The smart contract exposes two methods to enable storing and retrieving a greeting in the NEAR network.

@NearBindgen({})
class HelloNear {
  greeting: string = "Hello";

  @view // This method is read-only and can be called for free
  get_greeting(): string {
    return this.greeting;
  }

  @call // This method changes the state, for which it cost gas
  set_greeting({ greeting }: { greeting: string }): void {
    // Record a log permanently to the blockchain!
    near.log(`Saving greeting ${greeting}`);
    this.greeting = greeting;
  }
}

1. Make sure you have installed node.js >= 16.
2. Install the NEAR CLI

You can automatically compile and deploy the contract in the NEAR testnet by running:

npm run build
npm run deploy

Once finished, check the neardev/dev-account file to find the address in which the contract was deployed:

cat ./neardev/dev-account
# e.g. dev-1659899566943-21539992274727

get_greeting is a read-only method (aka view method).

View methods can be called for free by anyone, even people without a NEAR account!

# Use near-cli to get the greeting
near view <dev-account> get_greeting

set_greeting changes the contract's state, for which it is a call method.

Call methods can only be invoked using a NEAR account, since the account needs to pay GAS for the transaction.

# Use near-cli to set a new greeting
near call <dev-account> set_greeting '{"greeting":"howdy"}' --accountId <dev-account>

Tip: If you would like to call set_greeting using your own account, first login into NEAR using:

# Use near-cli to login your NEAR account
near login

and then use the logged account to sign the transaction: --accountId <your-account>.