeter = web3.eth.contract(abi).at("0x0608616212f0356c3d4c7c7b1c317151646164e1");
greeter.greet();

Useful Links

• Meteor Example App Handson https://www.meteor.com/tutorials/blaze/creating-an-app
• Install Meteor https://www.meteor.com/install
• Meteor API http://docs.meteor.com/#/basic/
• Meteor Build Client https://github.com/frozeman/meteor-build-client
• Ethereum Dapp using Meteor https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Dapp-using-Meteor
• Ethereum Meteor Packages https://atmospherejs.com/ethereum
• Ethereum JavaScript web3 API https://github.com/ethereum/web3.js/tree/master and https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JavaScript-API
• Ethereum JSON RPC API https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JSON-RPC
• Ethereum Container https://github.com/blakeberg/geth-node
• NPM-Package solc https://www.npmjs.com/package/solc
• NPM-Package web3 https://www.npmjs.com/package/web3