Usage

See also the `main dogecoin documentation`_ for details and background on setting up and using dogecoind remotely.

Setting up dogecoin for remote control

If you run Dogecoin with the -server argument, or if you run dogecoind, it can be controlled either by sending it HTTP-JSON-RPC commands.

However, beginning with Dogecoin 0.3.3 you must create a dogecoin.conf file in the Dogecoin data directory (default $HOME/.dogeconf) and set an RPC password:

rpcuser=anything
rpcpassword=anything

Once that is done, the easiest way to check whether Dogecoin accepts remote commands is by running Dogecoin again, with the command (and any parameters) as arguments. For example:

$ dogecoind getinfo

Connecting to the wallet from Python

There are two functions for this:

Connecting to local dogecoin instance

Use the function connect_to_local(). This automagically sorts out the connection to a dogecoin process running on the current machine, for the current user.

conn = dogecoinrpc.connect_to_local()

Connecting to a remote dogecoin instance

Use the function connect_to_remote(). For this function it is neccesary to explicitly specify a hostname and port to connect to, and to provide user credentials for logging in.

conn = dogecoinrpc.connect_to_remote('foo', 'bar', host='payments.yoyodyne.com', port=8332)

How to use the API

For basic sending and receiving of payments, the four most important methods are

Getting the current balance

Use the method getbalance() to get the current server balance.

print "Your balance is %f" % (conn.getbalance(),)

Check a customer address for validity and get information about it

This can be done with the method validateaddress().

rv = conn.validateaddress(foo)
if rv.isvalid:
    print "The address that you provided is valid"
else:
    print "The address that you provided is invalid, please correct"

Sending payments

The method sendtoaddress() sends a specified amount of coins to a specified address.

conn.sendtoaddress("msTGAm1ApjEJfsWfAaRVaZHRm26mv5GL73", 20.0)

Get a new address for accepting payments

To accept payments, use the method getnewaddress() to generate a new address. Give this address to the customer and store it in a safe place, to be able to check when the payment to this address has been made.

pay_to = conn.getnewaddress()
print "We will ship the pirate sandwidth after payment of 200 coins to ", pay_to

Check how much has been received at a certain address

The method getreceivedbyaddress() returns how many dogecoins have been received at a certain address. Together with the previous function, this can be used to check whether a payment has been made by the customer.

amount = conn.getreceivedbyaddress(pay_to)
if amount > 200.0:
    print "Thanks, your sandwidth will be prepared and shipped."

The account API

More advanced usage of dogecoin allows multiple accounts within one wallet. This can be useful if you are writing software for a bank, or simply want to have a clear separation between customers payments.

For this, see the Account API documentation.