BitPay Node.js API Client

A Node.js module and command line client for interacting with BitPay's Cryptographically Secure API.

Getting Started

Install using Node Package Manager.

~# npm install bitpay-rest

If you do not use NPM to install (instead cloning this repository), you will need to run the following from the project root:

~# npm run setup
~# npm install

Pairing

Set up your client's private key:

./node_modules/bitpay-rest/bin/bitpay.js keygen
< enter a password, or hit enter for no password >
Generating keys...
Keys saved to: /Users/<your_username>/.bitpay

Next you have to pair up your client's private key with your bitpay account. This is done by requesting a pairing code:

./node_modules/bitpay-rest/bin/bitpay.js pair
Do you have a pairing code?
no < hit enter twice >
Okay, we can get a pairing code, please choose a facade:
  1) Point of Sale // Just want to make invoices
  2) Merchant      // Want to have full account access

This will spit out a bunch of output. At the end of it will be a URL:

Pair this client with your organization:
https://test.bitpay.com/api-access-request?pairingCode=XXX

Visit this URL in your browser and hit the approve button. Afterwards, you can test creating a basic invoice from the command line like this:

//If you selected #1 then use this:
./node_modules/bitpay-rest/bin/bitpay.js request -T pos -X post -R invoices -P '{"price": 1, "currency": "USD"}'
//If you selected #2 then use this:
./node_modules/bitpay-rest/bin/bitpay.js request -T merchant -X post -R invoices -P '{"price": 1, "currency": "USD"}'

If it worked, you'll see some JSON outputted regarding the newly created invoice. If you get an error like this:

Error: { error: 'Invalid token' }

Then something is wrong, either you used the wrong line, or you haven't approved the token yet in the bitpay dashboard.

For this utility Bitpay's test platform is used by default, so if you want to use the regular production platform (ie. bitpay.com and not test.bitpay.com), do this:

./node_modules/bitpay-rest/bin/bitpay.js config --use prod

You'll need to pair again as well to get a new token for the production environment.

Usage

CLI

Use the bitpay command line program to generate your client keys and associate them with your account.

~# cd bitpay-rest && npm link
~# bitpay keygen
~# bitpay pair

If you switch your environment a lot, you can avoid editing your config file:

~# bitpay config --use prod
~# bitpay config --use test

You can even create custom preset configurations:

~# bitpay config --set apiHost --value gordon.bp
~# bitpay config --save local
~# bitpay config --use local

Last but not least, you can issue API requests directly from the command line:

~# bitpay request -T merchant -R invoices -P '{"dateStart":"2014-01-01"}'

For more information on how to use the CLI, run:

~# bitpay --help

Module

To use this as a client library you'll actually need both bitpay and bitauth.

npm install bitpay-rest bitauth

Here's a basic example for creating an invoice:

var bitpay = require('bitpay-rest');
// need bitauth too
var bitauth = require('bitauth');

// NOTE: necessary to decrypt your key even if you didn't enter a password when you generated it.
// If you did specify a password, pass it as the first param to bitauth.decrypt()
var privkey = bitauth.decrypt('', fs.readFileSync('/path/to/.bitpay/api.key', 'utf8'));

var client = bitpay.createClient(privkey);
client.on('error', function(err) {
  // handle client errors here
  console.log(err);
});

//Client will take a second to automatically load your tokens, after which it will emit this ready event
//You must wait for the ready event before issuing requests
client.on('ready', function(){
  var data = {
    price: 1,
    currency: 'USD'
  };

  // NOTE: the .as('pos') is necessary for Point of Sale requests, use as('merchant') if you have a merchant token instead
  client.as('pos').post('invoices', data, function(err, invoice) {
    if (err){
      // more error handling
      console.log(err);
    }
    else{
      // success
      console.log('invoice data', invoice);
    }
  });
});

When resources are returned, they get extended with the same methods as the client, so you can chain requests onto them. For instance, to get the refunds associated with the first invoice returned from the example above:

client.get('invoices', function(err, invoices) {
    invoices[0].get('refunds', function(err, refunds) {
        console.log(err || refunds);
    });
});

Arguments for creating invoices can be viewed here: https://bitpay.com/api#resource-Invoices

Overloading Configuration

The BitPay client loads a configuration file from ~/.bitpay/config.json by default, which it creates after installation. You can override this default configuration, by passing a config value in the options argument.

Example:

var client = bitpay.createClient(privKey, {
  config: {
    apiHost: 'bitpay.com',
    apiPort: 443
  }
});

Assuming a Different Facade

Some operations in the API are only available to certain "facades", which restrict access to different functionality. By default, all requests are sent using the merchant facade. To assume a different facade, you can use the as() method.

client.as('payroll').get('payouts', { status: 'new' }, function(err, payouts) {
    async.eachSeries(payouts, function(payout, done) {
        payout.put({ status: 'cancelled' }, done);
    }, function(err) {
        console.log('Cancelled all new payout requests.');
    });
});

Streaming Responses

All of the client methods return a Stream, which you may use for more custom implementations. Here is a very rudimentary example using Clarinet, a streaming JSON parser.

var parser = require('clarinet').createStream();
var count  = 0;

parser.on('key', function(key) {
  if (key === 'id') {
    parser.once('value', function(val) {
      count++;
      console.log('Got invoice: ' + val);
    });
  }
});

parser.on('end', function() {
  console.log('Streamed ' + count + ' invoices!');
});

client.get('invoices').pipe(parser);