Today I am releasing my first Open Source / Github project.
What Is Block Crawler?
Block Crawler is a block chain viewer for Bit Coin-derived block chains.
What does that mean?
Block Crawler connects to a Bit Coin daemon using JSON-RPC via php.
It then uses HTML and CSS to display the data for the user.
What makes Block Crawler "portable"?
Block Crawler does not use a database. The information is retrieved real time directly from the daemon. This means that you can quickly add the files to any web server with PHP and cURL support and begin viewing the designated block chain immediately.
What currencies Does Block Crawler Support?
At this time I have not found a Bit Coin derived daemon that is incompatible with Block Crawler.
Does Block Crawler support
If you're asking, probably not. In order to retain it's portable nature and work without a database, Block Crawler is unable to search the block chain, or display information that is not included within the block itself. This means that it will also be unable to track individual addresses, or provide account specific information.
Well what does it do then?
Block crawler provides a friendly interface for viewing information contained in the block chain. It allows you to view a block by it's block height, to view a block by it's block hash, and to view transaction details in both native hex format and formatted into HTML.
Why would I use Block Crawler?
Perhaps you would like to view details in a block chain with no public block explorer.
Perhaps you would like to view certain details in private
Perhaps you're looking for some well-commented tutorial code on communicating with a wallet in procedural PHP
(Block Explorer uses JSON-RPC calls with 0,1,and 2 parameters via cURL to communicate with the daemon)
Perhaps you would like a tool to load block chain data into a database, so that you can research or review it more thoroughly.
I'm sure that someone will find something else to do with it, as well.
How Is Block Crawler licensed?
I am releasing this code into the public domain. I hope it gets used and I have no desire to stop you from integrating it into your projects, commercial or otherwise. Have Fun!
Will new features be added to Block Crawler?
There is currently no road map for adding features to this script.
Does Block Crawler support non-Bit Coin derived features?
At this time, the release version includes handling and display of the FLO (Florin Coin) tx-comment field. If there are other block formats or additions to daemons in the future, I will attempt to add support to Block Crawler.
Is Block Crawler compatible with RPCSSL protected daemons:
It sure is!
Is there a place where I can see Block Crawler in action?
Yes, there is. Visit The Florin Coin Block Explorer This page has an earlier version of the included CSS, some of the "blocks" in the Florin Coin Explorer are missing from the Block Crawler distribution, notably the gray box in the header, and the empty footer box.
Troubleshooting Tips:
If you are unable to view transactions that you see listed in blocks, you may need to stop your daemon, add the line "txindex=1" to your .conf file, and restart the daemon using the -rescan command line switch.
Where Can I Download Block Crawler?
https://github.com/CallMeJake/BlockCrawler
Questions, Feedback, and Donations are all 100% welcome. This is my first project ever on GitHub I'm learning how it works, so let me know how it goes if you check it out.