Set up web3.js to use the Ethereum blockchain in JavaScript

In this tutorial, we’ll see how to get started with web3.jsopens in a new tab to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. Web3.js can be used both in frontends and backends to read data from the blockchain or make transactions and even deploy smart contracts.

The first step is to include web3.js in your project. To use it in a web page, you can import the library directly using a CDN like JSDeliver.

1<scriptsrc="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/web3@latest/dist/web3.min.js"></script>

If you prefer installing the library to use in your backend or a frontend project that uses build you can install it using npm:

npminstall web3 --save

Then to import Web3.js into a Node.js script or Browserify frontend project, you can use the following line of JavaScript:

1constWeb3=require("web3")
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Now that we included the library in the project we need to initialize it. Your project needs to be able to communicate with the blockchain. Most Ethereum libraries communicate with a node through RPC calls. To initiate our Web3 provider, we’ll instantiate a Web3 instance passing as the constructor the URL of the provider. If you have a node or ganache instance running on your computeropens in a new tab it will look like this:

1const web3 =newWeb3("http://localhost:8545")
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If you’d like to directly access a hosted node you can find options on nodes as a service.

1const web3 =newWeb3("https://cloudflare-eth.com")
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To test that we correctly configured our Web3 instance, we’ll try to retrieve the latest block number using the getBlockNumber function. This function accepts a callback as a parameter and returns the block number as an integer.

1varWeb3=require("web3")
2const web3 =newWeb3("https://cloudflare-eth.com")
3
4web3.eth.getBlockNumber(function(error, result){
5console.log(result)
6})
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If you execute this program, it will simply print the latest block number: the top of the blockchain. You can also use await/async function calls to avoid nesting callbacks in your code:

1asyncfunctiongetBlockNumber(){
2const latestBlockNumber =await web3.eth.getBlockNumber()
3console.log(latestBlockNumber)
4return latestBlockNumber
5}
6
7getBlockNumber()
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You can see all the functions available on the Web3 instance in the official web3.js documentationopens in a new tab.

Most of Web3 libraries are asynchronous because in the background the library makes JSON-RPC calls to the node which send backs the result.

If you are working in the browser, some wallets directly inject a Web3 instance and you should try to use it whenever possible especially if you plan to interact with the user’s Ethereum address to make transactions.

Here is the snippet to detect if a MetaMask wallet is available and try to enable it if it is. It will later allow you to read the user’s balance and enable them to validate transactions you’d like to make them do on the Ethereum blockchain:

1if(window.ethereum!=null){
2 state.web3=newWeb3(window.ethereum)
3try{
4// Request account access if needed
5awaitwindow.ethereum.enable()
6// Accounts now exposed
7}catch(error){
8// User denied account access...
9}
10}
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Alternatives to web3.js like Ethers.jsopens in a new tab do exist and are also commonly used. In the next tutorial we’ll see how to easily listen to new incoming blocks on the blockchain and see what they containopens in a new tab.