solidity mapping does not persist

Question

solidity mapping does not persist

I have this solidity code

contract Starting { //pragma solidity ^0.6.12

struct itemStatus {
    bool created;
}
mapping (bytes => itemStatus) public item;

bool[] public boolArray;    

function start(bytes memory itemId) public returns (bool[] memory) {
    boolArray.push(item[itemId].created);
    if (item[itemId].created) {
        boolArray.push(item[itemId].created);
        return boolArray;
    } else {
        item[itemId] = itemStatus(true);
        boolArray.push(item[itemId].created);
        return boolArray;
    }
}

}

frontend javascript code is

  toStart: function () {
    let Instance;
    App.contracts.Starting.deployed().then(function (instance) {
      Instance = instance;
      return Instance.start.call(itemId);
    }).then(function (result) {
      console.log(result);
    }).catch(function (err) {
      console.log(err.message);
    });
  },

The first time I call 'toStart', I would expect [false, true] and the second time I call with the same itemId [false, true, true, true] and third time [false, true, true, true, true, true]. However, the result is always [false, true] irregard how many times I call 'toStart'. It seems item[itemId] = itemStatus(true) and boolArray.push(item[itemId].created) never get stored/persisted. Why is it so? How to change the code to get the expected result? Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Change this:

Instance.start.call(itemId)

To this:

Instance.start.send(itemId)