What Is Hardhat ? 🤔

Hardhat is a development environment for Ethereum software. It consists of different components for editing, compiling, debugging and deploying your smart contracts and dApps, all of which work together to create a complete development environment.

One of the standout features of Hardhat is its built-in Ethereum network, known as Hardhat Network, which enables fast local testing without the need for external blockchain connections.

Additionally, Hardhat's task runner automates repetitive tasks such as compiling, testing, and deploying smart contracts, making the workflow more efficient.

Prerequisites 🪛

• Node.js
• npm [not yarn or bun]
• WSL - Windows Subsystem for Linux ( preffered )

Setting Up Hardhat 🛠️

mkdir example
cd example
mkdir web3
cd web3

npm install --save-dev hardhat

npx hardhat init
888    888                      888 888               888
888    888                      888 888               888
888    888                      888 888               888
8888888888  8888b.  888d888 .d88888 88888b.   8888b.  888888
888    888     "88b 888P"  d88" 888 888 "88b     "88b 888
888    888 .d888888 888    888  888 888  888 .d888888 888
888    888 888  888 888    Y88b 888 888  888 888  888 Y88b.
888    888 "Y888888 888     "Y88888 888  888 "Y888888  "Y888

👷 Welcome to Hardhat v2.22.18 👷‍

? What do you want to do? …
❯ Create a JavaScript project
  Create a TypeScript project
  Create a TypeScript project (with Viem)
  Create an empty hardhat.config.js
  Quit
 ? Hardhat project root: » **C:\\Users\\username\\example\\web3** **↵** 
 ? Do you want to add a .gitignore? (Y/n) · **y**
 ? Do you want to install this sample project's dependencies with npm (hardhat @nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox)? (Y/n) » **y**

For beginning , choose the first option with your keyboard up-down arrow keys hit enter [↵] after that just hit [↵] or press y for every dropdown you see

After successful completion of initiation , you can find a folder structure like this -

└── 📁dummy-web3
    └── 📁contracts
        └── Lock.sol
    └── 📁ignition
        └── 📁modules
            └── Lock.js
    └── 📁test
        └── Lock.js
    └── .gitignore
    └── hardhat.config.js
    └── package-lock.json
    └── package.json
    └── README.md

Now we have to install some more dependencies which are required to write, run and deploy our contract -

npm install dotenv @openzeppelin/contracts

Folder Structure 📂

• All of your contracts should be kept inside your contracts folder in solidity
• The deployment script should be written inside ignition/modules folder in Megh2005/dummy-web3 in **j**avascript