Replace near-workspaces with near-sandbox or testcontainers

[r-near]

Replace near-workspaces dependency with either near-sandbox or testcontainers for better testing isolation.

Options:

• Use near-sandbox directly
• Run near-sandbox docker container via testcontainers (https://www.npmjs.com/package/testcontainers)

Acceptance criteria:

• Evaluate both approaches
• Implement chosen solution
• Migrate existing tests

[r-near]

@AlexKushnir1 is working on this

[AlexKushnir1]

Hey, @r-near!
I have been digging into all of this and here is I have got

• Use near-sandbox-js:

  • near-sandbox-js is a more lightweight alternative to near-workspaces with fewer dependencies and abstractions.
  • However, it downloads the sandbox binary at runtime, which means slower startup on the first test run (due to fetching the binary).

• Run near-sandbox docker container via testcontainers

  • Requires Docker to be installed on the user’s machine.
  • testcontainers pulls in a large set of additional dependencies.
  • On the positive side, this avoids runtime binary downloads — the sandbox binary can be baked into the Docker image during the build stage.

Are we considering downloading bin, init it and run inside near-api-js? IMO, we just rewrite near-sandbox-js
Open to any suggestions if you see a better direction.

[r-near]

Thanks @AlexKushnir1 - yes I think the easiest option would be to use near-sandbox-js directly in near-api-js. near-workspaces is an unnecessary abstraction. After all, Sandbox is just a NEAR node with a different RPC URL.