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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="further-notes-on-kotlin.html">Further notes on Kotlin</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="publishing-corda.html">Publishing Corda</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="azure-vm.html">Working with the Corda Demo on Azure Marketplace</a></li>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="_static/codesets.js"></script><div class="section" id="writing-flows">
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<h1>Writing flows<a class="headerlink" href="#writing-flows" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
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<p>This article explains our approach to modelling business processes and the lower level network protocols that implement
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them. It explains how the platform’s flow framework is used, and takes you through the code for a simple
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2-party asset trading flow which is included in the source.</p>
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<div class="section" id="introduction">
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<h2>Introduction<a class="headerlink" href="#introduction" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
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<p>Shared distributed ledgers are interesting because they allow many different, mutually distrusting parties to
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share a single source of truth about the ownership of assets. Digitally signed transactions are used to update that
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shared ledger, and transactions may alter many states simultaneously and atomically.</p>
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<p>Blockchain systems such as Bitcoin support the idea of building up a finished, signed transaction by passing around
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partially signed invalid transactions outside of the main network, and by doing this you can implement
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<em>delivery versus payment</em> such that there is no chance of settlement failure, because the movement of cash and the
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traded asset are performed atomically by the same transaction. To perform such a trade involves a multi-step flow
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in which messages are passed back and forth privately between parties, checked, signed and so on.</p>
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<p>Despite how useful these flows are, platforms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum do not assist the developer with the rather
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tricky task of actually building them. That is unfortunate. There are many awkward problems in their implementation
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that a good platform would take care of for you, problems like:</p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li>Avoiding “callback hell” in which code that should ideally be sequential is turned into an unreadable mess due to the
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desire to avoid using up a thread for every flow instantiation.</li>
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<li>Surviving node shutdowns/restarts that may occur in the middle of the flow without complicating things. This
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implies that the state of the flow must be persisted to disk.</li>
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<li>Error handling.</li>
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<li>Message routing.</li>
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<li>Serialisation.</li>
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<li>Catching type errors, in which the developer gets temporarily confused and expects to receive/send one type of message
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when actually they need to receive/send another.</li>
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<li>Unit testing of the finished flow.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Actor frameworks can solve some of the above but they are often tightly bound to a particular messaging layer, and
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we would like to keep a clean separation. Additionally, they are typically not type safe, and don’t make persistence or
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writing sequential code much easier.</p>
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<p>To put these problems in perspective, the <em>payment channel protocol</em> in the bitcoinj library, which allows bitcoins to
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be temporarily moved off-chain and traded at high speed between two parties in private, consists of about 7000 lines of
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Java and took over a month of full time work to develop. Most of that code is concerned with the details of persistence,
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message passing, lifecycle management, error handling and callback management. Because the business logic is quite
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spread out the code can be difficult to read and debug.</p>
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<p>As small contract-specific trading flows are a common occurrence in finance, we provide a framework for the
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construction of them that automatically handles many of the concerns outlined above.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="section" id="theory">
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<h2>Theory<a class="headerlink" href="#theory" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
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<p>A <em>continuation</em> is a suspended stack frame stored in a regular object that can be passed around, serialised,
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unserialised and resumed from where it was suspended. This concept is sometimes referred to as “fibers”. This may
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sound abstract but don’t worry, the examples below will make it clearer. The JVM does not natively support
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continuations, so we implement them using a library called Quasar which works through behind-the-scenes
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bytecode rewriting. You don’t have to know how this works to benefit from it, however.</p>
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<p>We use continuations for the following reasons:</p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li>It allows us to write code that is free of callbacks, that looks like ordinary sequential code.</li>
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<li>A suspended continuation takes far less memory than a suspended thread. It can be as low as a few hundred bytes.
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In contrast a suspended Java thread stack can easily be 1mb in size.</li>
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<li>It frees the developer from thinking (much) about persistence and serialisation.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>A <em>state machine</em> is a piece of code that moves through various <em>states</em>. These are not the same as states in the data
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model (that represent facts about the world on the ledger), but rather indicate different stages in the progression
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of a multi-stage flow. Typically writing a state machine would require the use of a big switch statement and some
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explicit variables to keep track of where you’re up to. The use of continuations avoids this hassle.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="section" id="a-two-party-trading-flow">
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<h2>A two party trading flow<a class="headerlink" href="#a-two-party-trading-flow" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
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<p>We would like to implement the “hello world” of shared transaction building flows: a seller wishes to sell some
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<em>asset</em> (e.g. some commercial paper) in return for <em>cash</em>. The buyer wishes to purchase the asset using his cash. They
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want the trade to be atomic so neither side is exposed to the risk of settlement failure. We assume that the buyer
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and seller have found each other and arranged the details on some exchange, or over the counter. The details of how
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the trade is arranged isn’t covered in this article.</p>
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<p>Our flow has two parties (B and S for buyer and seller) and will proceed as follows:</p>
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<ol class="arabic simple">
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<li>S sends a <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">StateAndRef</span></code> pointing to the state they want to sell to B, along with info about the price they require
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B to pay.</li>
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<li>B sends to S a <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">SignedTransaction</span></code> that includes the state as input, B’s cash as input, the state with the new
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owner key as output, and any change cash as output. It contains a single signature from B but isn’t valid because
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it lacks a signature from S authorising movement of the asset.</li>
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<li>S signs it and <em>finalises</em> the transaction. This means sending it to the notary, which checks the transaction for
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validity, recording the transaction in the local vault, and then sending it back to B who also checks it and commits
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the transaction to their local vault.</li>
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</ol>
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<p>You can find the implementation of this flow in the file <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">finance/src/main/kotlin/net/corda/flows/TwoPartyTradeFlow.kt</span></code>.</p>
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<p>Assuming no malicious termination, they both end the flow being in possession of a valid, signed transaction that
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represents an atomic asset swap.</p>
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<p>Note that it’s the <em>seller</em> who initiates contact with the buyer, not vice-versa as you might imagine.</p>
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<p>We start by defining two classes that will contain the flow definition. We also pick what data will be used by
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each side.</p>
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<div class="admonition note">
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<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
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<p class="last">The code samples in this tutorial are only available in Kotlin, but you can use any JVM language to
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write them and the approach is the same.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="codeset container">
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<div class="highlight-kotlin"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">object</span> <span class="nc">TwoPartyTradeFlow</span> <span class="p">{</span>
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<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">UnacceptablePriceException</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">givenPrice</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Amount</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">Currency</span><span class="p">>)</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">FlowException</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Unacceptable price: $givenPrice"</span><span class="p">)</span>
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<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">AssetMismatchException</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">expectedTypeName</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">String</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">typeName</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">String</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">FlowException</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
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<span class="k">override</span> <span class="k">fun</span> <span class="nf">toString</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="s">"The submitted asset didn't match the expected type: $expectedTypeName vs $typeName"</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="c1">// This object is serialised to the network and is the first flow message the seller sends to the buyer.</span>
|
|
<span class="k">data</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">SellerTradeInfo</span><span class="p">(</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">assetForSale</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">StateAndRef</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">OwnableState</span><span class="p">>,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">price</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Amount</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">Currency</span><span class="p">>,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">sellerOwnerKey</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">CompositeKey</span>
|
|
<span class="p">)</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="k">data</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">SignaturesFromSeller</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">sellerSig</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">DigitalSignature</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">WithKey</span><span class="p">,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">notarySig</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">DigitalSignature</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">LegallyIdentifiable</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="k">open</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Seller</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">otherParty</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Party</span><span class="p">,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">notaryNode</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">NodeInfo</span><span class="p">,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">assetToSell</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">StateAndRef</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">OwnableState</span><span class="p">>,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">price</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Amount</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">Currency</span><span class="p">>,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">myKeyPair</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">KeyPair</span><span class="p">,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">override</span> <span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">progressTracker</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">Seller</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">tracker</span><span class="p">())</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">FlowLogic</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">SignedTransaction</span><span class="p">>()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="n">@Suspendable</span>
|
|
<span class="k">override</span> <span class="k">fun</span> <span class="nf">call</span><span class="p">():</span> <span class="n">SignedTransaction</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="n">TODO</span><span class="p">()</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="k">open</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Buyer</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">otherParty</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Party</span><span class="p">,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">notary</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Party</span><span class="p">,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">acceptablePrice</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Amount</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">Currency</span><span class="p">>,</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">typeToBuy</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Class</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="k">out</span> <span class="n">OwnableState</span><span class="p">>)</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">FlowLogic</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">SignedTransaction</span><span class="p">>()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="n">@Suspendable</span>
|
|
<span class="k">override</span> <span class="k">fun</span> <span class="nf">call</span><span class="p">():</span> <span class="n">SignedTransaction</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="n">TODO</span><span class="p">()</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>This code defines several classes nested inside the main <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">TwoPartyTradeFlow</span></code> singleton. Some of the classes are
|
|
simply flow messages or exceptions. The other two represent the buyer and seller side of the flow.</p>
|
|
<p>Going through the data needed to become a seller, we have:</p>
|
|
<ul class="simple">
|
|
<li><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">otherParty:</span> <span class="pre">Party</span></code> - the party with which you are trading.</li>
|
|
<li><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">notaryNode:</span> <span class="pre">NodeInfo</span></code> - the entry in the network map for the chosen notary. See “<span class="xref doc">consensus</span>” for more
|
|
information on notaries.</li>
|
|
<li><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">assetToSell:</span> <span class="pre">StateAndRef<OwnableState></span></code> - a pointer to the ledger entry that represents the thing being sold.</li>
|
|
<li><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">price:</span> <span class="pre">Amount<Currency></span></code> - the agreed on price that the asset is being sold for (without an issuer constraint).</li>
|
|
<li><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">myKeyPair:</span> <span class="pre">KeyPair</span></code> - the key pair that controls the asset being sold. It will be used to sign the transaction.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>And for the buyer:</p>
|
|
<ul class="simple">
|
|
<li><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">acceptablePrice:</span> <span class="pre">Amount<Currency></span></code> - the price that was agreed upon out of band. If the seller specifies
|
|
a price less than or equal to this, then the trade will go ahead.</li>
|
|
<li><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">typeToBuy:</span> <span class="pre">Class<out</span> <span class="pre">OwnableState></span></code> - the type of state that is being purchased. This is used to check that the
|
|
sell side of the flow isn’t trying to sell us the wrong thing, whether by accident or on purpose.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>Alright, so using this flow shouldn’t be too hard: in the simplest case we can just create a Buyer or Seller
|
|
with the details of the trade, depending on who we are. We then have to start the flow in some way. Just
|
|
calling the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">call</span></code> function ourselves won’t work: instead we need to ask the framework to start the flow for
|
|
us. More on that in a moment.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="suspendable-functions">
|
|
<h2>Suspendable functions<a class="headerlink" href="#suspendable-functions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>The <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">call</span></code> function of the buyer/seller classes is marked with the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@Suspendable</span></code> annotation. What does this mean?</p>
|
|
<p>As mentioned above, our flow framework will at points suspend the code and serialise it to disk. For this to work,
|
|
any methods on the call stack must have been pre-marked as <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@Suspendable</span></code> so the bytecode rewriter knows to modify
|
|
the underlying code to support this new feature. A flow is suspended when calling either <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">receive</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">send</span></code> or
|
|
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sendAndReceive</span></code> which we will learn more about below. For now, just be aware that when one of these methods is
|
|
invoked, all methods on the stack must have been marked. If you forget, then in the unit test environment you will
|
|
get a useful error message telling you which methods you didn’t mark. The fix is simple enough: just add the annotation
|
|
and try again.</p>
|
|
<div class="admonition note">
|
|
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
|
|
<p class="last">Java 9 is likely to remove this pre-marking requirement completely.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="starting-your-flow">
|
|
<h2>Starting your flow<a class="headerlink" href="#starting-your-flow" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>The <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">StateMachineManager</span></code> is the class responsible for taking care of all running flows in a node. It knows
|
|
how to register handlers with the messaging system (see “<a class="reference internal" href="messaging.html"><span class="doc">Networking and messaging</span></a>”) and iterate the right state machine
|
|
when messages arrive. It provides the send/receive/sendAndReceive calls that let the code request network
|
|
interaction and it will save/restore serialised versions of the fiber at the right times.</p>
|
|
<p>Flows can be invoked in several ways. For instance, they can be triggered by scheduled events,
|
|
see “<a class="reference internal" href="event-scheduling.html"><span class="doc">Event scheduling</span></a>” to learn more about this. Or they can be triggered directly via the Java-level node RPC
|
|
APIs from your app code.</p>
|
|
<p>You request a flow to be invoked by using the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">CordaRPCOps.startFlowDynamic</span></code> method. This takes a
|
|
Java reflection <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Class</span></code> object that describes the flow class to use (in this case, either <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Buyer</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Seller</span></code>).
|
|
It also takes a set of arguments to pass to the constructor. Because it’s possible for flow invocations to
|
|
be requested by untrusted code (e.g. a state that you have been sent), the types that can be passed into the
|
|
flow are checked against a whitelist, which can be extended by apps themselves at load time. There are also a series
|
|
of inlined extension functions of the form <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">CordaRPCOps.startFlow</span></code> which help with invoking flows in a type
|
|
safe manner.</p>
|
|
<p>The process of starting a flow returns a <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FlowHandle</span></code> that you can use to either observe
|
|
the result, observe its progress and which also contains a permanent identifier for the invoked flow in the form
|
|
of the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">StateMachineRunId</span></code>.</p>
|
|
<p>In a two party flow only one side is to be manually started using <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">CordaRPCOps.startFlow</span></code>. The other side
|
|
has to be registered by its node to respond to the initiating flow via <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">PluginServiceHub.registerFlowInitiator</span></code>.
|
|
In our example it doesn’t matter which flow is the initiator and which is the initiated. For example, if we are to
|
|
take the seller as the initiator then we would register the buyer as such:</p>
|
|
<div class="codeset container">
|
|
<div class="highlight-kotlin"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">services</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">PluginServiceHub</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">TODO</span><span class="p">()</span>
|
|
<span class="n">services</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">registerFlowInitiator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Seller</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="k">class</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="n">otherParty</span> <span class="p">-></span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">notary</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">services</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">networkMapCache</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">notaryNodes</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="m">0</span><span class="p">]</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">acceptablePrice</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">TODO</span><span class="p">()</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">typeToBuy</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">TODO</span><span class="p">()</span>
|
|
<span class="n">Buyer</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">otherParty</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">notary</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">acceptablePrice</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">typeToBuy</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>This is telling the buyer node to fire up an instance of <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Buyer</span></code> (the code in the lambda) when the initiating flow
|
|
is a seller (<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Seller::class</span></code>).</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="implementing-the-seller">
|
|
<h2>Implementing the seller<a class="headerlink" href="#implementing-the-seller" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>Let’s implement the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Seller.call</span></code> method. This will be run when the flow is invoked.</p>
|
|
<div class="codeset container">
|
|
<div class="highlight-kotlin"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="n">@Suspendable</span>
|
|
<span class="k">override</span> <span class="k">fun</span> <span class="nf">call</span><span class="p">():</span> <span class="n">SignedTransaction</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">partialSTX</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">SignedTransaction</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">receiveAndCheckProposedTransaction</span><span class="p">()</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">ourSignature</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">calculateOurSignature</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">partialSTX</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">unnotarisedSTX</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">SignedTransaction</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">partialSTX</span> <span class="p">+</span> <span class="n">ourSignature</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">finishedSTX</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">subFlow</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">FinalityFlow</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">unnotarisedSTX</span><span class="p">)).</span><span class="n">single</span><span class="p">()</span>
|
|
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">finishedSTX</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>Here we see the outline of the procedure. We receive a proposed trade transaction from the buyer and check that it’s
|
|
valid. The buyer has already attached their signature before sending it. Then we calculate and attach our own signature
|
|
so that the transaction is now signed by both the buyer and the seller. We then <em>finalise</em> this transaction by sending
|
|
it to a notary to assert (with another signature) that the timestamp in the transaction (if any) is valid and there are no
|
|
double spends. Finally, after the finalisation process is complete, we retrieve the now fully signed transaction from
|
|
local storage. It will have the same ID as the one we started with but more signatures.</p>
|
|
<p>Let’s fill out the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">receiveAndCheckProposedTransaction()</span></code> method.</p>
|
|
<div class="codeset container">
|
|
<div class="highlight-kotlin"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="n">@Suspendable</span>
|
|
<span class="k">private</span> <span class="k">fun</span> <span class="nf">receiveAndCheckProposedTransaction</span><span class="p">():</span> <span class="n">SignedTransaction</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="n">progressTracker</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">currentStep</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">AWAITING_PROPOSAL</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">myPublicKey</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">myKeyPair</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="k">public</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">composite</span>
|
|
<span class="c1">// Make the first message we'll send to kick off the flow.</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">hello</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">SellerTradeInfo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">assetToSell</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">myPublicKey</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="c1">// What we get back from the other side is a transaction that *might* be valid and acceptable to us,</span>
|
|
<span class="c1">// but we must check it out thoroughly before we sign!</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">untrustedSTX</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">sendAndReceive</span><span class="p"><</span><span class="n">SignedTransaction</span><span class="p">>(</span><span class="n">otherParty</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">hello</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="n">progressTracker</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">currentStep</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">VERIFYING</span>
|
|
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">untrustedSTX</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">unwrap</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="c1">// Check that the tx proposed by the buyer is valid.</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">wtx</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">WireTransaction</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">it</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">verifySignatures</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">myPublicKey</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">notaryNode</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">notaryIdentity</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">owningKey</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="n">logger</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">trace</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="s">"Received partially signed transaction: ${it.id}"</span> <span class="p">}</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="c1">// Download and check all the things that this transaction depends on and verify it is contract-valid,</span>
|
|
<span class="c1">// even though it is missing signatures.</span>
|
|
<span class="n">subFlow</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ResolveTransactionsFlow</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">wtx</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">otherParty</span><span class="p">))</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">wtx</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">outputs</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">map</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="n">it</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="k">data</span> <span class="p">}.</span><span class="n">sumCashBy</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">myPublicKey</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="n">withoutIssuer</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">!=</span> <span class="n">price</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="k">throw</span> <span class="n">FlowException</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Transaction is not sending us the right amount of cash"</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="n">it</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>Let’s break this down. We fill out the initial flow message with the trade info, and then call <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sendAndReceive</span></code>.
|
|
This function takes a few arguments:</p>
|
|
<ul class="simple">
|
|
<li>The party on the other side.</li>
|
|
<li>The thing to send. It’ll be serialised and sent automatically.</li>
|
|
<li>Finally a type argument, which is the kind of object we’re expecting to receive from the other side. If we get
|
|
back something else an exception is thrown.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>Once <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sendAndReceive</span></code> is called, the call method will be suspended into a continuation and saved to persistent
|
|
storage. If the node crashes or is restarted, the flow will effectively continue as if nothing had happened. Your
|
|
code may remain blocked inside such a call for seconds, minutes, hours or even days in the case of a flow that
|
|
needs human interaction!</p>
|
|
<div class="admonition note">
|
|
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
|
|
<p>There are a couple of rules you need to bear in mind when writing a class that will be used as a continuation.
|
|
The first is that anything on the stack when the function is suspended will be stored into the heap and kept alive by
|
|
the garbage collector. So try to avoid keeping enormous data structures alive unless you really have to. You can
|
|
always use private methods to keep the stack uncluttered with temporary variables, or to avoid objects that
|
|
Kryo is not able to serialise correctly.</p>
|
|
<p>The second is that as well as being kept on the heap, objects reachable from the stack will be serialised. The state
|
|
of the function call may be resurrected much later! Kryo doesn’t require objects be marked as serialisable, but even so,
|
|
doing things like creating threads from inside these calls would be a bad idea. They should only contain business
|
|
logic and only do I/O via the methods exposed by the flow framework.</p>
|
|
<p class="last">It’s OK to keep references around to many large internal node services though: these will be serialised using a
|
|
special token that’s recognised by the platform, and wired up to the right instance when the continuation is
|
|
loaded off disk again.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>The buyer is supposed to send us a transaction with all the right inputs/outputs/commands in response to the opening
|
|
message, with their cash put into the transaction and their signature on it authorising the movement of the cash.</p>
|
|
<p>You get back a simple wrapper class, <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">UntrustworthyData<SignedTransaction></span></code>, which is just a marker class that reminds
|
|
us that the data came from a potentially malicious external source and may have been tampered with or be unexpected in
|
|
other ways. It doesn’t add any functionality, but acts as a reminder to “scrub” the data before use.</p>
|
|
<p>Our “scrubbing” has three parts:</p>
|
|
<ol class="arabic simple">
|
|
<li>Check that the expected signatures are present and correct. At this point we expect our own signature to be missing,
|
|
because of course we didn’t sign it yet, and also the signature of the notary because that must always come last.</li>
|
|
<li>We resolve the transaction, which we will cover below.</li>
|
|
<li>We verify that the transaction is paying us the demanded price.</li>
|
|
</ol>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="exception-handling">
|
|
<h2>Exception handling<a class="headerlink" href="#exception-handling" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>Flows can throw exceptions to prematurely terminate their execution. The flow framework gives special treatment to
|
|
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FlowException</span></code> and its subtypes. These exceptions are treated as error responses of the flow and are propagated
|
|
to all counterparties it is communicating with. The receiving flows will throw the same exception the next time they do
|
|
a <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">receive</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sendAndReceive</span></code> and thus end the flow session. If the receiver was invoked via <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">subFlow</span></code> (details below)
|
|
then the exception can be caught there enabling re-invocation of the sub-flow.</p>
|
|
<p>If the exception thrown by the erroring flow is not a <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FlowException</span></code> it will still terminate but will not propagate to
|
|
the other counterparties. Instead they will be informed the flow has terminated and will themselves be terminated with a
|
|
generic exception.</p>
|
|
<div class="admonition note">
|
|
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
|
|
<p class="last">A future version will extend this to give the node administrator more control on what to do with such erroring
|
|
flows.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>Throwing a <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FlowException</span></code> enables a flow to reject a piece of data it has received back to the sender. This is typically
|
|
done in the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">unwrap</span></code> method of the received <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">UntrustworthyData</span></code>. In the above example the seller checks the price
|
|
and throws <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FlowException</span></code> if it’s invalid. It’s then up to the buyer to either try again with a better price or give up.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="sub-flows-and-finalisation">
|
|
<h2>Sub-flows and finalisation<a class="headerlink" href="#sub-flows-and-finalisation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>Flows can be composed via nesting. Invoking a sub-flow looks similar to an ordinary function call:</p>
|
|
<div class="codeset container">
|
|
<div class="highlight-kotlin"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">@Suspendable</span>
|
|
<span class="k">fun</span> <span class="nf">call</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">unnotarisedTransaction</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="p">...</span>
|
|
<span class="n">subFlow</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">FinalityFlow</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">unnotarisedTransaction</span><span class="p">))</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="highlight-java"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@Suspendable</span>
|
|
<span class="kd">public</span> <span class="kt">void</span> <span class="nf">call</span><span class="o">()</span> <span class="kd">throws</span> <span class="n">FlowException</span> <span class="o">{</span>
|
|
<span class="n">SignedTransaction</span> <span class="n">unnotarisedTransaction</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="o">...</span>
|
|
<span class="n">subFlow</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="k">new</span> <span class="n">FinalityFlow</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">unnotarisedTransaction</span><span class="o">))</span>
|
|
<span class="o">}</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>In this code snippet we are using the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FinalityFlow</span></code> to finish off the transaction. It will:</p>
|
|
<ul class="simple">
|
|
<li>Send the transaction to the chosen notary and, if necessary, satisfy the notary that the transaction is valid.</li>
|
|
<li>Record the transaction in the local vault, if it is relevant (i.e. involves the owner of the node).</li>
|
|
<li>Send the fully signed transaction to the other participants for recording as well.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>We simply create the flow object via its constructor, and then pass it to the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">subFlow</span></code> method which
|
|
returns the result of the flow’s execution directly. Behind the scenes all this is doing is wiring up progress
|
|
tracking (discussed more below) and then running the objects <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">call</span></code> method. Because the sub-flow might suspend,
|
|
we must mark the method that invokes it as suspendable.</p>
|
|
<p>Going back to the previous code snippet, we use a sub-flow called <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ResolveTransactionsFlow</span></code>. This is
|
|
responsible for downloading and checking all the dependencies of a transaction, which in Corda are always retrievable
|
|
from the party that sent you a transaction that uses them. This flow returns a list of <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">LedgerTransaction</span></code>
|
|
objects, but we don’t need them here so we just ignore the return value.</p>
|
|
<div class="admonition note">
|
|
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
|
|
<p class="last">Transaction dependency resolution assumes that the peer you got the transaction from has all of the
|
|
dependencies itself. It must do, otherwise it could not have convinced itself that the dependencies were themselves
|
|
valid. It’s important to realise that requesting only the transactions we require is a privacy leak, because if
|
|
we don’t download a transaction from the peer, they know we must have already seen it before. Fixing this privacy
|
|
leak will come later.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>After the dependencies, we check the proposed trading transaction for validity by running the contracts for that as
|
|
well (but having handled the fact that some signatures are missing ourselves).</p>
|
|
<div class="admonition warning">
|
|
<p class="first admonition-title">Warning</p>
|
|
<p class="last">If the seller stops before sending the finalised transaction to the buyer, the seller is left with a
|
|
valid transaction but the buyer isn’t, so they can’t spend the asset they just purchased! This sort of thing is not
|
|
always a risk (as the seller may not gain anything from that sort of behaviour except a lawsuit), but if it is, a future
|
|
version of the platform will allow you to ask the notary to send you the transaction as well, in case your counterparty
|
|
does not. This is not the default because it reveals more private info to the notary.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="implementing-the-buyer">
|
|
<h2>Implementing the buyer<a class="headerlink" href="#implementing-the-buyer" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>OK, let’s do the same for the buyer side:</p>
|
|
<div class="codeset container">
|
|
<div class="highlight-kotlin"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> @Suspendable
|
|
override fun call(): SignedTransaction {
|
|
// Wait for a trade request to come in from the other party.
|
|
progressTracker.currentStep = RECEIVING
|
|
val tradeRequest = receiveAndValidateTradeRequest()
|
|
|
|
// Put together a proposed transaction that performs the trade, and sign it.
|
|
progressTracker.currentStep = SIGNING
|
|
val (ptx, cashSigningPubKeys) = assembleSharedTX(tradeRequest)
|
|
val stx = signWithOurKeys(cashSigningPubKeys, ptx)
|
|
|
|
// Send the signed transaction to the seller, who must then sign it themselves and commit
|
|
// it to the ledger by sending it to the notary.
|
|
progressTracker.currentStep = SENDING_SIGNATURES
|
|
send(otherParty, stx)
|
|
|
|
// Wait for the finished, notarised transaction to arrive in our transaction store.
|
|
progressTracker.currentStep = WAITING_FOR_TX
|
|
return waitForLedgerCommit(stx.id)
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
@Suspendable
|
|
private fun receiveAndValidateTradeRequest(): SellerTradeInfo {
|
|
val maybeTradeRequest = receive<SellerTradeInfo>(otherParty)
|
|
|
|
progressTracker.currentStep = VERIFYING
|
|
maybeTradeRequest.unwrap {
|
|
// What is the seller trying to sell us?
|
|
val asset = it.assetForSale.state.data
|
|
val assetTypeName = asset.javaClass.name
|
|
logger.trace { "Got trade request for a $assetTypeName: ${it.assetForSale}" }
|
|
|
|
if (it.price > acceptablePrice)
|
|
throw UnacceptablePriceException(it.price)
|
|
if (!typeToBuy.isInstance(asset))
|
|
throw AssetMismatchException(typeToBuy.name, assetTypeName)
|
|
|
|
// Check that the state being sold to us is in a valid chain of transactions, i.e. that the
|
|
// seller has a valid chain of custody proving that they own the thing they're selling.
|
|
subFlow(ResolveTransactionsFlow(setOf(it.assetForSale.ref.txhash), otherParty))
|
|
|
|
return it
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
private fun signWithOurKeys(cashSigningPubKeys: List<CompositeKey>, ptx: TransactionBuilder): SignedTransaction {
|
|
// Now sign the transaction with whatever keys we need to move the cash.
|
|
for (publicKey in cashSigningPubKeys.keys) {
|
|
val privateKey = serviceHub.keyManagementService.toPrivate(publicKey)
|
|
ptx.signWith(KeyPair(publicKey, privateKey))
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
return ptx.toSignedTransaction(checkSufficientSignatures = false)
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
private fun assembleSharedTX(tradeRequest: SellerTradeInfo): Pair<TransactionBuilder, List<CompositeKey>> {
|
|
val ptx = TransactionType.General.Builder(notary)
|
|
|
|
// Add input and output states for the movement of cash, by using the Cash contract to generate the states
|
|
val (tx, cashSigningPubKeys) = serviceHub.vaultService.generateSpend(ptx, tradeRequest.price, tradeRequest.sellerOwnerKey)
|
|
|
|
// Add inputs/outputs/a command for the movement of the asset.
|
|
tx.addInputState(tradeRequest.assetForSale)
|
|
|
|
// Just pick some new public key for now. This won't be linked with our identity in any way, which is what
|
|
// we want for privacy reasons: the key is here ONLY to manage and control ownership, it is not intended to
|
|
// reveal who the owner actually is. The key management service is expected to derive a unique key from some
|
|
// initial seed in order to provide privacy protection.
|
|
val freshKey = serviceHub.keyManagementService.freshKey()
|
|
val (command, state) = tradeRequest.assetForSale.state.data.withNewOwner(freshKey.public.composite)
|
|
tx.addOutputState(state, tradeRequest.assetForSale.state.notary)
|
|
tx.addCommand(command, tradeRequest.assetForSale.state.data.owner)
|
|
|
|
// And add a request for timestamping: it may be that none of the contracts need this! But it can't hurt
|
|
// to have one.
|
|
val currentTime = serviceHub.clock.instant()
|
|
tx.setTime(currentTime, 30.seconds)
|
|
return Pair(tx, cashSigningPubKeys)
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>This code is longer but no more complicated. Here are some things to pay attention to:</p>
|
|
<ol class="arabic simple">
|
|
<li>We do some sanity checking on the received message to ensure we’re being offered what we expected to be offered.</li>
|
|
<li>We create a cash spend using <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">VaultService.generateSpend</span></code>. You can read the vault documentation to learn more about this.</li>
|
|
<li>We access the <em>service hub</em> when we need it to access things that are transient and may change or be recreated
|
|
whilst a flow is suspended, things like the wallet or the network map.</li>
|
|
<li>We send the unfinished, invalid transaction to the seller so they can sign it and finalise it.</li>
|
|
<li>Finally, we wait for the finished transaction to arrive in our local storage and vault.</li>
|
|
</ol>
|
|
<p>As you can see, the flow logic is straightforward and does not contain any callbacks or network glue code, despite
|
|
the fact that it takes minimal resources and can survive node restarts.</p>
|
|
<div class="admonition warning">
|
|
<p class="first admonition-title">Warning</p>
|
|
<p class="last">In the current version of the platform, exceptions thrown during flow execution are not propagated
|
|
back to the sender. A thorough error handling and exceptions framework will be in a future version of the platform.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="progress-tracking">
|
|
<h2>Progress tracking<a class="headerlink" href="#progress-tracking" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>Not shown in the code snippets above is the usage of the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ProgressTracker</span></code> API. Progress tracking exports information
|
|
from a flow about where it’s got up to in such a way that observers can render it in a useful manner to humans who
|
|
may need to be informed. It may be rendered via an API, in a GUI, onto a terminal window, etc.</p>
|
|
<p>A <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ProgressTracker</span></code> is constructed with a series of <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Step</span></code> objects, where each step is an object representing a
|
|
stage in a piece of work. It is therefore typical to use singletons that subclass <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Step</span></code>, which may be defined easily
|
|
in one line when using Kotlin. Typical steps might be “Waiting for response from peer”, “Waiting for signature to be
|
|
approved”, “Downloading and verifying data” etc.</p>
|
|
<p>A flow might declare some steps with code inside the flow class like this:</p>
|
|
<div class="codeset container">
|
|
<div class="highlight-kotlin"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="k">object</span> <span class="nc">RECEIVING</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Step</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Waiting for seller trading info"</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="k">object</span> <span class="nc">VERIFYING</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Step</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Verifying seller assets"</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="k">object</span> <span class="nc">SIGNING</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Step</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Generating and signing transaction proposal"</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="k">object</span> <span class="nc">SENDING_SIGNATURES</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Step</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Sending signatures to the seller"</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
<span class="k">object</span> <span class="nc">WAITING_FOR_TX</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Step</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Waiting for the transaction to finalise."</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="k">override</span> <span class="k">val</span> <span class="py">progressTracker</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">RECEIVING</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">VERIFYING</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">SIGNING</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">SENDING_SIGNATURES</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">WAITING_FOR_TX</span><span class="p">)</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="highlight-java"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kd">private</span> <span class="kd">final</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span> <span class="n">progressTracker</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">(</span>
|
|
<span class="n">CONSTRUCTING_OFFER</span><span class="o">,</span>
|
|
<span class="n">SENDING_OFFER_AND_RECEIVING_PARTIAL_TRANSACTION</span><span class="o">,</span>
|
|
<span class="n">VERIFYING</span>
|
|
<span class="o">);</span>
|
|
|
|
<span class="kd">private</span> <span class="kd">static</span> <span class="kd">final</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Step</span> <span class="n">CONSTRUCTING_OFFER</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Step</span><span class="o">(</span>
|
|
<span class="s">"Constructing proposed purchase order."</span><span class="o">);</span>
|
|
<span class="kd">private</span> <span class="kd">static</span> <span class="kd">final</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Step</span> <span class="n">SENDING_OFFER_AND_RECEIVING_PARTIAL_TRANSACTION</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Step</span><span class="o">(</span>
|
|
<span class="s">"Sending purchase order to seller for review, and receiving partially signed transaction from seller in return."</span><span class="o">);</span>
|
|
<span class="kd">private</span> <span class="kd">static</span> <span class="kd">final</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Step</span> <span class="n">VERIFYING</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Step</span><span class="o">(</span>
|
|
<span class="s">"Verifying signatures and contract constraints."</span><span class="o">);</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>Each step exposes a label. By default labels are fixed, but by subclassing <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">RelabelableStep</span></code>
|
|
you can make a step that can update its label on the fly. That’s useful for steps that want to expose non-structured
|
|
progress information like the current file being downloaded. By defining your own step types, you can export progress
|
|
in a way that’s both human readable and machine readable.</p>
|
|
<p>Progress trackers are hierarchical. Each step can be the parent for another tracker. By altering the
|
|
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ProgressTracker.childrenFor</span></code> map, a tree of steps can be created. It’s allowed to alter the hierarchy
|
|
at runtime, on the fly, and the progress renderers will adapt to that properly. This can be helpful when you don’t
|
|
fully know ahead of time what steps will be required. If you <em>do</em> know what is required, configuring as much of the
|
|
hierarchy ahead of time is a good idea, as that will help the users see what is coming up. You can pre-configure
|
|
steps by overriding the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Step</span></code> class like this:</p>
|
|
<div class="codeset container">
|
|
<div class="highlight-kotlin"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="k">object</span> <span class="nc">COMMITTING</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Step</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Committing transaction to the ledger"</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">{</span>
|
|
<span class="k">override</span> <span class="k">fun</span> <span class="nf">childProgressTracker</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">FinalityFlow</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">tracker</span><span class="p">()</span>
|
|
<span class="p">}</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="highlight-java"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kd">private</span> <span class="kd">static</span> <span class="kd">final</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Step</span> <span class="n">COMMITTING</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Step</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="s">"Committing to the ledger."</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="o">{</span>
|
|
<span class="nd">@Nullable</span> <span class="nd">@Override</span> <span class="kd">public</span> <span class="n">ProgressTracker</span> <span class="nf">childProgressTracker</span><span class="o">()</span> <span class="o">{</span>
|
|
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">FinalityFlow</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">Companion</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">tracker</span><span class="o">();</span>
|
|
<span class="o">}</span>
|
|
<span class="o">};</span>
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>Every tracker has not only the steps given to it at construction time, but also the singleton
|
|
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ProgressTracker.UNSTARTED</span></code> step and the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ProgressTracker.DONE</span></code> step. Once a tracker has become <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DONE</span></code> its
|
|
position may not be modified again (because e.g. the UI may have been removed/cleaned up), but until that point, the
|
|
position can be set to any arbitrary set both forwards and backwards. Steps may be skipped, repeated, etc. Note that
|
|
rolling the current step backwards will delete any progress trackers that are children of the steps being reversed, on
|
|
the assumption that those subtasks will have to be repeated.</p>
|
|
<p>Trackers provide an <a class="reference external" href="http://reactivex.io/">Rx observable</a> which streams changes to the hierarchy. The top level
|
|
observable exposes all the events generated by its children as well. The changes are represented by objects indicating
|
|
whether the change is one of position (i.e. progress), structure (i.e. new subtasks being added/removed) or some other
|
|
aspect of rendering (i.e. a step has changed in some way and is requesting a re-render).</p>
|
|
<p>The flow framework is somewhat integrated with this API. Each <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FlowLogic</span></code> may optionally provide a tracker by
|
|
overriding the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">flowTracker</span></code> property (<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">getFlowTracker</span></code> method in Java). If the
|
|
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FlowLogic.subFlow</span></code> method is used, then the tracker of the sub-flow will be made a child of the current
|
|
step in the parent flow automatically, if the parent is using tracking in the first place. The framework will also
|
|
automatically set the current step to <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DONE</span></code> for you, when the flow is finished.</p>
|
|
<p>Because a flow may sometimes wish to configure the children in its progress hierarchy <em>before</em> the sub-flow
|
|
is constructed, for sub-flows that always follow the same outline regardless of their parameters it’s conventional
|
|
to define a companion object/static method (for Kotlin/Java respectively) that constructs a tracker, and then allow
|
|
the sub-flow to have the tracker it will use be passed in as a parameter. This allows all trackers to be built
|
|
and linked ahead of time.</p>
|
|
<p>In future, the progress tracking framework will become a vital part of how exceptions, errors, and other faults are
|
|
surfaced to human operators for investigation and resolution.</p>
|
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</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="versioning">
|
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<h2>Versioning<a class="headerlink" href="#versioning" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>Fibers involve persisting object-serialised stack frames to disk. Although we may do some R&D into in-place upgrades
|
|
in future, for now the upgrade process for flows is simple: you duplicate the code and rename it so it has a
|
|
new set of class names. Old versions of the flow can then drain out of the system whilst new versions are
|
|
initiated. When enough time has passed that no old versions are still waiting for anything to happen, the previous
|
|
copy of the code can be deleted.</p>
|
|
<p>Whilst kind of ugly, this is a very simple approach that should suffice for now.</p>
|
|
<div class="admonition warning">
|
|
<p class="first admonition-title">Warning</p>
|
|
<p class="last">Flows are not meant to live for months or years, and by implication they are not meant to implement entire deal
|
|
lifecycles. For instance, implementing the entire life cycle of an interest rate swap as a single flow - whilst
|
|
technically possible - would not be a good idea. The platform provides a job scheduler tool that can invoke
|
|
flows for this reason (see “<a class="reference internal" href="event-scheduling.html"><span class="doc">Event scheduling</span></a>”)</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="section" id="future-features">
|
|
<h2>Future features<a class="headerlink" href="#future-features" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|
<p>The flow framework is a key part of the platform and will be extended in major ways in future. Here are some of
|
|
the features we have planned:</p>
|
|
<ul class="simple">
|
|
<li>Identity based addressing</li>
|
|
<li>Exception management, with a “flow hospital” tool to manually provide solutions to unavoidable
|
|
problems (e.g. the other side doesn’t know the trade)</li>
|
|
<li>Being able to interact with internal apps and tools via RPC</li>
|
|
<li>Being able to interact with people, either via some sort of external ticketing system, or email, or a custom UI.
|
|
For example to implement human transaction authorisations.</li>
|
|
<li>A standard library of flows that can be easily sub-classed by local developers in order to integrate internal
|
|
reporting logic, or anything else that might be required as part of a communications lifecycle.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
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</div>
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<a href="flow-testing.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-right" title="Writing flow tests" accesskey="n">Next <span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right"></span></a>
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