What's the correct way of submitting a transaction using cardano-graphql?

Question

I'm getting this error when trying to submit a transaction using graphql:

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "message": "Deserialization failed in Transaction.metadata because: Expected null, found other type",
      "locations": [
        {
          "line": 2,
          "column": 3
        }
      ],
      "path": [
        "submitTransaction"
      ],
      "extensions": {
        "code": "INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR",
        "exception": {
          "stacktrace": [
            "Error: Deserialization failed in Transaction.metadata because: Expected null, found other type",
            "    at Object.<anonymous> (/app/packages/api-cardano-db-hasura/dist/executableSchema.js:77:43)",
            "    at Generator.throw (<anonymous>)",
            "    at rejected (/app/packages/api-cardano-db-hasura/dist/executableSchema.js:6:65)",
            "    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:95:5)"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "data": null
}

What is this trying to say?

The transaction has been built using cardano-serialization-lib.

I'm 100% sure the transaction is correct because it's been accepted using other methods.

Answer 1

I don't suggest using cardano-graphql to submit a transaction: every time the node gets behind the tip of the blockchain, it fails.

ogmios is much more reliable for this regard.

You can submit a transaction using the following code:

const WebSocket = require('ws');
const client = new WebSocket("wss://ogmios-api.testnet.dandelion.link");

function wsp(methodname, args) {
    client.send(JSON.stringify({
        type: "jsonwsp/request",
        version: "1.0",
        servicename: "ogmios",
        methodname,
        args
    }));
}

client.once('open', () => {
    const submit =
      "g6QAgYJYIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGCglg5AQEBAQEBAQEB"+
      "AQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBGgAehICC"+
      "WDkBAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIC"+
      "AgICAgIaAHgXXAIaAAH6pAMZHkahAIGCWCABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"+
      "AAAAAFhA169grjPSrzUUEcFEXHlZBSaZC/pzy7NzK1TvMi2qFC5ohAI0EPi+PBbpvVIHbyuz"+
      "a/ON/gNKnwRljp9WGXq4D/Y=";

    wsp("SubmitTx", { submit });
});

client.on('message', function(msg) {
    const response = JSON.parse(msg);
    console.log(response);
    client.close();
}); 

Keep in mind that, in this example, the transaction is already in base64 format (submit variable). To convert from hex to base64, you need to use these helpers:

const arrayBufferToBase64=( buffer )=> {
  var binary = '';
  var bytes = new Uint8Array( buffer );
  var len = bytes.byteLength;
  for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
      binary += String.fromCharCode( bytes[ i ] );
  }
  return Buffer.from(binary, "binary").toString("base64");
}

const fromHex=(hex)=>Buffer.from(hex,"hex");

const bytes = arrayBufferToBase64(fromHex(txHex));

Then you can pass bytes to wsp function.