[ts-sdk] Define the Provider Interface

[666lcz]

For more context, please see https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui/pull/1308/files.

This PR defines the barebone interface for Provider. Subsequent PRs will add more methods and implement the method using a JSON-RPC client

[stella3d]

I think we should change the way this is setup to eliminate the need for null/undefined checking in the signer (by making the constructor set the values).

[stella3d]

it seems like we're always checking for prerequisite objects before doing anything, but i'm not sure we gain any significant flexibility by allowing these objects to be null/undefined at all.

Can we set the provider & serializer in the constructor (they're already readonly)?
that way they're always defined.
If users want to change the serializer or provider, they can construct a new signer class instance.

[666lcz]

Some use cases might just need a signer without a provider, e.g., to produce pre-signed message, to prove that the user owns this address, etc. This latter use case is very popular in some portfolio tracking applications such as https://debank.com/.

My demo app also uses similar pattern: https://gist.github.com/666lcz/6cc6c983e841eda9f7a457e47bc473b7 without a provider.

Ether.js is also using a similar pattern: https://github.com/ethers-io/ethers.js/blob/948f77050dae884fe88932fd88af75560aac9d78/packages/abstract-signer/src.ts/index.ts#L98

[stella3d]

actually, now that i think about this some more - I think it seems like we should completely remove the provider from the signer. Signing & sending the tx seem like two separate concerns.

I think the ideal signer might be something that implements only

interface Signer { 
    signData(data: Base64DataBuffer): Promise<SignaturePubkeyPair>
}

[codecov]

Codecov Report

Merging #1331 (5c5fef6) into main (7a4e7a1) will increase coverage by 0.62%.
The diff coverage is n/a.

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #1331      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   81.79%   82.41%   +0.62%     
==========================================
  Files         100      103       +3     
  Lines       20972    20801     -171     
==========================================
- Hits        17153    17143      -10     
+ Misses       3819     3658     -161     

Impacted Files	Coverage Δ
sui_programmability/verifier/src/lib.rs	60.34% <0.00%> (-39.66%)	⬇️
sui/src/sui_json.rs	81.74% <0.00%> (-8.52%)	⬇️
sui_programmability/adapter/src/adapter.rs	89.35% <0.00%> (-2.94%)	⬇️
sui_core/src/consensus_client.rs	61.26% <0.00%> (-1.33%)	⬇️
sui/src/lib.rs	83.33% <0.00%> (ø)
sui_types/src/object.rs	81.49% <0.00%> (ø)
sui_core/src/authority.rs	94.95% <0.00%> (ø)
test_utils/src/sequencer.rs	78.35% <0.00%> (ø)
sui/src/unit_tests/sui_json.rs	100.00% <0.00%> (ø)
sui_core/src/execution_engine.rs	100.00% <0.00%> (ø)
... and 18 more

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[666lcz]

Addressed @stella3d 's comment by:

• defining a Signer interface that is provider free
• Rename the original Signer abstract class to SignerWithProvider to provide an ergonomic interface for the API caller(see example below)
• Added a VoidProvider so that we do not need to add checks to see if the provider is null

With these changes, we keep the Signer interface clean while also providing an ergonomic interface for the API caller.

The code snippets below will demonstrate why having a SignerWithProvider is more ergonomic than always having the Signer and the Provider separate

With the SignerWithProvider

// NFT marketplace with non-custodial wallet
const provider = new sui.providers.WalletProvider(window.sui);
// for operations that does not need signing
const address = provider.getAddress();

// for operations that need signing
const signer = provider.getSigner();
signer.execute_move_call();

If we always have the Provider and Signer separate:

const provider = new sui.providers.WalletProvider(window.sui);
// for operations that does not need signing
const address = provider.getAddress();

// for operations that need signing
const data = provider.move_call_data();
const signer = provider.getSigner();
const signedData = signer.signData(data)
provider.execute(signedData)

[stella3d]

This latest update looks good, it addresses my previous concerns with initialization of dependency objects. great work