Docker FEDeRATED Node

This repository contains the necessary files to configure a FEDeRATED Node and run it via docker compose.

Components

The FEDeRATED Node is composed by the following components:

• API
• Corda
• GraphDB

graph TD
    subgraph BDI Node
    API --> GraphDB
    API -- CordaRPC/AMQP --> CORDA(Corda)
    CORDA --> GraphDB
    end
    CORDA -- TLS/HTTPS --> ISHARE(iSHARE)

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Note: TLS can be enabled for the CordaRPC connection.

Configuration

Overview of the FEDeRATED Node configuration files:

File	Description
api/config/application.properties	Configuration of (custom) event types
corda/database.properties	Triple store connection properties
corda/ishare.properties	iSHARE configuration properties
corda/node.conf	Corda node.conf configuration file
.env	Docker compose env properties, contains BDI API configuration properties

Important: Make sure to restart the docker containers after changing any of the properties.

For more details regarding the off-the-shelf components that have been used, please refer to the corresponding documentation:

Component	Link
Corda R3 community edition	https://docs.r3.com/en/platform/corda/4.9/community.html
GraphDB free	https://graphdb.ontotext.com/documentation/10.1/
Spring Boot	https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/htmlsingle/

Configuring custom event types

In the api/config/application.properties the supported event types are specified for the node. If one want to add additional event types, then this configuration needs to be adjusted. There is already an example provided: rml/custom.ttl and shacl/custom.ttl. SHACL validation is optional.

Please refer to the documentation on how to configure events: https://github.com/Federated-BDI/FEDeRATED-BDI/blob/main/README.md#api-usage

Node Identity

You can configure the identity of the Corda node through the node.conf file. You can change the name and location of the organization, and you must set the host name or IP address of the node.

GraphDB

The Corda node communicates with an instance of GraphDB. In the default configuration it is assumed that GraphDB and the Corda node are running in the same network (in this case the virtual one created by docker). Should this not be the case, you can configure GraphDB's location by editing corda/database.properties folder, and alter the triplestore.host property.

iSHARE

iSHARE can be enabled for the communication between Corda nodes. All the iSHARE related properties are in the corda/ishare.properties file. To enable iSHARE set ishare.enabled=true, next to that make sure to specify the other mandatory iSHARE properties.

Registration to the Network

Important: you don't need to run this step if the node is already registered to the network - for instance, if you already registered it, and now you are restarting the node.

After configuring your node identity, you can register your node:

docker compose --profile registration up

Once the process ends successfully, the node is registered to the network and new certificates are created. After starting your node, you can see the network-map service at: https://nms.k8s.basicdatasharinginfrastructure.net/

Run the FEDeRATED Node

Run the FEDeRATED node using the following docker compose command:

docker compose --profile run up

This will start the FEDeRATED Node API, Corda node and GraphDB containers. Startup might take some time, so be patient.

Testing the FEDeRATED Node API

The FEDeRATED Node API provides a Swagger interface that allows for interacting with the FEDeRATED Node API. After the docker containers are up and running navigate to http://localhost:10050/swagger-ui.html in your browser, the Swagger UI should appear.

Corda endpoints

Under Corda details, one can query the Corda node what nodes it knows. It should know at least one notary (GET /node/notaries) and a few other nodes (GET /node/peers).

Events endpoints

The POST /events endpoint allows for sending events to the FEDeRATED node. Below is an example event that can be submitted to the /events endpoint:

curl -X 'POST' \
  'http://localhost:10050/api/events' \
  -H 'accept: */*' \
  -H 'Event-Type: federated.events.load-event.v1' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{ "event" : "data" }'

Example requests can be found at: https://github.com/Federated-BDI/FEDeRATED-BDI/tree/main/http/bdi-api

For more information please refer to: https://github.com/Federated-BDI/FEDeRATED-BDI/blob/main/README.md

Run the Corda migration database (optional)

In case you want to rebuild the corda datastore, run the command below. Make sure to stop the FEDeRATED corda node first:

docker compose --profile db up