invalid opcode error with a simple Solidity contract and script

Question

I am a newcomer to Solidity and web3.js . I am following the tutorial here -

https://medium.com/@mvmurthy/full-stack-hello-world-voting-ethereum-dapp-tutorial-part-1-40d2d0d807c2

to build a simple Voting Dapp. I've installed ganache-cli, solc and web3 version 0.20.2 in the local node_modules folder using npm. The Voting.sol contract in Solidity is :

pragma solidity ^0.4.18;

contract Voting {

  mapping (bytes32 => uint8) public votesReceived;
  bytes32[] public candidateList;

  function Voting(bytes32[] candidateNames) public {
    candidateList = candidateNames;
  }

  function totalVotesFor(bytes32 candidate) view public returns (uint8) {
    return votesReceived[candidate];
  }
}

with the following script called voting_main.js:

Web3 = require('web3')
web3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider("http://localhost:8545"))

fs = require('fs')
code = fs.readFileSync('Voting.sol').toString()

solc = require('solc')
compiledCode = solc.compile(code)

abiDefinition = JSON.parse(compiledCode.contracts[':Voting'].interface)
VotingContract = web3.eth.contract(abiDefinition)
byteCode = compiledCode.contracts[':Voting'].bytecode
deployedContract = VotingContract.new(['Rama','Nick','Jose'],{data: byteCode, from: web3.eth.accounts[0], gas: 4700000})
contractInstance = VotingContract.at(deployedContract.address)

contractInstance.totalVotesFor.call('Rama')

When I run ganache-cli on localhost:8545 and then run the script in another terminal, I get the following error.

ameya@ameya-HP-ENVY-15-Notebook-PC:~/Fresh_install$ node voting_main.js
/home/ameya/Fresh_install/node_modules/solc/soljson.js:1
(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { var Module;if(!Module)Module=(typeof Module!=="undefined"?Module:null)||{};var moduleOverrides={};for(var key in Module){if(Module.hasOwnProperty(key)){moduleOverrides[key]=Module[key]}}var ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB=typeof window==="object";var ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER=typeof importScripts==="function";var ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE=typeof process==="object"&&typeof require==="function"&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER;var ENVIRONMENT_IS_SHELL=!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER;if(ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE){if(!Module["print"])Module["print"]=function print(x){process["stdout"].write(x+"\n")};if(!Module["printErr"])Module["printErr"]=function printErr(x){process["stderr"].write(x+"\n")};var nodeFS=require("fs");var nodePath=require("path");Module["read"]=function read(filename,binary){filename=nodePath["normalize"](filename);var ret=nodeFS["readFileSync"](filename);if(!r

Error: VM Exception while processing transaction: invalid opcode
    at Object.InvalidResponse (/home/ameya/Fresh_install/node_modules/web3/lib/web3/errors.js:38:16)
    at RequestManager.send (/home/ameya/Fresh_install/node_modules/web3/lib/web3/requestmanager.js:61:22)
    at Eth.send [as call] (/home/ameya/Fresh_install/node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:145:58)
    at SolidityFunction.call (/home/ameya/Fresh_install/node_modules/web3/lib/web3/function.js:135:32)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/ameya/Fresh_install/voting_main.js:16:32)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:654:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:665:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:566:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:506:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:498:3)

This seems to be a very simple example which is still throwing the invalid opcode error. Where am I going wrong ?

Answer 1

You need to understand the fact that when you are using .new(), there is no need to call .at()

.at() is used only when there is a need to interact with contracts that are already deployed to blockchain networks. 

When you are deploying a new contract, use the async version of the method call. The code should be: 

VotingContract.new(['Rama','Nick','Jose'],{data: byteCode, from: web3.eth.accounts[0], gas: 4700000}, (error, deployedContract) => {

    if (!error) {

        if (deployedContract.address) {

            console.log(deployedContract.totalVotesFor.call('Rama'));

        }

    }

});

Also, I believe that the callback is fired twice in your case. It happened first while submitting the transaction and then after the transaction was mined. 

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