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Development

Principles

The Javascript SDK wraps the æternity API exposed by Node's Swagger file. It aims to abstract the API, while still providing low-level access to it's endpoints, when necessary.

It uses the following Javascript technologies and principles:

  • JavaScript the Good Parts (because Crockford is always right)
  • ES6 modules, using export and import
  • Promises using ES7 async/await syntax, where applicable
  • Statelessness wherever possible
  • webpack and the Babel
  • Loose coupling of modules to enable tree-shaking
  • Convention over configuration
  • "Easy things should be easy, and hard things should be possible." source -- Larry Wall
  • Support for
    • module access, enabling tree-shaking
    • direct use in node scripts through bundling
    • direct use in browser <script> tags through bundling
    • bundling through webpack

Requirements

aepp-sdk is transpiled to EcmaScript 5 through WebPack, using Babel and is expected to work in any sufficiently new version of Node.js or modern web browser.

Contributing

  1. Clone the application
  2. Make sure your editor/IDE can read and use the .editorconfig file
  3. Start hacking (and don't forget to add test for whatever you'll be building).

Documenting

Apart from documenting features and code, there is also documentation automatically generated using TypeDoc for documenting TS files and a script for documenting examples and code partials.

#generate examples and api documentation
npm run docs:examples && npm run docs:api

Building

aepp-sdk is built using npm. In order to build a production version, launch the build command.

npm install
npm run build

Note: If you experience errors during the building, you might need to install build tools for your OS.

Windows: Windows Build Tools 

npm install -g windows-build-tools

Ubuntu / Debian: Build Essential 

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential

Mac

Download Xcode from AppStore, then run 

xcode-select --install

Generate bundle report

npx webpack --env REPORT

Testing

To test, launch the test command. This will run mocha's tests locally.

npm test

This repository also includes a docker-compose file, to allow you to run your own æternity node locally. If you want to do so, from the root of the project:

  1. Run docker-compose up node
  2. Congrats! you're now running your own æternity node locally.

The WebPack compilation provides two different build artifacts in dist/, one for Node.js and one for browsers. When referencing aepp-sdk through any modern build tooling, it should pick the right one automatically through the entry points defined in package.json.

Installation / Linking

In order to add a local development version of aepp-sdk to a project, npm link1 can be used.

Releasing

How to release a new version