To get the most out of this book

For most parts of the book, you don't need anything beyond what is mentioned in this section. It goes through all of the things that you'll need to implement a blockchain yourself. I have taken the approach of using free services and tools wherever possible. I will explain in greater detail the different tools and services throughout the book, but let's start by introducing what is needed at minimum:

• For implementing a blockchain smart contract, we will use software from Hyperledger Fabric (https://www.hyperledger.org/projects/fabric).
• Our blockchain will run on Oracle Autonomous Blockchain Cloud Service, but you can also run the Fabric blockchain on-premises using Docker images. To run on-premises, you need to download and install the pre-requirements (https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-1.1/install.html).
• Oracle Cloud Account: A trial of the Blockchain Cloud Service will be sufficient for most things (as long as you have try running the blockchain within the trial period).
• We also make use of Postman (https://www.getpostman.com) as a tool to talk with the APIs supplied by the blockchain software. Postman is a free download.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packt.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packt.com.
2. Select the SUPPORT tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/packtpublishing/blockchain-across-oracle. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781788474290_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Mount the downloaded WebStorm-10*.dmg disk image file as another disk in your system."

A block of code is set as follows:

func main() {
  err := shim.Start(new(InsuranceChaincode))
  if err != nil {
    fmt.Printf("Error starting chaincode - %s", err)
  }
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

[default]
exten => s,1,Dial(Zap/1|30)
exten => s,2,Voicemail(u100)
exten => s,102,Voicemail(b100)
exten => i,1,Voicemail(s0)

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$> curl -sSL https://goo.gl/6wtTN5 | bash -s 1.1.0
$> sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/code_*.deb; sudo apt -f install -y

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select System info from the Administration panel."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.