View Contract State

View from a smart contract on Arweave

The viewContractState function enables calling a contract's read function and getting the result based on the input parameters.

To retrieve the state from a contract, it is recommended to utilize the readContractState function.

Basic Syntax

The function is called as follows:

import { viewContractState } from 'arweavekit/contract'

const viewResult = await viewContractState({params});

Input Parameters

The following params are available for this function and they must be passed in as an object:

• wallet: ArWallet | string (optional) : The wallet for viewing the contract with. The type ArWallet basically checks for Arweave wallet of the type JWKInterface and type String expects the private key of the Ethereum wallet and if the wallet param is not passed, it falls back to check for a web-based wallet like Metamask or ArConnect. When falling back to a web wallet, an Ethereum Wallet (like Metamask) is triggered since contract functions use bundling by default, which supports EVM web wallets. If this attempt fails, the function will retry with an Arweave Web Wallet (like ArConnect or arweave.app). The wallet key file can be loaded as follows and passed to the wallet param:

import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

// Arweave JWK
const key = JSON.parse(readFileSync('wallet.json').toString());

// Ethereum Private Key
const key = readFileSync('privatekey.txt').toString();

// Now pass key to wallet param as wallet: key

Wallet param is useful if the read functions of the contract uses the caller input. Arweave JWK or Ethereum Private key is needed as a wallet parameter in the node environment. And, the wallet param needed not to be passed in the browser environment for use with Arconnect or an Ethereum-based wallet (like Metamask).

• environment: 'local' | 'testnet' | 'mainnet' : The environment in which the smart contract was created in. The testnet is a pseudo-testing environment created on top of the mainnet with the help of custom tags.

If the contract was created in a local environment, please make sure that arlocal is running in the background to be able to interact with the contract. To create one, simply run npx arlocal in the command line. Learn more about arlocal here.

• evaluationOptions : object (optional) : Evaluation options define rules on how a contract will be evaluated during view state interactions. Read more about evaluation options to learn about the available configurations and their uses.
• contractTxId: string : The contractTxId is a unique identifier received upon contract creation. This helps viewContractState identify the contract to interact with.

• cacheOptions : object (optional) : Contract state is cached for fast retrieval and seamless experience. Custom configurations can be passed in as an object for more control over the caching process. This includes an inMemory option enabling the storage of cache in local memory. By default, the contract state is cached in a database. The dbLocation can be configured with the options outlined in these docs.
• strategy : 'arweave' | 'ethereum' | 'both' (optional) : The strategy specifies the wallet (Ethereum or Arweave) to be used for contract view state interaction. While the wallet can be determined by the wallet param passed in, it can be beneficial to pass in when using browser environments. However, by default, the strategy is set to 'both' and thus tries the function call with Ethereum first and fallback on an Arweave Wallet.

• options: Object : The input arguments for the appropriate view state call with the contract. For the following sample contract:

export function handle(state, action) {
  if (action.input.function === 'initialize') {
    state.counter = 10
  } else if (action.input.function === 'fifty') {
    state.counter = 50
  } else if (action.input.function === 'counter') {
    return { result: state.counter }
  }
  return { state }
}

An example for options would be: options: { function: 'counter' }.

• connectWallet: boolean (optional): It decides whether to view the state by connecting to the wallet or without connecting to the wallet. By default, its value is true.

Example

const viewResult = await viewContractState({
  environment: 'testnet',
  contractTxId: 'CONTRACT_TRANSACTION_ID',
  wallet: wallet_key,
  options: { function: 'counter' },
});

/**
// example output viewResult
{
  viewContract: {
    type: 'ok',
    result: 10,
    state: {
      counter: 10
    }
  },
  result: { status: 200, statusText: 'SUCCESSFUL' }
}
*/

This calls the contract with options i.e. function counter and get the result.

Returned Data

The function call returns the following data:

{
  viewContract: {
    type: InteractionResultType,
    result: Result,
    state: State,
  },
  result: { status: 200, statusText: 'SUCCESSFUL' }
}

• viewContract: InteractionResult<State, Result>: The viewContract object has metadata relevant to the view state operation. Read more about it here.

  • type: InteractionResultType: Result of the view state interaction. It can have a value of 'ok' , 'error' or 'exception'.

  • state: State: The state object is the latest version of information (variables and interactions with them) that is stored on the chain and associated with the contract. The viewContractState assumes that the view interaction has been processed as expected and returns the updated state from the cache.

  • result: Result: It is the value returned from the contract's read function as result.

• result: object : The result object returns easy to understand information showing the status of the view state. status: 200 and statusText: 'SUCCESSFUL' indicate that view state interaction with the options is successful.