Interacting With Contracts

There are 4 ways to interact with contracts: get, dryRun, simulate, call.

get

The get method should be used to read data from the blockchain without using resources. It can be used with an unfunded wallet or even without a wallet at all:

<<< @./snippets/methods/get.ts#interacting-with-contracts-1{ts:line-numbers}

dryRun

The dryRun method should be used to dry-run a contract call. It does not spend resources and can be used with an unfunded wallet or even without a wallet at all:

<<< @./snippets/methods/dry-run.ts#interacting-with-contracts-2{ts:line-numbers}

simulate

The simulate method should be used to dry-run a contract call, ensuring that the wallet used has sufficient funds to cover the transaction fees, without consuming any resources.

A funded wallet it's required:

<<< @./snippets/methods/simulate.ts#interacting-with-contracts-3{ts:line-numbers}

call

The call method submits a real contract call transaction to the node, resolving immediately upon submission and returning a transactionId along with a waitForResult callback to wait for transaction execution. This behavior aligns with the natural behaviour of blockchains, where transactions may take a few seconds before being recorded on the chain.

Real resources are consumed, and any operations executed by the contract function will be processed on the blockchain.

<<< @./snippets/methods/call.ts#interacting-with-contracts-4{ts:line-numbers}

isReadOnly (utility)

If you want to figure out whether a function is read-only, you can use the isReadOnly method:

<<< @./snippets/methods/is-read-only.ts#is-function-readonly-1{ts:line-numbers}

If the function is read-only, you can use the get method to retrieve onchain data without spending gas.

If the function is not read-only you will have to use the call method to submit a transaction onchain which incurs a gas fee.