Creating and Deploying a Contract

This page contains the process of creating a contract, compiling it, deploying and then interacting with it.

A sample contract

This contract is very basic. The goal is to quickly start to create and to interact with a sample contract.

Go to the File Explorer, create a new file, name it and in the editor paste the contract below.

// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0

pragma solidity ^0.7.6;

contract testContract {

    uint256 value;

    constructor (uint256 _p) {
        value = _p;
    }

    function setP(uint256 _n) payable public {
        value = _n;
    }

    function setNP(uint256 _n) public {
        value = _n;
    }

    function get () view public returns (uint256) {
        return value;
    }
}

Compile the Contract

With the contract above as the active tab in the Editor, compile the contract.

For More Info see the docs on the (Solidity Compiler).

Deploy the contract

Go to the Deploy & Run Transactions plugin.

There are 3 type of environments Remix can be plugged to:

• Javascript VM
• Injected Web3
• Web3 Provider

(For details see Running transactions)

Both Injected Web3 and Web3 Provider require the use of an external tool.

An external tool for Injected provider is Metamask. Some external tools used with Web3 provider are a Truffle Ganache-CLI, Hardhat node, or an Ethereum node itself.

The JavaScript VM is convenient because it is a blockchain that runs in your browser and you don’t need any other software or Ethereum node to run it.

NOTE: When you are in the Javascript VM and you reload the browser - the Javascript VM will restart to its fresh & default state.

For performance purposes ( which is to say - for testing in an environment that is closest to the mainnet), it can be better to use an external node.

Select the VM environment

Make sure the VM mode is selected. All accounts displayed in ACCOUNT should have 100 ether.

Deploying a contract

The constructor of testContract needs a parameter (of type uint256). Input a uint256 and click on Deploy.

The transaction is created which deploys the instance of testContract .

In a “normal” blockchain, you would have to wait for the transaction to be mined. However, because we are using the JavaScript VM, our execution is immediate.

The terminal will give information about the transaction.

The newly created instance is displayed in the Deployed Contracts section.

Interacting with an instance

Clicking on the caret to the left of the instance of TESTCONTRACT will open it up so you can see its function.

This new instance contains 3 actions which corresponds to the 3 functions (setP, setPN, get). Clicking on setP or setPN will create a new transaction.

Note that setP is payable (red button) : it is possible to send value (Ether) to the contract.

setPN is not payable (orange button - depending on the theme) : it is not possible to send value (Ether) to the contract.

Clicking on get will not execute a transaction (usually its a blue button - depending on the theme). It doesn’t execute a transaction because a get does not modify the state (the variable value) of this instance.

Because get is a view function, you can see the return value just below the get button.