Æ Studio: The Future of Smart Contract Development in the æternity Universe
What do you need to get started? Absolutely nothing — apart from an inquisitive mind and a passion for learning about the æternity ecosystem.
The aeternity foundation is excited to announce the launch of Æ Studio, a new easy-to-use, accessible development Web-IDE for the Sophia smart contract language.
Æ Studio, formerly known as Fire Editor, is a brand-new platform for developers in the æternity ecosystem that allows them to write, compile, and deploy smart contracts, as well as call local and stateful functions.
The blockchain environment has traditionally been a complex, messy environment for developers to navigate. Developers are often forced to perform tedious hacking and extensive research in order to perform basic tasks, slowing down iteration cycles.
To solve this, æternity developer Nikita Fuchs has been working for the last several months on a major upgrade to the Fire Editor Web-IDE for Sophia, culminating in the launch of Æ Studio — a new easy-to-use contract editor for Sophia that makes dev lives easier.
Æ Studio is unique in the world of blockchain development and provides developers with a simple, streamlined web application that can be used in-browser. Æ Studio delivers intelligent assistance and collaboration features that help devs new to Sophia overcome common challenges and get started fast.
Simple Smart Contract Development & Deployment — In Real Time
The Æ Studio platform combines multiple components into a single, seamless experience.
The Æ Studio editor performs all the heavy lifting — communicating with various compilers, formatting libraries, and verifying — assembling everything needed to visualize, compose, and interact with smart contracts.
The end result is a straightforward, intuitive editor that is accessible even to users that have no experience with blockchain development.
The blockchain development learning curve can be steep. The traditional approach when working with a new development platform involves days of studying complicated documentation, followed by a trial and error process of implementation.
Æ Studio allows new users to experience instant success through experimentation, facilitating a hands-on learning and understanding process that motivates new developers to grasp the more complex elements of blockchain development.
Æ Studio New Features & Functionality
Æ Studio provides developers with all of the features and tools available when working with languages other than Sophia, such as error highlighting, but also delivers seamless code sharing for collaborative troubleshooting.
Most importantly, Æ Studio allows users to deploy and interact with smart contracts in the same manner as developers interact with regular apps or standard code. Using Æ Studio, it’s possible to generate a fully operational blockchain application based on the smart contract you’ve composed on the fly.
Æ Studio takes smart contract and blockchain application development into real time. With the new Æ Studio, you won’t begin by studying documentation and figuring out how to build on æternity before getting started — you start using æternity. Anyone can do it.
How Can Æ Studio Help You Write & Deploy Smart Contracts?
Æ Studio is packed with intuitive, straightforward tools and features that help you create powerful smart contracts in the most efficient manner possible.
1. Intelligent Error Highlighting
When you work with smart contracts in Æ Studio, you’ll edit live in-browser. If you make a mistake or overlook a critical element, Æ Studio will immediately highlight any compilation issues and provide a helpful hint.
2. Seamless Contract Deployment
Æ Studio provides users with hard-coded public accounts, or provides access to private personal testnet accounts via Github account login. Compiled contracts can be rapidly deployed within one microblock — extremely fast on the æternity protocol.
3. Dynamic UI Generation
Æ Studio parses your contract and generates a UI element for each function. Each UI piece is generated based on your own personal contract — the UI even differentiates between static calls without transactions or if a function requires a transaction.
4. Instant Collaborative Troubleshooting
When you’re working with Æ Studio, you’ll never work alone. Æ Studio integrates instant contract and selection sharing via a context menu function that automatically generates a shareable link, which can be shared with colleagues and friends — no more Pastebin!
5. Superhero Wallet Integration & Mainnet Interaction
Æ Studio keeps your key data secure. Prior to the release of Æ Studio, it has only been possible to use the æternity Web-IDE to interact with the æternity testnet.
Now, the Superhero wallet integrates directly with Æ Studio, a major leap forward that allows users to deploy interactive contracts right on the mainnet. Connecting your Superhero wallet to Æ Studio is extremely straightforward — Æ Studio provides a handy link to install the Superhero extension
Once you’ve installed the Superhero wallet extension, you’ll be able to switch to mainnet on Æ Studio and use your own funds to test contracts deployed directly onto the mainnet.
This new feature dramatically speeds up the development process, allowing new devs to deploy a first-tour contract and delivering a significant security improvement over the placement of hard-coded keys into scripts in order to run transactions or call functions.
What do I Need to Get Started?
Absolutely nothing — apart from an inquisitive mind and a passion for learning about the æternity ecosystem. To get started, head over to Æ Studio and start experimenting. For the full Æ Studio experience, be sure to install the Superhero wallet and claim your .chain name.
Stay tuned for more details on this. A more technically in-depth view of Æ Studio will be published on æternity’s main blog soon.
