Open-source blockchain explorer for regtest mode

Question

I'm trying to find an open-source Bitcoin blockchain explorer that will work in regtest mode, so I can more easily inspect the blockchain, see what transactions are getting processed and included, etc.

I found the following ones, but all of them seem to have issues:

• blockcypher is "not easily compatible with running your own version locally, and this is no longer recommended (except for expert users)."
• bitcoinchain is not open-source AFAICT.
• Bitcore's insight-ui [1], [2], [3] does not work with bitcoind AFAICT.
• toshi does not work with bitcoind AFAICT. Not sure how to set it up in regtest mode to connect to another bitcoind full node.
• bitcoin-abe does not seem to support regtest mode, though it could be as easy as adding a new Abe/Chain/Regtest.py file.
• blockchain.info: can't really tell if the My-Wallet-V3-* repos [1], [2] are for the block explorer website or for the wallet-management side of the website.

So, any suggestions for an easy-to-setup blockchain explorer that works with a local bitcoind node ?

Answer 1

I managed to point Abe to regtest just by using datadir=/home/$USER/.bitcoin/regtest in the config file and following the official instructions.

Answer 2

I tried Abe but couldn't easily make it work on MacOS. I had a look at some other options and managed to make this one https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer work easily and nicely. It has quite a lot of things you want from an explorer.

Answer 3

Bitcoin Abe is awsome.

create virtual environment for python2.7(since abe only work with python2.x)::

sudo apt-get install virtualenv, python-dev
virtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python2.7 myenv

Install requirements:

source ./myenv/bin/activate
pip install pycrypto

clone marioschlipf's repo (since it solves segwit) and install it::

git clone https://github.com/marioschlipf/bitcoin-abe
cd bitcoin-abe
python setup.py install

Create abe.conf with contents:

datadir=/home/USER/.bitcoin/regtest
dbtype sqlite3
connect-args abe.sqlite
upgrade
port 2750

Perform the initial data load:

python -m Abe.abe --config abe.conf --commit-bytes 100000 --no-serve

Look for output such as:

block_tx 1 1

Then run the web server as:

python -m Abe.abe --config abe.conf

Now vist on browser http://localhost:2750