[HOT] Updates, community discussions & feature requests

æpp Development Developer Suite and Tools
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Update #1 (27.08.2021)

Recap Iris hardfork

As many that follow the project closely know we had some trouble around different tools when the Iris hardfork was introduced in June. It definitely wasn’t a smooth process, everybody is aware of that and we will make sure that this kind of trouble will never happen again. There is nothing more to tell you about this and we better forget that as soon as possible and look into the future - which is hopefully bright :slight_smile:

Updating & improving examples & documentations

In this area I am mainly involved right now and there is still lot’s of room for improvement where I will continue to work on.

We mainly checked, tested and updated several documentations and examples. In case of the JavaScript SDK the new documentation can now be found here:

During testing we raised various issues in the JS-SDK. Additionally we want to provide examples how to make use of delegation signatures in smart contracts (this would basically allow to build an AENS marketplace if anybody is interested in that). Unfortunately there are still some enhancements in the SDK required to finally get this working like expected, see following Pull-Request:

Following examples have been updated:

awesome-aeternity has also been revived and updated, read more:
https://forum.aeternity.com/t/awesome-aeternity-revived/9671

Since today you can also better find what you need to get started with Sophia development. The updated docs can be found here:

There is still work ongoing regarding documentation-hub and tutorials in general. I know it is not where we would like to see it but we constantly improve it. Next week I will shortly update the documentation-hub and link to all important places before I am finally able to introduce a useful submodule structure there that allows to explore anything you need via the documentation-hub. Follow the progress of this here:

Also, many of you for sure had problems navigating through the protocol docs (and they additionally need some update, too). We also worked on that side and the PR is about to be merged soon, see:

Ongoing development for the JS-SDK

We want to release v9.0.0 in the near future but still need and want to address some issues, see:

When v9.0.0 is finally released you will be able to play around with new new introduced tx-type PayingForTx which allows to easily perform meta-transactions and pay the tx-fee for transactions of other people. We are really excited about that feature as it provides lots of possibilities. Read more about that in the docs:

In addition to that we restarted the work on sth. we are really looking forward to see integrated in the javascript sdk:

This library allows to encode and decode Sophia calldata directly using javascript. When this library is integrated the SDK doesn’t rely on the (hosted) http compiler anymore for encoding/decoding the calldata.

@davidyuk is the rockstar and main contributor here and gets assistance by @bruteforce.chain and most recently also by @subhod-i.

Middleware backend

Some people might have noticed that @karol.chain stopped working on the middleware backend quite some time ago. Meanwhile we are happy to have @cryptodao21ae and @sborrazas as new contributors that constantly improve the software together with @wj2016 and @Arthur. The development in that area is really getting on speed right now. Check out the following repo to follow the progress:

Middleware frontend

In the middleware frontend (https://explorer.aeternity.io/) we haven’t seen lots of progress during the past months. Most recently @atanaskrondev.chain started to contribute here and already solved some issues. Also I have managed and prioritized the project board which can be seen here:

Expect more improvements here in the near future :wink:

And as you know we also have community developed alternatives to that explorer:

AEproject

AEproject has been updated to be Iris compatible:

This is/was kind of a pain for us and for people using the library - we know that! It is definitely a tool that can be used to easily get started. If we further want to improve it we know that there is a big refactoring required and personally I am not sure if it is worth the work - given the minimal benefit it provides right now. I want to hear the opinion of the devs out there! What do you think about AEproject in general?

Recently an idea of @dincho.chain came up to provide a “template”-repository that includes a structure (similar like aeproject init does) which provides basically everything you need to get started. Additionally it would make use of the aesophia_cli to compile contracts whereas aeproject compile currently uses the javascript sdk to compile the contract via the http compiler. In fact you would get a similar stucture like with aeproject init and you would have a README with instructions how to get started and actually use the provided scripts included in that template.

Any opinions about that?

Devmode discussions

This is probably the most anticipated topic of every developer out there that wants to build cool æpps with Sophia smart contracts.

We had that discussion already several times in the past. But this time I am confident that it will be addressed in the near future.

In fact we want to provide a devmode for the node. We need developers to be able to have the best experience when developing smart contracts on æternity and therefore we need several features. We probably won’t be able to provide such a smooth experience like you have for example with Ganache in the first place, but we are in active discussions how to solve this in the best way possible.

If anybody has good ideas in that area feel free to join the discussion here or directly on GitHub. We need to get this topic done right (!)

This is in fact a topic where also input of core developers like @dimitar.chain, @uwiger or @hanssv.chain is not only required but strictly necessary. I would also welcome some inputs of @gorbak25 here if he likes to join the discussion :slight_smile:

Today e.g. @sborrazas provided some additional interesting input in that area. This feature is also wanted in the middleware for writing tests.

I really want to see a liquid discussion about this here in the public with additional feedback of the community.

The GitHub issue related to that topic is public anyway and can be found here:

Faucet

Recently we also rewrote the aepp-faucet in Node.js. The repository can be found here:

Due to the fact that there is currently no active development of the aepp-sdk-python ongoing we decided to rewrite the faucet in Node.js. The currently deployment is still running the old implementation.

The reason for that is that there is currently activity regarding SRE ongoing. In the foreseeable future we will have a new k8s environment where we can host applications. For everybody interested in that area just have a look hat following repos to see what’s going on there:

Educational videos

In this area @nikitafuchs.chain is mainly involved and constantly publishes new content on YouTube. Check out the following Playlist and provide feedback to us/him:

ÆUnited - Bounties

Recently a new initiative for community engagement was introduced. Read more here:

We published some bounties already and more bounties will follow. Please check out the following repo if you are interested in actively contributing here:

I know e.g. that @VitalJeevanjot is working on the token-migration bounty :sunglasses:

Since we have new cryptographic primitives included in the virtual machine since Iris we thought about providing a bounty to build a similar application like https://tornado.cash on Ethereum. Any opinions about that?

What does the community want to see? What kind of bounties would you like to see being worked on? Please give us some input here.

AEXpansions

Well, for a long time nothing happened here. And I can tell you there is still not much going on right now. BUT I know that @zkvonsnarkenstein.chain is currently working on a proposal for a NFT standard on æternity which I personally am very excited about :smiley:

I am looking forward to discuss that standard. We will of course also clean up that repository and revive the AEXpansions repository.

More information about the NFT standard here:

Outlook / Roadmap

I can tell you that lot’s of other things are ongoing in the background and we will try to get together in the near future to define a roadmap for improving the developer experience. If we have it we will - of course - share it with you here in this thread!

For example we have a request to get MultiSig support in the Wallet and I personally want to see more improvements in the Sophia section. We need a LSP implementation and introduce syntax highlighting in several tools to make Sophia code e.g. more readable on GitHub and in our docs. There is also a desire to revisit the state channel demo again.

We will try to provide a roadmap in that area as soon as possible. But we want to do it right and take the time needed to define it. We won’t rush in everything at once. We (finally) want to get things done!

PS:

  • if YOU have specific needs please share your thoughts with us!
  • NOW is the time to do that!
  • I hope I didn’t forget anything :smiley:
  • in the end I want to thank everybody that helps improving the æcosystem! =)
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