Bigchaindb

Added

* [New documentation about privacy and handling private data](https://docs.bigchaindb.com/en/latest/private-data.html). [Pull request 2437](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2437)
* New documentation about log rotation. Also rotate Tendermint logs if started using Monit. [Pull request 2528](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2528)
* Began implementing one of the migration strategies outlined in [BEP-42](https://github.com/bigchaindb/BEPs/tree/master/42). That involved creating a more general-purpose election process and commands. Pull requests [2488](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2488), [2495](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2495), [2498](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2498), [2515](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2515), [2535](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2535)
* Used memoization to avoid doing some validation checks multiple times. [Pull request 2490](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2490)
* Created an all-in-one Docker image containing BigchainDB Server, Tendermint and MongoDB. It was created for a particular user and is not recommended for production use unless you really know what you're doing. [Pull request 2424](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2424)

Changed

* The supported versions of Tendermint are now hard-wired into BigchainDB Server: it checks to see what version the connected Tendermint has, and if it's not compatible, BigchainDB Server exits with an error message. [Pull request 2541](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2541)
* The docs no longer say to install the highest version of Tendermint: they say to install a specific version. [Pull request 2524](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2524)
* The setup docs include more recommended settings for `config.toml`. [Pull request 2516](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2516)
* The process to add, remove or update the voting power of a validator at run time (using the `bigchaindb upsert-validator` subcommands) was completely changed and is now fully working. See [issue 2372](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/issues/2372) and all the pull requests it references. Pull requests [2439](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2439) and [2440](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2440)
* The license on the documentation was changed from CC-BY-SA-4 to CC-BY-4. [Pull request 2427](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2427)
* Re-activated and/or updated some unit tests that had been deacivated during the migration to Tendermint. Pull requests [2390](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2390), [2415](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2415), [2452](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/24), [2456](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2456)
* Updated RapidJSON to a newer, faster version. [Pull request 2470](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2470)
* The Java driver is now officially supported. [Pull request 2478](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2478)
* The MongoDB indexes on transaction id and block height were changed to be [unique indexes](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/core/index-unique/). [Pull request 2492](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2492)
* Updated the required `cryptoconditions` package to a newer one. [Pull request 2494](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2494)

Removed

* Removed some old code and tests. Pull requests
[2374](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2374),
[2452](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2452),
[2474](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2474),
[2476](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2476),
[2491](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2491)

Fixed

* Fixed the Events API so that it only sends valid transactions to subscribers. Also changed how it works internally, so now it is more reliable. [Pull request 2529](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2529)
* Fixed a bug where MongoDB database initialization would abort if a collection already existed. [Pull request 2520](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2520)
* Fixed a unit test that was failing randomly. [Pull request 2423](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2423)
* Fixed the validator curl port. [Pull request 2447](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2447)
* Fixed an error in the docs about the HTTP POST /transactions endpoint. [Pull request 2481](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2481)
* Fixed a unit test that could loop forever. [Pull requqest 2486](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2486)
* Fixed a bug when validating a CREATE + TRANSFER. [Pull request 2487](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2487)
* Fixed the HTTP response when posting a transaction in commit mode. [Pull request 2510](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2510)
* Fixed a crash that happened when attempting to restart BigchainDB at Tendermint block height 1. [Pull request2519](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2519)

External Contributors

danacr - [Pull request 2447](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2447)

Notes

The docs section titled "Production Deployment Template" was renamed to "Kubernetes Deployment Template" and we no longer consider it the go-to deployment template. The "Simple Deployment Template" is simpler, easier to understand, and less expensive (unless you are with an organization that already has a big Kubernetes cluster).

Changed

* Supported version of Tendermint `0.22.3` -> `0.22.8`. [Pull request 2429](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2429).

Fixed

* Stateful validation raises a DoubleSpend exception if there is any other transaction that spends the same output(s) even if it has the same transaction ID. [Pull request 2422](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2422).

Added

- Added scripts for creating a configuration to manage processes with Monit. [Pull request 2410](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2410).

Fixed

- Redundant asset and metadata queries were removed. [Pull request 2409](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2409).
- Signal handling was fixed for BigchainDB processes. [Pull request 2395](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2395).
- Some of the abruptly closed sockets that used to stay in memory are being cleaned up now. [Pull request 2408](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2408).
- Fixed the bug when WebSockets powering Events API became unresponsive. [Pull request 2413](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2413).

Notes:

* The instructions on how to write a BEP were simplified. [Pull request 2347](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2347).
* A section about troubleshooting was added to the network setup guide. [Pull request 2398](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2398).
* Some of the core code was given a better package structure. [Pull request 2401](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2401).
* Some of the previously disabled unit tests were re-enabled and updated. Pull requests [2404](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2404) and [2402](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2402).
* Some building blocks for dynamically adding new validators were introduced. [Pull request 2392](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2392).

Fixed

Fixed a bug in transaction validation. For some more-complex situations, it would say that a valid transaction was invalid. This bug was actually fixed before; it was [issue 1271](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/issues/1271). The unit test for it was turned off while we integrated Tendermint. Then the query implementation code got changed, reintroducing the bug, but the unit test was off so the bug wasn't caught. When we turned the test back on, shortly after releasing Beta 2, it failed, unveiling the bug. [Pull request 2389](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2389)

Added

* Added new configuration settings `tendermint.host` and `tendermint.port`. [Pull request 2342](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2342)
* Added tests to ensure that BigchainDB gracefully handles "nasty" strings in keys and values. [Pull request 2334](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2334)
* Added a new logging handler to capture benchmark stats to a separate file. [Pull request 2349](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2349)

Changed

* Changed the names of BigchainDB processes (Python processes) to include 'bigchaindb', so they are easier to spot and find. [Pull request 2354](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2354)
* Updated all code to support the latest version of Tendermint. Note that the BigchainDB ABCI server now listens to port 26657 instead of 46657. Pull requests [2375](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2375) and [2380](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2380)

Removed

Removed all support and code for the old backlog_reassign_delay setting. [Pull request 2332](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2332)

Fixed

* Fixed a bug that sometimes arose when using Docker Compose. (Tendermint would freeze.) [Pull request 2341](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2341)
* Fixed a bug in the code that creates a MongoDB index for the "id" in the transactions collection. It works now, and performance is improved. [Pull request 2378](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2378)
* The logging server would keep runnning in some tear-down scenarios. It doesn't do that any more. [Pull request 2304](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2304)

External Contributors

hrntknr - [Pull request 2331](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2331)

Known Issues

The `bigchaindb upsert-validator` subcommand is not working yet, but a solution ([BEP-21](https://github.com/bigchaindb/BEPs/tree/master/21)) has been finalized and will be implemented before we release the final BigchainDB 2.0.

Notes

* A lot of old/dead code was deleted. Pull requests
[2319](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2319),
[2338](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2338),
[2357](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2357),
[2365](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2365),
[2366](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2366),
[2368](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2368) and
[2374](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2374)
* Improved the documentation page "How to setup a BigchainDB Network". [Pull Request 2312](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2312)

Fixed

* Fixed a bug that arose with some code that treated transactions-waiting-for-block-inclusion as if they were already stored in MongoDB (i.e. already in a block). [Pull request 2318](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2318)
* If a user asked for a block and it happened to be an empty block, BigchainDB returned 404 Not Found, as if the block did not exist. Now it returns a 200 OK with a block containing no transactions, i.e. an empty block. [Pull request 2321](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2321)

Known Issues

* An issue was found with the `bigchaindb upsert-validator` command. A solution was proposed in [BEP-19](https://github.com/bigchaindb/BEPs/pull/45) and is being implemented in [pull request 2314](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/2314)
* If you run BigchainDB locally using `make start` (i.e. using Docker Compose) and then you put the node under heavy write load, Tendermint can become unresponsive and running `make stop` can hang.
* There seems to be one or more issues with Tendermint when it is put under heavy load (i.e. even when BigchainDB isn't involved). See Tendermint issues [1394](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues/1394), [1642](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues/1642) and [1661](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues/1661)

Notes

* There's a [new docs page](https://docs.bigchaindb.com/projects/server/en/v2.0.0b1/simple-network-setup.html) about how to set up a network where each node uses a single virtual machine.
* We checked, and BigchainDB 2.0 Beta 1 works with MongoDB 3.6 (and 3.4).
* Support for RethinkDB is completely gone.