Can Borsh args be added?

[MagicGordon]

Like: https://github.com/near/near-workspaces-rs/blob/a9886fd6059eb00f7e162c2e4c7b3910a3d9d7d0/workspaces/src/rpc/query.rs#L233

I hope to initiate a call like this using the CLI:
https://github.com/Near-One/near-plugins/blob/master/near-plugins-derive/tests/common/upgradable_contract.rs#L35-L46

[frol]

@MagicGordon Borsh requires the schema to serialize data and even if we will rely on NEAR ABI being provided through the embedded __contract_abi(), the data would still need to be provided in some form - JSON? That would be another layer of cumbersomeness to translate JSON -> Borsh.

There are base64-args and file-args options that you can employ to pass binary data (Borsh-serialized data). You can write a small helper CLI to prepare the args and then call NEAR CLI with those.

Advances on the NEAR ABI side are quite hard and take a ton of time, and don't yield wider NEAR adoption, so these tasks are not highly prioritized, but I will keep this issue open to track the demand and ideas on what could be a low-hanging fruit here.