Using the Explorer

Browse blocks, transactions, and validators on Avail DA using the network explorers.

Note

The Avail network has two main explorers that can be used to browse the network:

Avail Apps explorer: A dev-focussed explorer with powerful tools to work with the network.
Subscan explorer: A simpler, and recommended way to explore the network for most users.

This tutorial will focus on helping advanced users and devs get started with the Avail Apps Explorer.

Switch networks

Note

The Avail Apps explorer currently supports Avail mainnet and Avail Turing testnet.

To switch networks:

Click on the Network name on the top-left.

Depending on the network you are on, click on live networks -> Avail DA network, or test network -> Avail Turing testnet.
Click on Switch.

Look up the details of a particular transaction

Note

Due to how the network is designed, it is not possible for the AvailApps explorer to query a transaction's details using just it's hash directly from a node.
The Subscan explorer however, makes it possible to do so, since it queries from a dedicated indexer built on top of Avail to support this feature.

Note

Search for a txn using it's block number/block hash AND it's transaction hash

Search for the block number or block hash of the block your transaction was included in.

The explorer then fetches all transactions from that specific block. Click on the hash of the transaction you are interested in to get a detailed view.

Create accounts within the explorer

The AvailApps explorer can be used to add or import Avail accounts into the explorer.To go to the page, click on the Accounts tab on the top-left, or click this link.

The accounts section shows any accounts created straight from the explorer. You don't need any wallet extensions to create or use them.
The extension section shows any accounts connected to the explorer from wallets like Polkadot.js, Subwallet, Talisman, etc...

The following gif shows you how to create an account straight from the explorer:

You can do a few things here:

Create a new account using a mnemonic or by clicking on the + Account button.
Import an account via an encrypted JSON file.
Connect extension accounts from wallets like Polkadot.js, Subwallet, Talisman, etc...
Create a multisig account. We have covered instructions to do so in our docs here.
Create a proxy account. We have covered instructions to do so in our docs here.
The AvailApps explorer also allows you to use hardware wallets to safely connect cold accounts. We have covered instructions to do so in our docs here.

Any of these accounts that you connect can be used to sign transactions on the network. Which is something we will cover in the next section.

Using the explorers to interact with the network

Wrt interacting with the network, the AvailApps explorer can be used to:

Query data from the network by calling Chain State or RPC methods.
Send transactions to the network by signing and submitting Extrinsics.

You can find them within the Developer tab.

Note

WHAT ARE PALLETS?
Avail organizes its runtime functionality into pallets. Each pallet is a collection of calls and extrinsics of a specific functionality. For example, the data_availability pallet contains all the calls and extrinsics related to querying and submitting data to the network, and so on. Some methods might be grouped into seemingly unrelated pallets for technical reasons, but this largely holds true.To look for a particular method within the AvailApps explorer, you need to know the pallet it belongs to.

How to use the explorer to query the network

Let us learn how to query the network using the AvailApps explorer by querying the balance of an account.

Either go to the Chain State methods menu from within the Developer tab or click on this link.
The balance of an account can be queried by calling the account(AccountId32) method from within the system pallet. Select the system pallet from the dropdown on the left, and the account(AccountId32) method from the dropdown on the right.

Note

THE include option TOGGLE
This toggle allows you to enter params for a method when it is toggled on. You can also call methods without passing a param by keeping it off.
But system_account method won't return anything without an AccountId32 param being passed to it, so we will keep it on.
Hot tip: Try calling the dataAvailability_appKeys method with the include option toggle off to see what happens.

Either paste the address of an account in the AccountId32 field or select an explorer-connected account from the dropdown.
Leave the blockhash field empty (This will query the latest balance of the account), and click on the + button near the top-right.

And that's it. You just used the AvailApps explorer to query the balance of an account on the Avail network. You can query other methods in a similar way.

How to use the explorer to send transactions to the network

You can also use the AvailApps explorer to sign custom transactions/extrinsics and submit them to the network. We have covered different examples of doing so in our docs. Here is one of them:Submit data to a particular AppID.

Bonus: How to query chain constants using the explorer

The AvailApps explorer allows you to query the current values of all of it's runtime constants by going to the constants tab within Developer -> Chain State.

For example, to query the current value of the existentialDeposit of an account on Avail, which is the minimum amount required by an account to exist on the network, you can call the balances_existentialDeposit constant.

P.S: The balance displayed is in attoAVAIL. 1 attoAVAIL = $10^-18$ AVAIL.

You can look up any other constant in a similar way.

Working with App IDs in the explorer

The following sections walk you through querying, creating, and submitting data to App IDs using the AvailApps explorer.

How to check the next available `appID`?

Anyone can create their own appID on Avail DA. Let us first check out the next available appID on the network.

Make sure you're on the chain state section of the explorer. You can access it by simply clicking this link, or by navigating to it through the developer tab near the top right.
Within the dataAvailability pallet, select the nextAppId method. No need to pass any params, just click the + button next to the method name.
You will be returned the next available index/id for a new appID.

How to register my own `appID`?

Make sure you have one or more Avail DA wallets connected to the explorer. If you don't know how to do so, you can follow our docs on setting up a new wallet.
Simply click this link OR navigate to the extrinsics section of the explorer through the developer tab.

Note

Please note that the Developer tab does not show the extrinsics section at all if you don't have a wallet set up on the explorer or an extension wallet connected to it. So make sure you have an Avail DA wallet set up before moving forward.

Select the dataAvailability pallet, and the createApplicationKey method.

Enter a key for your appID. It can be anything you like, really.
This is how it should look like in the end:

Click on Submit Transaction, and then click on Sign and Submit in the box that pops up.

Note

DO NOT CHANGE THE appID FOR THIS TRANSACTION

Each and every single transaction on Avail DA has an appID associated with it, which is greater than or equal to 0.
A transaction or data submission with the appID of 0 is used for chain-level operations.
This is what we need to use for creating a new appID, since the act of creating a new appID has nothing to do with a specific 'app' on Avail DA.
This field would instead have been a positive integer if we, for example, were submitting data to a specific application on Avail DA.

Authorize the transaction through your wallet, and you're done! You've successfully created your own appID on Avail DA.
You can verify 7 by using the steps covered earlier to query the appKeys method :)

How to submit data to my `appID`?

You can submit data to your, or any other appID on Avail DA using the explorer by calling the submitData extrinsic from within the dataAvailability pallet.

Make sure you have one or more Avail DA wallets connected to the explorer. If you don't know how to do so, you can follow our docs on setting up a new wallet.
Simply click this link OR navigate to the extrinsics section of the explorer through the developer tab.
Select the dataAvailability pallet, and the submitData method.

Enter a random data string that you want to submit to your appID, and then click on Submit Transaction.

Fill in the AppID that you want to submit the data to. Click on Sign and Submit to authorize the transaction through your wallet.

Wait for the transaction to be included in a block and then open the detailed view of the block.

Click on your specific transaction to see it's details. This is what it should look like:

Wrapping up

We will update this page with more examples and information as we go along. Feel free to join our Discord and suggest any additions that you would like to see here.

How is this guide?

Get started with an Avail wallet

Identity

Switch networks Look up the details of a particular transaction Create accounts within the explorer Using the explorers to interact with the network How to use the explorer to query the network How to use the explorer to send transactions to the network Bonus: How to query chain constants using the explorer Working with App IDs in the explorer How to check the next available appID?How to register my own appID?How to submit data to my appID?Wrapping up

Edit in GitHub

Using the Explorer

Browse blocks, transactions, and validators on Avail DA using the network explorers.

Note

The Avail network has two main explorers that can be used to browse the network:

Avail Apps explorer: A dev-focussed explorer with powerful tools to work with the network.
Subscan explorer: A simpler, and recommended way to explore the network for most users.

This tutorial will focus on helping advanced users and devs get started with the Avail Apps Explorer.

Switch networks

Note

The Avail Apps explorer currently supports Avail mainnet and Avail Turing testnet.

To switch networks:

Click on the Network name on the top-left.

Depending on the network you are on, click on live networks -> Avail DA network, or test network -> Avail Turing testnet.
Click on Switch.

Look up the details of a particular transaction

Note

Due to how the network is designed, it is not possible for the AvailApps explorer to query a transaction's details using just it's hash directly from a node.
The Subscan explorer however, makes it possible to do so, since it queries from a dedicated indexer built on top of Avail to support this feature.

Note

Search for a txn using it's block number/block hash AND it's transaction hash

Search for the block number or block hash of the block your transaction was included in.

The explorer then fetches all transactions from that specific block. Click on the hash of the transaction you are interested in to get a detailed view.

Create accounts within the explorer

The AvailApps explorer can be used to add or import Avail accounts into the explorer.To go to the page, click on the Accounts tab on the top-left, or click this link.

The accounts section shows any accounts created straight from the explorer. You don't need any wallet extensions to create or use them.
The extension section shows any accounts connected to the explorer from wallets like Polkadot.js, Subwallet, Talisman, etc...

The following gif shows you how to create an account straight from the explorer:

You can do a few things here:

Create a new account using a mnemonic or by clicking on the + Account button.
Import an account via an encrypted JSON file.
Connect extension accounts from wallets like Polkadot.js, Subwallet, Talisman, etc...
Create a multisig account. We have covered instructions to do so in our docs here.
Create a proxy account. We have covered instructions to do so in our docs here.
The AvailApps explorer also allows you to use hardware wallets to safely connect cold accounts. We have covered instructions to do so in our docs here.

Any of these accounts that you connect can be used to sign transactions on the network. Which is something we will cover in the next section.

Using the explorers to interact with the network

Wrt interacting with the network, the AvailApps explorer can be used to:

Query data from the network by calling Chain State or RPC methods.
Send transactions to the network by signing and submitting Extrinsics.

You can find them within the Developer tab.

Note

How to use the explorer to query the network

Let us learn how to query the network using the AvailApps explorer by querying the balance of an account.

Either go to the Chain State methods menu from within the Developer tab or click on this link.
The balance of an account can be queried by calling the account(AccountId32) method from within the system pallet. Select the system pallet from the dropdown on the left, and the account(AccountId32) method from the dropdown on the right.

Note

Either paste the address of an account in the AccountId32 field or select an explorer-connected account from the dropdown.
Leave the blockhash field empty (This will query the latest balance of the account), and click on the + button near the top-right.

And that's it. You just used the AvailApps explorer to query the balance of an account on the Avail network. You can query other methods in a similar way.

How to use the explorer to send transactions to the network

Bonus: How to query chain constants using the explorer

The AvailApps explorer allows you to query the current values of all of it's runtime constants by going to the constants tab within Developer -> Chain State.

For example, to query the current value of the existentialDeposit of an account on Avail, which is the minimum amount required by an account to exist on the network, you can call the balances_existentialDeposit constant.

P.S: The balance displayed is in attoAVAIL. 1 attoAVAIL = $10^-18$ AVAIL.

You can look up any other constant in a similar way.