PalletMan

Postman for Portaldot — Browser-Based Pallet Explorer & Transaction Builder

🎬 Demo Video | 🌐 Live App | 💻 GitHub | 🐦 Twitter | 👤 LinkedIn

Project Overview

Problem Statement: Portaldot developers have no browser-based tool to explore the chain, test extrinsics, or submit transactions without writing code. Interacting with any pallet requires the Python SDK, a local dev environment, and knowledge of SCALE encoding — a steep barrier for new builders and a slow feedback loop for experienced ones.

Solution: PalletMan is a visual extrinsic studio for Portaldot — Postman, but for on-chain pallets. Connect your wallet, auto-discover every pallet from live runtime metadata, fill typed parameter forms, estimate POT fees, sign and submit transactions directly from the browser. A Saved Calls panel (backed by a deployed ink! v5 smart contract) lets developers save named call configurations on-chain and reload them any time from any device.

Blockchain Relevance: Smart contracts (ink! v5), real-time Portaldot node interaction via WebSocket, POT micro-payments for on-chain call storage, runtime metadata introspection, Polkadot.js wallet extension signing.

Technical Architecture

[Browser — Next.js]
     │  Polkadot.js extension (wallet signing)
     │  @polkadot/api WebSocket
     ▼
[Portaldot Node — ws://localhost:9944]
     │  auto-discovers all pallets + extrinsics + storage items
     │
     └── [PalletManRegistry — ink! v5 contract]
              save_call / get_calls / delete_call / total_saves

3-panel studio layout:

Left — Pallet sidebar: browse every pallet, pick extrinsic or storage item
Center — Extrinsic panel: typed param fields (address, balance, bool, JSON, hex), Estimate Fee, Sign & Submit
Right — Tabbed: Results (tx history) | Saved Calls (on-chain registry)

Core tech stack:

Blockchain platform: Portaldot (Substrate / substrate-contracts-node)
Smart contract language: ink! v5 (Rust)
Frontend framework: Next.js + React
Other components: @polkadot/api WebSocket client, @polkadot/extension-dapp wallet integration, @polkadot/api-contract for ink! contract interaction

Smart Contracts

Contract file directory: contracts/palletman-registry/lib.rs

Key contracts:

Function	Description
`save_call(name, pallet, extrinsic, params_json)`	Stores a named extrinsic call config under the caller's account; small POT gas fee per save
`get_calls(account)`	Returns all saved call configs for a given account
`delete_call(index)`	Removes a saved call by 0-based index
`call_count(account)`	Returns count of saved calls for an account
`total_saves()`	Returns global total saves across all accounts

Deployment instructions:

# Start local Portaldot node
substrate-contracts-node --dev

# Build contract
cd contracts/palletman-registry
cargo contract build

# Deploy (copy contract address from output)
cargo contract instantiate --suri //Alice --constructor new

# Paste address into frontend/constants/network.ts → REGISTRY_CONTRACT_ADDRESS

Installation & Setup

Requirements:

Node.js 18+
Rust + cargo-contract
substrate-contracts-node

Steps:

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Venkat5599/Palletman
cd Palletman

Install dependencies

cd frontend
npm install

Compile & deploy contract

# In a separate terminal
substrate-contracts-node --dev

cd contracts/palletman-registry
cargo contract build
cargo contract instantiate --suri //Alice --constructor new
# Copy deployed contract address

Launch frontend

cd frontend
npm run dev
# Open http://localhost:3000/app

Demo

Video link: https://youtu.be/mVH80GSLKuE?si=ZGclj_mIV6yzhTN3

Live demo: https://palletman-frontend.vercel.app

Screenshots

Landing Page

Extrinsic Form Builder — Auto-generated from live chain metadata

Transaction Finalized — Real on-chain result with events

Test accounts:

Account	Address
Alice (pre-funded, 1B POT)	`5GrwvaEF5zXb26Fz9rcQpDWS57CtERHpNehXCPcNoHGKutQY`
Bob (pre-funded, 1B POT)	`5FHneW46xGXgs5mUiveU4sbTyGBzmstUspZC92UhjJM694ty`

Mnemonic (dev only — never use on mainnet): bottom drive obey lake curtain smoke basket hold race lonely fit walk + //Alice or //Bob derivation path.

Roadmap

Completed features:

ink! v5 PalletManRegistry contract (save / load / delete call configs on-chain)
3-panel studio — pallet browser, extrinsic builder, results + saved calls
Full Polkadot.js wallet extension signing (real accounts)
Auto-discovery of all pallets and extrinsics from live runtime metadata
Typed parameter fields (address, balance, bool, JSON, hex)
Fee estimation before submission
Storage query panel with decoded values
Transaction lifecycle tracking (building → signing → ready → inblock → finalized)
Transaction history (last 20 submissions)
Real-time block counter in connection bar
Landing page with features, how-it-works, FAQ
Dark/light mode

Next phase plans:

URL-shareable saved calls (encode pallet/extrinsic/params in URL)
RPC endpoint switcher in the UI (no code changes needed to swap networks)
Export any extrinsic as Python SDK snippet
Batch extrinsic sequences
Multi-network profiles (mainnet / testnet / local)

Team

Team name: PalletMan

Members & roles:

Venkata Ramana Komari — Solo builder (design, contract, frontend, deployment)

Contact: komarivenkataramana4@gmail.com

License

MIT

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