In order to deploy a smart contract to the network we need three the following information:
From the web3js spec:
// deploy new contract
var contractInstance = MyContract.new([constructorParam1] [, constructorParam2], {data: '0x12345...', from: myAccount, gas: 1000000});
Correct me if I am wrong:
constructorParams - all the data that is passed to the smart contract constructor,
from - determines the address this contract is deployed from
gas - gas limit on how much this transaction can consume
What is data, is it sort of a compiled solidity code of the contract, if so why then do we need it if we have already specified ABI of this contract?
How do I get this data parameter? I also get an error in my console when I try to deploy the contract to the network without specifying data parameter:
Error: "invalid argument 0: json: cannot unmarshal hex string without 0x prefix into Go struct field SendTxArgs.data of type hexutil.Bytes"
Yes, data is the compiled byte code for your smart contract.
The ABI doesn't have the code for running the contract; it just describes the interface (what functions exist with what parameters).
You get the bytecode from the compiler. Without knowing what tool you're using, it's hard to be more specific.