Write data to Contract Instance created via Factory

Question

I am trying to run the below app on my private chain using Truffle.

I have created an AuctionFactory which would generate new Auction objects for new auctioneers. Auction factory looks like this:

pragma solidity ^0.4.11;

import '../contracts/Auction.sol';

contract AuctionFactory {

// contains the owner of an auction mapped to the address of that auction
mapping( address => address) public auctions;

function createAuction(uint32 pTicketPerPerson, uint256 pTotalTickets, uint256 pEndTime, uint32 pMinimumBid) returns (address auctionAddress) {

    address owner = msg.sender;
    Auction newAuction = new Auction(owner, pTicketPerPerson, pTotalTickets, pEndTime, pMinimumBid);
    auctions[owner] = newAuction;
    return newAuction;

}


function getAuctionAddress( address auctioneer) returns (address auctionAddress) {

    //do some sanity
    return auctions[auctioneer];
}
}

This is the Auction Contract

pragma solidity ^0.4.11;

  contract Auction {

    uint32 ticketId = 0;
    uint32 public balanceTikets;
    uint32 public ticketPerPerson;
    uint32 public minimumBid;
    uint32 public highestBid;
    uint256 public totalTickets;
    uint256 public endTime;
    uint256 public lastBid;

    address public lastBidder;
    address public auctioneer;

    mapping( address => Ticket[]) public allotedTicketsCount;

    mapping( address => uint256) public bids;

    event BidCreated(address bidder, uint32 bidAmount);
    event HighestBid(address bidder, uint32 bidAmount);

    struct Ticket {
       uint32 id;
       uint32 pricePaid;
    }


    /**
    * Constructor which will be called
    * for each new auction that is created. The requestor becomes the owner of new auction
    * 
    */
    function Auction(address owner, uint32 pTicketPerPerson, uint256 pTotalTickets, uint256 pEndTime, uint32 pMinimumBid ) {
      auctioneer = owner;
      ticketPerPerson = pTicketPerPerson;
      totalTickets = pTotalTickets;
      endTime = now + (pEndTime * 1 hours );
      minimumBid = pMinimumBid;
      highestBid = pMinimumBid; // start with 
    }


    function bidForTicket(address bidder, uint256 amount)  {

     bids[bidder] = amount;
     lastBidder = bidder;
     lastBid = amount;

   }

   function getBidFor(address bidAddress) returns (uint256 bidAmt) {
      return bids[bidAddress];
   }

  }

The Truffle migration script for the factory has this

    var AuctionFactory = artifacts.require("./AuctionFactory.sol");

    module.exports = function(deployer) {
      deployer.deploy(AuctionFactory, {gas: 1583814});
    };

I am using Truffle to create a sample UI to work with these. The app.js looks like this

    import { default as Web3} from 'web3';
    import { default as contract } from 'truffle-contract'
    // Import our contract artifacts and turn them into usable abstractions.
    import auctionFactory from '../../build/contracts/AuctionFactory.json'
    import auction from '../../build/contracts/Auction.json'

    var AuctionFactory = contract(auctionFactory);
    var Auction = contract(auction);

    window.bid = function() {
        let auctioneerId = $('#auctioneerId').val();
        let bidder = $('#bidder').val();
        let bidAmount = $('#bidAmount').val();
        console.log("Bid details " + bidAmount + " " + bidder);
        AuctionFactory.deployed().then(function(factoryInstance) {
                console.log("Factory address " + factoryInstance.address);
                factoryInstance.getAuctionAddress.call(auctioneerId).then(function(result) {
                    var myAuction = Auction.at(result);
                    console.warn("address of auction  "  + result);
                        //try to get some values from the auction

             myAuction.totalTickets.call().then(function(totalTickets) {
                console.warn("Total Tkts  " + totalTickets);
                $("#total_tkt").html(totalTickets+"");
            });


                    myAuction.bidForTicket(bidder, bidAmount, {gas:4000000, from:bidder}).then(function() {
                        console.warn("Bid created ");
                        myAuction.lastBidder.call().then(function(lastBidder) {
                            console.warn("Last bidder  " + lastBidder);

                        });

                        myAuction.lastBid.call().then(function(lastBid) {
                            console.warn("lastBid is " + lastBid);

                        });

                        myAuction.getBidFor.call(bidder).then(function(bidAmt) {
                            console.warn("Bid amt for " + bidder + " " + bidAmt);

                        });

                    });


                });                 
        });
    }

I am able to create an Auction. Get its address from the AuctionFactory based on the auction creator. If I read values that were set during initialization of the Auction like:

myAuction.totalTickets.call()

I am able to get correct data.

But when I try to add a bid to the Auction using

myAuction.bidForTicket(bidder, bidAmount, {gas:4000000, from:bidder})

That value never gets added to the Auction contract. I have checked the addresses and other configs.

I tried deploying the Auction contract separately as a single contract and am able to create bids and read updated values. But when I use the Auction created by the factory, it just doesn't write values. I mean when I read those fields I get 0 and address of last bidder as 0x0

Would really like to understand what am I missing here? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Just in case someone else is breaking their heads on the syntax: The change I had to make to get this working was in the app.js. Instead of

myAuction.bidForTicket(bidder, bidAmount, {gas:4000000, from:bidder}).then(function() 

I had to change it to:

var txnHash = bidProduct.bid.sendTransaction(bidAmount, {gas: 1400000, from:bidder}).then(function(txnHash) {.....

I mean the return value can still be ignored but the "sendTransaction" is what I think did the trick for me. As per docs just calling the method should have worked and I should have got the transaction hash but I coudn't quite figure out why it woudn't work using the previous code.