I have some doubts about open function of eosio.token smartcontract

Question

 async function openAccount (tokenCreator ) {
 try{
const result = await api.transact({
    actions: [{
      account: tokenCreator,      //'eosio.token',
      name: 'open',                //'transfer',
      authorization: [{
        actor: tokenCreator, //'useraaaaaaaa',
        permission: 'active',
      }],
      data: {
        owner: newaccount,
        symbol: 'DAN',  
        ram_payer: tokenCreator,            //must be same as issuer
      },
    }]
  }, {
    broadcast: true,
    blocksBehind: 3,
    expireSeconds: 30,
  });
  console.dir(result);
}catch (e) {
console.log('\nCaught exception: ' + e);
if (e instanceof RpcError)
  console.log(JSON.stringify(e.json, null, 2));}};

The above code is throwing error: Caught exception: Error: Invalid symbol

1. What is the valid symbol format? Already created token symbol (e.g. EOS) or some new token to be created. I tried both but it throws the same error. I even tried '1.0000 DAN'.

2. What to write in owner field of data, already existing account or a new account to be created?

Open : Allows ram_payer to create an account owner with zero balance for token symbol at the expense of ram_payer.

3. At the expense of ram_payer means the EOS tokens of the ram_payer will be staked, right?

Please, guide me I'm a newbie. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The reason you're getting this error is because the open action expects the symbol to be of type symbol, not symbol_code. EOS has 2 different structs that are used to represent token symbols:

• symbol_code - this is basically just a string representing the symbol code (i.e. - EOS, DAN).
• symbol - this class is defined by a symbol_code, and an integer that represents the token precision. You can represent an instance of this class using a string like in this format: $PRECISION,$SYMBOL_CODE.

So, let's say DAN is a token with 4 decimals, you'll need to pass in 4,DAN rather than just DAN.

Answer 2

Solution by yuval-weiss solves my error. I'll answer the other questions too so that they might help others.

• 1. $PRECISION,$SYMBOL_CODE i.e. 4,DAN
• 2. Already existing account
• 3. Yes. EOS tokens of the ram_payer will be consumed for ram and not staked.