Can't access nested mapping in another contract in Solidity

Question

I have a contract:

contract KeyValueStorage {
    mapping (address => mapping(bytes32 => uint256)) refreshTime;
    ....
}

and in another file:

import "./KeyValueStorage.sol";
contract GlobalGeneric {
    KeyValueStorage globalS;
    constructor(KeyValueStorage storage_) public {
        globalS = storage_;
    }
    function claimInterests(address _memberAddr, bytes32 _identifier) public returns (bool success) {
        require(now > globalS.refreshTime[_memberAddr][_identifier] + 90 days);
        .....
    }
....
}

But I got an error as refreshTime not found or not visible after argument-dependent lookup in contract KeyValueStorage

Answer 1

Your mapping is private by default. If you do not precise it's public with the keyword public before the mapping's name, you won't be able to access it unless you provide a getter.

mapping (address => mapping(bytes32 => uint256)) public refreshTime;

Once it's done, to access a value, you can only do it the following way :

require(now > globalS.refreshTime(_memberAddr, _identifier) + 90 days);

You will note that you have to pass the keys as parameters. For every public variable, Solidity is automatically creating a getter, and for mappings, the getter takes in parameters the keys needed to access a value, as you remarked.

Answer 2

You can Even do something this way

contract KeyValueStorage {
    mapping (address => mapping(bytes32 => uint256)) internal refreshTime;
}

---

import "./KeyValueStorage.sol";
contract GlobalGeneric is KeyValueStorage {

    function claimInterests(address _memberAddr, bytes32 _identifier) public view returns (bool success) {
        require(now > refreshTime[_memberAddr][_identifier] + 90 days);
        return true;
    }

}