Retrieve a contract code ledger entry using the JavaScript SDK

When you deploy a contract, first the code is "installed" (i.e., it is uploaded onto the blockchain). This creates a LedgerEntry containing the Wasm byte-code, which is uniquely identified by its hash (that is, the hash of the uploaded code itself). Then, when the contract is "deployed," we create a LedgerEntry with a reference to that code's hash. So fetching the contract code is a two-step process:

1. First, we look up the contract itself, to see which code hash it is referencing.
2. Then, we can look up the raw Wasm byte-code using that hash.

import { Contract } from "@stellar/stellar-sdk";

function getLedgerKeyContractCode(contractId) {
  const instance = new Contract(contractId).getFootprint();
  return instance.toXDR("base64");
}

console.log(
  getLedgerKeyContractCode(
    "CCPYZFKEAXHHS5VVW5J45TOU7S2EODJ7TZNJIA5LKDVL3PESCES6FNCI",
  ),
);
// OUTPUT: AAAABgAAAAGfjJVEBc55drW3U87N1Py0Rw0/nlqUA6tQ6r28khEl4gAAABQAAAAB

We then take our output from this function, and use it as the element in the keys array parameter in our call to the getLedgerEntries method.

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 8675309,
  "method": "getLedgerEntries",
  "params": {
    "keys": ["AAAABgAAAAGfjJVEBc55drW3U87N1Py0Rw0/nlqUA6tQ6r28khEl4gAAABQAAAAB"]
  }
}

And the response we get contains the LedgerEntryData that can be used to find the hash we must use to request the Wasm byte-code. This hash is the LedgerKey that's been associated with the deployed contract code.

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 8675309,
  "result": {
    "entries": [
      {
        "key": "AAAABgAAAAGfjJVEBc55drW3U87N1Py0Rw0/nlqUA6tQ6r28khEl4gAAABQAAAAB",
        "xdr": "AAAABgAAAAAAAAABn4yVRAXOeXa1t1POzdT8tEcNP55alAOrUOq9vJIRJeIAAAAUAAAAAQAAABMAAAAA5DNtbckOGVRsNVb8L7X/lIhAOy2o5G6GkLKXvc7W8foAAAAA",
        "lastModifiedLedgerSeq": 261603
      }
    ],
    "latestLedger": 262322
  }
}

Now take the xdr field from the previous response's result object, and create a LedgerKey from the hash contained inside.

import { xdr } from "@stellar/stellar-sdk";

function getLedgerKeyWasmId(contractCodeLedgerEntryData) {
  const entry = xdr.LedgerEntryData.fromXDR(
    contractCodeLedgerEntryData,
    "base64",
  );

  const wasmHash = entry
    .contractData()
    .val()
    .instance()
    .executable()
    .wasmHash();

  let ledgerKey = xdr.LedgerKey.contractCode(
    new xdr.LedgerKeyContractCode({
      hash: wasmHash,
    }),
  );

  return ledgerKey.toXDR("base64");
}

console.log(
  getLedgerKeyWasmId(
    "AAAABgAAAAAAAAABn4yVRAXOeXa1t1POzdT8tEcNP55alAOrUOq9vJIRJeIAAAAUAAAAAQAAABMAAAAA5DNtbckOGVRsNVb8L7X/lIhAOy2o5G6GkLKXvc7W8foAAAAA",
  ),
);
// OUTPUT: AAAAB+QzbW3JDhlUbDVW/C+1/5SIQDstqORuhpCyl73O1vH6

Now, finally we have a LedgerKey that correspond to the Wasm byte-code that has been deployed under the ContractId we started out with so very long ago. This LedgerKey can be used in a final request to the Soroban-RPC endpoint.

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 8675309,
  "method": "getLedgerEntries",
  "params": {
    "keys": ["AAAAB+QzbW3JDhlUbDVW/C+1/5SIQDstqORuhpCyl73O1vH6"]
  }
}

And the response we get contains (even more) LedgerEntryData that we can decode and parse to get the actual, deployed, real-life contract byte-code. We'll leave that exercise up to you. You can check out what is contained using the "View XDR" page of the Stellar Lab.

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 8675309,
  "result": {
    "entries": [
      {
        "key": "AAAAB+QzbW3JDhlUbDVW/C+1/5SIQDstqORuhpCyl73O1vH6",
        "xdr": "AAAABwAAAADkM21tyQ4ZVGw1Vvwvtf+UiEA7LajkboaQspe9ztbx+gAAAkgAYXNtAQAAAAEVBGACfn4BfmADfn5+AX5gAAF+YAAAAhkEAWwBMAAAAWwBMQAAAWwBXwABAWwBOAAAAwUEAgMDAwUDAQAQBhkDfwFBgIDAAAt/AEGAgMAAC38AQYCAwAALBzUFBm1lbW9yeQIACWluY3JlbWVudAAEAV8ABwpfX2RhdGFfZW5kAwELX19oZWFwX2Jhc2UDAgqnAQSSAQIBfwF+QQAhAAJAAkACQEKOutCvhtQ5QgEQgICAgABCAVINAEKOutCvhtQ5QgEQgYCAgAAiAUL/AYNCBFINASABQiCIpyEACyAAQQFqIgBFDQFCjrrQr4bUOSAArUIghkIEhCIBQgEQgoCAgAAaQoSAgICgBkKEgICAwAwQg4CAgAAaIAEPCwAACxCFgICAAAALCQAQhoCAgAAACwQAAAALAgALAHMOY29udHJhY3RzcGVjdjAAAAAAAAAAQEluY3JlbWVudCBpbmNyZW1lbnRzIGFuIGludGVybmFsIGNvdW50ZXIsIGFuZCByZXR1cm5zIHRoZSB2YWx1ZS4AAAAJaW5jcmVtZW50AAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAAAAEAB4RY29udHJhY3RlbnZtZXRhdjAAAAAAAAAAFAAAAAAAbw5jb250cmFjdG1ldGF2MAAAAAAAAAAFcnN2ZXIAAAAAAAAGMS43Ni4wAAAAAAAAAAAACHJzc2RrdmVyAAAALzIwLjMuMSNiYTA0NWE1N2FmOTcxZmM4M2U0NzU3NDZiNTlhNTAzYjdlZjQxNjQ5AA==",
        "lastModifiedLedgerSeq": 368441,
        "liveUntilLedgerSeq": 2442040
      }
    ],
    "latestLedger": 370940
  }
}