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Interact with Avail

Get Started with Interacting on Avail

Overview

As a developer building on Avail, you need to know how to interact with the network.

You can itneract with the Avail node programatically using the following tools below:

Avail JS SDKAvail SubXt (Rust)Avail GSRPC (Go)

In this guide, we will go through the basics of getting started on Avail's Turing testnet via Avail-JS.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Generating an AppId

What is an AppId?

As a general-purpose base layer, Avail is designed to support many modular chains at the same time, providing consensus and data availability to all of them simultaneously. Avail headers contain an index that allows a given modular chain (or "application" in Avail terminology) to determine and download only the sections of a block that have data for that particular application.

How to generate a new AppId

  1. Access the Website: Open your web browser and go to the Generator web application (opens in a new tab).

  2. Account Detection / Selection:

    • The website will automatically detect any accounts linked via browser extensions.
    • Ensure you have the relevant extension installed and are logged in.
    • Select the account you wish to use for the AppId creation.

  3. Input Application Name: In the provided field, enter the name of your application. Make sure the name is unique and identifies your app.

  4. Send Transaction: Submit the transaction after entering the application name. This will involve a confirmation step through your browser extension.

  5. Receive Your Application Id:

    • Upon successful transaction completion, your AppId will be displayed.
    • Note down the Id for future reference.

For more information on AppId, check out the documentation here.

Getting started with Avail-JS

Avail-JS is a JavaScript library that can be used to interact with Avail. It is a wrapper around the Substrate API and provides a simple interface to interact with Avail. To learn more about Avail-JS from the github repo, checkout the repository here (opens in a new tab).

Installation and Setting up environment

  1. Install the latest stable version of the avail-js library by running the following command:
npm install avail-js-sdk
  1. Once the SDK is installed, clone the avail repository to run a few examples.
git clone https://github.com/availproject/avail.git
cd avail/avail-js/examples/node-examples
npm install
npm i -g ts-node
  1. Make sure to populate basic configuration in config.ts or leave the default if you are running a local node. If you are using a local node, make sure you are running the node with this command : ./target/release/avail-node --dev
export default {
  seed: "bottom drive obey lake curtain smoke basket hold race lonely fit walk//Alice",
  endpoint: "ws://127.0.0.1:9944",
  appId: 0,
  amount: 1,
  recipient: "5FHneW46xGXgs5mUiveU4sbTyGBzmstUspZC92UhjJM694ty",
}

Example: Data Submission

Submit data using the example script.

npm run data-submission
Expected Output
Tx status: Ready
Tx status: {"broadcast":["12D3KooWFhViRfMNMKQLSvwAcLB3a2Afh75cj1rVt6nTdkfWQhPm","12D3KooWNnaFdJfavEHQquEVBQ3P9eW3iL7D2HkXuCnV8ci7Am4E","12D3KooWBPtjU89o85KdgKiZ5uwK6kMvDhPfFvE44UissMV9x1UE","12D3KooWRYCs192er73R2oyE4QWkKdtoRk1fL28tR3immzxTQQAq","12D3KooWRaFhqUjumqkEozuw5pHfG7hftjphaBuYnetCKf8WjTxS","12D3KooWMHRgZhDMUbN55NQcXB19Ww6SnL8shz1un3K6X3K2XoAh","12D3KooWJP3X64jescXF6SVJv4ThUkZKqmdebVNgg9RVHqG4kDH8","12D3KooWNKqV9Tdsg99kmGs1gzJa7TdyCAWDWTkqnyKYA8Y4R8gc","12D3KooWJKX8sTaZ2uL2gAhE3ScJsRzjcmPnB2nnbakrWCKwZB7T","12D3KooWCr4Go4oUgFjwZPdgogU813cC7ohwXmnYcyAVKX2DDfbc","12D3KooWFqZDo4v3oYzduqZGC5R2HKVfMwgggDL7kFrsXqAue21b","12D3KooWGnCUwvXCxEYJ7EV5kWzs2VJeKG6i5wSMPRq5YSLqWon3","12D3KooWFzqtue91MrdmqVRddA48dPYQVAFBtcFkf5HrmgiqUJ6F","12D3KooWBEcTktYrebeQWEjw6dAiSEZ6c5rmRdGZaA4ZgRcMbUKL","12D3KooWRnEwrHCj4nXtshjXTAYwv9pknUqpw5iqrR5TBPbaqnfE","12D3KooWQRTgqX2j2HMideuPKUg12yeCbbp6cCi6xtf4cACYSiKb","12D3KooWPNmovc7n6mET56bmpB8tM6XtjcRb8qBir3sTBWk5cttK","12D3KooWLxzYHmGXpRnN4rAKkkZVzFgpGuqKofPggUnWz4iUR5yT","12D3KooWBoFiQJWAdF4cfXy3Vt3bTa3wCwQZsqs8sJeRt61oarwG","12D3KooWFYdD5oeYNMSKuWrySsEbzp3VttPEYC4VVh7Vbqww75Yh","12D3KooWFB8ky1ACFZGmd5evfyTCWy5gHa6TeLTsZsXn3fWcMqHA","12D3KooWQLdPYPEHRGAJ4J6dGYoiKyjm36VhaSCJkvKAuJBohJYi","12D3KooWR8yPHmBZxHPoZrjjvCZEq5mJh9h7yewgM4zGgUVEANcG","12D3KooWCLATtwmXbQ7SWesQFcwWDTkfmnreyCJFt159roAEipYt","12D3KooWFq6yX6kAnxLNxqDhjDDtc26Gdo16GPR4TMk1hgpxoT33","12D3KooWKkLgiqxweQ1QCbJrDKeg5HCktZMM1kd81F4jMMTnBtD6"]}
Tx status: {"inBlock":"0x32c5dbf8716dbd4d7c6cc8dd74fa76cedf746cdea80e662fbd3f76df7393f913"}
Tx status: {"finalized":"0x32c5dbf8716dbd4d7c6cc8dd74fa76cedf746cdea80e662fbd3f76df7393f913"}
Tx Hash: 0x83b8b0b4074426cf14e45320177d83f2441d416763c64b656cbbbe1b5fe8cdcc, Block Hash: 0x32c5dbf8716dbd4d7c6cc8dd74fa76cedf746cdea80e662fbd3f76df7393f913
{
  isSigned: true,
  method: {
    args: { data: 'Hello World' },
    method: 'submitData',
    section: 'dataAvailability'
  },
  era: { MortalEra: { period: '32', phase: '3' } },
  nonce: '0',
  signature: '0x22162035c3195c1a0db13e0c38500b07c7434d201808a5874d65cd9a05de8c3cb4e89d701ed212946142abf4f1bfbc2dd671465040fd7b02cdacffec32aed680',
  signer: { Id: '5G452iCokAD8RstzvZm9t2teeqwmDQUqTKCePNotjm92GLHB' },
  tip: '0'
}
submitted data: Hello World

You can check out the code implementation here (opens in a new tab).

Try modifying the data to submitted and playing around with the code to see how it works at the path avail-js/examples/node-examples/src/tx-data-availability-data-submission.ts

Example: Transfer AVAIL tokens

You can try out transferring AVAIL tokens by running:

nom run transfer

Ensure that your appID=0 when doing any type of transaction other than data submission.


Expected Output
Balance before the transfer call: 9,106,942,090,155,963,627
Tx status: Ready
Tx status: {"broadcast":["12D3KooWPB64h2PbzuQCybAWuvWZUnJb8pzu2k3oJ54MxaGvHfmK","12D3KooWMHRgZhDMUbN55NQcXB19Ww6SnL8shz1un3K6X3K2XoAh","12D3KooWQG3ixhYNYdaZyzUemABxmfcYBa174R1WtDsbuA7n5zEa","12D3KooWDptx7tN295gFPJKj5CvosYw1CTZyCZQWFjtZ8fpirB53","12D3KooWABNzp4dheaKQbDdsrF3HQSBjVZX2rpftt954YxNRvbgc","12D3KooWCh9DXinhuUuDZLkCPUKuPFtssK8hLNehorDdsuuYgzr8","12D3KooWPNmovc7n6mET56bmpB8tM6XtjcRb8qBir3sTBWk5cttK","12D3KooWPbUK68ArAM3gshQr1TtHnJCWTdwPhkkyvXUYZqM34HFa","12D3KooWL4qRWezPhbPrHVUt56iC4PssS4wGsvqndRLS9FnGor5Q","12D3KooWNysE7HjjzB9B2qSfKwSvVfyxM6oZSSthq4S5uXtt2dyq","12D3KooWRYCs192er73R2oyE4QWkKdtoRk1fL28tR3immzxTQQAq","12D3KooWR8yPHmBZxHPoZrjjvCZEq5mJh9h7yewgM4zGgUVEANcG","12D3KooWLxzYHmGXpRnN4rAKkkZVzFgpGuqKofPggUnWz4iUR5yT","12D3KooWBEcTktYrebeQWEjw6dAiSEZ6c5rmRdGZaA4ZgRcMbUKL","12D3KooWFzqtue91MrdmqVRddA48dPYQVAFBtcFkf5HrmgiqUJ6F","12D3KooWQLdPYPEHRGAJ4J6dGYoiKyjm36VhaSCJkvKAuJBohJYi","12D3KooWQeizB1jcoeSYVufGa2g45RoSyCXfoPjsS8dyLLddErSq","12D3KooWKkLgiqxweQ1QCbJrDKeg5HCktZMM1kd81F4jMMTnBtD6","12D3KooWQRTgqX2j2HMideuPKUg12yeCbbp6cCi6xtf4cACYSiKb","12D3KooWJfK6MbsajgY49gURHUEuChGjc5oyj2W2KPMTWGoFp4XS"]}
Tx status: {"inBlock":"0xfff8e493be389d1b71a948872783e196c174708b9dd627358611ade1572a91f3"}
Tx status: {"finalized":"0xfff8e493be389d1b71a948872783e196c174708b9dd627358611ade1572a91f3"}
Tx Hash: 0x2194432a2cc2912b3455d569ff2286cf75a739b501bc75e6f4405c8e8f1dcc26, Block Hash: 0xfff8e493be389d1b71a948872783e196c174708b9dd627358611ade1572a91f3
Balance after the transfer call: 10,106,942,090,155,963,627

You can play around with changing the amount and the sender/recipient by changing config.ts.

Try modifying the data to submitted and playing around with the code to see how it works at the path avail-js/examples/node-examples/src/tx-balance-transfer.ts

More Examples

There are a lot of examples already in the avail-js repository (opens in a new tab).

If you want to simply interact with Avail without the examples, you just need to install the avail-js-sdk as outlined in the first step, and use it.

The avail-js-sdk is a wrapper on top of Polkadot JS SDK. It's worth noting that when using this package, all polkadot-js features can be used as it's only a wrapper with additional types / rpc / helpers.

Once you fully run the node, you also need to populate config.ts file with seed and endpoint details. You can choose to change other things as well, but we will be focusing on these two for now.

Example: Establishing and Checking a connection

For starters, we will run connect.ts. This is also located in the examples (opens in a new tab) folder. 

import { initialize } from "avail-js-sdk" // Global import
import { isConnected, disconnect } from "avail-js-sdk/chain" // Modular import
import config from "../../config"
 
/**
 * Example to connect to a chain and get the ApiPromise.
 */
const main = async () => {
  const api = await initialize(config.endpoint)
  const [chain, nodeName, nodeVersion] = await Promise.all([
    api.rpc.system.chain(),
    api.rpc.system.name(),
    api.rpc.system.version(),
  ])
 
  console.log(
    `Connected to chain ${chain} using ${nodeName} and node version ${nodeVersion} - is connected: ${isConnected()}`,
  )
  await disconnect()
  process.exit(0)
}
main()

Example: Estimate Transaction Fees

To estimate transaction fees, you need to first build your extrinsic and then call .paymentInfo() which returns the fee information of the particular extrinsic. Let's check it out in action.

Please make sure that the relevant details to be defined in config are in config.ts.

import { initialize, getDecimals, formatNumberToBalance } from "avail-js-sdk"
 
import config from "../../config"
 
const main = async () => {
  const api = await initialize(config.endpoint)
 
  const sender = "5GrwvaEF5zXb26Fz9rcQpDWS57CtERHpNehXCPcNoHGKutQY"
  const bobAddress = "5FHneW46xGXgs5mUiveU4sbTyGBzmstUspZC92UhjJM694ty"
  const decimals = getDecimals(api)
  const amount = formatNumberToBalance(config.amount, decimals)
 
  const transferInfo = await api.tx.balances.transferKeepAlive(bobAddress, amount).paymentInfo(sender)
  // log relevant info, partialFee is Balance, estimated for current
  console.log(`Transaction Fee for Balance Transfer:
    class=${transferInfo.class.toString()},
    weight=${transferInfo.weight.toString()},
    partialFee=${transferInfo.partialFee.toHuman()}
  `)
 
  const data = "Hello World"
  const submitDataInfo = await api.tx.dataAvailability.submitData(data).paymentInfo(sender)
  // log relevant info, partialFee is Balance, estimated for current
  console.log(`Transaction Fee for Submit Data:
    class=${submitDataInfo.class.toString()},
    weight=${submitDataInfo.weight.toString()},
    partialFee=${submitDataInfo.partialFee.toHuman()}
  `)
 
  process.exit(0)
}
main()

In the above example we built out the extrinsics for a Balance Transfer (balances.transferKeepAlive()), and a Data Submission (dataAvailability.submitData()). We then used .paymentInfo() to retrieve the fee details of the extrinsic. In this way we can estimate the fees of a transaction in Avail.

These two examples are just the starters on what can be achieved by using avail-js. There are a lot of other examples (opens in a new tab) in the repository that you can check out.

QuickstartOptimium