Can we use this without running geth ??

[Adonis2115]

Hey I want to know can we use this without running geth, like with testrpc or IP address running blockchain on other server and if so how could I do that. I tried to change few things but could not make it work.

Really Appreciate your work.

[metaspartan]

This explorer was built with the intentions of utilizing it with geth. It uses https://github.com/ethereum/web3.js/ for the RPC calls. You could change from another different geth implementation, but its current development track is to work strictly with geth and the web3.js.

[stone212]

@carsenk: is there anything to install for web3? I am not able to run this (see bug/question on explorer page: https://github.com/etherparty/explorer/issues/26

And I am thinking that maybe web3 is not configured correctly for me. Is that a possibility? I don't know anything about web3, but I think it is project specific, so it should install when npm install does its thing. Yes?

Thank you!

[reiven]

@Adonis2115 just FYI i'm currently using this explorer with parity instead of geth and works like a charm

[stone212]

@reiven How did you install web3? Generally I install as the user running Parity. But the explorer doesn't work for me. Did you install web3 in a different way?

[stone212]

@reiven Also did you use the --geth emulation flag for Parity? Thank you.

[reiven]

hey @stone212 i've runned parity without the --geth flag, just started and thats it. I didnt install web3 at all, just set the required flags to let the explorer comunicate via RPC. Here is the gist to run parity+explorer inside a docker-compose

[stone212]

@reiven I'm not a Docker user but thank you. Can you just send the actual command line options or config file you use to invoke Parity when explorer works?

[stone212]

@reiven Actually can you send the command line options, your firewall settings, reverse proxy settings, and also a copy of your /app/app.js file and any other files that you modified? I know that is a lot to ask but it will be useful to everyone who is trying to work with Parity and this explorer.

[reiven]

@stone212 as you can see in the docker files, i run parity this way:

parity --jsonrpc-interface all --jsonrpc-hosts all --jsonrpc-cors * --dapps-interface 0.0.0.0 --dapps-hosts all --ui-interface 0.0.0.0 --ui-no-validation --chain dev

For the Fiwall settings, i've just opened TCP ports 8545/8080/8180 And i didnt modified anything in the parity node itself

[stone212]

@reiven What about the /app/app.js file? Have you modified that? Because I do not have any luck using the settings you give above.

[reiven]

No, didnt modify it at all. Which version of parity are you trying?

[reiven]

hey @stone212 i see you also have a ticket opened in the parity repo, looks like the problem was using v1.7.x , and the answer fixed my problems with docker. So i can confirm you that i was able to run the explorer with parity v1.7.0 (stable) using docker , without any modification

[stone212]

@reiven Hi. Okay, so you said "For the Fiwall settings, i've just opened TCP ports 8545/8080/8180 And i didnt modified anything in the parity node itself" But that's impossible! The explorer runs on port 8000. I don't even know what port 8080 is. How can you run without port 8000 open?

And should I do something with port 8080? I did open it now and there is no change. I wonder if I must reverse proxy it because I am running remotely? No. The reverse proxy should only be for the explorer UI I think.

No, didnt modify it at all.

You did not modify the /app/app.js file? Line 6 of that file reads:

var GETH_HOSTNAME = "localhost"; // put your IP address!

Are you viewing the explorer remotely?

Which version of parity are you trying?

1.6.0, 1.6.10, 1.7.2, 1.8.0. The result is always the same. I do not think it is connected to the other ticket (in the parity repo) because I had the problems with the explorer going back much much longer.

[reiven]

oh, correct i modify that from the dockerfile

WORKDIR /app

RUN apk add --no-cache make gcc g++ git bash
RUN git clone https://github.com/carsenk/explorer.git
RUN cd explorer && npm install

WORKDIR /app/explorer
RUN sed -ie 's/localhost/0.0.0.0/g' package.json

EXPOSE 8000

CMD npm start```

[stone212]

This now works for me in Parity with an upgrade to 1.7.6.

This does the trick:

$ parity --jsonrpc-hosts="[public-ip-address]"

You also have to put your IP in api.json