---
layout: page

title: Get started
description: ""

js: page-getstarted.min.js

redirect_from:
    - /community/
    - /start/
---

<section class="section section--firsttransaction">
    <div class="row">
        <header class="section-header">
            <h1 class="section-title">Get your first transaction into BigchainDB</h1>
            <p class="section-description">Never wrote something into a blockchain? Now’s your chance: add your message and send off your first transaction to BigchainDB running within IPDB.</p>
        </header>
    </div>
    <div class="row row--wide">
        <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--half grid--gutters">
            <div class="grid__col">
                <h4>Request</h4>
                <form id="form-transaction" class="form form--transaction js-parsley">
                    <p class="form-group">
                        <input id="message" class="form-control" type="text" name="message" required>
                        <label class="form-label" for="message">Message</label>
                    </p>
                    <p class="form-group message">
                        A transaction can contain a digital asset along with a message. Type something to be sent along the asset.
                    </p>
                    <button class="btn btn-primary" id="post" disabled>Off you go</button>
                </form>
            </div>
            <div class="grid__col">
                <h4>Response</h4>
                <div class="waiting">
                    <pre>
<code class="waiting">Beep, boop, waiting for your input...</code>
                    </pre>
                </div>

                <div class="response highlight hide">
                    <pre>
<code class="output language-json">{
  "asset": {
    "data": {
      "msg": "Blockchain all the things!"
    }
  },
  "id": "04c00267af82c161b4bf2ad4a47d1ddbfeb47eef1a14b8d51",
  ...</code>
</pre>
                </div>

                <div class="message message--success hide">
                    <p>
                        Nicely done! You have just created an asset, sent it along in a signed transaction and retrieved the result of that transaction. Phew.
                    </p>
                    <p><a class="transaction-link" href="https://test.ipdb.io/api/v1/transactions/">Check out your transaction on IPDB</a></p>
                </div>
                <p class="message message--fail hide">Shenanigans! Something's off. Would you mind trying again?</p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
        <header class="section-header">
            <p class="section-description">Simple, eh?</p>
        </header>
    </div>
</section>

<nav class="menu--sub" data-gumshoe-header>
    <div class="row row--wide">
        <div class="menu-overflow" data-gumshoe>
            <a class="menu__link scroll" href="#server">Server</a>
            <a class="menu__link scroll" href="#drivers">Drivers &amp; Tools</a>
            <a class="menu__link scroll" href="#docs">Documentation</a>
            <a class="menu__link scroll" href="#community">Community</a>
        </div>
    </div>
</nav>

<section class="section section--architecture">
    <div class="row row--wide">
        <figure class="architecture">
            <img class="img--responsive" src="/assets/img/architecture.svg" alt="BigchainDB Overview">
        </figure>
    </div>
</section>

<section class="section section--server background--darker" id="server">
    <div class="row row--wide">
        <header class="section-header text-left">
            <h1 class="section-title section-title--numbered"><span>1</span> Server</h1>
            <p class="section-description">Server is cool but what you really want is IPDB. Install, installation</p>
        </header>
    </div>

    <aside class="starbase starbase--server">
        <div class="row row--wide">
            <figure class="starbase__image">
                <img class="img--responsive" src="/assets/img/starbase.svg" alt="Starbase" width="1071" height="328">
            </figure>
        </div>
    </aside>

    <section class="choice">
        <div class="row row--wide">
            <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--half grid--gutters">
                <div class="grid__col">
                    <span class="pretitle">Managed</span>
                    <h2 class="choice__title">IPDB: the public BigchainDB network</h2>
                    <p>No need for any installation. Sign up and connect instantly, we handle running a BigchainDB production node for you.</p>
                    <a class="btn btn-primary" href="">Get IPDB</a>
                </div>
                <div class="grid__col">
                    <span class="pretitle">Self-hosted</span>
                    <h2 class="choice__title">BigchainDB Server</h2>
                    <p>If you want to run your own BigchainDB instance you can either install on Linux or with Docker on any system.</p>
                    <a class="btn btn-secondary" href="">Install BigchainDB Server</a>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </section>

</section>

<section class="section section--drivers background--darker" id="drivers">
    <div class="row row--wide">
        <header class="section-header text-left">
            <h1 class="section-title section-title--numbered"><span>2</span> Drivers &amp; Tools</h1>
            <p class="section-description">Get one of the drivers to connect to IPDB or your BigchainDB server instance.</p>
        </header>
    </div>

    <aside class="starbase starbase--drivers">
        <div class="row row--wide">
            <figure class="starbase__image">
                <img class="img--responsive" src="/assets/img/starbase-drivers.svg" alt="Starbase" width="1060" height="200">
            </figure>
        </div>
    </aside>

    <section class="choice">
        <div class="row row--wide">

            <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--half grid--gutters">
                <div class="grid__col">

                    <h3 class="choice__title">Official drivers</h3>

                    <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--half grid--gutters">

                        {% for driver in site.data.drivers.official %}
                        <div class="grid__col">
                            <a class="driver" href="https://github.com/bigchaindb/{{ driver.repo }}">
                                <h2 class="driver__title">{{ driver.title }}</h2>
                                <svg class="driver__logo">
                                    <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#{{ driver.icon }}"></use>
                                </svg>

                                <p class="driver__meta">
                                    <span class="driver__repo">{{ driver.repo }}</span>
                                    <span class="driver__version">{{ driver.version }}</span>
                                </p>
                            </a>
                        </div>
                        {% endfor %}

                    </div>

                </div>
                <div class="grid__col">

                    <h3 class="choice__title">Official tools</h3>
                    <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--half grid--gutters">

                        {% for driver in site.data.drivers.tools %}
                        <div class="grid__col">
                            <a class="driver" href="https://github.com/bigchaindb/{{ driver.repo }}">
                                <h2 class="driver__title">{{ driver.title }}</h2>

                                <p class="driver__meta">
                                    <span class="driver__repo">{{ driver.repo }}</span>
                                    <span class="driver__version">{{ driver.version }}</span>
                                </p>
                            </a>
                        </div>
                        {% endfor %}

                    </div>
                </div>

            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="row row--wide">
            <h3 class="choice__title">Community drivers</h3>
            <div class="grid grid--half grid-medium--fit grid--gutters">

                {% for driver in site.data.drivers.community %}
                <div class="grid__col">
                    <a class="driver driver--community" href="{{ driver.link }}">
                        <svg class="driver__logo">
                            <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#{{ driver.icon }}"></use>
                        </svg>
                        <h2 class="driver__title">{{ driver.title }}</h2>

                        <p class="driver__meta">
                            <span class="driver__repo">{{ driver.repo }}</span>
                        </p>
                    </a>
                </div>
                {% endfor %}

            </div>
        </div>
    </section>
</section>

<section class="section section--docs background--light" id="docs">
    <div class="row row--wide">
        <header class="section-header">
            <h1 class="section-title section-title--numbered"><span>3</span> Next Up</h1>
            <p class="section-description">Dive into our documentation or learn or code.</p>
        </header>
    </div>
    <div class="row row--wide">
        <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--fit grid--gutters">
            <div class="grid__col">
                <h3>Tutorials</h3>
            </div>
            <div class="grid__col">
                <h3>Code examples</h3>
            </div>
            <div class="grid__col">
                <h3>Documentation</h3>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

<section class="section section--community" id="community">
    <div class="row">
        <header class="section-header">
            <h1 class="section-title section-title--numbered"><span>4</span> Community</h1>
            <p class="section-description">There are many ways you can contribute to the BigchainDB project, some very easy and others more involved. We welcome all potential contributors, so we ask that everyone participating abide by some simple guidelines.</p>
        </header>
    </div>

    <div class="row community__actions">
        <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--fit grid--gutters">
            <div class="grid__col">
                <svg class="icon icon--social icon--gitter">
                    <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#gitter"></use>
                </svg>
                <h5>Chat on Gitter</h5>
                <p>Start a chat with us on Gitter.</p>
                <a href="{{ site.social.gitter.url }}" class="btn btn-primary btn-sm">
                    Chat on Gitter
                </a>
            </div>
            <div class="grid__col">
                <svg class="icon icon--social icon--github">
                    <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#github"></use>
                </svg>
                <h5>Open an issue</h5>
                <p>So you found a bug? Report it!</p>
                <a href="{{ site.social.github.url }}/{{ site.social.github.repo }}" class="btn btn-primary btn-sm">
                    Open issue
                </a>
            </div>
            <div class="grid__col">
                <h5>Guidelines</h5>
                <p>Read up on our community guidelines.</p>
                <a href="{{ site.social.github.url }}/{{ site.social.github.repo }}/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md" class="btn btn-primary btn-sm">Read Guidelines</a>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="row">
        <div class="grid grid--full grid-small--fit grid--gutters">
            <div class="grid__col">
                <h5>Follow</h5>
                <p>Follow us for the latest updates</p>

                {% for link in site.social %}
                    <a class="social-link js-social-link" href="{{ link[1].url }}" title="{{ link[1].title }}">
                        <svg class="icon icon--social icon--{{ link[0] }}" aria-labelledby="title">
                            <title>{{ link.title }}</title>
                            <use xlink:href="/assets/img/sprite.svg#{{ link[0] }}"></use>
                        </svg>
                        <span class="social-link__title">{{ link[1].title }}</span>
                    </a>
                {% endfor %}

            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

</section>

{% include sections/section-newsletter.html %}