bitcoin-node-api

Bitcoin-Node-Api is an Express middleware plugin that easily exposes a URL structure for interfacing with a bitcoind Bitcoin wallet.

NB: The middleware is experimental at present. Certain JSON-RPC methods are not supported yet and/or experimental. These are methods with more complex parameters that do not fit easily into a query string:

• addmultisigaddress
• createmultisig
• createrawtransaction
• getaddednodeinfo
• lockunspent
• sendmany
• signrawtransaction
• submitblock

These methods will be added in the future. If there any other problems with the other methods, please report the bugs.

Install

npm install bitcoin-node-api

How to use

Node.js

var bitcoinapi = require('bitcoin-node-api');
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
 
//Username and password relate to those set in the bitcoin.conf file
 
var wallet = {
  host: 'localhost',
  port: 8332,
  user: 'username',
  pass: 'password'
};
 
bitcoinapi.setWalletDetails(wallet);
bitcoinapi.setAccess('default-safe'); //Access control
app.use('/bitcoin/api', bitcoinapi.app); //Bind the middleware to any chosen url
 
app.listen(3000);

Client/Browser

Just add the method name after the binded url.

• http://localhost:5000/URL/METHOD

For example:

• http://localhost:5000/bitcoin/api/getinfo

This returns data exactly as would be expected from the JSON-RPC api.

{
  "version": 80300,
  "protocolversion": 70001,
  "walletversion": 60000,
  "balance": 4.3222,
  "blocks": 245645,
  "timeoffset": -2,
  "connections": 8,
  "proxy": "",
  "difficulty": 21335329.113983,
  "testnet": false,
  "keypoololdest": 1368414896,
  "keypoolsize": 101,
  "paytxfee": 0.0001,
  "unlocked_until": 0,
  "errors": ""
}

Parameters are sent via a query string:

• http://localhost:3000/bitcoin/api/gettransaction?txid=d6c7e35ff9c9623208c22ee37a118ad523ae6c2d137d10053739cb03dbac62e0

{
  "amount": 0.002,
  "confirmations": 1321,
  "blockhash": "000000000000009d0a2bb76c81dd185d1f6c28256037baef7b3345b7a7e958c7",
  "blockindex": 150,
  "blocktime": 1372728756,
  "txid": "d6c7e35ff9c9623208c22ee37a118ad523ae6c2d137d10053739cb03dbac62e0",
  "time": 1372728436,
  "timereceived": 1372728436,
  "details": [
    {
      "account": "localtest",
      "address": "1Htev475XRVYfenku7ZWXGPSun15ESynCq",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.002
    }
  ]
}

Consult the API call list for parameter information.

Access Control

.setWalletPassphrase(passphrase);

If you have encrypted your wallet.dat you need to set the passphrase before attaching the middleware.

bitcoinapi.setWalletDetails(wallet);
bitcoinapi.setWalletPassphrase(passphrase);
app.use('/bitcoin/api', bitcoinapi.app);

.setAccces(type, accesslist);

The .setAccess method controls the access to the urls. By default all commands are accessible. The methods takes two parameters: type (string) and accesslist (array). To restrict access there are two ways to do this:

'only'

The 'only' type only exposes the methods given by an array of methods as the accesslist parameter.

//Only allow the getinfo method
bitcoinapi.setAccess('only', ['getinfo']);

'restrict'

The 'restrict' type prevents methods from being accessed.

bitcoinapi.setAccess('restrict', ['dumpprivkey', 'sendmany']);

'default-safe'

This is an access profile. It prevents 'dumpprivkey' and 'walletpassphrasechange' being accessed. This prevents potential theft.

bitcoinapi.setAccess('default-safe');

Projects

Bitcoin-Node-Api is used in the following projects:

• Min.io

Licence

Copyright (C) 2013 Niel de la Rouviere

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.