contract runner does not support sending transactions

Question

Update (08 July 2023) : From node_modules/ethers/lib.esm/contract/contract.js, I found the error message (the assert part).

 const send = async function (...args) {
        const runner = contract.runner;
        assert(canSend(runner), "contract runner does not support sending transactions", "UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION", { operation: "sendTransaction" });
        const tx = await runner.sendTransaction(await populateTransaction(...args));
        const provider = getProvider(contract.runner);
        // @TODO: the provider can be null; make a custom dummy provider that will throw a
        // meaningful error
        return new ContractTransactionResponse(contract.interface, provider, tx);
    };

And the canSend is:

function canSend(value) {
    return (value && typeof (value.sendTransaction) === "function");
}

So basically, contract.runner should be a function type. However, in my case, contract.runner is a string (address type).

Even more strange thing is that I put a console.log right before execute a smart contract function whether the runner has function or not. console.log('myContract.runner.sendTransaction :', myContract.runner.sendTransaction); This properly prints a function.

I am not sure where & why contract.runner is a string. Anyone knows the reason?

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The original post: I am facing an error error: contract runner does not support sending transactions (operation="sendTransaction", code=UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION, version=6.6.0) when I execute pay() from Frontend. I am not sure where to start debugging. It's running on my local with hardhat and Metamask.

const setContracts = async () => { // #1. I run this first.
  const provider = new ethers.BrowserProvider(ethereum);
  const signer = await provider.getSigner();
  const myContract: ethers.Contract = new ethers.Contract(myContractAddress, contractABI, 
  signer);

  setMyContract(myContract);
}

const pay = async() => { // #2. then run this one 
    const amount = ethers.parseUnits("1.0", 18);
    console.log('myContract.runner.sendTransaction :', myContract.runner.sendTransaction); // <- function properly printed
    myContract
      .connect(connectedAccount) // #3. This account has 1,000 ETH
      .donate(targetAddress, {value: amount});  // #4. error: contract runner does not support sending transactions (operation="sendTransaction", code=UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION, version=6.6.0)
 
  };

Any advice will be appreciated.

Answer 1

The problem was .connect(connectedAccount) when I removed this code, the runner object contains sendTransaction.