First Smart Contract¶

Write contract¶

We will write a contract that will validate the name on the Remchain and check whether such an account exists.

First, create a directory for the contract.

$ mkdir name_validator
$ cd name_validator

Create a source file name_validator.cpp and open in editor.

$ touch name_validator.cpp

In order to create a contract, you need to import eosio.hpp header file and extend the eosio::contract class.

#include <eosio/eosio.hpp>

Next we will create an empty contract class.

#include <eosio/eosio.hpp>

class [[eosio::contract]] name_validator : public eosio::contract {};

Add a public access specifier and a using-declaration. The using declaration will allow us to write more concise code.

#include <eosio/eosio.hpp>

class [[eosio::contract]] name_validator : public eosio::contract {
  public:
      using contract::contract;
};

The logic of the behavior of the contract determines the action. We will write an action that prints whether such an account exists on the Remchain.

Note

Action - Functionality exposed by a smart contract that is exercised by passing the correct parameters via an approved transaction to an EOSIO network.

Refer to EOSIO’s glossary.

#include <eosio/eosio.hpp>

class [[eosio::contract]] name_validator : public eosio::contract {
  public:
      using contract::contract;

      [[eosio::action]]
      void validatename( std::string username ) {
          eosio::name user{username};
          eosio::check( !eosio::is_account(user), "account already exists" );
};

EOSIO provides many useful types and methods for a contracts.
Type name defines username in Remchain.
Function check()
is asserted if the predicate fails and uses the supplied message.
Function is_account()
verifies that user is an existing account, the return type is bool.

Note

The ABI <<glossary:ABI>> generator in eosio.cdt won’t know about the isaccount() action without an attribute [[eosio::action]]. The ABI Generator in eosio.cdt supports several different style of attributes, see the ABI usage guide on EOSIO.

Now, add check for validation name length:

#include <eosio/eosio.hpp>

class [[eosio::contract]] name_validator : public eosio::contract {
  public:
      using contract::contract;

      [[eosio::action]]
      void validatename( std::string username ) {
          eosio::name user{username};
          eosio::check( !eosio::is_account(user), "account already exists" );
          eosio::check( user.length() == name_length, "account name must be 12 characters" );
      }
  private:
      uint8_t name_length = 12;
};

Note

After setting the contract, the following naming conventions:

Can only contain the characters .abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz12345. a-z (lowercase), 1-5 and . (period)
Must start with a letter
Must be 12 characters

Using the eosio namespace will reduce clutter in your code, let’s do that:

#include <eosio/eosio.hpp>

using namespace eosio;

class [[eosio::contract]] name_validator : public contract {
  public:
      using contract::contract;

      [[eosio::action]]
      void validatename( std::string username ) {
          name user{username};
          check( !is_account(user), "account already exists" );
          check( user.length() == name_length, "account name must be 12 characters" );
      }
  private:
      uint8_t name_length = 12;
};

To compile code to web assembly (.wasm) use command:

$ eosio-cpp name_validator.cpp -o name_validator.wasm

It will return something like:

Warning, empty ricardian clause file
Warning, empty ricardian clause file
Warning, action <validatename> does not have a ricardian contract

Deploy contract to account¶

To start, you need to unlock your wallet:

$ remcli wallet unlock

Than, enter your wallet password and create account validator:

$ remcli create account rem validator YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY -p [email protected]

Note

Instead, you can use existing keys tied to other account permissions. Let’s use a key tied to the active permission of the bob account for a new account:

$ remcli create account rem validator [email protected] -p [email protected]

Now you can deploy the compiled contract on our account by command:

$ remcli set contract validator ABSOLUTE_CONTRACT_DIR_PATH/name_validator -p [email protected]

It will return something like:

Publishing contract...
executed transaction: fb747edf07b55c6fde304dc065c6a1e93e08066c6f5f110b2a1e8047c9bdc1a5  2592 bytes  738 us
#           rem <= rem::setcode                 {"account":"validator","vmtype":0,"vmversion":0,"code":"0061736d010000000164126000006000017f60027f7f...
#           rem <= rem::setabi                  {"account":"validator","abi":"0e656f73696f3a3a6162692f312e3100010c76616c69646174656e616d650001087573...
warning: transaction executed locally, but may not be confirmed by the network yet         ]

Test contract¶

Naming conventions we already define above.

The interface for call actions from the contract is as follows:

Push a transaction with a single action
Usage: remcli push action [OPTIONS] account action data

Positionals:
  account TEXT                The account providing the contract to execute (required)
  action TEXT                 A JSON string or filename defining the action to execute on the contract (required)
  data TEXT                   The arguments to the contract (required)

Options:
  -h,--help                   Print this help message and exit
  -x,--expiration             set the time in seconds before a transaction expires, defaults to 30s
  -f,--force-unique           force the transaction to be unique. this will consume extra bandwidth and remove any protections against accidently issuing the same transaction multiple times
  -s,--skip-sign              Specify if unlocked wallet keys should be used to sign transaction
  -j,--json                   print result as json
  --json-file TEXT            save result in json format into a file
  -d,--dont-broadcast         don't broadcast transaction to the network (just print to stdout)
  --return-packed             used in conjunction with --dont-broadcast to get the packed transaction
  -r,--ref-block TEXT         set the reference block num or block id used for TAPOS (Transaction as Proof-of-Stake)
  --use-old-rpc               use old RPC push_transaction, rather than new RPC send_transaction
  -p,--permission TEXT ...    An account and permission level to authorize, as in '[email protected]'
  --max-cpu-usage-ms UINT     set an upper limit in milliseconds of cpu usage budget, for the execution of the transaction (defaults to 0 which means no limit)
  --max-net-usage UINT        set an upper limit on the net usage budget, in bytes, for the transaction (defaults to 0 which means no limit)
  --delay-sec UINT            set the delay_sec seconds, defaults to 0s

Let’s check the valid name testaccount1 by command remcli push action ACCOUNT ACTION DATA:

$ remcli push action validator validatename '["testaccount1"]' -p rem

If the name is correct, the action should pass without errors.

It will return something like:

executed transaction: 1bbffc6ddde98dc09a9da044fb6e54636171ae66082fc2b84ff9953da76bacee  112 bytes  264 us
#     validator <= validator::validatename      {"username":"testaccount1"}
warning: transaction executed locally, but may not be confirmed by the network yet         ]

Now, let’s test the wrong account name - an account name which is less than 12 characters.

This should return an error: account name must be 12 characters

$ remcli push action validator validatename '["test"]' -p rem

Yes, it is, the contract returned an error to us:

Error Details:
assertion failure with message: account name must be 12 characters
pending console output:

Let’s test an existing account:

$ remcli push action validator validatename '["rem"]' -p rem

It will return something like:

Error Details:
assertion failure with message: account already exists
pending console output:

Check the last case when the name contains invalid characters, for example tes#account:

$ remcli push action validator validatename '["tes#account"]' -p rem

This should return an error message:

Error Details:
assertion failure with message: character is not in allowed character set for names
pending console output: