---
sidebar_position: 2
title: Callbacks
---

# Callbacks

NEAR Protocol is a sharded, proof-of-stake blockchain that behaves differently than proof-of-work blockchains. When interacting with a native Rust (compiled to Wasm) smart contract, cross-contract calls are asynchronous. Callbacks are used to either get the result of a cross-contract call or tell if a cross-contract call has succeeded or failed.

## Calculator Example

A callback method can be declared in your contract class as a regular method decorated with the `call({})` decorator. Be sure to pass in the `privateFunction: true` option to the decorator. This will ensure that the method is only callable by the contract itself.

For example, let's assume the calculator is deployed on `calc.near`, we can use the following:

```js
@NearBindgen({})
export class CalculatorCallerContract {
  @call({})
  sum_a_b({ a, b }) {
    let calculatorAccountId = "calc.near";
    // Call the method `sum` on the calculator contract.
    // Any unused GAS will be attached since the default GAS weight is 1.
    // Attached deposit is defaulted to 0.
    return NearPromise
            .new(calculatorAccountId)
            .functionCall("sum", { a, b }, BigInt(0), BigInt(100000000000000));
  }

  @call({ privateFunction: true })
  sum({ a, b })  {
    return a + b;
  }
}
```

## Allowlist Example

Next we'll look at a simple cross-contract call that is made to an allowlist smart contract, returning whether an account is in the list or not.

The common pattern with cross-contract calls is to call a method on an external smart contract, use `.then` syntax to specify a callback, and then retrieve the result or status of the promise. The callback will typically live inside the same, calling smart contract. There's a special decorator parameter used for protecting the callback function, which is [`privateFunction: true`](https://docs.rs/near-sdk-core/latest/near_sdk_core/struct.AttrSigInfo.html#structfield.is_private). We'll see this pattern in the example below.

The following example demonstrates two common approaches to callbacks using the high-level cross-contract approach with `NearPromise`. 

```js
@NearBindgen({})
export class ExtAllowlist {
    // ...

    @call({})
    is_allowlisted({ staking_pool_account_id }) {
        return this.allowlist.get(staking_pool_account_id) != null;
    };
}
```

After creating the class, we'll show a simple flow that will make a cross-contract call to the allowlist smart contract, asking if the account `idea404.testnet` is allowlisted. 

```js
@NearBindgen({})
export class Contract {
    @call({})
    xcc_query_allowlist() {
        // Call the method `is_allowlisted` on the allowlisted contract. Static GAS is only attached to the callback.
        // Any unused GAS will be split between the function call and the callback since both have a default unused GAS weight of 1
        // Attached deposit is defaulted to 0 for both the function call and the callback.
        return NearPromise
            .new("allowlist.near")
            .functionCall("is_allowlisted", { staking_pool_account_id: "idea404.testnet" }, BigInt(0), BigInt(100000000000000))
            .then("internalCallbackMethod", {}, BigInt(0), BigInt(100000000000000));
    }

    @call({ privateFunction: true })
    internalCallbackMethod() {
        assert(near.promiseResultsCount() === BigInt(1), "Error: expected 1 promise result");
        let result = JSON.parse(near.promiseResult(0));
        return result;
    }
```

The syntax begins with `NearPromise.new(<someAccountId>)` which initializes the async call to the designated `<someAccountId>`. Subsequent calls to this program in this account are invoked using `.functionCall()`. The `.functionCall()` method takes in the following parameters:

  - `functionName`: the name of the method to call on the contract
  - `args`: the arguments to pass to the method
  - `amount`: the amount of Ⓝ to attach to the call
  - `gas`: the amount of GAS units to attach to the call

There are a couple things to note when doing these function calls:

1. You can attach a deposit of Ⓝ, in yoctoⓃ to the call by specifying the `amount` parameter. This value is defaulted to 0 (1 Ⓝ = 1000000000000000000000000 yoctoⓃ, or 1^24 yoctoⓃ).
2. You can attach an amount of GAS units by specifying the `gas` method. This value is defaulted to 0.