Chain data
These fields describe the output of various TrueBlocks blockchain queries.
Each data structure is created by one or more tools which are detailed below
Block
chifra blocks returns top level data specified block. You can also include
an array for the blocks’ transactions.
The following commands produce and manage blocks:
| Tools | |
|---|---|
| chifra blocks | retrieve one or more blocks from the chain or local cache |
Block data is made of the following data fields:
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| gasLimit | the system-wide maximum amount of gas permitted in this block | gas |
| hash | the hash of the current block | hash |
| blockNumber | the number of the block | blknum |
| parentHash | hash of previous block | hash |
| miner | Address of block’s winning miner | address |
| difficulty | the computational difficulty at this block | uint64 |
| timestamp | the Unix timestamp of the object | timestamp |
| transactions | a possibly empty array of transactions or transaction hashes | CTransactionArray |
| baseFeePerGas | the base fee for this block | wei |
| finalized | flag indicating the system considers this data final | bool |
| unclesCnt | the number of uncles in this block | uint64 |
Transaction
Transactions represent eth transfers to and from other addresses.
Most of the fields that TrueBlocks returns are standard to all eth transaction.
However, one field is very interesting: articulatedTx provides a human readable output of the input field.
This is a very powerful way to understand the story behind a smart contract.
The following commands produce and manage transactions:
| Tools | |
|---|---|
| chifra transactions | Retrieve one or more transactions from the chain or local cache |
Transaction data is made of the following data fields:
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| gasPrice | the number of wei per unit of gas the sender is willing to spend | gas |
| hash | The hash of the transaction | hash |
| blockHash | The hash of the block containing this transaction | hash |
| blockNumber | the number of the block | blknum |
| transactionIndex | the zero-indexed position of the transaction in the block | blknum |
| nonce | sequence number of the transactions sent by the sender | uint64 |
| timestamp | the Unix timestamp of the object | timestamp |
| from | address from which the transaction was sent | address |
| to | address to which the transaction was sent | address |
| value | the amount of wei sent with this transactions | wei |
| gas | the maximum number of gas allowed for this transaction | gas |
| input | byte data either containing a message or funcational data for a smart contracts. See the –articulate | bytes |
| receipt | CReceipt | |
| statements | array of reconciliations | CReconciliationArray |
| articulatedTx | CFunction | |
| compressedTx | truncated, more readable version of the articulation | string |
| hasToken | true if the transaction is token related, false otherwise | uint8 |
| finalized | flag indicating the system considers this data final | bool |
| extraData | string | |
| isError | bool | |
| date | date |
Receipt
Receipts record the amount of gas used for a transaction among other things. If the transaction succeeded, a receipt might also have logs.
If the to address of a transaction is 0x0, the input data is considered to be the source code (byte code) of a smart contract. In this case, if the creation of the contract succeeds, the contractAddress field of the receipt carries the address of the newly created contract.
The following commands produce and manage receipts:
| Tools | |
|---|---|
| chifra receipts | retrieve receipts for the given transaction(s) |
Receipt data is made of the following data fields:
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| status | 1 on transaction suceess, null if tx preceeds Byzantium, 0 otherwise | uint32 |
| contractAddress | the address of the newly created contract, if any | address |
| gasUsed | the amount of gas actually used by the transaction | gas |
| logs | a possibly empty array of logs | CLogEntryArray |
Log
Logs appear in a possibly empty array in the transaction’s receipt. They are only created if the underlying transaction suceeded. In the case where the transaction failed, no logs will appear in the receipt. Logs are only ever generated during transactions whose to address is a smart contract.
The following commands produce and manage logs:
| Tools | |
|---|---|
| chifra logs | retrieve logs for the given transaction(s) |
Log data is made of the following data fields:
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| blockNumber | the number of the block | blknum |
| transactionIndex | the zero-indexed position of the transaction in the block | blknum |
| logIndex | the zero-indexed position of this log relative to the block | blknum |
| timestamp | the timestamp of the block this log appears in | timestamp |
| address | the smart contract that emitted this log | address |
| topics | The first topic hashes event signature of the log, up to 3 additional index parameters may appear | CTopicArray |
| data | any remaining un-indexed parameters to the event | bytes |
| articulatedLog | a human-readable version of the topic and data fields | CFunction |
| compressedLog | a truncated, more readable version of the articulation | string |
Trace
The deepest layer of the Ethereum data is the trace. Every transaction has at least one trace which is itself a record of the transaction. If the to address of the transaction is a smart contract, other traces may appear, if, for example, that smart contract calls other smart contracts.
Traces may be arbitrarily deep (up to the gasLimit) and ultimately represent a tree of function calls. Some transactions have 100s of traces. The format of the trace is similar to the transaction itself have a trace action (which contains from, to, value like the transaction) and the trace result (containing gasUsed like the receipt).
The following commands produce and manage traces:
| Tools | |
|---|---|
| chifra traces | retrieve traces for the given transaction(s) |
Trace data is made of the following data fields:
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| blockHash | The hash of the block containing this trace | hash |
| blockNumber | the number of the block | blknum |
| transactionHash | the transaction’s hash containing this trace | hash |
| transactionIndex | the zero-indexed position of the transaction in the block | blknum |
| traceAddress | a particular trace’s address in the trace tree | CStringArray |
| subtraces | the number of children traces that the trace hash | uint64 |
| type | the type of the trace | string |
| action | the trace action for this trace | CTraceAction |
| result | the trace result of this trace | CTraceResult |
| articulatedTrace | human readable version of the trace action input data | CFunction |
| compressedTrace | a compressed string version of the articulated trace | string |
TraceAction
Other than the first trace which is the trace of the transaction itself, traces represent calls into smart contracts. Because of this, trace actions closely resemble the fields of the transaction.
The following commands produce and manage traceactions:
| Tools | |
|---|---|
| chifra traces | retrieve traces for the given transaction(s) |
Traceaction data is made of the following data fields:
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| from | address from which the trace was sent | address |
| to | address to which the trace was sent | address |
| gas | the maximum number of gas allowed for this trace | gas |
| input | an encoded version of the function call | bytes |
| callType | the type of call | string |
| refundAddress | if the call type is self-destruct, the address to which the refund is sent | address |
TraceResult
As mentioned above, other than the first trace, traces represent calls into other smart contracts. Because of this, the trace results closely resembles the fields of the receipt.
The following commands produce and manage traceresults:
| Tools | |
|---|---|
| chifra traces | retrieve traces for the given transaction(s) |
Traceresult data is made of the following data fields:
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| newContract | Address of new contract, if any | address |
| code | if this trace is creating a new smart contract, the byte code of that contract | bytes |
| gasUsed | the amount of gas used by this trace | gas |
| output | the result of the call of this trace | bytes |
DatedBlock
Left to its own devices, the blockchain would try to convince us that only hashes and bytes are important, but being human beings we know that this is not true. TrueBlocks articulates various types of data with chifra names detailing the names for addresses, -articulate describing the Functions and Events of a transaction, and chifra when describing dated blocks. Dated blocks assign a human-readable date to blocks given block numbers or timestamps and visa versa.
The following commands produce and manage datedblocks:
| Tools | |
|---|---|
| chifra when | find block(s) based on date, blockNum, timestamp, or ‘special’ |
Datedblock data is made of the following data fields:
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| blockNumber | the number of the block | blknum |
| timestamp | the Unix timestamp of the block | timestamp |
| date | Human readable version of timestamp | date |
Base types
This documentation mentions the following basic data types.
| Type | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| address | a 20-byte hexadecimal string starting with ‘0x’ | lowercase |
| blknum | an alias for a uint64 | |
| bool | a value either true, false, 1, or 0 | |
| bytes | an arbitrarily long string of bytes | |
| date | a JSON formatted date | as a string |
| gas | an unsigned big number | as a string |
| hash | a 32-byte hexadecimal string starting with ‘0x’ | lowercase |
| string | a normal character string | |
| timestamp | a 64-bit unsigned integer | Unix timestamp |
| uint32 | a 32-bit unsigned integer | |
| uint64 | a 64-bit unsigned integer | |
| uint8 | an alias for the boolean type | |
| wei | an unsigned big number | as a string |