v4.0.0-alpha.0

[jdevcs]

Note: Yarn is resolving to some old deprecated package versions for 4.0.0-alpha.0 instead of latest alpha versions. A patch bump is posted so yarn users should use 4.0.1-alpha.0 for testing.

Summary

Web3.js 4.0.0-alpha.0 is a complete overhaul. This alpha version is written in TypeScript and has many exciting features. Features such as:

• Full types support ( including Dynamic Contracts Typing )
• ETH functions optional data formatters
• ETH RPC method wrappers for advance users
• Validation functionality using schema
• Configurable behavior of the sendTransaction
• Easy extensibility and high readability
• Clear specs of base wallet, base providers and much more

Check out our 4.x API documentation (https://docs.web3js.org/) for the full details. The release contains mostly 1.x parity functionality with some documented breaking changes. Most of the packages in this release have been unit tested and only selected packages are E2E tested (web3, web3-eth, web3-contracts, web3-eth-personal, web3-providers-http and web3-providers-ws).

Checkout our 1.x to 4.x migration guide (https://docs.web3js.org/docs/guides/web3_migration_guide) for testing the 4.0.0-alpha.0 release and share your feedback with us.

Added

web3-errors

• web3-errors new package is created, it has Web3 Error codes and classes

web3-types

• web3-types new package is created, it provides the common data structures and interfaces for web3 modules

web3-validator

• web3-validator new package is created, it has JSON-Schema compatible validator functionality for Web3

Removed

web3-bzz

• This Package is deprecated

web3-shh

• This Package is deprecated

web3-core-helpers

• This Package is removed, errors are moved to web3-errors package and formatters are moved in web3-core package

web3-core-method

• This Package is removed, and web3-core-method functionality is moved to web3-eth package

web3-core-promieevent

• This Package is removed, and core promi events functionality is moved to web3-core package

web3-core-requestmanager

• This Package is removed, batch requests and request manager functionality is moved to web3-core package

web3-core-subscription

• This Package is removed, and core subscription functionality is moved to web3-core package

Changed

web3

• Passing callbacks to functions is no longer supported, except for event listeners.
• Method extend is deprecated

web3-core

• The function outputBigNumberFormatter in web3-core-helper renamed to outputBigIntFormatter under web3-core
• Removed this.defaultBlock context from inputDefaultBlockNumberFormatter in web3-core-helper and converted to additional parameter
• Removed this.defaultBlock context from inputTransactionFormatter in web3-core-helper and converted to additional parameter

web3-utils

• The following functions soliditySha3 soliditySha3Raw encodePacked now includes type validation and requires type specification, instead of guessing the value type
• The functions soliditySha3, soliditySha3Raw and encodePacked did not support BN; But, now supports BigInt
• The functions flattenTypes and jsonInterfaceMethodToString moved to the web3-eth-abi package
• The function isAddress now includes an optional parameter checkChecksum type boolean
• isBoolean now accept 1, and 0 as valid values to test. Ref: web3-validator

web3-eth-accounts

• create function does not take in the optional parameter entropy
• Wallet.create function doesn't accept entropy param

web3-validator

• isBoolean now accept 1, and 0 as valid values to test.

web3-eth-contract

• Event logs do not support types for indexed properties, but named properties are supported.
• Types for overloaded ABI functions are not yet supported.
• signTransaction will not fill any default values, and it will only sign and return result. For filling default values, use web3-eth package
• recover function's last param is boolean hashed, it is used to indicate if data provided is already hashed or not. By default, this function will assume data is not hashed.
• The Wallet no longer supports address/number indexing. Have to use wallet.get instead.
• Wallet.create function doesn't accept entropy param
• contract.method.send() will resolve to transaction receipt instead of transactionHash. User can use receipt.transactionHash instead.

web3-net

• Package will not support web3.bzz.net and web3.shh.net

web3-eth-iban

• IBAN constructor now has validation checks for indirect/direct iban.
• isDirect, isValid, isIndirect are now also included as static methods.

web3-eth-ens

• setMultihash is not supported in web3-eth-ens 4.x as it's deprecated in ENS public resolver (https://github.com/ensdomains/resolvers/blob/master/contracts/PublicResolver.sol)
• setContent is not supported in web3-eth-ens 4.x as it's deprecated in ENS public resolver (https://github.com/ensdomains/resolvers/blob/master/contracts/PublicResolver.sol)
• getContent is not supported in web3-eth-ens 4.x as it's deprecated in ENS public resolver.
• getMultihash is not supported in web3-eth-ens 4.x as it's deprecated in ENS public resolver.

web3-eth-abi

• internalType was renamed to baseType in all abi types

web3-eth

• givenProvider default value is undefined
• defaultHardfork default value is 'london'
• defaultAccount default value is undefined
• defaultNetworkId default value is undefined
• When sending a transaction, if Ethereum Node does not respond within transactionSendTimeout, throw an Error.

web3-eth-subscribe

• clearSubscriptions Instead of returning true , clearSubscriptions now returns array of subscription's ids

web3-eth-personal

• givenProvider default value is undefined
• currentProvider default value is undefined

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This discussion was created from the release v4.0.0-alpha.0.