The Ledger Client
To post or get data to/from the Signum Blockchain you need to create a ledger client instance. Once instantiated you have access to all the functions provided by the Node HTTP API in a comfortable and intuitive way.
The client organizes the calls into groups according their functionality, i.e.
- account
- alias
- asset
- block
- contract
- message
- network
- transaction
Each of this subgroup provides a set of functions (see API Reference for complete documentation). For example, network related functionality like getting a list of connected peers are in network, while balance information are inside the account subgroup.
Instantiating a ledger client is very easy:
At this time of writing Signum runs two major networks: Main Net and Test Net
As a general rule, all development should be done on Test Net first. The Signum Core Team provides a public Test Net Node: https://europe3.testnet.signum.network and a public explorer under https://t-chain.signum.network . But best is to run a local Test Net host http://localhost:6876
See how to Starting a Signum-Node for development purposes.
The Main Net consists of hundreds of nodes, but some of them are considered as Featured Nodes, which are maintained by the Signum Core Team and further community members and guarantee better up times.
A full list of feature nodes can be found in the Main Net Explorer.
As a blockchain is a distributed ledger, you can connect the ledger client with any of the nodes. If you provide an application and want to offer better user experience through better loading times, it would be good if the application could be capable of selecting the "best" node. SignumJS provides such a functionality, which tests the response times of a set of given node urls. To auto-select the "best" node do the following: