[ANNOUNCE] Multi chain block explorer

[ama]

Hello everybody,

I'm hosting

http://blockexplorer.sytes.net/

a blockexplorer site for all the alternative chains as well as for Bitcoin.  I started it because I thought it'd be a good idea to have them all together myself.  I hope it's useful for some of you too.  If so, consider donating to help me paying for a new dedicated server.

http://blockexplorer.sytes.net/

Enjoy it!

[John Tobey]

Cool!

[2112]

Please add testnet blockchains, at least for the original Bitcoin.

[ama]

Please add testnet blockchains, at least for the original Bitcoin.

I'm adding Bitcoin testnet now.  The software I'm using (Abe Search) stops the web service while building the database, so it'll take some time (hopefully not too long) to be back working.  I hope the effort and this downtime are worth and the testnet info is useful.  I might be adding other testnet chains as well in the future if there is interest (and coins?).  :-)

[ama]

I'm adding Bitcoin testnet now.  [...] it'll take some time (hopefully not too long) to be back working

It's done.  Fortunatelly it didn't take as long as I expected.  The ammount of information is much smaller in the testnets than in the real chains, of course, that's probably why.

[Cosbycoin]

Please add Geist Geld (i.e. GG) to your block explorer page.

Thanks!

[John Tobey]

I'm adding Bitcoin testnet now.  The software I'm using (Abe Search) stops the web service while building the database, so it'll take some time (hopefully not too long) to be back working.

It should be possible to run a separate Abe process reading just the new datadir and writing to the same database as the web service.  Add --no-serve to have it exit as soon as it loads the new chain.  Then add the datadir configuration to your production instance and restart it.

At least, this should work.  I think there may be bugs affecting generation of unique identifiers that could derail this.  It's on the TODO.txt list ("Test for a portable "begin transaction" and use it.")  As a workaround, it should be possible to restart the loader whenever it dies and perhaps pass --commit-bytes=1 to make it save its place often.

[ama]

It should be possible to run a separate Abe process reading just the new datadir and writing to the same database as the web service.  Add --no-serve to have it exit as soon as it loads the new chain.  Then add the datadir configuration to your production instance and restart it.

Thank you, John.  That's very interesting.  I'll do some tests on a test box to see if I have some problems with the unique identifiers before I do it in the production server.

[Lolcust]

It would be nice if you added Geist - I'm very curious if anything other than mining and me helping some folks to get a grasp of how Escrow works is taking place, lol

[ama]

It would be nice if you added Geist - I'm very curious if anything other than mining and me helping some folks to get a grasp of how Escrow works is taking place, lol

Would it be of any use?  Please let me decide.

Should I add Geist Geld to http://blockexplorer.sytes.net/?

Yes: 16p7hr3nKhFrKz3qn2cg3Q3buEgr5yPnU9
No: 1H51nfR4V83dhy9niUZjjXigVVYeX14qZ9

[Lumpy]

Would it really make any sense for someone to donate to "No"?

[CosicMiner]

Please add geist to the explorer.

[ama]

Would it really make any sense for someone to donate to "No"?

Dunno.  Try!   

[John Tobey]

Would it really make any sense for someone to donate to "No"?

Dunno.  Try!   

Why not let Lolcust post the "no" address?  It could be his "please stop this nonsense" fund.

Not saying GG is or isn't nonsense.

[ama]

Why not let Lolcust post the "no" address?  It could be his "please stop this nonsense" fund.
Not saying GG is or isn't nonsense.

Fine with me.  Lolcust, post your address for the no and I edit my post and remove mine.   

[ama]

It should be possible to run a separate Abe process reading just the new datadir and writing to the same database as the web service.  Add --no-serve to have it exit as soon as it loads the new chain.  Then add the datadir configuration to your production instance and restart it.

At least, this should work.  I think there may be bugs affecting generation of unique identifiers that could derail this.  It's on the TODO.txt list ("Test for a portable "begin transaction" and use it.")  As a workaround, it should be possible to restart the loader whenever it dies and perhaps pass --commit-bytes=1 to make it save its place often.

Is it also possible to run an Abe proccess which only serves the web requests and doesn't update the database?

[ama]

It should be possible to run a separate Abe process reading just the new datadir and writing to the same database as the web service.  Add --no-serve to have it exit as soon as it loads the new chain.  Then add the datadir configuration to your production instance and restart it.

At least, this should work.  I think there may be bugs affecting generation of unique identifiers that could derail this.  It's on the TODO.txt list ("Test for a portable "begin transaction" and use it.")  As a workaround, it should be possible to restart the loader whenever it dies and perhaps pass --commit-bytes=1 to make it save its place often.

Perhaps the unique identifiers generation problem could be solved (until the bugs are fixed) by first stoping the main proccess from updating the database (i.e. commenting ount the datadir lines in abe.conf and restarting the service), then launching the separate proccess with the --no-serve parameter, and when it's done, uncomment the datadir lines (adding the new imported chain in) and restart the service.

What do you think, John?  Would that work?

[John Tobey]

It should be possible to run a separate Abe process reading just the new datadir and writing to the same database as the web service.  Add --no-serve to have it exit as soon as it loads the new chain.  Then add the datadir configuration to your production instance and restart it.

At least, this should work.  I think there may be bugs affecting generation of unique identifiers that could derail this.  It's on the TODO.txt list ("Test for a portable "begin transaction" and use it.")  As a workaround, it should be possible to restart the loader whenever it dies and perhaps pass --commit-bytes=1 to make it save its place often.

Is it also possible to run an Abe proccess which only serves the web requests and doesn't update the database?

Possible, though slightly ugly.  I do it by passing "--datadir /".  Since there is never blk0001.dat in my / directory, it never loads any data, but it logs warnings.  I am thinking about making a --no-load option or removing .bitcoin as default datadir.

Perhaps the unique identifiers generation problem could be solved (until the bugs are fixed) by first stoping the main proccess from updating the database (i.e. commenting ount the datadir lines in abe.conf and restarting the service), then launching the separate proccess with the --no-serve parameter, and when it's done, uncomment the datadir lines (adding the new imported chain in) and restart the service.

What do you think, John?  Would that work?

Yes, I think so.

[ama]

Possible, though slightly ugly.  I do it by passing "--datadir /".  Since there is never blk0001.dat in my / directory, it never loads any data, but it logs warnings.  I am thinking about making a --no-load option or removing .bitcoin as default datadir.

That'd be great.  The "--datadir /" option might help while I add Ix and I0 back in, even when it generates some logs.

Thank you!

[ama]

Possible, though slightly ugly.  I do it by passing "--datadir /".  Since there is never blk0001.dat in my / directory, it never loads any data, but it logs warnings.  I am thinking about making a --no-load option or removing .bitcoin as default datadir.

It worked like a charm.  It's a bit tedious to edit the two files to change the configuration, but once done, one process updates the database adding the new chains while the other serves the web requests.  I have added both I0coin and Ixcoin this way, and it seems to go very well.

Thanks a lot for the great software and all the help, John.