Tutorial: Connect to the Aion Network in minutes with Nodesmith
This is a step by step tutorial on how to get connected to the Aion Network with Nodesmith. After you have completed each step in this guide, you will be able to:
- Use HTTP(S) endpoints provided by Nodesmith to read network state from Aion.
- Access the Aion network regardless of the device you are using — you could even make a mobile application that connects to Aion.
What you won’t have to do:
- Host and manage the infrastructure of a full Aion node yourself (including paying for it!)
- Wait over a day for the node to sync before you can begin interacting with the network.
Step 1: visit https://dashboard.nodesmith.io/#/signUp. Once there, fill in your name, email, and a strong password.
Step 2: Verify your email address. You’ll be sent an email. After clicking the link in your email, your address will be verified and you can proceed.
Step 3: Visit https://dashboard.nodesmith.io and login with your email and password.
Step 4: You will now find yourself on the dashboard of the developer portal. You can now create a new project which will allow you to get an API Key. Click on the text in the middle of the screen, or the plus icon in the top right hand corner to add a new project. Give your new project a nickname.
Step 5: The project you just created comes with an API Key. You must use that in any request you send to Nodesmith endpoints. To get started quickly, copy the CURL example to your clipboard.
Step 6: Send your first read request to Aion! You can quickly do this by opening a terminal or windows cmd shell. Paste in the CURL example you copied in step 5 and hint enter.
Nice! You just read the current block number from the Aion public network using your own API key.
What’s next: Don’t get me wrong, reading state from the Aion Network is awesome on its own. But most applications need to be able to do writes — we need to be able to send transactions.
This is already possible now (check out our docs), but we’re saving the detailed walk through for the next blog post (coming next week!). It’s a more involved process, requiring setting up a new account and getting Aion coin in that account. If you need help with this sooner, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Follow us here or on Twitter to be notified of when that next tutorial is available.
