system_chainType - Midnight

Example code for the author_submitExtrinsic JSON-RPC method. Complete guide on how to use author_submitExtrinsic JSON-RPC in GetBlock Web3 documentation.

This method returns the type of chain the node is connected to. Common values are Live (a production network), Development (a local development chain), and Local (a local test instance).

Parameters

• None

Request Example

cURL

curl --location --request POST 'https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "system_chainType",
    "params": [],
    "id": "getblock.io"
}'

JavaScript (Axios)

import axios from 'axios';

const data = JSON.stringify({
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "system_chainType",
    "params": [],
    "id": "getblock.io"
});

const config = {
    method: 'post',
    url: 'https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    data: data
};

axios(config)
    .then(response => console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data, null, 2)))
    .catch(error => console.log(error));

Python (Requests)

import requests
import json

url = "https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/"

payload = json.dumps({
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "system_chainType",
    "params": [],
    "id": "getblock.io"
})

headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, data=payload)
print(response.text)

Rust (Reqwest)

use reqwest::Client;
use serde_json::json;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let client = Client::new();

    let payload = json!({
        "jsonrpc": "2.0",
        "method": "system_chainType",
        "params": [],
        "id": "getblock.io"
});

    let response = client
        .post("https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/")
        .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
        .json(&payload)
        .send()
        .await?;

    let result: serde_json::Value = response.json().await?;
    println!("{:#?}", result);

    Ok(())
}

Response Example

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": "getblock.io",
    "result": "Live"
}

Response Parameters

Field	Type	Description
result	string	Chain type: Live, Development, or Local

Use Cases

• Detecting whether a node is connected to a public network or a local dev chain

• Safety checks in tooling that should refuse to run against production

Error Handling

Status Code	Error Message	Cause
403	Forbidden	Missing or invalid <ACCESS-TOKEN>
-32602	Invalid params	Request parameters are missing or malformed
-32601	Method not found	The method is not enabled on this node or has been deprecated
429	Too Many Requests	Rate limit exceeded for your plan

SDK Integration

@polkadot/api (JavaScript)

import { ApiPromise, WsProvider } from '@polkadot/api';

const wsProvider = new WsProvider('wss://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/');
const api = await ApiPromise.create({ provider: wsProvider });

// Call via the typed API:
const result = await api.rpc.system.chainType();
console.log(result.toJSON());

// Or call the raw JSON-RPC method:
const raw = await api.rpc.rpc.methods();
// const raw = await (api as any)._rpcCore.provider.send('system_chainType', []);

substrate-interface (Python)

from substrateinterface import SubstrateInterface

substrate = SubstrateInterface(url='wss://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/')

# Generic RPC call:
result = substrate.rpc_request('system_chainType', [])
print(result)