* Re: [Bitcoin-development] Notifications from client/wallet
2011-07-14 5:19 [Bitcoin-development] Notifications from client/wallet John Smith
@ 2011-07-14 9:10 ` Pieter Wuille
2011-07-14 14:13 ` Matt Corallo
1 sibling, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Pieter Wuille @ 2011-07-14 9:10 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: John Smith; +Cc: Bitcoin Dev
On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 05:19:11AM +0000, John Smith wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'd like to add notifications to the client and wallet, to decouple UI and
> core communication, and especially so that UIs no longer have to poll for
> changes.
>
> I propose to use the boost::signal mechanism for that. It is basically a
> glorified callback system, but allows decoupled delivery of 'signals' from
> an object. Multiple other objects can listen in on an event without the
> emitting object having to care.
I like this idea. Matt and I were considering a similar system for the internal
communication between net/wallet/blockdb/mempool, but weren't really aware of
boost::signal. I looked at it, and really seems to provide everything necessary.
> Specific notifications that would be useful:
>
> Wallet:
>
> - balanceChanged(int64): spendable balance changed
Maybe even per-account?
> - transactionAdded(int256): new transaction added to wallet
> - transactionUpdated(int256): transaction info changed
Does that include more confirmations? I think we'd first need to define what
exactly is relevant information for transactions. It could be defined in
terms of a/some high-level information request functions for transactions, so
GUI/RPC don't inspect the wallet datastructures themselves anymore:
* GetTransactionState(): return state (immature, generated, unconfirmed,
rejected, confirmed), and number of confirmations.
(possibly using the negative number of confirmations
semantics as described here:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=5920.msg328468#msg328468.
* GetBroadcasts(): return either -1 (unknown) or some integer denoting how often
this tx was broadcast. The "0/offline" state is equal to
unconfirmed + 0 broadcasts
* GetInputs(): return a list of pairs (uint256 txId, int nOffset, int64 nAmount)
* GetOutputsToMe(): return a list of pairs (address addr, string label, fBool isChange,
int64 nAmount, bool fGenerated, bool fAvailable) describing all
To-Me outputs
* GetOutputsToOthers(): return a list of pairs (address addr, string label,
int64 nAmount)
* GetFee(): get the fee paid
The only things that can change while the transaction is already in the wallet seems
to be GetTransactionState() and GetBroadcasts(), so those would cause a
transactionUpdated event?
Adding/removing private keys from the wallet may change the other outputs, so i suppose
those are also candidates for causing this event.
- transactionRemoved(int256): transaction removed from wallet (can this
> happen? for completeness)
for now, that can't happen, but if something like unspending/rejecting/detection
of conflicting transactions is added, it may.
> - addressAdded(int160): address was added to address book
> - addressUpdated(int160): address label/other metadata was modified
> - addressRemoved(int160): address was removed from address book
> - notification(std::string message, int severity): warning/error occured
> in wallet processing, notify user
Ok.
> - int askFee(std::string message, ...): ask user for fee
You simply mean the "Transaction requires fee of ..., agree?" message?
Regarding wallet encryption, we could use a
- string askPassphrase()
maybe?
> Network client:
>
> - numConnectionsChanged(int): new connections / connections broken
> - numBlocksChanged(int): new blocks came in or other changes to block
> chain
> - notification(std::string message, int severity): warning/error occured
> in network processing, notify user
Ok; those would need to be implemented as globals until a more modular structure
is implemented.
--
Pieter
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread* Re: [Bitcoin-development] Notifications from client/wallet
2011-07-14 5:19 [Bitcoin-development] Notifications from client/wallet John Smith
2011-07-14 9:10 ` Pieter Wuille
@ 2011-07-14 14:13 ` Matt Corallo
1 sibling, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Matt Corallo @ 2011-07-14 14:13 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: bitcoin-development
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This sounds cool, I started implementing the other half of this a couple
days ago. My broad idea of a source cleanup (that sipa largely wrote)
is to have a central notification interface which wallet(s)/net/block
store/etc all communicate with, and then an interface, like the one
proposed here, which GUI/RPC/etc use to communicate with wallet/net.
This should allow for very clean separation of pieces and large-scale
rewrites of one or another part (or drop-in replacements) without
touching anything but the parts that are being redone. This should also
allow for cool programs (like pushpoold/a block notification server/etc)
to use Bitcoin as a library fairly efficiently.
Matt
On Thu, 2011-07-14 at 05:19 +0000, John Smith wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'd like to add notifications to the client and wallet, to decouple UI
> and core communication, and especially so that UIs no longer have to
> poll for changes.
>
> I propose to use the boost::signal mechanism for that. It is basically
> a glorified callback system, but allows decoupled delivery of
> 'signals' from an object. Multiple other objects can listen in on an
> event without the emitting object having to care.
>
> Wallet:
>
> class CWallet { ...
> boost::signal<void(int64)> balanceChanged;
> }
>
>
> void CWallet::newTx (...) {
>
> ...
> balanceChanged(new_balance);
> ...
> }
>
>
>
> UI:
>
> GUI::GUI(CWallet *wallet) {
> ...
> wallet->balanceChanged.connect(boost::bind(&GUI::balanceChanged,
> this, _1));
> }
> GUI::balanceChanged(int64 new_balance) {
> someWidget->setValue(new_balance);
> }
>
>
> Specific notifications that would be useful:
>
> Wallet:
> * balanceChanged(int64): spendable balance changed
> * transactionAdded(int256): new transaction added to wallet
> * transactionUpdated(int256): transaction info changed
> * transactionRemoved(int256): transaction removed from wallet
> (can this happen? for completeness)
> * addressAdded(int160): address was added to address book
> * addressUpdated(int160): address label/other metadata was
> modified
> * addressRemoved(int160): address was removed from address book
> * notification(std::string message, int severity): warning/error
> occured in wallet processing, notify user
> * int askFee(std::string message, ...): ask user for fee
> Network client:
> * numConnectionsChanged(int): new connections / connections
> broken
> * numBlocksChanged(int): new blocks came in or other changes to
> block chain
> * notification(std::string message, int severity): warning/error
> occured in network processing, notify user
>
> JS
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread