Geth js console not parsing a string

[joeykrug]

So I have a contract with a function and signature:
def createEvent(branch, description:str, expDate, minValue, maxValue, numOutcomes):

Then I try to call this function using geth console:
contract.call({"from": coinbase}).createEvent(1010101, "test", 97000, 0, 1, 2).toNumber();

And I get the following error:
parser does not support type: string at <unknown> at <unknown> at <unknown> at <unknown> at createEvent (<anonymous>:-10733:-91) at <anonymous>:1:1

[bas-vk]

I'm unable to reproduce this issue. Could you create a small test case?

One other thing I notice is that you are passing the description string as is. Please try something as:

var desc = web3.fromAscii("test");
contract.call({"from": coinbase}).createEvent(1010101, desc, 9700, 0, 1, 2).toNumber();

Search for ascii on this page https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JavaScript-API and you will find a to and from method to convert to and from the ethereum representation of strings.

[joeykrug]

Test case below; tried the fromAscii thing & still getting this error

def roflcopter(lol: str):
  return(1)

var evm = '0x61006c8061000e60003961007a56600060ff537c01000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000006000350463634ccf2081141561006a57602460043580806020015990590160009052818152602081019050905060405280826040513780820191505050600160e052602060e0f35b505b6000f3';
var coinbase = eth.coinbase;
var gas_amount = 1000000;
var address = eth.sendTransaction({from: coinbase, gas: gas_amount, code: evm});
var desc = [{"name": "roflcopter(string)","type": "function","inputs": [{ "name": "lol", "type": "string" }],"outputs": [{ "name": "out", "type": "int256" }]}];
var Contract = web3.eth.contract(desc);
contract = new Contract(address);
var description = web3.fromAscii("test");
contract.call({"from": coinbase}).roflcopter(description).toNumber();

[obscuren]

Cheers. Will look in to it

[obscuren]

@debris

> contract.call({"from": coinbase}).roflcopter(description).toNumber();
parser does not support type: string
    at <unknown>
    at <unknown>
    at <unknown>
    at <unknown>
    at roflcopter (<anonymous>:-10733:-70)
    at <anonymous>:1:1

any idea?

[chriseth]

The reason might be that string is not an ABI type anymore, it was replaced by bytes (dynamic length) and bytes0, ..., bytes32.

[obscuren]

That's it. Cheers

[joeykrug]

How does this work with serpent? Serpent still has strings as a type --- should I just convert to a byte array or...?

[tinybike]

Would also like to know the answer with this. Almost all our contracts (written in Serpent) are broken until this is fixed.

[tinybike]

If nothing else, is it possible to restore the string type? We wrote quite a bit of code that depends on this.

[joeykrug]

Seems this is a serpent issue --- no need to restore string, figured out the problem & gonna take it to serpent page

[chriseth]

A quick fix should be to replace "string" types by "bytes" in the ABI description JSON:

var desc = [{"name": "roflcopter(string)","type": "function","inputs": [{ "name": "lol", "type": "bytes" }],"outputs": [{ "name": "out", "type": "int256" }]}];

Note that the string in the name is not replaced.