Zeus SDK Release Streamlines EOS and DAPP Network dApp Development

DAPP Network
The DAPP Network Blog
5 min readJun 30, 2019

Today, LiquidApps is proud to officially release the Zeus Software Development Kit (SDK).

Over the past few months, we have launched a number of services that DAPP Service Providers (DSPs) can offer on the decentralized free market of the DAPP Network. Products like vRAM, LiquidOracles, and LiquidScheduler enable smart contracts and dApp frontends to go where they have never gone before.

To make these services simple to implement, and to streamline EOS development for all dApps, we have also been building and alpha-testing the Zeus SDK.

Zeus enables easy dApp development, testing, and deployment — even immortal deployment, creating dApps that cannot be maliciously or accidentally shut down.

With Zeus, you can install prerequisites easily, start with any of the many prepackaged reference applications, develop your contract and frontend, and compile, test, and deploy your application with simple one-line commands. And if you need specific functionality, you can even plug in your own Zeus extensions.

Today, we are delighted to release the Zeus SDK Public Beta to the dApp world. We envision this release as the first step to a comprehensive dApp development environment.

Zeus SDK is built on the following core principles:

DAPP Network service reference apps are provided, along with many others.

Ease of Learning

The reference code provided with the Zeus SDK is extensive, with numerous “Zeus Boxes” — prepackaged applications — available to deploy as starting points or to unit test and learn from.

The services directory includes boxes for each DAPP Network service. We are in the process of applying our new standard names to each service — in the current Zeus SDK release, LiquidScheduler is still called cron-dapp-service, LiquidAccounts is still named vaccounts-dapp-service, and so on. A number of these products are in pre-alpha or alpha state, but even they are available to experiment with.

Further sample boxes include:

  • coldtoken, a vRAM-based eosio.token contract
  • deepfreeze, a vRAM-based cold storage contract
  • vgrab, a vRAM-based airgrab contract
  • cardgame, a version of Elemental Battles that uses vRAM and LiquidAccounts
  • eos-detective-reports by EOS Nation
  • airhodl, used for the first ever Air-HODL for the DAPP token
  • microauctions, used in the DAPP token’s twin reverse dutch auction generation event.

The list doesn’t stop there, and we are adding new boxes all the time. Install the Zeus SDK to try them out!

Ease of Use

Zeus SDK is cross-platform, functioning on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It features a Truffle-like interface, a package manager, and version control.

With Zeus, you can execute the key steps in the development and deployment process using single, memorable commands:

The zeus unbox command installs all of the prerequisite software for building, testing, and deploying smart contracts: nodeos, keosd, cleos, the EOSIO Contract Development Toolkit, and much more, all with a single command.

Zeus SDK commands quickly execute key steps in the development process.

The zeus compile command allows a developer to easily compile the latest version of their contract with the ability to easily integrate vRAM-related dapp::multi_index tables.

The zeus migrate command allows a developer to easily compile and migrate their contract to another network such as the Kylin and Jungle testnets or the mainnet.

The zeus test command, in addition to compiling the smart contract, launches a fully functioning local testnet. This is complete with an instance of nodeos/keosd, automatic cleos commands to stake/purchase EOS resources for CPU/NET and RAM, launching a DSP, creating a service package, staking DAPP to the package, and running fully customizable unit testing logic.

Commands like zeus build, zeus run, and zeus deploy add frontend development support. Build a frontend, test it, and deploy it. You can even deploy its code to IPFS — one of the key steps in launching an application that cannot be shut down when a server fails or is otherwise compromised. You can view the commands for this process here. IPFS deployment is optional.

With these Zeus SDK commands, you can conveniently code, test, compile, and deploy your smart contracts and frontends. Even in beta, the Zeus SDK is a leap forward in ease of use.

Extensibility

Zeus SDK is fully extensible. All of the above features are implemented as extensions and fetched with Zeus’s command line interface. Other packaged extensions include demux support, Zeus Box creation, and eosjs client-side query logic.

Just as DSPs can create their own DAPP Network services, developers can create their own extensions to customize the Zeus SDK to their specific needs. What’s more, soon they will be able to register these custom Zeus Boxes on chain and easily deploy them to IPFS so that others can unbox and access them.

Of course, the Zeus Software Development Kit enables your application to use the decentralized services of the DAPP Network, which can be obtained by staking DAPP tokens to DSPs’ service packages.

With its easy single-command operations, its flexible extensibility, and its IPFS functionality, the Zeus SDK is a major step towards the creation of efficient, easy to build, immortal dApps on blockchain platforms.

We are working to overhaul the documentation for Zeus SDK and each service, add information on each service in alpha or beta phase to our website, and publish tutorials for the most common Zeus tasks. You can install the Zeus SDK immediately.

Please join the DAPP Network Devs Telegram channel to ask our community any technical questions and the LiquidApps Telegram channel for other inquiries.

Join us, and together we can build a future of dApps that are easy to build, easy to deploy, and impossible to kill.

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DAPP Network
The DAPP Network Blog

DAPP Network aims to optimize development on the blockchain by equipping developers with a range of products for building and scaling dApps.