Connecting to the Testnet | Introduction to JavaScript

A testnet evnironment is provided in XRPL.

The testnet allows developers to develop products having the mainnet in mind. The main reason for using a testnet is that the mainnet requires the developer to bear a certain amount of XRP as fees and account reserves.

The following is one of the commonly used testnet environment.

wss://s.altnet.rippletest.net:51233

There are several other testnet environments that do exist, please refer to here.

Create Script

1. Create a new file named connect.js in your project directory

2. Paste the following code into connect.js.

   const xrpl = require('xrpl'); // Load the xrpl library.
   
   async function main() {
     // async
     // Connectting to the Testnet server, which is a test network for XRP Ledger development.
     // Create a client to connect to XRP Ledger's Testnet server using the xrpl.Client class
     const client = new xrpl.Client('wss://s.altnet.rippletest.net:51233');
   
     // Connect to the server by calling the client.connect() method.
     // Use "await" to wait for the connection to complete.
     await client.connect();
   
     // If the connection is successful, the message below should be shown in the console.
     console.log('Connected to the XRP Ledger Testnet');
   
     // Disconnect from the server by calling the client.disconnect() method.
     client.disconnect();
   }
   
   main().catch(console.error);
     // Call the main function to start the program.
     // catch(console.error) is used to output error messages to the console if an error occurs.

   The script simply connects to XRP Ledger’s Testnet, displays to the console that the connection was successful, and then closes the connection.

Run Script

1. Run script by executing the following command in the command line.

   node connect.js

2. If successful, you will see the following in the console.

   Connected to the XRP Ledger Testnet