Bigchaindb

It has been more than two months since the v0.8.0 release, so there have been _many_ changes. We decided to describe them in broad strokes, with links to more details elsewhere.

Added
- Support for MongoDB as a backend database.
- Some configuration settings and `bigchaindb` command-line commands were added. In particular, one can specify the database backend (`rethinkdb` or `mongodb`). For MongoDB, one can specify the name of the replicaset. Also for MongoDB, there are new command-line commands to add and remove hosts from the replicaset. See [the Settings & CLI docs](https://docs.bigchaindb.com/projects/server/en/v0.9.0/server-reference/index.html).
- Transaction schema validation. The transaction schema is also used to auto-generate some docs. [Pull Request 880](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/880)
- Vote schema validation. The vote schema is also used to auto-generate some docs. [Pull Request 865](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/865)
- New `ENABLE_WEB_ADMIN` setting in the AWS deployment configuration file. [Pull Request 1015](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1015)

Changed
- The transaction model has changed substantially. libscott wrote a blog post about the changes and it will be published soon on [the BigchainDB Blog](https://blog.bigchaindb.com/). Also, see [the docs about the transaction model](https://docs.bigchaindb.com/projects/server/en/v0.9.0/data-models/transaction-model.html).
- The HTTP API has changed substantially. diminator wrote a blog post about the changes and it will be published soon on [the BigchainDB Blog](https://blog.bigchaindb.com/). Also, see [the docs about the vote model](https://docs.bigchaindb.com/projects/server/en/v0.9.0/data-models/vote-model.html).
- All RethinkDB-specific database calls were replaced with abstract calls to a backend database.
- Some improvements to the Dockerfile, e.g. Pull Requests [1011](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1011) and [1121](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1121)
- Many improvements to the tests
- We standardized on supporting Ubuntu 16.04 for now (but BigchainDB Server also works on similar Linux distros).

Removed
- `api_endpoint` was removed from the BigchainDB configuration settings. (It was never used anyway.) [Pull Request 821](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/821)
- Removed all remaining StatsD monitoring code, configuration settings, docs, etc. (We'll add another monitoring solution in the future.) [Pull Request 1138](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1138)

Fixed
- Fixed a memory (RAM) overflow problem when under heavy load by bounding the size of the queue at the entrance to the block pipeline. [Pull Request 908](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/908)
- Fixed some logic in block validation. [Pull Request 1130](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1130)

External Contributors
- amirelemam - [Pull Request 762](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/762) (closed but used as the basis for [Pull Request 1074](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1074))
- utarl - [Pull Request 1019](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1019)

Notes
- There were many additions and changes to the documentation. Fun fact: The JSON in the HTTP API docs is now auto-generated to be consistent with the current code.
- There's a draft spec for a BigchainDB Event Stream API and we welcome your feedback. See [Pull Request 1086](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1086)

Fixed
- Fix spend input twice in same transaction
(https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/issues/1099).

Changed
- Upgrade pysha3 to 1.0.0 (supports official NIST standard).

Fixed
- Workaround for rapidjson problem with package metadata extraction
(https://github.com/kenrobbins/python-rapidjson/pull/52).

Added
- The big new thing in version 0.8.0 is support for divisible assets, i.e. assets like carrots or thumbtacks, where the initial CREATE transaction can register/create some amount (e.g. 542 carrots), the first TRANSFER transaction can split that amount across multiple owners, and so on. [Pull Request 794](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/794)
- Wrote a formal schema for the JSON structure of transactions. [Pull Request 798](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/798)
- New configuration parameter: `backlog_reassign_delay`. [Pull Request 883](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/883)

Changed
- CREATE transactions must now be signed by all `owners_before` (rather than by a federation node). [Pull Request 794](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/794)
- The user-provided timestamp was removed from the transaction data model (schema). [Pull Request 817](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/817)
- `get_transaction()` will now return a transaction from the backlog, even if there are copies of the transaction in invalid blocks. [Pull Request 793](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/793)
- Several pull requests to introduce a generalized database interface, to move RethinkDB calls into a separate implementation of that interface, and to work on a new MongoDB implementation of that interface. Pull Requests
[754](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/754),
[783](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/783),
[799](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/799),
[806](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/806),
[809](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/809),
[853](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/853)
- Renamed "verifying key" to "public key". Renamed "signing key" to "private key". Renamed "vk" to "pk". [Pull Request 807](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/807)
- `get_transaction_by_asset_id` now ignores invalid transactions. [Pull Request 810](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/810)
- `get_transaction_by_metadata_id` now ignores invalid transactions. [Pull Request 811](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/811)
- Updates to the configs and scripts for deploying a test network on AWS. The example config file deploys virtual machines running Ubuntu 16.04 now. Pull Requests
[771](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/771),
[813](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/813)
- Changed logging of transactions on block creation so now it just says the length of the list of transactions, rather than listing all the transactions. [Pull Request 861](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/861)

Fixed
- Equality checks with AssetLinks. [Pull Request 825](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/825)
- Bug in `bigchaindb load`. [Pull Request 824](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/824)
- Two issues found with timestamp indexes. [Pull Request 816](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/816)
- Hard-coded `backlog_reassign_delay`. [Pull Request 854](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/854)
- Race condition in `test_stale_monitor.py`. [Pull Request 846](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/846)
- When creating a signed vote, decode the vote signature to a `str`. [Pull Request 869](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/869)
- Bug in AWS deployment scripts. Setting `BIND_HTTP_TO_LOCALHOST` to `False` didn't actually work. It does now. [Pull Request 870](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/870)

External Contributors
- najlachamseddine - [Pull Request 528](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/528)
- ChristianGaertner - [Pull Request 659](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/659)
- MinchinWeb - [Pull Request 695](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/695)
- ckeyer - [Pull Request 785](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/785)

Notes
- ChristianGaertner added a Python style checker (Flake8) to Travis CI, so external contributors should be aware that the Python code in their pull requests will be checked. See [our Python Style Guide](PYTHON_STYLE_GUIDE.md).
- Several additions and changes to the documentation, e.g. Pull Requests
[690](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/690),
[764](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/764),
[766](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/766),
[769](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/769),
[777](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/777),
[800](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/800),
[801](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/801),
[802](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/802),
[803](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/803),
[819](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/819),
[827](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/827),
[859](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/859),
[872](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/872),
[882](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/882),
[883](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/883)

= commit: 2dd7f1af27478c529e6d2d916f64daa3fbda3885
committed: Oct 28, 2016, 4:00 PM GMT+2

Added
- Stale transactions in the `backlog` table now get reassigned to another node (for inclusion in a new block): [Pull Request 359](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/359)
- Many improvements to make the database connection more robust: [Pull Request 623](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/623)
- The new `--dev-allow-temp-keypair` option on `bigchaindb start` will generate a temporary keypair if no keypair is found. The `Dockerfile` was updated to use this. [Pull Request 635](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/635)
- The AWS deployment scripts now allow you to:
- specify the AWS security group as a configuration parameter: [Pull Request 620](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/620)
- tell RethinkDB to bind HTTP to localhost (a more secure setup; now the default in the example config file): [Pull Request 666](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/666)

Changed
- Integrated the new `Transaction` model. This was a **big** change; 49 files changed. [Pull Request 641](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/641)
- Merged "common" code (used by BigchainDB Server and the Python driver), which used to be in its own repository (`bigchaindb/bigchaindb-common`), into the main `bigchaindb/bigchaindb` repository (this one): [Pull Request 742](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/742)
- Integrated the new digital asset model. This changed the data structure of a transaction and will make it easier to support divisible assets in the future. [Pull Request 680](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/680)
- Transactions are now deleted from the `backlog` table _after_ a block containing them is written to the `bigchain` table: [Pull Request 609](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/609)
- Changed the example AWS deployment configuration file: [Pull Request 665](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/665)
- Support for version 0.5.0 of the `cryptoconditions` Python package. Note that this means you must now install `ffi.h` (e.g. `sudo apt-get install libffi-dev` on Ubuntu). See Pull Requests [685](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/685) and [698](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/698)
- Updated some database access code: Pull Requests [676](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/676) and [701](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/701)

Fixed
- Internally, when a transaction is in the `backlog` table, it carries some extra book-keeping fields:
1. an `assignment_timestamp` (i.e. the time when it was assigned to a node), which is used to determine if it has gone stale.
2. an `assignee`: the public key of the node it was assigned to.
- The `assignment_timestamp` wasn't removed before writing the transaction to a block. That was fixed in [Pull Request 627](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/627)
- The `assignment_timestamp` and `assignee` weren't removed in the response to an HTTP API request sent to the `/api/v1/transactions/<txid>` endpoint. That was fixed in [Pull Request 646](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/646)
- When validating a TRANSFER transaction, if any fulfillment refers to a transaction that's _not_ in a valid block, then the transaction isn't valid. This wasn't checked before but it is now. [Pull Request 629](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/629)

External Contributors
- MinchinWeb - [Pull Request 696](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/696)

Notes
- We made a small change to how we do version labeling. Going forward, we will have the version label set to 0.X.Y.dev in the master branch as we work on what will eventually be released as version 0.X.Y. The version number will only be changed to 0.X.Y just before the release. This version labeling scheme began with [Pull Request 752](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/752)
- Several additions and changes to the documentation, e.g. Pull Requests
[618](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/618),
[621](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/621),
[625](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/625),
[645](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/645),
[647](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/647),
[648](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/648),
[650](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/650),
[651](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/651),
[653](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/653),
[655](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/655),
[656](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/656),
[657](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/657),
[667](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/667),
[668](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/668),
[669](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/669),
[673](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/673),
[678](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/678),
[684](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/684),
[688](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/688),
[699](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/699),
[705](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/705),
[737](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/737),
[748](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/748),
[753](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/753),
[757](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/757),
[759](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/759), and more

= commit: bfc86e0295c7d1ef0acd3c275c125798bd5b0dfd
committed: Sep 1, 2016, 2:15 PM GMT+2

Added
- Support for multiple operations in the ChangeFeed class: [Pull Request 569](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/569)
- Instructions, templates and code for deploying a starter node on AWS using Terraform and Ansible: Pull Requests
[572](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/572),
[589](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/589),
[600](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/600),
[605](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/605),
[610](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/610)
- Check that the majority of votes on a block agree on the previous block. If they don't, consider the block invalid. [Pull Request 565](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/565)

Changed
- Set RethinkDB `read-mode='majority'` everywhere: [Pull Request 497](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/497)
- Ported election logic and voting logic to the new pipeline architecture: Pull Requests [510](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/510) and [515](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/515)
- Moved the transaction (model) `version` inside the `transaction` (in the transaction data model): [Pull Request 518](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/518)
- Changed how the BigchainDB config file (JSON) gets written so it's easier for humans to read: [Pull Request 522](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/522)
- Improved and expanded the GET/POST endpoints for transactions (in the HTTP API): [Pull Request 563](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/563)
- Changed the AWS cluster deployment scripts so that the deployer now generates their keypair locally, rather than having Amazon do it: [Pull Request 567](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/567)
- When a transaction is retrieved by `get_transaction`, a `validity` field is added with a value one of `valid`, `undecided`, or `backlog`: [Pull Request 574](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/574)
- Renamed `current_owners` and `new_owners` (in the data models) to `owners_before` and `owners_after`, respectively (i.e. before/after *the transaction*): [Pull Request 578](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/578)
- Use `flask_restful` and class-based views for realizing the HTTP API: [Pull Request 588](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/588)

Fixed
- Fixed the confusing error message when there was a syntax error in the BigchainDB config file: [Pull Request 531](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/531)
- Fixed `write_transaction` so it no longer has the side effect of adding `assignee` to a transaction that is being processed: [Pull Request 606](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/606)

External Contributors
- eladve - [Pull Request 518](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/518)
- d01phin - Pull Requests [522](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/522) and [531](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/531)
- Kentoseth - [Pull Request 537](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/537)

Notes
- Several additions and changes to the documentation, e.g. Pull Requests
[523](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/523),
[532](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/532),
[537](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/537),
[539](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/539),
[610](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/610), and more