Learning-Bitcoin-from-the-Command-Line/18_3_Accessing_Bitcoind_with_NodeJS.md

# 18.3: Accessing Bitcoind with NodeJS

> **NOTE:** This is a draft in progress, so that I can get some feedback from early reviewers. It is not yet ready for learning.

## Set Up Node.js

BCRPC is built on node.js. Thus, you'll first need to install the `node.js` and `npm` (node package manager) packages for your system. 

If you're using a Ubuntu machine, you can run the following commands to get a new version of `node.js` (as opposed to the horribly out-of-date version in the Ubuntu package system).
```
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
sudo apt-get install mocha -g
```
### Set Up BCRPC

Create a new node.js project and install BCRPC via NPM.
```
$ mkdir myproject
$ cd myproject
$ npm init
[...]
$ npm install --save bcrpc
```
### Test BCRPC

To test the BCRPC package, you must first set environmental variables for your rpcuser and rpcpassword. As noted in [§12.1: Accessing Bitcoind with Curl](12_1_Accessing_Bitcoind_with_Curl.md), these come from `~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf`.
```
$ export BITCOIND_USER=bitcoinrpc
$ export BITCOIND_PASS=d8340efbcd34e312044c8431c59c792c
```
> **WARNING:** Obviously, you'd never put set your password in an environmental variable in a production environment.

You can now verify everything is working correctly:
```
$ npm test

> bcrpc@0.0.5 test /home/user1/bcrpc-master
> mocha tests.js

  BitcoinD
    ✓ is running

  bcrpc
    ✓ can get info

  2 passing (36ms)
```
Congratulations, you now have a Bitcoin-ready RPC wrapper for node.js.

## Manipulate Your Wallet

### Look Up Addresses

### Look Up Funds

### Create an Address

## Create a Transaction
 
## Summary: Accessing Bitcoind with Node