Web3 CLI specification (draft)

Web3-CLI.md

These are the web3 commands:
  
  Starting with a project:
    init      Starts the setup
      
  Development commands:
    run       Starts a node and the project
  
  EthPM managment:
    add       Adds a contract package to the current project
    remove    Removes a contract package to the current project
    
  Generating of code (generate:*):
    generate:contract  Generates a contract class based on the contract abi
      
  Call a JSON-RPC method:
    method    calls an JSON-RPC method

---

Starting with a project:

Init

• Which "runtimes" should it support (node.js, angular, react, vue.js, ...)
• Do we want to use yeoman for the setup?
• What are the setup steps?
• Which options will this command have?

---

Development commands

Open questions

• Should it have the possibility to select a node type (parity, geth, ganache, ...)

run

  web3 run --watch --net="dev"

Options

watch

• Build on file change (wrapper of framework cli)

net

• Select the node to connect

build

  web3 build --browser --node

Options

browser

• Creates a build with the browser config

node

• Creates a build with the node config

---

Package managment (powered by EthPM)

Open questions

1. Do we want a ethpm.json as truffle has or do we just extending the package.json of npm? (Sam: I would just extend the package.json)
2. Which additional options should the command add have?

add

  web3 add [email protected] --save
  > Package [email protected] would be added to the package.json.
  > Package [email protected] successfully added.

Options

packageName

• <package name>@<version>

remove

  web3 remove MYPackage
  > Package with name MYPackage removed.    

Options

packageName

• The EthPM package name

---

Generating of code (generate:*)

contract

  web3 generate:contract <packageName|--abi|--address> --out --types
  > Contract with name TestContract created in PATH.    

Options

packageName (optional)

• The EthPM package name

abi (optional)

• The root of the path should be the project folder root (e.g. "./assets/ContractABI").

out (optional)

• Default path is "./"
• The root of the path should be the project folder root (e.g "./contracts/").

address (optional)

• The contract address or an ENS name to a contract

types

• Generates a TypeScript interface from the ABI.

---

Call a JSON-RPC method:

method

  web3 method <methodName: eth:*, shh:*, ...>  <options: methodParameters>
  > '0x0'

Options

methodName

• All methods defined in namespaces (e.g. eth:call)

options

• How should the JSON-RPC method parameters are given to the method?

---

CLI configuration

The post install hook of npm should be used to installing the contract dependencies.

  //... package.json
  {
    "web3": {
      "build": {
        "browser": {
            provider: ["metamask", "mist", "status", "brave"] // ["ws:168.111.0.1:8564"]
        },
        "node": {
            provider: "ws:168.111.0.1:8564"// IPC_PATH | http://
        }
      },
      "mainnet": {
          provider: "ws:168.111.0.1:8564" // IPC_PATH | http://
      },
      "development": {
          "net": "ganache", // ["geth", {protocol: 'HTTP', ...}]
          "truffle": false, // If true truffle will be used for the deploying of the contracts 
          "rootDir": "./",
          "packages": "./node_modules/"
      },
      "dependencies": {
          "myContractPackage": "^0.1.0",
          "myChainContractPackage: "0x0",
          "myENSNameContractPackage: "contract.eth"
      }
    }
  }