> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://abc.bharatblockchain.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://abc.bharatblockchain.io/hedera/tutorials/consensus-service/submit-a-message.md).

# Submit a message

## Step 1 : **Imports**

* The script imports necessary modules from the Hedera JavaScript SDK: `PrivateKey`, `TopicMessageSubmitTransaction`, and `Client`.
* It also imports the `dotenv` module to load environment variables from a `.env` file located in the `Consensus_Service` directory.

```javascript
const {
    PrivateKey,
    TopicMessageSubmitTransaction,
    Client
} = require("@hashgraph/sdk");
require('dotenv').config({ path: 'Consensus_Service/.env' });
```

## Step 2 : **Environment Variables Retrieval**

These lines retrieve environment variables such as `MY_ACCOUNT_ID`, `MY_PRIVATE_KEY`, and `TOPIC_ID` from the `.env` file using `process.env`.

```javascript
const myAccountId = process.env.MY_ACCOUNT_ID;
const myPrivateKey = PrivateKey.fromString(process.env.MY_PRIVATE_KEY);
const topicId = process.env.TOPIC_ID;
```

## Step 3 : **Validation**

This block of code ensures that the required environment variables (`MY_ACCOUNT_ID` and `MY_PRIVATE_KEY`) are present. If not, it throws an error.

```javascript
if (myAccountId == null ||
    myPrivateKey == null ) {
    throw new Error("Environment variables myAccountId and myPrivateKey must be present");
}
```

## Step 4 : **Main Function**

* This is the main function named `main()`.
* It creates a client instance for the Hedera testnet and sets the operator account using the user's account ID and private key.
* It creates a new `TopicMessageSubmitTransaction` object to submit a message to a topic.
* The topic ID and message content are set using the retrieved environment variables.
* The transaction is executed using the `execute()` method, and the resulting transaction response (`sendResponse`) is obtained.
* The receipt of the transaction is retrieved using `getReceipt()`.
* The status of the transaction is extracted from the receipt and logged to the console.

```javascript
async function main() {
    const client = Client.forTestnet(); // Create a client for the Hedera testnet
    client.setOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey); // Set the operator account for the client

    // Send one message to the specified topic
    let sendResponse = await new TopicMessageSubmitTransaction({
        topicId: topicId, // Set the topic ID
        message: "This is a very first message to my new topic!", // Set the message content
    }).execute(client);

    // Get the receipt of the transaction
    const getReceipt = await sendResponse.getReceipt(client);

    // Get the status of the transaction
    const transactionStatus = getReceipt.status;
    console.log("The message transaction status: " + transactionStatus);

    process.exit(); // Exit the process
}

main();

```

This script submits a message to a consensus topic on the Hedera network and logs the transaction status to the console.


---

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