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Migrating to ContractKit v1.0

How to migrate to from prerelease of ContractKit to v1 and make use of its features.


What is ContractKit version v1.0?

cLabs recently released ContractKit version 1.0.0. In it, the original ContractKit package has been split into several separate packages that all make up the Celo SDK. This document explains the key differences and shows you how you can start using the updated SDK.

warning

If you are using a previous version of ContractKit (anything below 1.0.0), you can continue using that version and you will only need to make the following changes when you upgrade.

The main benefit of using the new version include:

  • Reduced bundle size
  • Better Typescript support
  • Improved maintenance by making it easier to use other libraries

ContractKit packages

ContractKit is now a suite of packages.

Main packages

  • Connect handles how we communicate to the our chain nodes. It wraps the web3 library and has its own rpcCaller class, to make custom calls to the node. It's the layer in charge of knowing how and which parameters are added by Celo, connect to the node, build the message, send it and handle those responses.
  • ContractKit is a reduced subset of the previous versions of ContractKit. This is the layer in charge of loading and using our core contracts. Internally, uses the connect package described above. It has our contracts generated from the ABIs, their wrappers, and also the logic to make claims.

Complementary Packages

  • Explorer depends on contractkit and connect. It provides some utility functions that make it easy to listen for new block and log information.
  • Governance depends on contractkit and explorer. It provides functions to read and interact with Celo Governance Proposals (CGPs).
  • Identity simplifies interacting with ODIS, Celo’s lightweight identity layer based on phone numbers.
  • Network-utils provides utilities for getting genesis block and static node information.
  • Transactions-uri makes it easy to generate Celo transaction URIs and QR codes.

Wallets and Wallet Utility packages

  • Wallet-hsm-azure is a Azure Key Vault implementation of a RemoteWallet.
  • Wallet-hsm-aws allows you to easily interact with a cloud HSM wallet built on AWS KMS.
  • Wallet-ledger provides utilities for interacting with a Ledger hardware wallet.
  • Wallet-localprovides utilities for locally managing wallet by importing a private key string.
  • Wallet-rpc provides utilities for performing wallet functions via RPC.
  • Wallet-base provides base utilities for creating Celo wallets.
  • Wallet-hsm provides signature utilities for using HSMs.
  • Wallet-remote provides utilities for interacting with remote wallets. This is useful for interacting with wallets on secure remote servers.

Importing packages

Importing the packages is slightly different now that many packages are separate from the main ContractKit package. You will have to explicitly import these packages instead of just importing all of them with ContractKit.

For example:

// Previously this would work to import the block-explorer
import { newBlockExplorer } from "@celo/contractkit/lib/explorer/block-explorer";

// With ContractKit v1.x.y, import the block-explorer explicitly
import { newBlockExplorer } from "@celo/explorer/lib/block-explorer";

Connecting to the network

Older versions of ContractKit:

// version ^0.4.0
const ContractKit = require("@celo/contractkit");

// Older versions of ContractKit create a new Web3 instance internally
const kit = ContractKit.newKit("https://forno.celo.org");

Version 1.x.y

// Since ContractKit no longer instantiates web3, you'll need to explicitly require it
const Web3 = require("web3");
const web3 = new Web3("https://forno.celo.org");

// Require ContractKit and newKitFromWeb3
const { ContractKit, newKitFromWeb3 } = require("@celo/contractkit");
let contractKit = newKitFromWeb3(web3);

Accessing Web3 functions

You can access web3 functions through the connection module.

// version ^0.4.0
let amount = kit.web3.utils.fromWei("1000000", "ether");

// version 1.x.y
let amount = kit.connection.web3.utils.fromWei("1000000", "ether");

Backward Compatibility

These ContractKit functions will still work when accessed directly from kit, but it is advised to consume it via connection to avoid future deprecation.

// This still works
kit.addAccount

// recommended:
kit.connection.addAccount

Connection package

The connection package update includes implementations of some common web3 functions. Here are a few examples:

  • kit.web3.eth.isSyncing --> kit.connection.isSyncing
  • kit.web3.eth.getBlock --> kit.connection.getBlock
  • kit.web3.eth.getBlockNumber --> kit.connection.getBlockNumber
  • kit.web3.eth.sign --> kit.connection.sign
  • kit.isListening --> kit.connection.isListening
  • kit.addAccount --> kit.connection.addAccount