Making Transactions

Regardless of how you are using ape, you will likely be making transactions. There are various types of transactions you can make with ape. A simple example is deploying a contract.

Deployment

Deploying a smart contract is a unique type of transaction where we don’t necessarily care about the receipt as much as we care about the contract instance. That is why the return value from the deploy method is a ContractInstance.

The following example demonstrates a simple deployment script:

from ape import accounts, project


def deploy():
    account = accounts.load("MyAccount")
    # Assume you have a contract named `MyContract` in your project's contracts folder.
    return account.deploy(project.MyContract)

To get the receipt of a deploy transaction, use the ContractInstance.receipt property:

from ape import accounts, project

dev = accounts.load("dev")
contract = project.MyContract.deploy(sender=dev)

# The receipt is available on the contract instance and has the expected sender.
receipt = contract.receipt
assert receipt.sender == dev

Deployment from Ape Console

Deploying from ape console allows you to interact with a contract in real time. You can also use the --network flag to connect a live network.

ape console --network ethereum:goerli:alchemy

This will launch an IPython shell:

In [1]: dev = accounts.load("dev")
In [2]: token = dev.deploy(project.Token) 
In [3]: token.contract_method_defined_in_contract()

For an in depth tutorial on how to deploy, please visit ApeAcademy.

Dynamic-Fee Transactions

Before EIP-1559, all transactions used a gas_price. After the London fork of Ethereum, the gas_price got broken up into two values, max_fee and max_priority_fee. The ape framework supports both types of transactions. By default, transactions use the dynamic-fee model. Making contract calls without specifying any additional kwargs will use a dynamic-fee transaction.

Calling certain methods on a deployed-contract is one way to transact.

contract = deploy()  # Example from above, that returns a contract instance.
contract.fundMyContract(value="1 gwei", sender=sender)  # Assuming there is a method named 'fundMyContract' on MyContract.

In the example above, the call to fundMyContract() invokes a dynamic-fee transaction. To have more control of the fee-values, you can specify the max_fee, the max_priority_fee, or both.

contract.fundMyContract(value="1 gwei", max_priority_fee="50 gwei", max_fee="100 gwei", sender=sender)

The max_priority_fee cannot exceed the max_fee, as the max_fee includes both the base fee and the priority fee. The max_priority_fee, when omitted, defaults to the return value from the ProviderAPI.priority_fee method property. The max_fee, when omitted, defaults to the priority_fee (which gets its default applied beforehand) plus the latest the value returned from the ProviderAPI.base_fee method property.

Static-Fee Transactions

Static-fee transactions are the transactions that Ethereum used before the London-fork (before EIP-1559). However, some applications may still require using static-fee transactions.

One way to use a static-fee transaction is by specifying the gas_price as a key-value argument:

contract.fundMyContract(value="1 gwei", gas_price="100 gwei", sender=sender)

NOTE: Miners prioritize static-fee transactions based on the highest gas_price.

Another way to use a static-fee transaction (without having to provide gas_price) is to set the key-value argument type equal to 0x00.

contract.fundMyContract(value="1 gwei", type="0x0", sender=sender)

When declaring type="0x0" and not specifying a gas_price, the gas_price gets set using the provider’s estimation.

Access List Transactions

Utilizing EIP-2930, you can also make access-list transactions using Ape. Access-list transactions are static-fee transactions except you can optionally specify an access list. Access-lists make contract-interaction more predictable and optimized. You can also use Access-lists in Dynamic-fee transactions.

To automatically use access-list (type 1) transactions in Ape, specify type=1 in your call:

contract.fundMyContract(value="1 gwei", type=1, sender=sender)

When specifying type=1, Ape uses eth_createAccessList RPC to attach an access list to the transaction automatically.

You can also specify the access-list directly:

contract.fundMyContract(value="1 gwei", type=1, sender=sender, access_list=MY_ACCESS_LIST)

Transaction Logs

In Ape, you can easily get all the events on a receipt. Use the .events property to access the (ContractLog) objects. Each object represents an event emitted from the call.

receipt = contract.fundMyContract(value="1 gwei", type="0x0", sender=sender)
print(receipt.events)

To only get specific log types, use the decode_logs() method and pass the event ABIs as arguments:

for log in receipt.decode_logs(contract.FooEvent.abi, contract.BarEvent.abi):
    print(log.amount)  # Assuming 'amount' is a property on the event.

You can also use the ContractEvent.from_receipt(receipt) method:

receipt = contract.fooMethod(value="1 gwei", type="0x0", sender=sender)
for log in contract.FooEvent.from_receipt(receipt):
    print(log.amount)  # Assuming 'amount' is a property on the event.

NOTE: If you have more than event with the same name in your contract type’s ABI, you can access the events by using the get_event_by_signature() method:

event_type = contract.get_event_by_signature("FooEvent(uint256 bar, uint256 baz)")
receipt.decode_logs(event_type.abi)

Otherwise, you will get an AttributeError.

Transaction Acceptance Timeout

NOTE For longer running scripts, you may need to increase the transaction acceptance timeout. The default value is 2 minutes for live networks and 20 seconds for local networks. In your ape-config.yaml file, add the following:

ethereum:
  mainnet:
    transaction_acceptance_timeout: 600  # 5 minutes

Traces

If you are using a provider that is able to fetch transaction traces, such as the ape-hardhat provider, you can call the ReceiptAPI.show_trace() method.

from ape import accounts, project

owner = accounts.load("acct")
contract = project.Contract.deploy(sender=owner)
receipt = contract.methodWithoutArguments()
receipt.show_trace()

NOTE: If your provider does not support traces, you will see a NotImplementedError saying that the method is not supported.

The trace might look something like:

Call trace for '0x43abb1fdadfdae68f84ce8cd2582af6ab02412f686ee2544aa998db662a5ef50'
txn.origin=0x1e59ce931B4CFea3fe4B875411e280e173cB7A9C
ContractA.methodWithoutArguments() -> 0x00..7a9c [469604 gas]                                                                                                                                     
├── SYMBOL.supercluster(x=234444) -> [                                                                                                                                                                   [23523523235235, 11111111111, 234444],                                                                                                                                                           [                                                                                                                                                                                                  345345347789999991,                                                                                                                                                                              99999998888882,                                                                                                                                                                                  345457847457457458457457457                                                                                                                                                                    ],                                                                                                                                                                                               [234444, 92222229999998888882, 3454],                                                                                                                                                            [                                                                                                                                                                                                  111145345347789999991,                                                                                                                                                                           333399998888882,                                                                                                                                                                                 234545457847457457458457457457                                                                                                                                                                 ]                                                                                                                                                                                              ] [461506 gas]                                                                                                                                                                              
├── SYMBOL.methodB1(lolol="ice-cream", dynamo=345457847457457458457457457) [402067 gas]                                                                                                              ├── ContractC.getSomeList() -> [                                                                                                                                                                      3425311345134513461345134534531452345,                                                                                                                                                          111344445534535353,                                                                                                                                                                             993453434534534534534977788884443333                                                                                                                                                          ] [370103 gas]                                                                                                                                                                               └── ContractC.methodC1(                                                                                                                                                                                windows95="simpler",                                                                                                                                                                             jamaica=345457847457457458457457457,                                                                                                                                                             cardinal=ContractA                                                                                                                                                                             ) [363869 gas]                                                                                                                                                                            
├── SYMBOL.callMe(blue=tx.origin) -> tx.origin [233432 gas]                                                                                                                                       
├── SYMBOL.methodB2(trombone=tx.origin) [231951 gas]                                                                                                                                                 ├── ContractC.paperwork(ContractA) -> (                                                                                                                                                               os="simpler",                                                                                                                                                                                   country=345457847457457458457457457,                                                                                                                                                            wings=ContractA                                                                                                                                                                               ) [227360 gas]                                                                                                                                                                               ├── ContractC.methodC1(windows95="simpler", jamaica=0, cardinal=ContractC) [222263 gas]                                                                                                          ├── ContractC.methodC2() [147236 gas]                                                                                                                                                            └── ContractC.methodC2() [122016 gas]                                                                                                                                                         
├── ContractC.addressToValue(tx.origin) -> 0 [100305 gas]                                                                                                                                         
├── SYMBOL.bandPractice(tx.origin) -> 0 [94270 gas]                                                                                                                                               
├── SYMBOL.methodB1(lolol="lemondrop", dynamo=0) [92321 gas]                                                                                                                                         ├── ContractC.getSomeList() -> [                                                                                                                                                                      3425311345134513461345134534531452345,                                                                                                                                                          111344445534535353,                                                                                                                                                                             993453434534534534534977788884443333                                                                                                                                                          ] [86501 gas]                                                                                                                                                                                └── ContractC.methodC1(windows95="simpler", jamaica=0, cardinal=ContractA) [82729 gas]                                                                                                        
└── SYMBOL.methodB1(lolol="snitches_get_stiches", dynamo=111) [55252 gas]                                                                                                                         
    ├── ContractC.getSomeList() -> [                                                                                                                                                              
         3425311345134513461345134534531452345,                                                                                                                                                  
         111344445534535353,                                                                                                                                                                     
         993453434534534534534977788884443333                                                                                                                                                    
       ] [52079 gas]                                                                                                                                                                             
    └── ContractC.methodC1(windows95="simpler", jamaica=111, cardinal=ContractA) [48306 gas]                                                                                                      

Additionally, you can view the traces of other transactions on your network.

from ape import networks

txn_hash = "0x053cba5c12172654d894f66d5670bab6215517a94189a9ffc09bc40a589ec04d"
receipt = networks.provider.get_receipt(txn_hash)
receipt.show_trace()

In Ape, you can also show the trace for a call. Use the show_trace= kwarg on a contract call and Ape will display the trace before returning the data.

token.balanceOf(account, show_trace=True)

NOTE: This may not work on all providers, but it should work on common ones such as ape-hardhat or ape-geth.

Gas Reports

To view the gas report of a transaction receipt, use the ReceiptAPI.show_gas_report() method:

from ape import networks

txn_hash = "0x053cba5c12172654d894f66d5670bab6215517a94189a9ffc09bc40a589ec04d"
receipt = networks.provider.get_receipt(txn_hash)
receipt.show_gas_report()

It will output tables of contracts and methods with gas usages that look like this:

                            DAI Gas

  Method           Times called    Min.    Max.    Mean   Median
 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  balanceOf                   4   1302    13028   1302    1302
  allowance                   2   1377    1377    1337    1337 approve                     1   22414   22414   22414   22414 burn                        1   11946   11946   11946   11946 mint                        1   25845   25845   25845   25845

Estimate Gas Cost

To estimate the gas cost on a transaction or call without sending it, use the estimate_gas_cost() method from the contract’s transaction / call handler: (Assume I have a contract instance named contract_a that has a method named methodToCall)

txn_cost = contract_a.myMutableMethod.estimate_gas_cost(1, sender=accounts.load("me"))
print(txn_cost)

view_cost = contract_a.myViewMethod.estimate_gas_cost()
print(view_cost)