ethers.js/docs.wrm/migrating.wrm

_section: Migrating from v5 @<migrating> @priority<-10>

This guide aims to capture some of the high-level differences
between v5 and v6 to help those migrating an existing app and
those already familiar with v5 that just need a quick primer.

The biggest differnce in v6 is the use of modern ES6 features,
so a lot of changes are largely internal.

- [BigNumbers](migrate-bigint)
- [Contracts](migrate-contracts)
- [Importing](migrate-importing)
- [Providers](migrate-providers)
- [Signatures](migrate-signatures)
- [Transactions](migrate-transactions)
- [Utilities](migrate-utils)
- [Removed Items](migrate-missing)


_subsection: Big Numbers  @<migrate-bigint>

One of the biggest changes in v6 is that the //BigNumber// class has
been replaced with the built-in ES2020 BigInt offered by modern
JavaScript environments.

There is plenty of [online documentation](link-js-bigint) to get
you started with JavaScript ES2020 BigInt. Keep in mind, just like
//BigNumber//, a ES2020 BigInt can **only** operate on integers.

The [[FixedNumber]] class still exists for performing fixed-point
maths.


_code: creating large numbers  @lang<script>

  // Using BigNumber in v5
  value = BigNumber.from("1000")

  // Using BigInt in v6 (using literal notation).
  // Notice the suffix n
  value = 1000n

  // Using the BigInt function for strings
  value = BigInt("1000")


_code: simple maths on large numbers  @lang<script>

  // Adding two values in v5
  sum = value1.add(value2)

  // Using BigInt in v6; keep in mind, both values
  // must be a BigInt
  sum = value1 + value2


_code: simple comparison on large numbers  @lang<script>

  // Checking equality in v5
  isEqual = value1.eq(value2)

  // Using BigInt in v6
  isEqaul = (value1 == value2)


_subsection: Contracts @<migrate-contracts>

The [[Contract]] is an ES6 Proxy, which means it can resolve
method names at run-time.

_heading: Ambiguous Methods

In v5, in the case of an ambiguous method, it was necessary to
look up a method by its canonical normalized signature. In v6
the signature does not need to be normalized and the Typed API
provides a cleaner way to access the desired method.

In v5, duplicate definitions also injected warnings into the
console, since there was no way to detect them at run-time.

_code: contracts in v5 @lang<script>
  abi = [
    "function foo(address bar)",
    "function foo(uint160 bar)",
  ]
  contract = new Contract(address, abi, provider)

  // In v5 it was necessary to specify the fully-qualified normalized
  // signature to access the desired method. For example:
  contract["foo(address)"](addr)

  // These would fail, since there signature is not normalized:
  contract["foo(address )"](addr)
  contract["foo(address addr)"](addr)

  // This would fail, since the method is ambiguous:
  contract.foo(addr)

_code: contracts in v6  @lang<script>
  abi = [
    "function foo(address bar)",
    "function foo(uint160 bar)",
  ]
  contract = new Contract(address, abi, provider)

  // Any of these work fine:
  contract["foo(address)"](addr)
  contract["foo(address )"](addr)
  contract["foo(address addr)"](addr)

  // This still fails, since there is no way to know which
  // method was intended
  contract.foo(addr)

  // However, the Typed API makes things a bit easier, since it
  // allows providing typing information to the Contract:
  contract.foo(Typed.address(addr))

_heading: Other Method Operations

In v5, contracts contained a series of method buckets, which
then in turn had all signatures and non-ambiguous names
attached to them to perform less-common operations.

In v6, the methods each have their own less-common operations
attached directly to them.

_code: other operations in v5  @lang<script>

  // The default action chooses send or call base on method
  // type (pure, view, constant, non-payable or payable)
  contract.foo(addr)

  // This would perform the default action, but return a Result
  // object, instead of destructing the value
  contract.functions.foo(addr)

  // Forces using call
  contract.callStatic.foo(addr)

  // Estimate the gas
  contract.estimateGas.foo(addr)

  // Populate a transaction
  contract.populateTransaction.foo(addr)

_code: other operations in v6  @lang<script>

  // Still behaves the same
  contract.foo(addr)

  // Perform a call, returning a Result object directly
  contract.foo.staticCallResult(addr)

  // Forces using call (even for payable and non-payable)
  contract.foo.staticCall(addr)

  // Forces sending a transaction (even for pure and view)
  contract.foo.send(addr)

  // Estimate the gas
  contract.foo.estimateGas(addr)

  // Populate a transaction
  contract.foo.populateTransaction(addr)


_subsection: Importing  @<migrate-importing>

In v5, the project was maintained as a large set of sub-packages
managed as a monorepo.

In v6 all imports are available in the root package, and for those
who wish to have finer-grained control, the ``pkg.exports`` makes
certain folders avilable directly.

_code: importing in v5  @lang<script>

  // Many things (but not all) we available on the root package
  import { ethers } from "ethers"

  // But some packages were grouped behind an additional property
  import { providers } from "ethers"
  const { InfuraProvider } = providers

  // For granular control, importing from the sub-package
  // was necessary
  import { InfuraProvider } from "@ethersproject/providers"

_code: importing in v6  @lang<script>

  // Everything is available on the root package
  import { ethers } from "ethers"
  import { InfuraProvider } from "ethers"

  // The pkg.exports provides granular access
  import { InfuraProvider } from "ethers/providers"


_subsection: Providers  @<migrate-providers>

In addition to all the ``ethers.providers.*`` being moved to
``ethers.*``, the biggest change developers need to keep in
mind is that ``Web3Provider`` (which historically was used
to wrap [[link-web3js]] providers) is now called
[[BrowserProvider]] which is designed to wrap EIP-1193
providers, which is the standard that both modern Web3.js and
injected providers offer.

_code: wrapping EIP-1193 providers  @lang<script>
  // v5
  provider = new ethers.providers.Web3Provider(window.ethereum)

  // v6:
  provider = new ethers.BrowserProvider(window.ethereum)

Also, the method for broadcasting transactions to the network has
changed:

_code: broadcasting transactions  @lang<script>
  // v5
  provider.sendTransaction(signedTx)

  // v6
  provider.broadcastTransaction(signedTx)


_subsection: Signatures  @<migrate-signatures>

The Signature is now a class which facilitates all the parsing
and serializing.

_code: signature manipulation
  // v5
  splitSig = splitSignature(sigBytes)
  sigBytes = joinSignature(splitSig)

  // v6
  splitSig = ethers.Signature.from(sigBytes)
  sigBytes = ethers.Signature.from(splitSig).serialized


_subsection: Transactions  @<migrate-transactions>

The transaction helpers present in v5 were all wrapped into a
[[Transaction]] class, which can handle any supported transaction
format to be further processed

_code: parsing transactions  @lang<script>

  // v5
  tx = parseTransaction(txBytes)
  txBytes = serializeTransaction(tx)
  txBytes = serializeTransaction(tx, sig)

  // v6
  tx = Transaction.from(txBytes)

  // v6 (the tx can optionally include the signature)
  txBytes = Transaction.from(tx).serialized


_subsection: Utilities  @<migrate-utils>

_code: Bytes32 string helpers  @lang<script>
  // In v5:
  bytes32 = ethers.utils.formatBytes32String(text)
  text = ethers.utils.parseBytes32String(bytes32)

  // In v6:
  bytes32 = ethers.encodeBytes32String(text)
  text = ethers.decodeBytes32String(bytes32)

_code: constants  @lang<script>
  // v5:
  ethers.constants.AddressZero
  ethers.constants.HashZero

  // v6:
  ethers.ZeroAddress
  ethers.ZeroHash

_code: data manipulation  @lang<script>
  // v5
  slice = ethers.utils.hexDataSlice(value, start, end)
  padded = ethers.utils.hexZeroPad(value, length)

  // v5; converting numbers to hexstrings
  hex = hexlify(35)

  // v6
  slice = ethers.dataSlice(value, start, end)
  padded = ethers.zeroPadValue(value, length)

  // v6; converting numbers to hexstrings
  hex = toBeHex(35)

_code: defaultAbiCoder  @lang<script>
  // In v5, it is a property of AbiCoder
  coder = AbiCoder.defaultAbiCoder

  // In v6, it is a static function on AbiCoder, which uses
  // a singleton pattern; the first time it is called, the
  // AbiCoder is created and on subsequent calls that initial
  // instance is returned.
  coder = AbiCoder.defaultAbiCoder()

_code: fetching content  @lang<script>
  // v5, with a body and no weird things
  data = await ethers.utils.fetchJson(url, json, processFunc)

  // v5 with Connection overrides
  req = {
      url, user: "username", password: "password"
      // etc. properties have FetchRequest equivalents
  };
  data = await ethers.utils.detchJson(req, json, processFunc)

  // v6
  req = new ethers.FetchRequest(url)

  // set a body; optional
  req.body = json

  // set credentials; optional
  req.setCredentials("username", "password")

  // set a processFunc; optional
  req.processFunc = processFunc

  // send the request!
  resp = await req.send()

  // Get the response body; depending on desired format
  data = resp.body        // Uint8Array
  data = resp.bodyText    // Utf8String; throws if invalid
  data = resp.bodyJson    // Object; throws if invalid

_code: hex conversion  @lang<script>
  // v5
  hex = ethers.utils.hexValue(value)
  array = ethers.utils.arrayify(value)

  // v6
  hex = ethers.toQuantity(value)
  array = ethers.getBytes(value)

_code: solidity non-standard packed  @lang<script>
  // v5
  ethers.utils.solidityPack(types, values)

  // v6
  ethers.solidityPacked(types, values)

_code: property manipulation  @lang<script>
  // v5
  ethers.utils.defineReadOnly(obj, "name", value)

  // v6
  ethers.defineProperties(obj, { name: value });


_subsection: Removed Classes and functions  @<migrate-missing>

The **Logger** class has been replaced by
[several Error utility functions](about-errors).

The ``checkProperties`` and ``shallowCopy`` have been
removed in favor of using ``.map`` and ``Object.assign``.