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Web3.js Javascript Library

Web3.js is a set of libraries that allow developers to interact with Ethereum nodes using HTTP, IPC, or WebSocket protocols with JavaScript. Elysium has an Ethereum-like API available that is fully compatible with Ethereum-style JSON RPC invocations. Therefore, developers can leverage this compatibility and use the Web3.js library to interact with a Elysium node as if they were doing so on Ethereum.

In this guide, you'll learn how to use the Web3.js library to send a transaction and deploy a contract on Atlantis. This guide can be adapted for Elysium

Checking Prerequisites​

For the examples in this guide, you will need to have the following:

  • An account with funds. You can get LAVA for testing on once every 24 hours from Elysium Faucet
  • To test out the examples in this guide on Elysium, you will need to have your own endpoint and API key, which you can get from one of the supported Endpoint Providers.

NOTE: The examples in this guide assumes you have a macOS or Ubuntu 20.04-based environment and will need to be adapted accordingly for Windows.

Create a JavaScript Project​

To get started, you can create a directory to store all of the files you'll be creating throughout this guide:

mkdir web3-examples && cd web3-examples

For this guide, you'll need to install the Web3.js library and the Solidity compiler. To install both NPM packages, you can run the following command:

npm install web3 [email protected]

Setup Web3.js with Elysium​

You can configure Web3.js to work with any of the Elysium networks. The simplest way to get started with each of the networks is as follows:

const Web3 = require('web3');

// Create Web3 instance
const web3 = new Web3('{{ networks.elysium.rpc_url }}'); // Insert your RPC URL here

Send a Transaction​

During this section, you'll be creating a couple of scripts. The first one will be to check the balances of your accounts before trying to send a transaction. The second script will actually send the transaction.

You can also use the balance script to check the account balances after the transaction has been sent.

Check Balances Script​

You'll only need one file to check the balances of both addresses before and after the transaction is sent. To get started, you can create a balances.js file by running:

touch balances.js

Next, you will create the script for this file and complete the following steps:

  1. Set up the Web3 provider
  2. Define the addressFrom and addressTo variables
  3. Create the asynchronous balances function which wraps the web3.eth.getBalance method
  4. Use the web3.eth.getBalance function to fetch the balances for the addressFrom and addressTo addresses. You can also leverage the web3.utils.fromWei function to transform the balance into a more readable number in ETH
  5. Lastly, run the balances function
// 1. Add the Web3 provider logic here:
// {...}

// 2. Create address variables
const addressFrom = 'ADDRESS-FROM-HERE';
const addressTo = 'ADDRESS-TO-HERE';

// 3. Create balances function
const balances = async () => {
    // 4. Fetch balance info
    const balanceFrom = web3.utils.fromWei(await web3.eth.getBalance(addressFrom), 'ether');
    const balanceTo = web3.utils.fromWei(await web3.eth.getBalance(addressTo), 'ether');

    console.log(`The balance of ${addressFrom} is: ${balanceFrom} ETH`);
    console.log(`The balance of ${addressTo} is: ${balanceTo} ETH`);
};

// 5. Call balances function
balances();

To run the script and fetch the account balances, you can run the following command:

node balances.js

If successful, the balances for the origin and receiving address will be displayed in your terminal in ETH.

Send Transaction Script​

You'll only need one file for executing a transaction between accounts. For this example, you'll be transferring 1 DEV token from an origin address (from which you hold the private key) to another address. To get started, you can create a transaction.js file by running:

touch transaction.js

Next, you will create the script for this file and complete the following steps:

  1. Set up the Web3 provider
  2. Define the addressFrom, including the privateKey, and the addressTo variables. The private key is required to create a wallet instance. Note: This is for example purposes only. Never store your private keys in a JavaScript file
  3. Create the asynchronous send function which wraps the transaction object and the sign and send transaction functions
  4. Create and sign the transaction using the web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction function. Pass in the gas , addressTo, and value for the transaction along with the sender's privateKey
  5. Send the signed transaction using the web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction method and pass in the raw transaction. Then use await to wait until the transaction is processed and the transaction receipt is returned
  6. Lastly, run the send function
// 1. Add the Web3 provider logic here:
// {...}

// 2. Create account variables
const accountFrom = {
    privateKey: 'YOUR-PRIVATE-KEY-HERE',
    address: 'PUBLIC-ADDRESS-OF-PK-HERE',
};
const addressTo = 'ADDRESS-TO-HERE'; // Change addressTo

// 3. Create send function
const send = async () => {
    console.log(`Attempting to send transaction from ${accountFrom.address} to ${addressTo}`);

    // 4. Sign tx with PK
    const createTransaction = await web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction(
        {
            gas: 21000,
            to: addressTo,
            value: web3.utils.toWei('1', 'ether'),
        },
        accountFrom.privateKey
    );

    // 5. Send tx and wait for receipt
    const createReceipt = await web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(createTransaction.rawTransaction);
    console.log(`Transaction successful with hash: ${createReceipt.transactionHash}`);
};

// 6. Call send function
send();

To run the script, you can run the following command in your terminal:

node transaction.js

If the transaction was succesful, in your terminal you'll see the transaction hash has been printed out.

You can also use the balances.js script to check that the balances for the origin and receiving accounts have changed.

Deploy a Contract​

The contract you'll be compiling and deploying in the next couple of sections is a simple incrementer contract, arbitrarily named Incrementer.sol. You can get started by creating a file for the contract:

touch Incrementer.sol

Next you can add the Solidity code to the file:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

contract Incrementer {
    uint256 public number;

    constructor(uint256 _initialNumber) {
        number = _initialNumber;
    }

    function increment(uint256 _value) public {
        number = number + _value;
    }

    function reset() public {
        number = 0;
    }
}

The constructor function, which runs when the contract is deployed, sets the initial value of the number variable stored on-chain (default is 0). The increment function adds the _value provided to the current number, but a transaction needs to be sent, which modifies the stored data. Lastly, the reset function resets the stored value to zero.

Compile Contract Script​

In this section, you'll create a script that uses the Solidity compiler to output the bytecode and interface (ABI) for the Incrementer.sol contract. To get started, you can create a compile.js file by running:

touch compile.js

Next, you will create the script for this file and complete the following steps:

  1. Import the fs and solc packages
  2. Using the fs.readFileSync function, you'll read and save the file contents of Incrementer.sol to source
  3. Build the input object for the Solidity compiler by specifying the language, sources, and settings to be used
  4. Using the input object, you can compile the contract using solc.compile
  5. Extract the compiled contract file and export it to be used in the deployment script
// 1. Import packages
const fs = require('fs');
const solc = require('solc');

// 2. Get path and load contract
const source = fs.readFileSync('Incrementer.sol', 'utf8');

// 3. Create input object
const input = {
    language: 'Solidity',
    sources: {
        'Incrementer.sol': {
            content: source,
        },
    },
    settings: {
        outputSelection: {
            '*': {
                '*': ['*'],
            },
        },
    },
};
// 4. Compile the contract
const tempFile = JSON.parse(solc.compile(JSON.stringify(input)));
const contractFile = tempFile.contracts['Incrementer.sol']['Incrementer'];

// 5. Export contract data
module.exports = contractFile;

Deploy Contract Script​

With the script for compiling the Incrementer.sol contract in place, you can then use the results to send a signed transaction that deploys it. To do so, you can create a file for the deployment script called deploy.js:

touch deploy.js

Next, you will create the script for this file and complete the following steps:

  1. Import the contract file from compile.js
  2. Set up the Web3 provider
  3. Define the addressFrom, including the privateKey, and the addressTo variables. The private key is required to create a wallet instance. Note: This is for example purposes only. Never store your private keys in a JavaScript file
  4. Save the bytecode and abi for the compiled contract
  5. Create the asynchronous deploy function that will be used to deploy the contract
  6. Create the contract instance using the web3.eth.Contract function
  7. Create the constructor and pass in the bytecode and the initial value for the incrementer. For this example, you can set the initial value to 5
  8. Create and sign the transaction using the web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction function. Pass in the data and the gas for the transaction along with the sender's privateKey
  9. Send the signed transaction using the web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction method and pass in the raw transaction. Then use await to wait until the transaction is processed and the transaction receipt is returned
  10. Lastly, run the deploy function
// 1. Import the contract file
const contractFile = require('./compile');

// 2. Add the Web3 provider logic here:
// {...}

// 3. Create address variables
const accountFrom = {
    privateKey: 'YOUR-PRIVATE-KEY-HERE',
    address: 'PUBLIC-ADDRESS-OF-PK-HERE',
};

// 4. Get the bytecode and API
const bytecode = contractFile.evm.bytecode.object;
const abi = contractFile.abi;

// 5. Create deploy function
const deploy = async () => {
    console.log(`Attempting to deploy from account ${accountFrom.address}`);

    // 6. Create contract instance
    const incrementer = new web3.eth.Contract(abi);

    // 7. Create constructor tx
    const incrementerTx = incrementer.deploy({
        data: bytecode,
        arguments: [5],
    });

    // 8. Sign transacation and send
    const createTransaction = await web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction(
        {
            data: incrementerTx.encodeABI(),
            gas: await incrementerTx.estimateGas(),
        },
        accountFrom.privateKey
    );

    // 9. Send tx and wait for receipt
    const createReceipt = await web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(createTransaction.rawTransaction);
    console.log(`Contract deployed at address: ${createReceipt.contractAddress}`);
};

// 10. Call deploy function
deploy();

To run the script, you can enter the following command into your terminal:

node deploy.js

If successful, the contract's address will be displayed in the terminal.

Read Contract Data (Call Methods)​

Call methods are the type of interaction that don't modify the contract's storage (change variables), meaning no transaction needs to be sent. They simply read various storage variables of the deployed contract.

To get started, you can create a file and name it get.js:

touch get.js

Then you can take the following steps to create the script:

  1. Import the abi from the compile.js file
  2. Set up the Web3 provider
  3. Create the contractAddress variable using the address of the deployed contract
  4. Create an instance of the contract using the web3.eth.Contract function and passing in the abi and contractAddress
  5. Create the asynchronous get function
  6. Use the contract instance to call one of the contract's methods and pass in any inputs if necessary. For this example, you will call the number method which doesn't require any inputs. You can use await which will return the value requested once the request promise resolves
  7. Lastly, call the get function
// 1. Import the contract abi
const {abi} = require('./compile');

// 2. Add the Web3 provider logic here:
// {...}

// 3. Create address variables
const contractAddress = 'CONTRACT-ADDRESS-HERE';

// 4. Create contract instance
const incrementer = new web3.eth.Contract(abi, contractAddress);

// 5. Create get function
const get = async () => {
    console.log(`Making a call to contract at address: ${contractAddress}`);

    // 6. Call contract
    const data = await incrementer.methods.number().call();

    console.log(`The current number stored is: ${data}`);
};

// 7. Call get function
get();

To run the script, you can enter the following command in your terminal:

node get.js

If successful, the value will be displayed in the terminal.

Interact with Contract (Send Methods)​

Send methods are the type of interaction that modify the contract's storage (change variables), meaning a transaction needs to be signed and sent. In this section, you'll create two scripts: one to increment and one to reset the incrementer. To get started, you can create a file for each script and name them increment.js and reset.js:

touch increment.js reset.js

Open the increment.js file and take the following steps to create the script:

  1. Import the abi from the compile.js file
  2. Set up the Web3 provider
  3. Define the privateKey for the origin account, the contractAddress of the deployed contract, and the _value to increment by. The private key is required to create a wallet instance. Note: This is for example purposes only. Never store your private keys in a JavaScript file
  4. Create an instance of the contract using the web3.eth.Contract function and passing in the abi and contractAddress
  5. Use the contract instance to build the increment transaction using the methods.increment function and passing in the _value as an input
  6. Create the asynchronous increment function
  7. Use the contract instance and the increment transaction you previously created to sign the transaction with the sender's private key. You'll use the web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction function and specify the to address, the data, and the gas for the transaction
  8. Send the signed transaction using the web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction method and pass in the raw transaction. Then use await to wait until the transaction is processed and the transaction receipt is returned
  9. Lastly, call the increment function
// 1. Import the contract abi
const {abi} = require('./compile');

// 2. Add the Web3 provider logic here:
// {...}

// 3. Create variables
const accountFrom = {
    privateKey: 'YOUR-PRIVATE-KEY-HERE',
};
const contractAddress = 'CONTRACT-ADDRESS-HERE';
const _value = 3;

// 4. Create contract instance
const incrementer = new web3.eth.Contract(abi, contractAddress);

// 5. Build increment tx
const incrementTx = incrementer.methods.increment(_value);

// 6. Create increment function
const increment = async () => {
    console.log(
        `Calling the increment by ${_value} function in contract at address: ${contractAddress}`
    );

    // Sign Tx with PK
    const createTransaction = await web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction(
        {
            to: contractAddress,
            data: incrementTx.encodeABI(),
            gas: await incrementTx.estimateGas(),
        },
        accountFrom.privateKey
    );

    // Send Tx and Wait for Receipt
    const createReceipt = await web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(createTransaction.rawTransaction);
    console.log(`Tx successful with hash: ${createReceipt.transactionHash}`);
};

// 9. Call increment function
increment();

To run the script, you can enter the following command in your terminal:

node increment.js

If successful, the transaction hash will be displayed in the terminal. You can use the get.js script alongside the increment.js script to make sure that value is changing as expected.

Next you can open the reset.js file and take the following steps to create the script:

  1. Import the abi from the compile.js file
  2. Set up the Web3 provider
  3. Define the privateKey for the origin account and the contractAddress of the deployed contract. The private key is required to create a wallet instance. Note: This is for example purposes only. Never store your private keys in a JavaScript file
  4. Create an instance of the contract using the web3.eth.Contract function and passing in the abi and contractAddress
  5. Use the contract instance to build the reset transaction using the methods.reset function
  6. Create the asynchronous reset function
  7. Use the contract instance and the reset transaction you previously created to sign the transaction with the sender's private key. You'll use the web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction function and specify the to address, the data, and the gas for the transaction
  8. Send the signed transaction using the web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction method and pass in the raw transaction. Then use await to wait until the transaction is processed and the transaction receipt is returned
  9. Lastly, call the reset function
// 1. Import the contract abi
const {abi} = require('./compile');

// 2. Add the Web3 provider logic here:
// {...}

// 3. Create variables
const accountFrom = {
    privateKey: 'YOUR-PRIVATE-KEY-HERE',
};
const contractAddress = 'CONTRACT-ADDRESS-HERE';

// 4. Create Contract Instance
const incrementer = new web3.eth.Contract(abi, contractAddress);

// 5. Build reset tx
const resetTx = incrementer.methods.reset();

// 6. Create reset function
const reset = async () => {
    console.log(`Calling the reset function in contract at address: ${contractAddress}`);

    // 7. Sign tx with PK
    const createTransaction = await web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction(
        {
            to: contractAddress,
            data: resetTx.encodeABI(),
            gas: await resetTx.estimateGas(),
        },
        accountFrom.privateKey
    );

    // 8. Send tx and wait for receipt
    const createReceipt = await web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(createTransaction.rawTransaction);
    console.log(`Tx successful with hash: ${createReceipt.transactionHash}`);
};

// 9. Call reset function
reset();

To run the script, you can enter the following command in your terminal:

node reset.js

If successful, the transaction hash will be displayed in the terminal. You can use the get.js script alongside the reset.js script to make sure that value is changing as expected.