Guides → dAPIs

Reading a self-funded dAPI proxy ​

This guide requires a proxy contract address for a particular dAPI you are interested in. You can find them in the API3 Market➚ website. If a proxy contract has not been created for a particular dAPI use the API3 Market UI to do so, see the guide Subscribing to Self-Funded dAPIs.

1. Add npm package ​

dAPI proxies allows dAPIs to be used like libraries. Your smart contract needs to import the IProxy interface to call a dAPI's proxy contract. You can add the @api3/contracts➚ package to your project and get access to the IProxy interface contract.

npm i @api3/contracts

2. Read a dAPI ​

The solidity smart contract below demonstrates how to read a dAPI using a proxy contract address and the IProxy interface. You do not read directly from the proxy contract itself but rather by using the IProxy interface. Look at the read() function of the IProxy interface on line 24 below.

To read a different dAPI, your smart contract does not need to change the code itself, rather it just needs to use a different proxy contract address, see line 13 below. IProxy will call the proxy contract associated with the dAPI for you.

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity 0.8.17;

import "@openzeppelin/contracts/access/Ownable.sol";
import "@api3/contracts/v0.8/interfaces/IProxy.sol";

contract DataFeedReaderExample is Ownable {
    // The proxy contract address obtained from the API3 Market UI.
    address public proxyAddress;

    // Updating the proxy contract address is a security-critical
    // action. In this example, only the owner is allowed to do so.
    function setProxyAddress(address _proxyAddress) public onlyOwner {
        proxyAddress = _proxyAddress;
    }

    function readDataFeed()
        external
        view
        returns (int224 value, uint256 timestamp)
    {
        // Use the IProxy interface to read a dAPI via its
        // proxy contract .
        (value, timestamp) = IProxy(proxyAddress).read();
        // If you have any assumptions about `value` and `timestamp`,
        // make sure to validate them after reading from the proxy.
    }
}

Note that this contract is an example and should not be used for production purposes without proper security audits and testing.

Code explanation ​

• The contract DataFeedReaderExample imports the Ownable contract, which is used to restrict certain actions to the owner of the contract.

• The contract imports the IProxy interface from the @api3/contracts/v0.8/interfaces library, which defines a function called read() that reads data from a dAPI data feed. Be sure to use the proper IProxy interface version for the version of Solidity you are using, see IProxy Interface.

• The contract has a public variable called proxyAddress which is the address of the proxy contract that will be used to access the desired dAPI via its proxy contract. The setProxyAddress() function is a public function that allows the owner of the contract to update the proxy contract address.

• The readDataFeed() function is a public function that reads from a dAPI through the IProxy interface. The function returns two values representing the latest value (type int224) and timestamp (type uint256) of the dAPI that the proxy is reading from.

Summary ​

For additional information on how to read from a self-funded dAPI proxy, please refer to the datafeed-reader-example➚ repository which contains a hardhat project with a sample smart contract that reads from a self-funded dAPI proxy.