August 15, 2023
Greetings Chromia Developers and Community,
Welcome to the eighth installment of our mid-month DevEx Team Update! Our goal is to provide you with the latest updates on the improvements being made to documentation, tooling, and network design to support the growth of the Chromia ecosystem.
Please note, our monthly retail updates focusing on development milestones, network/ecosystem expansion, and marketing efforts will continue to be released at the end of each month.
Documentation Updates
- We have almost completed the refresh of our Rell documentation. The updated version will provide a new structure that makes it easier for developers to navigate and find exactly what they are looking for. We anticipate that this update will go live next week.
- The first version of our FT4 documentation has been released. Further additions are already planned, including API references and code examples of FT4 implementations.
- One of our next tasks will be writing bridging documentation that will help developers connect their dapp on Chromia with a token on Ethereum or Binance Chain.
Tooling and Feature Updates
Chromia CLI
- We are working on additional functionality for the Rell package manager that will allow libraries to be stored on-chain, on the Chromia Network. The first versions of this ‘Rell Library Chain’ will be hosted on the public Testnet, with the intention of creating a similar utility on the mainnet after it launches. It should be noted that libraries will still be able to be stored and accessed from the Github repository.
Block Explorer
- In our last update, we reported that the MVP block explorer was being used internally but required UI improvements (coloring, text style, logos/branding) etc before being made public.
- We are approaching completion on the block explorer for the Chromia testnet. Some additional work is needed on the styling, and we are also performing stability tests. We anticipate completion in late August.
- After completion, separate instances of the block explorer can be deployed for Appnets and private networks, with cosmetic adjustments made depending on the specific use case.
- In the long term, we plan to create a single interface that can toggle between all networks.
Rell Formatter (for VS Code and Eclipse Plugins)
- We have released the Alpha version of the Rell formatter and it is now included in both the VS Code and Eclipse plugins. We are currently collecting feedback from both Chromia and ecosystem project devs to create common best practices for syntax and formatting.
- We are also working to add individual customizations to the formatter that will allow the user to set custom indent styles, indent widths, and maximum line widths.
IntelliJ Rell Plugin
- Version 1 of the IntelliJ plugin is now available and can be installed from the Github repository. We have applied to have the plugin added to the IntelliJ marketplace, and we anticipate that it will be listed there some time in August.
Current Development Tasks
- Begin work on bridging documentation
- Expand FT4 documentation with API and code example sections
- Begin building on-chain functionality for the Rell Package Manager
- Complete and release the MVP Block Explorer
- Continue collecting feedback for; and adding customizability to the Rell formatter
- Confirm addition of the Rell plugin to the IntelliJ marketplace
Until Next Month,
The Chromia Developer Experience Team