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New Tutorial - How to Set Up Iota.JS for Development

info

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a new project, generate a new address and receive testnet funds from the faucet.

Prerequisites​

Development Environment and Libraries​

Set Up​

Prepare Your Development Environment​

  1. Create a new folder for the tutorial in a location of your choice and navigate to it:
mkdir iota-js-setup
cd iota-js-setup
  1. Run the Node.js initializer to configure the project:
npm init --yes
  1. Install the iota.js library and other helper dependencies: :::note

The installation process might take a while

:::

npm install @iota/iota.js@next
npm install bip39 dotenv

Your package.json file should look something like this:

{
  "name": "iota-js-setup",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "@iota/iota.js": "^1.9.0-stardust.25",
    "bip39": "^3.0.4",
    "dotenv": "^16.0.1"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "Apache-2.0"
}

Create Mnemonic Script​

  1. Create a new file create-mnemonic.js and add the following code:
// Libraries
const bip39 = require('bip39');

// For better readability, some console output will be printed in a different color
const consoleColor = '\x1b[36m%s\x1b[0m';
async function run() {
  // A 256-bits entropy leads to a 24 word mnemonic seed phrase
  const mnemonic = bip39.generateMnemonic(256);
  console.log(
    consoleColor,
    'Copy your mnemonic seed phrase and paste it into the .env file:',
  );
  console.log(mnemonic, '\n');
}
run();
  1. Run the script create-mnemonic.js and check the console output for your new mnemonic seed phrase:
node create-mnemonic.js
  1. Create a new .env file and add your mnemonic:
MNEMONIC = '<add_your_mnemonic_here>';

Create an Address​

Create a new file called create-address.js and add the following code:

const { Converter } = require('@iota/util.js');
const { Bip32Path, Bip39 } = require('@iota/crypto.js');
const {
  Bech32Helper,
  Ed25519Address,
  Ed25519Seed,
  ED25519_ADDRESS_TYPE,
  generateBip44Address,
  IOTA_BIP44_BASE_PATH,
  SingleNodeClient,
} = require('@iota/iota.js');

require('dotenv').config({ path: './.env' });

const API_ENDPOINT = 'https://api.testnet.shimmer.network';

async function run() {
  const client = new SingleNodeClient(API_ENDPOINT);

  const info = await client.info();

  console.log('Base');

  // Generate the seed from the Mnemonic
  const baseSeed = Ed25519Seed.fromMnemonic(process.env.MNEMONIC);
  console.log('\tSeed', Converter.bytesToHex(baseSeed.toBytes()));

  // Generate the next addresses for your account.
  console.log();
  console.log('Generated Addresses...');
  const addressGeneratorAccountState = {
    accountIndex: 0,
    addressIndex: 0,
    isInternal: false,
  };
  const path = generateBip44Address(addressGeneratorAccountState);
  const addressSeed = baseSeed.generateSeedFromPath(new Bip32Path(path));
  const addressKeyPair = addressSeed.keyPair();
  const indexEd25519Address = new Ed25519Address(addressKeyPair.publicKey);
  const indexPublicKeyAddress = indexEd25519Address.toAddress();

  console.log(
    '\tAddress (Bech32)',
    Bech32Helper.toBech32(
      ED25519_ADDRESS_TYPE,
      indexPublicKeyAddress,
      info.protocol.bech32Hrp,
    ),
  );
}

run()
  .then(() => console.log('Done'))
  .catch((err) => console.error(err));

If you run it, it will:

  1. Get your mnemonic from the .envfile.
  2. Create a seed from it.
  3. Generate a new address.

Just run the following command, and you will see your testnet shimmer address in your console!

node create-address.js

Request Tokens via the Faucet Website​

Now, you can go to the Shimmer Testnet Faucet Website, paste your newly created address, and request funds.

note

The 'Request' button will become clickable as soon as a valid Shimmer address is recognized.

Shimmer Testnet Faucet

Congratulations, you are now ready to explore other exciting features of the Shimmer network, such as native tokens and NFT's.