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Navigator Console

The Navigator Console is a terminal-based front-end for inspecting and modifying a Digital Asset ledger. It’s useful for DAML developers, app developers, or business analysts who want to debug or analyse a ledger by exploring it manually.

You can use the Console to:

• inspect available templates
• query active contracts
• exercise commands
• list blocks and transactions

If you prefer to use a graphical user interface for these tasks, use the Navigator instead.

Try out the Navigator Console on the Quickstart

With the sandbox running the quickstart application

1. To start the shell, run daml navigator console localhost 6865

   This connects Navigator Console to the sandbox, which is still running.

   You should see a prompt like this:

      _  __          _           __
     / |/ /__ __  __(_)__ ____ _/ /____  ____
    /    / _ `/ |/ / / _ `/ _ `/ __/ _ \/ __/
   /_/|_/\_,_/|___/_/\_, /\_,_/\__/\___/_/
                    /___/
   Version 1.1.0
   Welcome to the console. Type 'help' to see a list of commands.
   

2. Since you are connected to the sandbox, you can be any party you like. Switch to Bob by running:

   party Bob

   The prompt should change to Bob>.

3. Issue a BobsCoin to yourself. Start by writing the following, then hit Tab to auto-complete and get the full name of the Iou.Iou template:

   create Iou.Iou <TAB>

   This full name includes a hash of the DAML package, so don’t copy it from the command below - it’s better to get it from the auto-complete feature.

   You can then create the contract by running:

   create Iou.Iou@317057d06d4bc4bb91bf3cfe3292bf3c2467c5e004290e0ba20b993eb1e40931 with {issuer="Bob", owner="Bob", currency="BobsCoin", amount="1.0", observers=[]}

   You should see the following output:

   CommandId: 1b8af77a91ad1102
   Status: Success
   TransactionId: 10
   

4. You can see details of that contract using the TransactionId. First, run:

   transaction 10

   to get details of the transaction that created the contract:

   Offset: 11
   Effective at: 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z
   Command ID: 1b8af77a91ad1102
   Events:
   - [#10:0] Created #10:0 as Iou
   

   Then, run:

   contract #10:0

   to see the contract for the new BobsCoin:

   Id: #10:0
   TemplateId: Iou.Iou@317057d06d4bc4bb91bf3cfe3292bf3c2467c5e004290e0ba20b993eb1e40931
   Argument:
     observers:
   
     issuer: Bob
     amount: 1.0
     currency: BobsCoin
     owner: Bob
   Created:
     EventId: #10:0
     TransactionId: 10
     WorkflowId: 1ba8521c395096e3
   Archived: Contract is active
   

5. You can transfer the coin to Alice by running:

   exercise #10:0 Iou_Transfer with {newOwner="Alice"}

There are lots of other things you can do with the Navigator Console.

• One of its most powerful features is that you can query its local databases using SQL, with the sql command.

  For example, you could see all of the Iou contracts by running sql select * from contract where template_id like 'Iou.Iou@%'. For more examples, take a look at the Navigator Console database documentation.

• For a full list of commands, run help. You can also look at the Navigator Console documentation page.

• For help on a particular command, run help <name of command>.

• When you are done exploring the shell, run quit to exit.

Installing and starting Navigator Console

Navigator Console is installed as part of the DAML SDK. See Installing the SDK for instructions on how to install the DAML SDK.

If you want to use Navigator Console independent of the SDK, see the Advanced usage section.

To run Navigator Console:

1. Open a terminal window and navigate to your DAML SDK project folder.

2. If the Sandbox isn’t already running, run it with the command daml start.

   The sandbox prints out the port on which it is running - by default, port 6865.

3. Run daml navigator console localhost 6865. Replace 6865 by the port reported by the sandbox, if necessary.

When Navigator Console starts, it displays a welcome message:

   _  __          _           __
  / |/ /__ __  __(_)__ ____ _/ /____  ____
 /    / _ `/ |/ / / _ `/ _ `/ __/ _ \/ __/
/_/|_/\_,_/|___/_/\_, /\_,_/\__/\___/_/
                 /___/
Version X.Y.Z
Welcome to the console. Type 'help' to see a list of commands.

Getting help

To see all available Navigator Console commands and how to use them, use the help command:

>help
Available commands:
choice               Print choice details
command              Print command details
commands             List submitted commands
contract             Print contract details
create               Create a contract
diff_contracts       Print diff of two contracts
event                Print event details
exercise             Exercises a choice
help                 Print help
graphql              Execute a GraphQL query
graphql_examples     Print some example GraphQL queries
graphql_schema       Print the GraphQL schema
info                 Print debug information
package              Print DAML-LF package details
packages             List all DAML-LF packages
parties              List all parties available in Navigator
party                Set the current party
quit                 Quit the application
set_time             Set the (static) ledger effective time
templates            List all templates
template             Print template details
time                 Print the ledger effective time
transaction          Print transaction details
version              Print application version
sql_schema           Return the database schema
sql                  Execute a SQL query

To see the help for the given command, run help <command>:

>help create
Usage: create <template> with <argument>

Create a contract
Parameters:
<template>           Template ID
<argument>           Contract argument

Exiting Navigator Console

To exit Navigator Console, use the quit command:

>quit
Bye.

Using commands

This section describes how to use some common commands.

Note

Navigator Console has several features to help with typing commands:

• Press the Tab key one or more times to use auto-complete and see a list of suggested text to complete the command.
• Press the Up or Down key to scroll through the history of recently used commands.
• Press Ctrl+R to search in the history of recently used commands.

Displaying status information

To see useful information about the status of both Navigator Console and the ledger, use the info command:

>info
   _  __          _           __
  / |/ /__ __  __(_)__ ____ _/ /____  ____
 /    / _ `/ |/ / / _ `/ _ `/ __/ _ \/ __/
/_/|_/\_,_/|___/_/\_, /\_,_/\__/\___/_/
                 /___/
Version 1.0.14 commit a3e1d1c30d84261fa9b6db95c69036da14bc9e7e
General info:
    Ledger host: localhost
    Ledger port: 6865
    Secure connection: false
    Application ID: Navigator-c06fae89-d8ed-4656-b085-388e24569ecf #5b21103194967935
Ledger info:
    Connection status: Connected
    Ledger ID: sandbox-051e2468-c679-43df-b99f-9c72dcd8ffa0
    Ledger time: 1970-01-01T00:16:40Z
    Ledger time type: static
Akka system:
    OPERATOR: Actor running
    BANK2: Actor running
    BANK1: Actor running
Local data:
    BANK1:
        Packages: 1
        Contracts: 0
        Active contracts: 0
        Last transaction: ???
    BANK2:
        Packages: 1
        Contracts: 0
        Active contracts: 0
        Last transaction: ???
    OPERATOR:
        Packages: 1
        Contracts: 1001
        Active contracts: 1001
        Last transaction: scenario-transaction-2002

Choosing a party

Privacy is an important aspect of a Digital Asset ledger: parties can only access the contracts on the ledger that they are authorized to. This means that, before you can interact with the ledger, you must assume the role of a particular party.

The currently active party is displayed left of the prompt sign (>). To assume the role of a different party, use the party command:

BANK1>party BANK2
BANK2>

Note

The list of available parties is configured when the Sandbox starts. (See the DAML Assistant (daml) or Advanced usage for more instructions.)

Advancing time

You can advance the time of the DAML Sandbox. This can be useful when testing, for example, when entering a trade on one date and settling it on a later date.

(For obvious reasons, this feature does not exist on the Digital Asset ledger.)

To display the current ledger time, use the time command:

>time
1970-01-01T00:16:40Z

To advance the time to the time you specify, use the set_time command:

>set_time 1970-01-02T00:16:40Z
New ledger effective time: 1970-01-02T00:16:40Z

Inspecting templates

To see what templates are available on the ledger you are connected to, use the templates command:

>templates
╔════════════════════════╤════════╤═══════╗
║Name                    │Package │Choices║
╠════════════════════════╪════════╪═══════╣
║Main.RightOfUseAgreement│07ca8611│0      ║
║Main.RightOfUseOffer    │07ca8611│1      ║
╚════════════════════════╧════════╧═══════╝

To get detailed information about a particular template, use the template command:

>template Offer<Tab>
>template Main.RightOfUseOffer@07ca8611d05ec14ea4b973192ef6caa5d53323bba50720a8d7142c2a246cfb73
Name: Main.RightOfUseOffer
Parameter:
    landlord: Party
    tenant: Party
    address: Text
    expirationDate: Time
Choices:
- Accept

Note

Remember to use the Tab key. In the above example, typing “Offer” followed by the Tab key auto-completes the fully qualified name of the “RightOfUseOffer” template.

To get detailed information about a choice defined by a template, use the choice command:

>choice Main.RightOfUseOffer Accept
Name: Accept
Consuming: true
Parameter: Unit

Inspecting contracts, transactions, and events

The ledger is a record of transactions between authorized participants on the distributed network. Transactions consist of events that create or archive contracts, or exercise choices on them.

To get detailed information about a ledger object, use the singular form of the command (transaction, event, contract):

>transaction 2003
Offset: 1004
Effective at: 1970-01-01T00:16:40Z
Command ID: 732f6ac4a63c9802
Events:
- [#2003:0] Created #2003:0 as RightOfUseOffer

>event #2003:0
Id: #2003:0
ParentId: ???
TransactionId: 2003
WorkflowId: e13067beec13cf4c
Witnesses:
- Scrooge_McDuck
Type: Created
Contract: #2003:0
Template: Main.RightOfUseOffer
Argument:
    landlord: Scrooge_McDuck
    tenant: Bentina_Beakley
    address: McDuck Manor, Duckburg
    expirationDate: 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

>contract #2003:0
Id: #2003:0
TemplateId: Main.RightOfUseOffer
Argument:
    landlord: Scrooge_McDuck
    tenant: Bentina_Beakley
    address: McDuck Manor, Duckburg
    expirationDate: 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z
Created:
    EventId: #2003:0
    TransactionId: 2003
    WorkflowId: e13067beec13cf4c
Archived: Contract is active
Exercise events:

Querying data

To query contracts, transactions, events, or commands in any way you’d like, you can query the Navigator Console’s local database(s) directly.

Because of the strong DAML privacy model, each party will see a different subset of the ledger data. For this reason, each party has its own local database.

To execute a SQL query against the local database for the currently active party, use the sql command:

>sql select id, template_id, archive_transaction_id from contract
╔═══════╤════════════════════╤══════════════════════╗
║id     │template_id         │archive_transaction_id║
╠═══════╪════════════════════╪══════════════════════╣
║#2003:0│Main.RightOfUseOffer│null                  ║
║#2004:0│Main.RightOfUseOffer│null                  ║
╚═══════╧════════════════════╧══════════════════════╝

See the Navigator Local Database documentation for details on the database schema and how to write SQL queries.

Note

The local database contains a copy of the ledger data, created using the Ledger API. If you modify the local database, you might break Navigator Console, but it will not affect the data on the ledger in any way.

Creating contracts

Contracts in a ledger can be created directly from a template, or when you exercise a choice. You can do both of these things using Navigator Console.

To create a contract of a given template, use the create command. The contract argument is written in JSON format (DAML primitives are strings, DAML records are objects, DAML lists are arrays):

>create Main.RightOfUseOffer@07ca8611d05ec14ea4b973192ef6caa5d53323bba50720a8d7142c2a246cfb73 with {"landlord": "BANK1", "tenant": "BANK2", "address": "Example Street", "expirationDate": "2018-01-01T00:00:00Z"}
CommandId: 1e4c1610eadba6b
Status: Success
TransactionId: 2005

Note

Again, you can use the Tab key to auto-complete the template name.

The Console waits briefly for the completion of the create command and prints basic information about its status. To get detailed information about your create command, use the command command:

>command 1e4c1610eadba6b
Command:
    Id: 1e4c1610eadba6b
    WorkflowId: a31ea1ca20cd5971
    PlatformTime: 1970-01-02T00:16:40Z
    Command: Create contract
    Template: Main.RightOfUseOffer
    Argument:
        landlord: Scrooge_McDuck
        tenant: Bentina_Beakley
        address: McDuck Manor, Duckburg
        expirationDate: 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z
Status:
    Status: Success
    TransactionId: 2005

Exercising choices

To exercise a choice on a contract with the given ID, use the exercise command:

>exercise #2005:0 Accept
CommandID: 8dbbcbc917c7beee
Status: Success
TransactionId: 2006

>exercise #2005:0 Accept with {tenant="BANK2"}
CommandID: 8dbbcbc917c7beee
Status: Success
TransactionId: 2006

Advanced usage

Using Navigator outside the SDK

This section explains how to work with the Navigator if you have a project created outside of the normal SDK workflow and want to use the Navigator to inspect the ledger and interact with it.

Note

If you are using the Navigator as part of the DAML SDK, you do not need to read this section.

The Navigator is released as a “fat” Java .jar file that bundles all required dependencies. This JAR is part of the SDK release and can be found using the SDK Assistant’s path command:

da path navigator

To launch the Navigator JAR and print usage instructions:

da run navigator

Provide arguments at the end of a command, following a double dash. For example:

da run navigator -- console \
  --config-file my-config.conf \
  --port 8000 \
  localhost 6865

The Navigator needs a configuration file specifying each user and the party they act as. It has a .conf ending by convention. The file has this format:

users {
    <USERNAME> {
        party = <PARTYNAME>
    }
    ..
}

In many cases, a simple one-to-one correspondence between users and their respective parties is sufficient to configure the Navigator. Example:

users {
    BANK1 { party = "BANK1" }
    BANK2 { party = "BANK2" }
    OPERATOR { party = "OPERATOR" }
}

Using Navigator with the Digital Asset ledger

By default, Navigator is configured to use an unencrypted connection to the ledger.

To run Navigator against a secured Digital Asset Ledger, configure TLS certificates using the --pem, --crt, and --cacrt command line parameters.

Details of these parameters are explained in the command line help:

daml navigator --help