The method shh_newFilter does not exist/is not available

• Version: 3.1.6
• Python: 3.5
• Parity: 1.8.0
• Geth: 1.7.2
• OS: linux

What was wrong?

Exceptions thrown when trying your filter example for Shh.

In all three cases, I am using this code:

from web3 import Web3, HTTPProvider
web3 = Web3(HTTPProvider('http://localhost:8545'))

def filter_callback(new_message):
    print("New Shh Message: {0}".format(new_message))

topic="topic_to_subscribe"
topicHex = web3.toHex(topic)
print (topic, topicHex)

shh_filter = web3.shh.filter({"topics":[topicHex]})

(already fixed the lack of flushing, see https://github.com/pipermerriam/web3.py/issues/378)

parity

started with

parity --whisper

I get this:

topic_to_subscribe 0x746f7069635f746f5f737562736372696265
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ".../workdir/web3/filtertest_Shh.py", line 19, in <module>
    shh_filter = web3.shh.filter({"topics":[topicHex]})
  File ".../env/epe-py3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/web3/shh.py", line 37, in filter
    filter_id = self.web3.manager.request_blocking("shh_newFilter", [filter_params])
  File ".../env/epe-py3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/web3/manager.py", line 96, in request_blocking
    raise ValueError(response["error"])
ValueError: {'code': -32601, 'message': 'Method not found'}

geth

started with

geth --rpc --shh

I get this

topic_to_subscribe 0x746f7069635f746f5f737562736372696265
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ".../workdir/web3/filtertest_Shh.py", line 19, in <module>
    shh_filter = web3.shh.filter({"topics":[topicHex]})
  File ".../env/epe-py3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/web3/shh.py", line 37, in filter
    filter_id = self.web3.manager.request_blocking("shh_newFilter", [filter_params])
  File ".../env/epe-py3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/web3/manager.py", line 96, in request_blocking
    raise ValueError(response["error"])
ValueError: {'code': -32601, 'message': 'The method shh_newFilter does not exist/is not available'}

How can it be fixed?

When someone who knows … updates the web3.py filter example for Shh.

Thanks

[avatar-lavventura]

I have solved the problem here: https://github.com/ethereum/web3.py/issues/933 . @drandreaskrueger

[rphmeier]

Seems like whisper is still pretty immature.

Absolutely! That’s why I’m pushing for the whisper RPCs to be excluded from the web3.js 1.0 stable release (they are 100% unstable).

Right now the Geth and Parity Whisper maintainers are still settling on a mutual wire protocol and there are definite improvements to be made w.r.t. routing and scalability. I don’t see how we can expect to have stable RPCs before a stable wire protocol.