Consider adding dry-run via GET about aeternity

[dincho]

I have to admit that the concept of preflight allures me - what is the purpose or why do we need it...

Google says: GET , POST , and HEAD are considered simple requests (and are case-sensitive). They do not require preflight. 🤔

It's CORS stuff of course :)

[hanssv]

I have to admit that the concept of preflight allures me - what is the purpose or why do we need it...

Google says: GET , POST , and HEAD are considered simple requests (and are case-sensitive). They do not require preflight. 🤔

[dincho]

I definitely disagree here.

First of all while the dry-run doesn't mutate the node state itself, because ... well .. it's a dry run - it is actually a mutable operation on the node state, just the new state is thrown away.

Abusing GET requests with blob data also never ended well.

I've always been proponent of the idea of separate and specific API operation for "static calls" and disabling the dry-run "in production".

[davidyuk]

it is actually a mutable operation on the node state, just the new state is thrown away

The same for get requests in general, server allocates some RAM to compute the result (changes its state 🙃), and disposes it after that.

Abusing GET requests with blob data also never ended well.

Regarding limitations, I find out that our Cloudfront setup limits URLs to 1-2k chars. I won't propose to change that. It is still anough to call a contract providing like 3 addresses.

separate and specific API operation for "static calls"

Sounds also good to me, it may accept contract address, encoded calldata and return the call result.

[hanssv]

I'm curious, what is a 'static call' and how is it different from a dry-run? (Isn't a gas limit the best/only way to limit resource usage in a relevant way?) Also, why would it fit better in a HTTP GET? The component of a contract call that can be largest is the calldata?

[davidyuk]

I'm curious, what is a 'static call' and how is it different from a dry-run?

Dry-run executes a transaction. We name 'static call' when a contract method gets executed using dry-run. Do you think better to name it dry-run as well? For example in js sdk:

-myContract.sum(1, 2, { callStatic: true })
+myContract.sum(1, 2, { dryRun: true })

Isn't a gas limit the best/only way to limit resource usage in a relevant way?

'static call' endpoint can be the same way limited by gas 👍

Also, why would it fit better in a HTTP GET?

It also can be GET and POST. GET for lighter requests (without CORS, better for polling), POST when calldata is big.

The component of a contract call that can be largest is the calldata?

I think so.

[hanssv]

But?! If dry-run and static call is the same thing, then this makes no sense:

I've always been proponent of the idea of separate and specific API operation for "static calls" and disabling the dry-run "in production".