Building Transactions  [JS Stellar Base]

Transactions are the commands that modify the state of the ledger. They include sending payments, creating offers, making account configuration changes, etc.

Every transaction has a source account. This is the account that pays the fee and uses up a sequence number for the transaction.

Transactions are made up of one or more operations. Each operation also has a source account, which defaults to the transaction’s source account.

TransactionBuilder

The TransactionBuilder class is used to construct new transactions. TransactionBuilder is given an account that is used as transaction’s “source account”. The transaction will use the current sequence number of the given Account object as its sequence number and increments the given account’s sequence number when build() is called on the TransactionBuilder.

Operations can be added to the transaction calling addOperation(operation) for each operation you wish to add to the transaction. See operation.js for a list of possible operations you can add. addOperation(operation) returns the current TransactionBuilder object so you can chain multiple calls.

After adding the desired operations, call the build() method on the TransactionBuilder. This will return a fully constructed Transaction. The returned transaction will contain the sequence number of the source account. This transaction is unsigned. You must sign it before it will be accepted by the Stellar network.

StellarSdk.Network.useTestNetwork();
// StellarBase.Network.usePublicNetwork(); if this transaction is for the public network
// Create an Account object from an address and sequence number.
var account=new StellarBase.Account("GD6WU64OEP5C4LRBH6NK3MHYIA2ADN6K6II6EXPNVUR3ERBXT4AN4ACD","2319149195853854");

var transaction = new StellarBase.TransactionBuilder(account)
        // add a payment operation to the transaction
        .addOperation(StellarBase.Operation.payment({
                destination: "GASOCNHNNLYFNMDJYQ3XFMI7BYHIOCFW3GJEOWRPEGK2TDPGTG2E5EDW",
                asset: StellarBase.Asset.native(),
                amount: "100.50"  // 100.50 XLM
            }))
        // add a set options operation to the transaction
        .addOperation(StellarBase.Operation.setOptions({
                signer: {
                    ed25519PublicKey: secondAccountAddress,
                    weight: 1
                }
            }))
        .build();

Sequence Numbers

The sequence number of a transaction has to match the sequence number stored by the source account or else the transaction is invalid. After the transaction is submitted and applied to the ledger, the source account’s sequence number increases by 1.

There are two ways to ensure correct sequence numbers:

1. Read the source account’s sequence number before submitting a transaction
2. Manage the sequence number locally

During periods of high transaction throughput, fetching a source account’s sequence number from the network may not return the correct value. So, if you’re submitting many transactions quickly, you will want to keep track of the sequence number locally.

Adding Memos

Transactions can contain a “memo” field you can use to attach additional information to the transaction. You can do this by passing a memo object when you construct the TransactionBuilder. There are 5 types of memos:

• Memo.none - empty memo,
• Memo.text - 28-byte ascii encoded string memo,
• Memo.id - 64-bit number memo,
• Memo.hash - 32-byte hash - ex. hash of an item in a content server,
• Memo.returnHash - 32-byte hash used for returning payments - contains hash of the transaction being rejected.

var memo = Memo.text('Happy birthday!');
var transaction = new StellarBase.TransactionBuilder(account, {memo:memo})
        .addOperation(StellarBase.Operation.payment({
                destination: "GASOCNHNNLYFNMDJYQ3XFMI7BYHIOCFW3GJEOWRPEGK2TDPGTG2E5EDW",
                asset: StellarBase.Asset.native(),
                amount: "2000"
            }))
        .build();

Transaction

You probably won’t instantiate Transaction objects directly. Objects of this class are returned after TransactionBuilder builds a transaction. However, you can create a new Transaction object from a base64 representation of a transaction envelope.

var transaction = new Transaction(envelope);

Once a Transaction has been created from an envelope, its attributes and operations should not be changed. You should only add signatures to a Transaction object before submitting to the network or forwarding on for others to also sign.

Most importantly, you can sign a transaction using sign() method. See below…

Signing and Multi-sig

Transactions require signatures for authorization, and generally they only require one. However, you can exercise more control over authorization and set up complex schemes by increasing the number of signatures a transaction requires. For more, please consult the multi-sig documentation.

You add signatures to a transaction with the Transaction.sign() function. You can chain multiple sign() calls together.

Keypair class

Keypair object represents key pair used to sign transactions in Stellar network. Keypair object can contain both a public and private key, or only a public key.

If Keypair object does not contain private key it can’t be used to sign transactions. The most convenient method of creating new keypair is by passing the account’s secret seed:

var keypair = Keypair.fromSecret('SBK2VIYYSVG76E7VC3QHYARNFLY2EAQXDHRC7BMXBBGIFG74ARPRMNQM');
var address = keypair.publicKey(); // GDHMW6QZOL73SHKG2JA3YHXFDHM46SS5ZRWEYF5BCYHX2C5TVO6KZBYL
var canSign = keypair.canSign(); // true

You can create Keypair object from secret seed raw bytes:

var keypair = Keypair.fromRawSeed([0xdc, 0x9c, 0xbf, 0xb5, 0xd7, 0x12, 0x83, 0x6a, 0xbf, 0x7d, 0x5d, 0xd8, 0xc4, 0xc4, 0x3e, 0x9d, 0xc7, 0x81, 0x85, 0xf1, 0x4b, 0x12, 0x0e, 0x9b, 0x59, 0x5d, 0x62, 0x65, 0x52, 0xa8, 0xcb, 0xcc]);
var address = keypair.publicKey(); // GADMPH2LB7VDK4UHNGKMJIJBXC5WTWTQMXYWSPVWPMNVVR4MGWLI2IXN
var canSign = keypair.canSign(); // true

You can also create a randomly generated keypair:

var keypair = Keypair.random();

StellarBase.Network.useTestNetwork();
var key1 = Keypair.fromSecret('SBK2VIYYSVG76E7VC3QHYARNFLY2EAQXDHRC7BMXBBGIFG74ARPRMNQM');
var key2 = Keypair.fromSecret('SAMZUAAPLRUH62HH3XE7NVD6ZSMTWPWGM6DS4X47HLVRHEBKP4U2H5E7');

// Create an Account object from an address and sequence number.
var account=new StellarBase.Account("GD6WU64OEP5C4LRBH6NK3MHYIA2ADN6K6II6EXPNVUR3ERBXT4AN4ACD","2319149195853854");

var transaction = new StellarBase.TransactionBuilder(account)
        .addOperation(StellarBase.Operation.payment({
                destination: "GASOCNHNNLYFNMDJYQ3XFMI7BYHIOCFW3GJEOWRPEGK2TDPGTG2E5EDW",
                asset: StellarBase.Asset.native(),
                amount: "2000"  // 2000 XLM
            }))
        .build();

transaction.sign(key1);
transaction.sign(key2);
// submit tx to Horizon...