How to fetch the metadata of a SPL token

This tutorial aims to explain how to fetch the metadata of a token. For this, we will discuss the case where the token uses the Token Metadata Standard established by Metaplex and the case where it does not. Indeed, according to the date of creation of the token, it can not use this standard but use the Solana Labs Token List instead. For both cases, we will use Typescript.

Table of contents

• How to fetch the metadata of a SPL token
  • Table of contents
  • Installation
  • Token using the Token Metadata Standard
  • Token using the Solana Labs Token List
  • Complete code

Installation

To fetch the metadata of a token, we will need some dependencies. To install them, run the following command:

npm install @metaplex-foundation/js @solana/web3.js @solana/spl-token-registry

Token using the Token Metadata Standard

According to the Metaplex's docs, a token using the Token Metadata Standard is attached to a Metadata Account where the metadata (both on-chain and off-chain) are stored (among others token's name, symbol, logo, description). This Metadata Account is attached to the token Mint Account via a Program Derived Address (PDA). The seeds of this PDA are: the term 'metadata', the public key of the token metadata program and the public key of the token mint. Don't worry, there's no need to remember it since the Metaplex SDK can calculate it for us.

When a token uses the Token Metadata Standard, we can easily retrieve its metadata using the Metaplex SDK. If we don't know in advance if the token uses the Token Metadata Standard, we only need to make sure in advance that the Metadata Account exists, otherwise we will get an error message.

We will show the entire code and then talk through what is going on.

import { Metaplex } from "@metaplex-foundation/js";
import { Connection, PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";

async function getTokenMetadata() {
    const connection = new Connection("https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com");
    const metaplex = Metaplex.make(connection);

    const mintAddress = new PublicKey("paste-the-token-address-here");

    let tokenName;
    let tokenSymbol;
    let tokenLogo;

    const metadataAccount = metaplex
        .nfts()
        .pdas()
        .metadata({ mint: mintAddress });

    const metadataAccountInfo = await connection.getAccountInfo(metadataAccount);

    if (metadataAccountInfo) {
          const token = await metaplex.nfts().findByMint({ mintAddress: mintAddress });
          tokenName = token.name;
          tokenSymbol = token.symbol;
          tokenLogo = token.json.image;
    }
}

Okay let’s step through it:

import { Metaplex } from "@metaplex-foundation/js";
import { Connection, PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";

We import first what we need.

const connection = new Connection("https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com");

Then we define the Solana connection we want to use.

const metaplex = Metaplex.make(connection);

This is the entry point to the SDK. We are just creating a new instance and passing it the Solana connection to get access to its API.

const mintAddress = new PublicKey("paste-the-token-address-here");

let tokenName;
let tokenSymbol;
let tokenLogo;

We define the address of the token from which we want to fetch the metadata and create the variables that will store the desired information.

const metadataAccount = metaplex
    .nfts()
    .pdas()
    .metadata({ mint: mintAddress });

We get the address of the Metadata Account.

const metadataAccountInfo = await connection.getAccountInfo(metadataAccount);

We fetch the account info of the Metadata Account.

If metadataAccountInfo is equal to null, the Metadata Account doesn't exist meaning the token doesn't use the Token Metadata Standard and we can't use the Metaplex SDK to fecth its metadata. In this case, you will have to check Token using the Solana Labs Token List.

If metadataAccountInfo is not equal to null, the Metadata Account exist and we can use the Metaplex SDK to fecth its metadata.

if (metadataAccountInfo) {
    const token = await metaplex.nfts().findByMint({ mintAddress: mintAddress });
    tokenName = token.name;
    tokenSymbol = token.symbol;
    tokenLogo = token.json.image;
    }

We check if metadataAccountInfo is equal to null. If it is not, we can use the findByMint method. This method returns an Nft object which contains all the information you need. Here we get the token's name, symbol and logo.

Token using the Solana Labs Token List

If a token doesn't use the Token Metadata Standard, it uses the Solana Labs Token List. This list store token and its metadata. It is noted that this list is obsolete since June 20,2022 in favor of the Token Metadata Standard.

We will show the entire code and then talk through what is going on.

import { PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";
import { ENV, TokenListProvider } from "@solana/spl-token-registry";

async function getTokenMetadata() {

    const mintAddress = new PublicKey("paste-the-token-address-here");

    let tokenName;
    let tokenSymbol;
    let tokenLogo;

    const provider = await new TokenListProvider().resolve();
    const tokenList = provider.filterByChainId(ENV.MainnetBeta).getList();
    const tokenMap = tokenList.reduce((map, item) => {
        map.set(item.address, item);
            return map;
        }, new Map());

    const token = tokenMap.get(mintAddress.toBase58());
    tokenName = token.name;
    tokenSymbol = token.symbol;
    tokenLogo = token.logoURI;
}

Okay let’s step through it:

import { PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";
import { ENV, TokenListProvider } from "@solana/spl-token-registry";

We import first what we need.

const mintAddress = new PublicKey("paste-the-token-address-here");

let tokenName;
let tokenSymbol;
let tokenLogo;

We define the address of the token from which we want to fetch the metadata and create the variables that will store the desired information.

const provider = await new TokenListProvider().resolve();
const tokenList = provider.filterByChainId(ENV.MainnetBeta).getList();
const tokenMap = tokenList.reduce((map, item) => {
  map.set(item.address, item);
    return map;
  }, new Map());

Here we fetch all the tokens and their metadata in the Solana Labs Token List and store them in tokenList. With this tokenList, we do a mapping between the token mint address (in this list the token mint address is in Base58) and the metadata and store this map in tokenMap.

const token = tokenMap.get(mintAddress.toBase58());
tokenName = token.name;
tokenSymbol = token.symbol;
tokenLogo = token.logoURI;

We get our token in the tokenMap. token contains the information you need. Here we get the token's name, symbol and logo.

Complete code

Once everything is put together, the complete code is as follows:

import { Metaplex } from "@metaplex-foundation/js";
import { Connection, PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";
import { ENV, TokenListProvider } from "@solana/spl-token-registry";

async function getTokenMetadata() {
  const connection = new Connection("https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com");
  const metaplex = Metaplex.make(connection);

  const mintAddress = new PublicKey("paste-the-token-address-here");

  let tokenName;
  let tokenSymbol;
  let tokenLogo;

  const metadataAccount = metaplex
    .nfts()
    .pdas()
    .metadata({ mint: mintAddress });

    const metadataAccountInfo = await connection.getAccountInfo(metadataAccount);

    if (metadataAccountInfo) {
          const token = await metaplex.nfts().findByMint({ mintAddress: mintAddress });
          tokenName = token.name;
          tokenSymbol = token.symbol;
          tokenLogo = token.json?.image;
    }
    else {
        const provider = await new TokenListProvider().resolve();
        const tokenList = provider.filterByChainId(ENV.MainnetBeta).getList();
        console.log(tokenList)
        const tokenMap = tokenList.reduce((map, item) => {
          map.set(item.address, item);
          return map;
        }, new Map());

        const token = tokenMap.get(mintAddress.toBase58());

        tokenName = token.name;
        tokenSymbol = token.symbol;
        tokenLogo = token.logoURI;
    }
}