github.com/leonlxy/hyperledger@v1.0.0-alpha.0.20170427033203-34922035d248/docs/source/txflow.rst (about) 1 Transaction Flow 2 ================ 3 4 This document outlines the transactional mechanics that take place during a standard asset 5 exchange. The scenario includes two clients, A and B, who are buying and selling 6 radishes. They each have a peer on the network through which they send their 7 transactions and interact with the ledger. 8 9 .. image:: images/step0.png 10 11 **Assumptions** 12 13 This flow assumes that a channel is set up and running. The application user 14 has registered and enrolled with the organization’s certificate authority (CA) 15 and received back necessary cryptographic material, which is used to authenticate 16 to the network. 17 18 The chaincode (containing a set of key value pairs representing the initial 19 state of the radish market) is installed on the peers and instantiated on the 20 channel. The chaincode contains logic defining a set of transaction 21 instructions and the agreed upon price for a radish. An endorsement policy has 22 also been set for this chaincode, stating that both ``peerA`` and ``peerB`` must endorse 23 any transaction. 24 25 .. image:: images/step1.png 26 27 1. **Client A initiates a transaction** 28 29 What's happening? - Client A is sending a request to purchase radishes. The 30 request targets ``peerA`` and ``peerB``, who are respectively representative of 31 Client A and Client B. The endorsement policy states that both peers must endorse 32 any transaction, therefore the request goes to ``peerA`` and ``peerB``. 33 34 Next, the transaction proposal is constructed. An application leveraging a supported 35 SDK (node, java, python) utilizes one of the available API's which generates a 36 transaction proposal. The proposal is a request to invoke a chaincode function 37 so that data can be read and/or written to the ledger (i.e. write new key value 38 pairs for the assets). The SDK serves as a shim to package the transaction proposal 39 into the properly architected format (protocol buffer over gRPC) and takes the user’s 40 cryptographic credentials to produce a unique signature for this transaction proposal. 41 42 .. image:: images/step2.png 43 44 2. **Endorsing peers verify signature & execute the transaction** 45 46 The endorsing peers verify the signature (using MSP) and determine if the 47 submitter is properly authorized to perform the proposed operation (using the 48 channel's ACL). The endorsing peers take the transaction proposal arguments as 49 inputs and execute them against the current state database to produce transaction 50 results including a response value, read set, and write set. No updates are 51 made to the ledger at this point. The set of these values, along with the 52 endorsing peer’s signature and a YES/NO endorsement statement is passed back as 53 a “proposal response” to the SDK which parses the payload for the application to 54 consume. 55 56 *{The MSP is a local process running on the peers which allows them to verify 57 transaction requests arriving from clients and to sign transaction results(endorsements). 58 The ACL (Access Control List) is defined at channel creation time, and determines 59 which peers and end users are permitted to perform certain actions.}* 60 61 62 .. image:: images/step3.png 63 64 3. **Proposal responses are inspected** 65 66 The application verifies the endorsing peer signatures and compares the proposal 67 responses (link to glossary term which will contain a representation of the payload) 68 to determine if the proposal responses are the same and if the specified endorsement 69 policy has been fulfilled (i.e. did peerA and peerB both endorse). The architecture 70 is such that even if an application chooses not to inspect responses or otherwise 71 forwards an unendorsed transaction, the policy will still be enforced by peers 72 and upheld at the commit validation phase. 73 74 .. image:: images/step4.png 75 76 4. **Client assembles endorsements into a transaction** 77 78 The application “broadcasts” the transaction proposal and response within a 79 “transaction message” to the Ordering Service. The transaction will contain the 80 read/write sets, the endorsing peers signatures and the Channel ID. The 81 Ordering Service does not read the transaction details, it simply receives 82 transactions from all channels in the network, orders them chronologically by 83 channel, and creates blocks of transactions per channel. 84 85 .. image:: images/step5.png 86 87 5. **Transaction is validated and committed** 88 89 The blocks of transactions are “delivered” to all peers on the channel. The 90 transactions within the block are validated to ensure endorsement policy is 91 fulfilled and to ensure that there have been no changes to ledger state for read 92 set variables since the read set was generated by the transaction execution. 93 Transactions in the block are tagged as being valid or invalid. 94 95 .. image:: images/step6.png 96 97 6. **Ledger updated** 98 99 Each peer appends the block to the channel’s chain, and for each valid transaction 100 the write sets are committed to current state database. An event is emitted, to 101 notify the client application that the transaction (invocation) has been 102 immutably appended to the chain, as well as notification of whether the 103 transaction was validated or invalidated. 104 105 **Note**: See the :ref:`swimlane` diagram to better understand the server side flow and the 106 protobuffers.