Remix is a powerful, open source, smart contract tool that helps you write solidity code just from the browser. It supports compile, run, analysis, testing, and debugger options. The following three types of environments are available with Remix when developing and testing:
- JavaScript VM: Remix comes with five Ethereum accounts, and each account is deposited with 100 ethers as default. This is convenient for testing smart contracts in the development phase. Mining is not required as it is done automatically. This option is a good choice when you are a beginner.
- Injected Web3: This option will directly invoke injected browser web3 instances such as MetaMask, an Ethereum network browser extension. MetaMask provides you with many functions and features, and, like regular Ethereum wallets, it allows you to interact with DApps.
- Web3 provider: Remix also supports Web3 provider. The web3.js library is the official Ethereum JavaScript API. It is used to interact with Ethereum smart contracts. You can connect to the blockchain network through web3j API. Web3j supports three different providers: HTTPProvider, WebsocketProvider, and IpcProvider. In Remix Web3, you can give the HTTP URL to connect the remote blockchain instance. The URL can point to your local private blockchain, test-net, and other instance endpoints.
Start by using the Remix solidity IDE: https://remix.ethereum.org. The following is the screenshot for the UI of Remix:
