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Start Building
A stupidly short guide to get started with Colony development
Prerequisites
NodeJS v 16.15.0 is installed on your system (use nvm for changing NodeJS versions on the fly)
A JavaScript/TypeScript project with a package.json and the @colony/sdk and ethers packages installed.
To get started even faster, use our Colony Starter template. It's just a matter of cloning the repository and running npm run serve to get to the first working example. Follow the guide after the link for more information.
Installation
It's as easy as
npm install ethers @colony/sdk
You'll need ethers v5.x as a dependency in your project.
Connecting to Colony on Gnosis Chain
In the browser (using MetaMask)
In NodeJS
For browser based projects, consider using a build system like esbuild that can understand the import commands and will bundle all necessary libraries into one file. Again, feel free to just use the colonyStarter template which has this already set up for you.
// index.js
import { providers } from 'ethers';
import { ColonyNetwork, toEth } from '@colony/sdk';
​
// If MetaMask is installed there will be an `ethereum` object on the `window`
// NOTE: Make sure MetaMask is connected to Gnosis chain (see https://www.xdaichain.com/for-users/wallets/metamask/metamask-setup)
const provider = new providers.Web3Provider(window.ethereum);
​
// Get the Colony's XDAI funding in the ROOT pot (id 1)
const start = async () => {
  // This will try to connect the page to MetaMask
  await provider.send('eth_requestAccounts', []);
  // Create a new connection to the Colony Network contracts using the MetaMask "wallet"
  const colonyNetwork = new ColonyNetwork(provider.getSigner());
  // Connect to the MetaColony (this could be replaced with your own colony using `colonyNetwork.getColony(COLONY_ADDRESS)`)
  const metaColony = await colonyNetwork.getMetaColony();
  // Get the CLNY funding for the MetaColony (CLNY is it's native token)
  const funding = await metaColony.getBalance();
  // The funding will be in wei (x * 10^18), so we format into a readable string using the `toEth` function
  alert('MetaColony balance is ' + toEth(funding) + ' CLNY');
};
​
start();
Include the resulting bundle in an HTML file and open it in you favorite browser. It should connect to MetaMask and alert you with the current MetaColony CLNY balance.
// index.js
const { providers, Wallet } = require('ethers');
const { ColonyNetwork } = require('@colony/sdk');
​
const provider = new providers.JsonRpcProvider('https://rpc.gnosischain.com/');
const wallet = Wallet.createRandom().connect(provider);
​
// Get the Colony's XDAI funding in the ROOT pot (id 1)
const start = async () => {
  // Create a new connection to the Colony Network contracts using the MetaMask "wallet"
  const colonyNetwork = new ColonyNetwork(wallet);
  // Connect to the MetaColony (this could be replaced with your own colony using `colonyNetwork.getColony(COLONY_ADDRESS)`)
  const metaColony = await colonyNetwork.getMetaColony();
  // Get the CLNY funding for the MetaColony (CLNY is it's native token)
  const funding = await metaColony.getBalance();
  // The funding will be in wei (x * 10^18), so we format into a readable string using the `toEth` function
  console.log('MetaColony balance is ' + toEth(funding) + ' CLNY')
};
​
start();
Run this file by executing node index.js and carefully observe the output. The last line should be something like
MetaColony balance is 2.125319999999999999 CLNY
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Last modified 11d ago
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Outline
Prerequisites
Installation
Connecting to Colony on Gnosis Chain