Testnet Deployment Guidelines
The Flow test network, known as Flow Testnet, exists to help developers test their software and smart contracts against a live network. It's also used as a means of releasing and testing new protocol and smart contract features before they are integrated into Flow's main network (Mainnet).
When the Flow protocol is updated or a new version of Cadence is released, those updates will always be made available on the Flow Emulator before they're integrated into Flow Testnet or Flow Mainnet.
Getting Started on Testnet
To create accounts and generate keys, make sure to install Flow CLI. Flow CLI provides convenient functions to simplifies interacting with the blockchain.
Creating an Account
There are two simple methods of creating an account on testnet. Interactive and Manual, both use the Flow CLI and the Testnet Faucet.
Make sure to install the Flow CLI. Flow CLI has a interactive mode for generating keys, using the testnet faucet to create and fund the new account.
Creating and deploying a Project
Flow CLI can be used to create a Cadence project and stay organized, Flow CLI: Create a project. This will make deployment much easiler and help with the iterative development process.
After you have a project created and want to deploy your Cadence; contracts, transactions and scripts.Flow CLI: deploy.
Make sure Flow project was initialized in the previous step and the flow.json is present.
Making Use of Core Contracts
Flow Testnet comes with some useful contracts already deployed, called core contracts. More information and import addresses for the core contracts.
Once your accounts are set up and you're ready to develop, you can look over some code examples from the Flow Go SDK.
Breaking Changes
The Flow blockchain is improved continuously and thus version updates to Cadence, Flow node software, and the Flow SDKs will contain important updates as well as breaking changes.
You should anticipate future updates and join the community (Forum or Discord) to stay tuned on important announcements. Notices and guidelines for changes will be provided as early as possible.
Testnet Sporking
"Sporking" (soft forking) is the process of upgrading the Flow network node software and migrating the chain state from one version to another.
Currently, historical event data is not migrated between sporks. You'll need to design your application with this in mind. We recognize the usefulness of historical event data and plan on adding a means of accessing it in the near future. Only one previous spork data is available through old Access Node.
Flow Testnet is explicitly for experimentation and testing and should not be used to exchange "real value" (e.g. developing a fiat money on/off-ramp for your testnet application).