Using extensions

Extensions are the most convenient way to interact with contracts and protocols.

They are precompiled, type-safe and highly optimized implementations of common standards such as ERC20, ERC721, ERC1155, etc. They can be handwritten to provide an easier API, sometimes combining multiple contract calls into one convenient function. They can also be generated from any deployed contract using a simple CLI command.

To use an extension, you just need to import it and call it with the necessary parameters.

This read extension handles fetching all the tokens owned by an address. Under the hood, this combines multiple contract calls.

import { getContract } from "thirdweb";
import { getOwnedNFTs } from "thirdweb/extensions/erc1155";
 
// get the contract
const contract = getContract({...});
 
// since this is a read extension, we can just await the result
const ownedNFTs = await getOwnedNFTs({
	contract,
	address: "0x5678...",
});

This extension handles uploading metadata to IPFS before minting an ERC721 token.

import { getContract } from "thirdweb";
import { mintTo } from "thirdweb/extensions/erc721";
 
// get the contract
const contract = getContract({...});
 
// call the extension function to prepare the transaction
const transaction = mintTo({
	contract,
	to: "0x5678...",
    nft: {
        name: "My NFT",
        description: "This is my NFT",
        image: "https://example.com/image.png",
    },
});
 
// Send the transaction
const transactionResult = await sendTransaction({
  transaction,
  account,
});

This extension conveniently handles unit conversion when transfering ERC20 tokens. You can pass the amount in tokens, the extension will convert it to the right unit before calling the contract.

import { getContract, sendTransaction } from "thirdweb";
import { transfer } from "thirdweb/extensions/erc20";
 
// get the contract
const contract = getContract({...});
 
// Call the extension function to prepare the transaction
const transaction = transfer({
  contract,
  to: "0x1234...",
  amount: "0.01",
});
 
// Send the transaction
const transactionResult = await sendTransaction({
  transaction,
  account,
});