Neo-Express

Neo-Express is a new Neo blockchain client application that is optimized for development scenarios. It is built on the same Neo platform core as neo-cli and neo-gui ensuring that blockchain application code runs the same in production as it does in the Neo-Express development environment.

Neo-Express provides the following features:

Blockchain instance management
Wallet management
Asset management
Smart contract management
Blockchain checkpoint and rollback

Please note, Neo-Express is in preview. There is more work to be done and there are assuredly bugs in the product. Please let us know of any issues you find via our GitHub repo.

Docs are somewhat limited at this point. Please review the Command Reference to get an understanding of Neo-Express capabilities.

A Message from the Engineer

Thanks for checking out Neo-Express! I am eager to hear your opinion of the product.

If you like Neo-Express, please let me know on Twitter, email or the Neo Discord server.

If there are things about Neo-Express you don't like, please file issues in our GitHub repo. You can hit me up on Twitter, Discord or email as well, but GitHub issues are how we track improvements we make to Neo-Express. So don't be shy - file an issue if there is anything you'd like to see changed in the product.

Before you get started, I'd just like to point out again that Neo-Express is currently in preview. That means that you are more likely to find bugs or run across incomplete features than you would in other software. Furthermore, Neo-Express may not work in a way that you find intuitive.

Most software is built by teams of people. However, Neo-Express so far has been a solo effort. I'm looking forward to having other folks contribute in the future, but so far it's just been me. That means that Neo-Express has been designed around my experiences and my perspective. I can't help it, my perspective is the only one I have! :) So while I find Neo-Express intuitive, I realize that you may not feel the same. Please let me know if this is the case! I didn't build Neo-Express for me, I built it for the Neo developer community at large. So if there are changes we can make to make Neo-Express more accessible, intuitive, easier to use or just flat-out better - I want to hear about them.

Thanks again for checking out Neo-Express. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Harry Pierson (aka DevHawk), Chief Architect NGD Seattle

Installation

Neo-Express is distributed as a .NET Core Global Tool. Different versions of Neo-Express require different versions of .NET Core.

Neo-Express Version	.NET Core Version
v0.10	v3.1
v0.9	v3.0
v0.8	v2.2

As of v0.10, Neo-Express has snapped to a Long Term Support (LTS) release of .NET Core. .NET Core LTS releases are supported for three years. The next LTS release of .NET Core isn't projected be released until November 2021, so we expect to stay on this version of .NET core for at least two years.

To install Neo-Express, open a terminal window and enter the following command:

> dotnet tool install Neo.Express -g

To upgrade Neo-Express, enter the following command in a terminal window:

> dotnet tool update Neo.Express -g

Ubuntu Installation

Installing on Ubuntu 18.04 requires installing libsnappy-dev and libc6-dev via apt-get

> sudo apt install libsnappy-dev libc6-dev -y

MacOS Installation

Installing on MacOS requires installing rocksdb via Homebrew

> brew install rocksdb

Install Preview Releases

Neo-Express has a public build server and NuGet feed. You can install preview builds of Neo-express by specifying the nuget feed source when running the dotnet tool install or update command.

> dotnet tool install Neo.Express -g --add-source https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/NGDSeattle/Public/_packaging/NeoPublicPackages/nuget/v3/index.json --version <insert version>

Note, if the version isn't specified, the most recent release branch build will be installed. For preview releases, the explicit version must be specified. For more information, please see the dotnet tool install command documentation.

EdgeDLT / neo-express