How to Manage Item Metadata in Sequence Builder

This guide explains how to manage token metadata in Sequence Builder with the help from Pinata for IPFS hosting.

Introduction

Following this guide, you can easily manage token metadata for your contract items in Sequence Builder, with a little help from Pinata for IPFS hosting.

Step 1: Prepare Your Token Images and Metadata

First things first, gather all your token images. For each token, you’ll need a metadata file named id.json (like 1.json, 2.json, etc.). These files should look something like this at a minimum:

{
    "name": "Token Name",
    "description": "Token Description",
    "image": "ipfs://"
}

As you can guess, you can build from these basics. You could have your unique item attributes embedded in this token and generated on the fly.

Step 2: Set Up on Pinata.cloud

Head over to Pinata.cloud and create an account. Upload each of your token images as separate files. Next, update the metadata JSON files with the ipfs address for each token. To do this, simply copy the CID (Content Identifier) for each file from Pinata and paste it after ipfs:// in your JSON files. It should look like this:

{
    "name": "Token Name",
    "description": "Token Description",
    "image": "ipfs://QmdJzQExj2wnNY7pNNn4KauzckjH4vA5xhoxmmis919Ev3"
}

Step 3: Upload Your Metadata Files

Now, gather all your JSON metadata files into a single folder on your computer. Use Pinata’s ‘Upload > Folder’ feature to upload this folder. Then, copy the CID for the entire folder.

Step 4: Get the Folder URL

Click on name of the folder you created on Pinata. This will open a new tab showing all your uploaded JSON files. Copy the URL of this folder.

Step 5: Set Up on Sequence Builder

Navigate to Sequence Builder, set up your account, and create your project on the network of your choice. In the Contracts section, click on “Deploy New Contract”.

Step 6: Deploy Your Contract

Select “Web3 Game Item Collection (ERC-1155)” and name your contract. Sequence Builder will automatically deploy your contract on-chain.

Step 7: Move to Contract Details

Once you sign the transaction, your contract is ready! Click on it to view the details screen.

Step 8: Update Contract Attributes

Navigate to the “Write Contract” section. This is where you can modify attributes of your freshly deployed ERC-1155 contract. Two methods are what you should focus on for now:

• setBaseMetadataURI allows the creator to set the base metadata URL for this contract. You want this to point to the JSON files you’ve created, depending on NFT ID.
• mint mints one of your tokens and sends it to an address of your choosing.

Step 9: Set the Base Metadata URI

Scroll to setBaseMetadataURI, expand it, and under tokenBaseURI paste the URL for the JSON folder preview you got from Pinata earlier. It should look something like this:

https://azure-wooden-lemur-911.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmW5gvYGWb98GsN8VjTRWu4pLn6jryEXNxZKNWpPhVwtDm/

Click “Write” and you will be prompted to sign again. This will modify the contract on-chain to set the metadata base. Essentially any token ID you provide will be appended to this URL, along with the .json suffix. So if you mint token ID 123, it will look for tokenBaseURI + 123.json.

Step 10: Minting Time

Finally, it’s time to mint! Scroll up to mint, expand it, and fill in the details:

• to (address): This is the address that the token will be sent to. Use your Sequence wallet address or any other valid address.
• tokenId (uint256): This is your token ID. As long as you have a tokenId.json file already uploaded to pinata.cloud under the folder, it will work.
• amount (uint256): The number of tokens to mint (usually 1).
• data (bytes): Enter 0x00 for this simple process.

Step 11: Finalize and Admire

Click “Write” and sign the transaction. Congratulations, you’ve just minted a token! Head over to the “Tokens” section to see your minted tokens with their names and images.

Step 12: Updating Metadata

If you make mistakes with the token metadata, you can always update it and then call the Sequence Metadata refresh endpoint to reload the specific tokens:

curl -X GET "https://metadata.sequence.app/tokens/mumbai/0xb392c99d9f8e3e0b248e5c283818be5bf5cecca7/1/refresh"

This is in the format: https://metadata.sequence.app/tokens/<chain-name>/<contract-address>/<token-id>/refresh

Now that you are ready to mint, you might want to read about how you can launch your own serverless endpoint for securely minting tokens.