johncoffee / truffle-baby-steps

Truffle baby steps

This is a framework for getting started with Solidity, deployment of contracts, and unit testing. Basically what the Truffle framework does best.

The approach is the same as fiveogit's great repo solidity-baby-steps

Truffle/web3.js is under heavy development - does it still compile?:

Let's learn Solidity with the Truffle framework!

1. Download/clone this code repository a. Navigate to the folder in a terminal/command prompt
2. Install the dependencies See Installing
3. Create a new contract and unit tests a. Add contracts/HelloWorld.sol and test/HelloWorld.test.ts b. Optional: Use node tools/gen.js HelloWorld to generate a contract called HelloWorld
4. Run it! See [The development loop](#The development loop)

The case for typescript

The web3.js and Truffle frameworks are very comprehensive in functionality, they bundle many other libraries, it is only rational to have your editor auto-complete and type-check as you write/learn. Types are documentation; Self-explanatory code is easier to read and navigate.

The development loop

Start a local blockchain using Ganache npm run ganache

The general way to develop and continously run the tests goes like this:

1. Try entering ethereum/ and run npx truffle to see Truffles help menu appear, it should work
2. Place a new smart contract in contracts/ eg. HelloWorld.sol
3. Run npx truffle compile to compile the solidity (in the ethereum/ folder), fingers crossed it compiles!!?
4. When the solidity compiles, you can then build TypeScript interfaces: npm run type-contracts
5. Write unit tests in TypeScript, have your favorite editor compile it, or run npm run compile-tests manually
6. Run npx truffle test to run Truffle unit tests (in the ethereum folder)

Installing

1. We need to install NodeJS and NPM
2. Install the dependencies with npm install (no global dependencies required)