Environment Setup

Summary

This environment setup guide will provide you with the necessary steps to get your development environment ready for building applications on the Hedera Network. You will set up a new project directory, establish a .env environment variable file to store your Hedera Testnet account ID and private keys and configure your Hedera Testnet client.

Prerequisites

INTRODUCTION

Note: You can always check the "Code Check ✅ " section at the bottom of each page to view the entire code if you run into issues. You can also post your issue to the respective SDK channel in our Discord community here or on the GitHub repository here.

Step 1: Create your project directory

Open your IDE of choice and follow the below steps to create your new project directory.

Java

Create a new Gradle project and name it HederaExamples. Add the following dependencies to your build.gradle file.

build.gradle

dependencies {

    implementation 'com.hedera.hashgraph:sdk:2.19.0'
    implementation 'io.grpc:grpc-netty-shaded:1.46.0'
    implementation 'io.github.cdimascio:dotenv-java:2.3.2'
    implementation 'org.slf4j:slf4j-nop:2.0.3'
    implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.8'

}

JavaScript

Open your terminal and create a directory called hello-hedera-js-sdk. After you create the project directory navigate to the directory by running the following command:

mkdir hello-hedera-js-sdk && cd hello-hedera-js-sdk

Initialize a node.js project in this new directory by running the following command:

npm init -y

This is what your console should look like after running the command:

{
  "name": "hello-hedera-js-sdk",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC"
}

Go

Open your terminal and create a project directory called something like hedera-go-examples to store your Go source code.

mkdir hedera-go-examples && cd hedera-go-examples

Step 2: Install Dependencies and SDKs

Java

Create a new Java class and name it something like HederaExamples. Import the following classes to use in your example:

import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.AccountId;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.Client;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.PrivateKey;
import io.github.cdimascio.dotenv.Dotenv;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.HederaPreCheckStatusException;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.HederaReceiptStatusException;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.TransactionResponse;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.TransferTransaction;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.PublicKey;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.AccountCreateTransaction;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.Hbar;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.AccountBalanceQuery;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.AccountBalance;

import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;

Note: You may install the latest version of the Java SDK here.

JavaScript

Install the JavaScript SDK with your favorite package manager npm or yarn by running the following command:

// Install Hedera's JS SDK with NPM
npm install --save @hashgraph/sdk

// Install with Yarn
yarn add @hashgraph/sdk

Install dotenv with your favorite package manager. This will allow our node environment to use your testnet account ID and the private key we will store in a .env file next.

// Install with NPM
npm install dotenv

// Install with Yarn
yarn add dotenv

Navigate to the project root directory and create a index.js file by running the following command:

touch index.js

Your project structure should look something like this:

Go

Create a hedera_examples.go file in hedera-go-examples directory. You will write all of your code in this file.

Note: Install the Go SDK here and the DotEnv package here before moving forward.

Import the following packages to your hedera_examples.go file:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"

    "github.com/joho/godotenv"
    "github.com/hashgraph/hedera-sdk-go/v2"
)

Note: Testnet HBAR is required for this next step. Please follow the instructions to create a Hedera account on the portal before you move on to the next step.

Step 3: Create your .env File

Create the .env file in your project's root directory. The .env file stores your environment variables, account ID, and private key (DER encoded).

MY_ACCOUNT_ID=ENTER TESTNET ACCOUNT ID 
MY_PRIVATE_KEY=ENTER TESTNET PRIVATE KEY

Grab the Hedera Testnet account ID and DER-encoded private key from your Hedera portal profile(see screenshot below) and assign them to the MY_ACCOUNT_ID and MY_PRIVATE_KEY environment variables in your .env file:

Hedera Developer Portal

Next, you will load your account ID and private key variables from the .env file created in the previous step.

Java

Within the main method, add your testnet account ID and private key from the environment file.

HederaExamples.java

public class HederaExamples {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        //Grab your Hedera Testnet account ID and private key
        AccountId myAccountId = AccountId.fromString(Dotenv.load().get("MY_ACCOUNT_ID"));
        PrivateKey myPrivateKey = PrivateKey.fromString(Dotenv.load().get("MY_PRIVATE_KEY"));  
    }
}

JavaScript

index.js

const { Client, PrivateKey, AccountCreateTransaction, AccountBalanceQuery, Hbar, TransferTransaction } = require("@hashgraph/sdk");
require('dotenv').config();

async function environmentSetup() {

    //Grab your Hedera testnet account ID and private key from your .env file
    const myAccountId = process.env.MY_ACCOUNT_ID;
    const myPrivateKey = process.env.MY_PRIVATE_KEY;

    // If we weren't able to grab it, we should throw a new error
    if (!myAccountId || !myPrivateKey) {
        throw new Error("Environment variables MY_ACCOUNT_ID and MY_PRIVATE_KEY must be present");
    }
}
environmentSetup();

Go

hedera_examples.go

func main() {

    //Loads the .env file and throws an error if it cannot load the variables from that file correctly
    err := godotenv.Load(".env")
    if err != nil {
        panic(fmt.Errorf("Unable to load environment variables from .env file. Error:\n%v\n", err))
    }

    //Grab your testnet account ID and private key from the .env file
    myAccountId, err := hedera.AccountIDFromString(os.Getenv("MY_ACCOUNT_ID"))
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    myPrivateKey, err := hedera.PrivateKeyFromString(os.Getenv("MY_PRIVATE_KEY"))
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    //Print your testnet account ID and private key to the console to make sure there was no error
    fmt.Printf("The account ID is = %v\n", myAccountId)
    fmt.Printf("The private key is = %v\n", myPrivateKey)
}

In your terminal, enter the following command to create your go.mod file. This module is used for tracking dependencies and is required.

go mod init hedera_examples.go

Run your code to see your testnet account ID and private key printed to the console.

go run hedera_examples.go

Step 4: Create your Hedera Testnet client

Create a Hedera Testnet client and set the operator information using the testnet account ID and private key for transaction and query fee authorization. The operator is the default account that will pay for the transaction and query fees in HBAR. You will need to sign the transaction or query with the private key of that account to authorize the payment. In this case, the operator ID is your testnet account ID**.** and the operator private key is the corresponding testnet account private key.

To avoid encountering the INSUFFICIENT_TX_FEE error while conducting transactions, you can adjust the maximum transaction fee limit through the .setDefaultMaxTransactionFee() method. Similarly, the maximum query payment can be adjusted using the .setDefaultMaxQueryPayment() method.

🚨 How to resolve the INSUFFIENT_TX_FEE error

To resolve this error, you must adjust the max transaction fee to a higher value suitable for your needs.

Here is a simple example addition to your code:

const maxTransactionFee = new Hbar(XX); // replace XX with desired fee in Hbar

In this example, you can set maxTransactionFee to any value greater than 5 HBAR (or 500,000,000 tinybars) to avoid the "INSUFFICIENT_TX_FEE" error for transactions greater than 5 HBAR. Please replace XX with the desired value.

To implement this new max transaction fee, you use the setDefaultMaxTransactionFee() method as shown below:

client.setDefaultMaxTransactionFee(maxTransactionFee);

Java

//Create your Hedera Testnet client
Client client = Client.forTestnet();

//Set your account as the client's operator
client.setOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey);

//Set the default maximum transaction fee (in Hbar)
client.setDefaultMaxTransactionFee(new Hbar(100));

//Set the maximum payment for queries (in Hbar)
client.setMaxQueryPayment(new Hbar(50));

JavaScript

//Create your Hedera Testnet client
const client = Client.forTestnet();

//Set your account as the client's operator
client.setOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey);

//Set the default maximum transaction fee (in Hbar)
client.setDefaultMaxTransactionFee(new Hbar(100));

//Set the maximum payment for queries (in Hbar)
client.setMaxQueryPayment(new Hbar(50));

Go

//Create your testnet client
client := hedera.ClientForTestnet()
client.SetOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey)

// Set default max transaction fee
client.SetDefaultMaxTransactionFee(hedera.HbarFrom(100, hedera.HbarUnits.Hbar))

// Set max query payment
client.SetDefaultMaxQueryPayment(hedera.HbarFrom(50, hedera.HbarUnits.Hbar))

Your project environment is now set up to submit transactions and queries to the Hedera test network successfully!

Next, you will learn how to create an account.

Code Check ✅

Java

HederaExamples.java

import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.AccountId;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.Client;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.PrivateKey;
import io.github.cdimascio.dotenv.Dotenv;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.HederaPreCheckStatusException;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.HederaReceiptStatusException;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.TransactionResponse;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.TransferTransaction;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.PublicKey;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.AccountCreateTransaction;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.Hbar;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.AccountBalanceQuery;
import com.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.AccountBalance;

import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
​
public class HederaExamples {
​
    public static void main(String[] args) {
​
        //Grab your Hedera Testnet account ID and private key
        AccountId myAccountId = AccountId.fromString(Dotenv.load().get("MY_ACCOUNT_ID"));+
        PrivateKey myPrivateKey = PrivateKey.fromString(Dotenv.load().get("MY_PRIVATE_KEY"));
​
        //Create your Hedera Testnet client
        Client client = Client.forTestnet();
        client.setOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey);
        
        // Set default max transaction fee & max query payment
        client.setDefaultMaxTransactionFee(new Hbar(100)); 
        client.setMaxQueryPayment(new Hbar(50)); 
    }
}

JavaScript

index.js

const {
  Client,
  PrivateKey,
  AccountCreateTransaction,
  AccountBalanceQuery,
  Hbar,
  TransferTransaction,
} = require("@hashgraph/sdk");

require("dotenv").config();

async function environmentSetup() {
  //Grab your Hedera testnet account ID and private key from your .env file
  const myAccountId = process.env.MY_ACCOUNT_ID;
  const myPrivateKey = process.env.MY_PRIVATE_KEY;

  // If we weren't able to grab it, we should throw a new error
  if (!myAccountId || !myPrivateKey) {
    throw new Error(
      "Environment variables MY_ACCOUNT_ID and MY_PRIVATE_KEY must be present"
    );
  }
  
  //Create your Hedera Testnet client
  const client = Client.forTestnet();

  //Set your account as the client's operator
  client.setOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey);

  //Set the default maximum transaction fee (in Hbar)
  client.setDefaultMaxTransactionFee(new Hbar(100));

  //Set the maximum payment for queries (in Hbar)
  client.setMaxQueryPayment(new Hbar(50));
}
environmentSetup();

Go

hedera_examples.go

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"os"

	"github.com/hashgraph/hedera-sdk-go/v2"
	"github.com/joho/godotenv"
)

func main() {

	//Loads the .env file and throws an error if it cannot load the variables from that file correctly
	err := godotenv.Load(".env")
	if err != nil {
		panic(fmt.Errorf("Unable to load environment variables from .env file. Error:\n%v\n", err))
	}

	//Grab your testnet account ID and private key from the .env file
	myAccountId, err := hedera.AccountIDFromString(os.Getenv("MY_ACCOUNT_ID"))
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	myPrivateKey, err := hedera.PrivateKeyFromString(os.Getenv("MY_PRIVATE_KEY"))
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	//Create your testnet client
	client := hedera.ClientForTestnet()
	client.SetOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey)

	// Set default max transaction fee & max query payment
	client.SetDefaultMaxTransactionFee(hedera.HbarFrom(100, hedera.HbarUnits.Hbar))
	client.SetDefaultMaxQueryPayment(hedera.HbarFrom(50, hedera.HbarUnits.Hbar))
}

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