Rust quickstart
Applications for ICP start as projects. You can create new projects for ICP using the IC SDK. This guide focuses on how to create, build, and deploy a Rust program by using the dfx parent command and its subcommands.
Prerequisites
Before getting started, assure you have set up your developer environment according to the instructions in the developer environment guide.
Creating a new Rust project
To create a new Rust project using the IC SDK, open a terminal window and run the following command:
Use dfx new <project_name> to create a new project:
dfx start --clean --background
dfx new rust_hello --type=rust
Next, navigate into your project directory by running the following command:
cd rust_hello
Register, build, and deploy your project
After you connect to the local replica running in your development environment, you can register, build, and deploy your project locally.
Register, build, and deploy the canisters specified in the dfx.json file by running the following command:
dfx deploy
The dfx deploy command output displays information about each of the operations it performs, similar to the following excerpt:
Creating a wallet canister on the local network.
The wallet canister on the "local" network for user "default" is "rwlgt-iiaaa-aaaaa-aaaaa-cai"
Deploying all canisters.
Creating canisters...
Creating canister rust_hello_backend...
rust_hello_backend canister created with canister id: rrkah-fqaaa-aaaaa-aaaaq-cai
Creating canister rust_hello_frontend...
rust_hello_frontend canister created with canister id: ryjl3-tyaaa-aaaaa-aaaba-cai
Building canisters...
...
Deployed canisters.
URLs:
Frontend canister via browser
rust_hello_frontend: http://127.0.0.1:4943/?canisterId=ryjl3-tyaaa-aaaaa-aaaba-cai
Backend canister via Candid interface:
rust_hello_backend: http://127.0.0.1:4943/?canisterId=r7inp-6aaaa-aaaaa-aaabq-cai&id=rrkah-fqaaa-aaaaa-aaaaq-cai
Testing the dapp
There are several ways to interact with your canisters. Let's talk about access from the browser first.
To access the frontend canister (rust_hello_frontend) you can simply follow the link that was printed in the terminal in the previous step.
Frontend canister via browser
rust_hello_frontend: http://127.0.0.1:4943/?canisterId=ryjl3-tyaaa-aaaaa-aaaba-cai
Frontend canisters, also called asset canisters, allow access to web content directly from a smart contract. This enables you to deploy your entire dapp, not just the backend, on ICP.
To access the backend canister (rust_hello_backend) you can again open the URL printed to your terminal in the previous step.
Backend canister via Candid interface:
rust_hello_backend: http://127.0.0.1:4943/?canisterId=r7inp-6aaaa-aaaaa-aaabq-cai&id=rrkah-fqaaa-aaaaa-aaaaq-cai
Using this method, open the Candid UI URL that is automatically deployed to your local replica when you first ran dfx deploy. The Candid UI canister fetches the interface from your backend canister and allows you to test and browse your canister's API with a visual web interface.
To test the deployed rust_hello_backend locally from your command line using dfx, you can run the greet function by running the following command:
dfx canister call rust_hello_backend greet world
Then, verify that the call to the rust_hello_backend canister greet function returns a text message ("Hello, world!").
Stopping the local canister execution environment
After testing the application, you can stop the local replica so that it doesn’t continue running in the background.
To stop the local replica running on your computer, run the following command:
dfx stop
When dfx is started again in the future, it should be started with the dfx start --clean command to wipe the previous state.