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The Graph

Overview: Why is The Graph needed?​

The Graph is a decentralized protocol for indexing and querying data from blockchains. It makes querying fast, reliable and secure but also allows anyone to build and publish application programming interfaces (APIs) called subgraphs, which act as intermediaries and allow applications to communicate with one other.

Prerequisites​

Before you run The Graph node on a server, you will need:

  • Docker: Containerization platform for software solutions.
  • docker-compose : Used to automate interactions between docker containers.
  • JQ: JSON processor for graph requests.

In this guide, we will demonstrate how to run an Astar node for getting more insight into the transactions on the blockchain, by providing indexing data to The Graph node.

Running a Graph Node​

After successfully running an RPC node, the Graph node will need to be installed and configured to connect to a separate computer. If you are running a self-signed RPC node, you will need to set up an extra environment variable for allowance.

The first step is to clone the Graph Node repository:

git clone [https://github.com/graphprotocol/graph-node/](https://github.com/graphprotocol/graph-node/) \\
&& cd graph-node/docker

Next, execute the setup.sh file. This will pull all the necessary Docker images and write the necessary information to the docker-compose.yml file. Do ensure that docker-compose and jq are installed.

sudo bash ./setup.sh

After running the command, the tail end of the command should show similar logs as below:

8

Once everything is set up, you will need to modify the "Ethereum environment" inside the docker-compose.yml file, so that the Graph node points to the endpoint of the RPC that you are connecting with. Note that the setup.sh file detects the RPC's Host IP and writes its value, so you'll need to modify it accordingly.

Modifying the Ethereum Environment​

Astar​

# open docker-compose.yml
nano docker-compose.yml

# modify file and save
ethereum: 'astar:https://<IP address or domain>:<PORT>'

Shiden​

# open docker-compose.yml
nano docker-compose.yml

# modify file and save
ethereum: 'shiden:https://<IP address or domain>:<PORT>'

Shibuya​

# open docker-compose.yml
nano docker-compose.yml

# modify file and save
ethereum: 'shibuya:https://<IP address or domain>:<PORT>'

For example, if you are building a Graph node for Shiden, the entire docker-compose.yml now should appear as below:

version: '3'
services:
  graph-node:
    image: graphprotocol/graph-node
    ports:
      - '8000:8000'
      - '8001:8001'
      - '8020:8020'
      - '8030:8030'
      - '8040:8040'
    depends_on:
      - ipfs
      - postgres
    environment:
      postgres_host: postgres
      postgres_user: graph-node
      postgres_pass: let-me-in
      postgres_db: graph-node
      ipfs: 'ipfs:5001'
      ethereum: 'shiden:https://<IP address or DOMAIN>:<PORT>'
      RUST_LOG: info
  ipfs:
    image: ipfs/go-ipfs:v0.4.23
    ports:
      - '5001:5001'
    volumes:
      - ./data/ipfs:/data/ipfs
  postgres:
    image: postgres
    ports:
      - '5432:5432'
    command: ["postgres", "-cshared_preload_libraries=pg_stat_statements"]
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: graph-node
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: let-me-in
      POSTGRES_DB: graph-node
    volumes:
      - ./data/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data

Running The Graph containers​

Run the following command:

sudo docker-compose up

When everything is set up the log will appear as below:

9