How to sign a erc20 contract call with key using web3

Question

I am making a call to the Dai contract on the Kovan testnet to facilitate transactions between any two addresses entered as input. I was able to successfully make read calls but I realized I needed to sign transcations using a key for every write call. How do I do this using web3? I have my code below for clarity :

const Web3 = require("web3");
const axios = require('axios');
const WebSocket = require('ws');
const Web3Utils = require('web3-utils');

   if (typeof web3 !== 'undefined') {
        web3 = new Web3(web3.currentProvider);
    } else {
        // set the provider you want from Web3.providers
        web3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.WebsocketProvider("wss://kovan.infura.io/ws/v3/d28ff5674c0848ada11af62d25c6a2f1"));
    }
    web3.eth.defaultChain = 'kovan';
    var DaiContract = new web3.eth.Contract('ABI-HERE','0xC4375B7De8af5a38a93548eb8453a498222C4fF2');
$("#button").click(function() {
        DaiContract.methods.transferFrom($("#address1").val(), $("#address2").val(), $("#amount").val()).call()
        .then(function(result){
            $("#result").html("Successfully transferred " + $("amount").val() + " Dai.");
            DaiContract.methods.balanceOf($("#address1").val()).call()
            .then(function(result){
                console.log('Remaining balance in address1 : ' + value);
            })
            .catch(function(error){
                console.error('Error : ' + error);
            });
        })
        .catch(function(error){
            console.error('Error : ' + error);
            $("#result").html("Transfer failed");
        });
    });

Gives the following error :

Answer 1

With web3 v1.2.x, you can use this:

async function send(web3, privateKey, gasPrice, transaction, value = 0) {
    const address = web3.eth.accounts.privateKeyToAccount(privateKey).address;
    const options = {
        to      : transaction._parent._address,
        data    : transaction.encodeABI(),
        gas     : await transaction.estimateGas({from: address, value: value}),
        gasPrice: gasPrice,
        value   : value
    };
    const signed  = await web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction(options, privateKey);
    const receipt = await web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(signed.rawTransaction);
    return receipt;
}

Then, for example, you can call it from an async function as follows:

const transaction = DaiContract.methods.transferFrom($("#address1").val(), $("#address2").val(), $("#amount").val());
const receipt = await send(web3, YourPrivateKey, YourGasPrice, transaction);
console.log(receipt);