Sequence JSON return types are inconsistent across methods

[ElliotFriend]

I've noticed that the ledger sequence number isn't always returned as the same type in some of the Soroban-RPC methods. The getLatestLedger method returns the sequence as a uint32. Elsewhere when a ledger's sequence number is returned, it's stringified in the JSON response.

I could've sworn I noticed this same kind of thing with a protocolVersion field in two of the methods, but I'm not finding it now. I might've just been conflating some things in my head.

[ElliotFriend]

For some additional details and context, here are all the occurrences I can find of a ledger sequence number in the methods, and how it's returned

method name	return name	struct type	json type
getLatestLedger	sequence	uint32	n/a
getLedgerEntries	lastModifiedLedgerSeq	int64	string
getLedgerEntries	liveUntilLedgerSeq	*uint32	string
getLedgerEntries	latestLedger	int64	string
getEvents	ledger	int32	string
getTransaction	latestLedger	int64	string
getTransaction	oldestLedger	int64	string
getTransaction	ledger	int64	string
sendTransaction	latestLedger	int64	string
simulateTransaction	latestLedger	int64	string

Seems like it's only returned as a number in the getLatestLedger method. I am curious if there's a significance or reasoning behind the use of int64 vs. uint32 vs. int32 vs. *uint32 in the structs, though? Maybe that's just how the data is retrieved from stellar core?

[leighmcculloch]

Ledger sequences are uint32 in the xdr, so I don't think we need to be communicating the sequence as a int64 or as a string. It looks like most of the fields need updating.

See:
https://github.com/stellar/stellar-xdr/blob/6a620d160aab22609c982d54578ff6a63bfcdc01/Stellar-ledger.x#L82

[ElliotFriend]

Looks like there's also some discrepancies between ledger close time representations. latestLedgerCloseTime, oldestLedgerCloseTime, and createdAt in the getTransaction method return a unix timestamp (1699997993); same with latestLedgerCloseTime in the sendTransaction method. However, in the getEvents method, ledgerClosedAt is returned as an ISO-8601 timestamp (2023-11-14T02:42:23Z)

[mollykarcher]

The change to getLatestLedger will be breaking for downstream systems, so we'll need to make sure to alert downstream SDK providers about this (possibly just a comment on the existing issues we sent out)