Large Responses
This guide explains how to make an HTTP GET request to an external API from a smart contract, using Chainlink’s Request & Receive Data cycle and then receive large responses.
Example
This example shows how to:
- Call an API and fetch the response that is an arbitrary-length raw byte data.
IPFS is a decentralized file system for storing and accessing files, websites, applications, and data. For this example, we stored in IPFS a JSON file that contains arbitrary-length raw byte data. To check the response, directly paste the following URL in your browser: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmZgsvrA1o1C8BGCrx6mHTqR1Ui1XqbCrtbMVrRLHtuPVD?filename=big-api-response.json
Alternatively, run the following command in your terminal:
curl -X 'GET' \
'https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmZgsvrA1o1C8BGCrx6mHTqR1Ui1XqbCrtbMVrRLHtuPVD?filename=big-api-response.json' \
-H 'accept: application/json'
The response should be similar to the following:
{
"image": "0x68747470733a2f2f697066732e696f2f697066732f516d5358416257356b716e3259777435444c336857354d736a654b4a4839724c654c6b51733362527579547871313f66696c656e616d653d73756e2d636861696e6c696e6b2e676966"
}
Fetch the value of image. To consume an API, your contract must import ChainlinkClient.sol. This contract exposes a struct named Chainlink.Request
, which your contract can use to build the API request. The request must include the following parameters:
- Link token address
- Oracle address
- Job id
- Request fee
- Task parameters
- Callback function signature
Making a GET request will fail unless your deployed contract has enough LINK to pay for it. Learn how to Acquire testnet LINK and Fund your contract.
To use this contract:
-
Open the contract in Remix.
-
Compile and deploy the contract using the Injected Provider environment. The contract includes all the configuration variables for the Sepolia testnet. Make sure your wallet is set to use Sepolia. The constructor sets the following parameters:
- The Chainlink Token address for Sepolia by calling the
setChainlinkToken
function. - The Oracle contract address for Sepolia by calling the
setChainlinkOracle
function. - The
jobId
: A specific job for the oracle node to run. In this case, the data is a bytes data type, so you must call a job that calls an API and returns bytes. We will be using a generic GET>bytes job that can be found here.
- The Chainlink Token address for Sepolia by calling the
-
Fund your contract with 0.1 LINK. To learn how to send LINK to contracts, read the Fund Your Contracts page.
-
Call the
data
andimage_url
functions to confirm that thedata
andimage_url
state variables are not set. -
Run the
requestBytes
function. This builds theChainlink.Request
using the correct parameters:- The
req.add("get", "<url>")
request parameter provides the oracle node with the url where to fetch the response. - The
req.add('path', 'image')
request parameter tells the oracle node how to parse the response.
- The
-
After few seconds, call the
data
andimage_url
functions. You should get non-empty responses.