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CLI

A Web3j binary is distributed, providing an interactive command line (CLI). It supports a number of key Web3j project features including the creation of:

  • Ethereum applications in Java or Kotlin
  • OpenAPI services for Ethereum smart contracts

These projects can then be run by the Web3j CLI either natively as an application binary or within a Docker container.

Behind the scenes there are some more granular commands that you can also use, including:

  • Wallet creation
  • Wallet password management
  • Ether transfer from one wallet to another
  • Generation of Solidity smart contract wrappers
  • Generation of unit tests for Java smart contract wrappers
  • Smart contract auditing
  • Account creation & management

Installation

The simplest way to install the Web3j CLI is via the following script:

curl -L get.web3j.io | sh && source ~/.web3j/source.sh

You can verify the installation was successful by running web3j -V, which should output as follows:

$ web3j -v
  __          __  _    ____  _                                   
 \ \        / / | |  |___ \(_)                                  
  \ \  /\  / /__| |__  __) |_                                   
   \ \/  \/ / _ \ '_ \|__ <| |                                  
    \  /\  /  __/ |_) |__) | |                                  
     \/  \/ \___|_.__/____/| |                                  
                          _/ |                                  
                         |__/                     
BY WEB3LABS
Version: 1.4.0

Alternatively you can download the latest CLI release here.

Project creation

The web3j new and web3j import commands provide a convenient way to create a new Java or Kotlin project, or OpenAPI service using Web3j's Command Line Tools.

For Java or Kotlin projects, they provide the following functionality:

  • Base project creation.
  • Generation of a simple Hello World Solidity contract or import an existing Solidity project from a file or directory.
  • Generation of ERC20 and ERC777 Java projects using : web3j new erc20 | erc777
  • Compilation of the Solidity files.
  • Configure the project to use the Gradle build tool.
  • Generate Java smart contract wrappers for all provided Solidity files.
  • Add the required Web3j dependencies, to run and interact with the contracts.
  • Generate unit tests for the Java smart contract wrappers.

In the case of an OpenAPI service, with the command web3j openapi new, Web3j creates a runnable OpenAPI service for deploying and interacting with smart contracts via OpenAPI compliant endpoints with full Swagger documentation provided.

Web3j also gives you the ability to do more via:

  • Base OpenAPI project creation : web3j openapi new.
  • ERC20 and ERC777 OpenAPI project creation : web3j openapi new erc20 | erc777
  • Create an OpenAPI project using specific contracts : web3j openapi import.
  • Generate an OpenAPI executable JAR : web3j openapi jar.
  • Generate RESTful endpoints and their implementation : web3j openapi generate.

Create a new project

To generate a new project :

web3j new [--kotlin|-o <output path>|-n <project name>|-p <package name>] [helloworld|erc20|erc777]

Where supported new command arguments are as follows:

  • --kotlin Creation of a new Kotlin project instead of the default Java one
  • helloworld Use a simple Hello World Solidity smart contract (default)
  • erc777 Create an ERC777 compliant token
  • erc20 Create an ERC20 compliant token

The ERC20 and ERC777 contracts are based on the OpenZeppelin implementations.

The project name and package name values must comply with the JVM standards. The project name is also used as the main class name.

If no arguments are specified, the default project creation used is:

web3j new helloworld

Details of the created project structure are below.

Import an existing project

Similarly, to web3j new, web3j import will create a new project but with user defined smart contracts. By default a Java project will be generated if no option is provided.

web3j import -s <path to solidity sources> [-o <path>|-n <project name>|-p <package name>] -t

The -s option will work with a single Solidity file or a folder containing Solidity files. The -t option is true by default. By passing -t unit tests will be generated for the Java wrappers.

or 

web3j import

Then, you will be prompted to set the Solidity files directory:

You will be prompted to answer a series of questions to create your project:

``` shell
  __          __  _    ____  _                                   
 \ \        / / | |  |___ \(_)                                  
  \ \  /\  / /__| |__  __) |_                                   
   \ \/  \/ / _ \ '_ \|__ <| |                                  
    \  /\  /  __/ |_) |__) | |                                  
     \/  \/ \___|_.__/____/| |                                  
                          _/ |                                  
                         |__/                     
BY WEB3LABS

Please enter the path to your solidity file/folder [Required Field]: 
/path/to/solidity
...

Running your application

The web3j run <network> command can be used to run your application on a specify an Ethereum network. Web3j will need the node endpoint the wallet path and the wallet password.

To take advantage of this, you simply need to run the following command in your project directory:

web3j run

If you created an OpenAPI service, by default it binds to port 9090 on your host. You can access the SwaggerUI for the service via the URL http://localhost:9090/swagger-ui.

However, if you'd like your application to be bundled up as a container instead, simply run:

web3j docker run [-l] <network> <wallet_path> <wallet_password>

This will build a container containing your application.

Environment variables

A number of properties can be configured for your Web3j applications to customise them at runtime.

The following configuration properties can be used for Java or OpenAPI projects:

  • WEB3J_ENDPOINT Ethereum node URL
  • WEB3J_WALLET_PATH Path to Ethereum wallet
  • WEB3J_WALLET_PASSWORD Ethereum wallet password
  • WEB3J_PRIVATE_KEY Hex-encoded private key string (0x...)

Additionally, for OpenAPI services, the following properties can be used:

  • WEB3J_OPENAPI_NAME Project name
  • WEB3J_OPENAPI_CONTRACT_ADDRESSES Pre-deployed contract addresses as a map (Contract1=0x...,Contract2=0x...)
  • WEB3J_OPENAPI_HOST Hostname for service, defaults to localhost
  • WEB3J_OPENAPI_PORT Port to bind to, defaults to 9090

Running with the Java Runtimie Environment (JRE)

These properties can be used as environment variables if running project using the Java JRE:

export VAR1=value
...
java -jar <app>.jar

You can find the relevent application binary in the following locations:

Java or Kotlin projects:

  • build/libs/<project-name>-0.1.0-all.jar

OpenAPI projects

  • build/libs/<projectName>-server-all.jar

Or, for OpenAPI, you can generate an executable JAR directly using:

```shell script $ web3j openapi jar 

### Running with Docker

If running the built container with Docker, you should use the following syntax to pass in environment variables:

``` shell
docker run -e VAR1=value1 -e VAR2=value2 web3app

Running with Gradle

If you wish to use the Gradle build tool to run your application, you should pass in the required variables in using the following syntax, where variable names are in lowercase and understcores are replaced with hyphens in their names.

./gradlew run --args="--<var1> <value1> --<var2> <value2> ..."

Generated Java/Kotlin project structure

Your application code and tests will be located in the following project directories:

For Java:

  • ./src/main/java - Generated Java application code stub
  • ./src/test/java - Generated Java test code stubs
  • ./src/main/solidity - Solidity source code

For Kotlin:

  • ./src/main/kotlin - Generated Kotlin application code stub
  • ./src/test/kotlin - Generated Kotlin test code stubs
  • ./src/main/solidity - Solidity source code

If you need to edit the build file, it is located in the project root directory:

  • ./build.gradle - Gradle build configuration file

Additionally, there are the following Gradle artifacts which you can ignore.

  • /gradle - local Gradle installation
  • /.gradle - local Gradle cache
  • /build - compiled classes including smart contract bindings

If you need to view any of the generated Solidity or contract artifacts, they are available in the following locations.

Solidity bin and abi files are located at:

  • ./build/resources/main/solidity/

The source code for the generated smart contract bindings can be found at:

  • ./build/generated/sources/web3j/main/java/<your-package>/generated/contracts

The compiled code for the generated smart contracts bindings is available at the below location. These are the artifacts used to deploy, transact and query your smart contracts.

  • ./build/classes/java/main/<your-package>/generated/contracts/

Generated OpenAPI project structure

Similar to the Java/Kotlin projects. The Solidity files are located in the following ./src/main/solidity.

Additionally, the generated OpenAPI code resides in ./build/generated/sources/web3j/main, and is structured as follows :

  • Java smart contract wrappers : java/<package name>/wrappers
  • REST endpoints interfaces : kotlin/<package name>/core
  • REST endpoints implementations : kotlin/<package name>/server
  • SwaggerUI : resources/static/swagger-ui

Build commands

Web3j projects use the Gradle build tool under the covers. Gradle is a build DSL for JVM projects used widely in Java, Kotlin and Android projects. You shouldn't need to be too concerned with the semantics of Gradle beyond the following build commands:

To build the project run:

./gradlew build

To update just the smart contract bindings following changes to the Solidity code run:

./gradlew generateContractWrappers

To update the OpenAPI code, when using an OpenAPI project, following changes to the Solidity code run:

./gradlew generateWeb3jOpenApi

To update the generated SwaggerUI, when using an OpenAPI project, following changes to the Solidity code run:

./gradlew generateWeb3jSwaggerUi

To delete all project build artifacts, creating a clean environment, run:

./gradlew clean

Stand-alone unit test generation

When creating a new project or importing solidity contracts, by using:

web3j generate tests

You will be prompted to answer a series of questions to generate your tests:

  __          __  _    ____  _                                   
 \ \        / / | |  |___ \(_)                                  
  \ \  /\  / /__| |__  __) |_                                   
   \ \/  \/ / _ \ '_ \|__ <| |                                  
    \  /\  /  __/ |_) |__) | |                                  
     \/  \/ \___|_.__/____/| |                                  
                          _/ |                                  
                         |__/                     
BY WEB3LABS

Please enter the path of the generated contract wrappers.
<source contract wrappers>
Where would you like to save your tests.
<path to tests>
Unit tests were generated successfully at location: .

The command can also be used non-interactively

web3j generate tests -i <Solidity Java wrappers> -o <output path>

When adding the path to your Java wrappers make sure you specify the path up to the package root e.g: If a class with name HelloWorld and package name org.com.web3j is located under /home/user/code/myproject/org/com/web3j/HelloWorld.java, the correct way to point to that class is /home/user/code/myproject/

Wallet tools

To generate a new Ethereum wallet:

$ web3j wallet create

To update the password for an existing wallet:

$ web3j wallet update <walletfile>

To send Ether to another address:

$ web3j wallet send <walletfile> 0x<address>|<ensName>

When sending Ether to another address you will be asked a series of questions before the transaction takes place. Check below for a full example.

The following example demonstrates using Web3j to send Ether to another wallet.

With the following input:

web3j wallet send <walletfile> 0x<address>|<ensName>

Web3j proceeds as follows:

  __          __  _    ____  _                                   
 \ \        / / | |  |___ \(_)                                  
  \ \  /\  / /__| |__  __) |_                                   
   \ \/  \/ / _ \ '_ \|__ <| |                                  
    \  /\  /  __/ |_) |__) | |                                  
     \/  \/ \___|_.__/____/| |                                  
                          _/ |                                  
                         |__/                     
BY WEB3LABS

Please enter your existing wallet file password:
Wallet for address 0x19e03255f667bdfd50a32722df860b1eeaf4d635 loaded
Please confirm address of running Ethereum client you wish to send the transfer request to [http://localhost:8545/]:
Connected successfully to client: Geth/v1.4.18-stable-c72f5459/darwin/go1.7.3
What amound would you like to transfer (please enter a numeric value): 0.000001
Please specify the unit (ether, wei, ...) [ether]:
Please confim that you wish to transfer 0.000001 ether (1000000000000 wei) to address 0x9c98e381edc5fe1ac514935f3cc3edaa764cf004
Please type 'yes' to proceed: yes
Commencing transfer (this may take a few minutes)...................................................................................................................$

Funds have been successfully transferred from 0x19e03255f667bdfd50a32722df860b1eeaf4d635 to 0x9c98e381edc5fe1ac514935f3cc3edaa764cf004
Transaction hash: 0xb00afc5c2bb92a76d03e17bd3a0175b80609e877cb124c02d19000d529390530
Mined block number: 1849039

Auditing Tools

Smart contracts written in Solidity often include logic bugs and other issues which might compromise their security. These are not always obvious to programmers. Issues can include integer precision problems, re-entrancy attacks, and many other flaws. As Ethereum smart contracts are immutable once they have been deployed, it is important that they are bug-free at this point. Web3j is able to audit smart contracts for certain common issues and vulnerabilities using static code analysis.

To audit a smart contract (in this instance, Campaign.sol):

$ web3j audit Campaign.sol

An example of the output from this command is as follows:

  __          __  _    ____  _                                   
 \ \        / / | |  |___ \(_)                                  
  \ \  /\  / /__| |__  __) |_                                   
   \ \/  \/ / _ \ '_ \|__ <| |                                  
    \  /\  /  __/ |_) |__) | |                                  
     \/  \/ \___|_.__/____/| |                                  
                          _/ |                                  
                         |__/                     
BY WEB3LABS

./Campaign.sol
   131:58   severity:2   Multiplication after division                  SOLIDITY_DIV_MUL_09hhh1                              
   91:8     severity:1   Revert inside the if-operator                  SOLIDITY_REVERT_REQUIRE_c56b12                       
   5:4      severity:1   Use of SafeMath                                SOLIDITY_SAFEMATH_837cac                             
   148:4    severity:1   Replace multiple return values with a struct   SOLIDITY_SHOULD_RETURN_STRUCT_83hf3l                 
   125:4    severity:1   Prefer external to public visibility level     SOLIDITY_UNUSED_FUNCTION_SHOULD_BE_EXTERNAL_73ufc1   

✖ 5 problems (5 errors)

The output is in the form of a list of issues/errors detected by the static analysis tool. The first column of output shows the line and the character at which the issue was encountered. The second column shows the severity; this ranges from 1 to 3, with 3 being the most severe. The next column contains a description of the issue found, and the final column provides a reference to the rule used to find the issue.

This functionality is provided by SmartCheck.

Solidity smart contract wrapper generator

Please refer to solidity smart contract wrappers.