Installing the web3 framework

The web3 library is an open source JavaScript library that can be used to connect to Ethereum nodes from the same or a remote computer. It allows IPC as well as an RPC to connect to Ethereum nodes. web3 is a client-side library and can be used alongside a web page and query, and can submit transactions to Ethereum nodes. It can be installed using npm as a node module like the Solidity compiler. Let's take a look at the following steps to install the web3 JavaScript library:

1. The command used to install web3 is as follows:

   npm install web3

The preceding command generates the following output:

Figure 2.17 – Installing the web3 JavaScript framework

2. After web3 is installed, it can be used using the Node.js REPL. From Command Prompt, enter the Node.js workspace by executing the node command, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 2.18 – Starting a node session...