Help choosing more than one item from an array

strawberry 3.141

@mykle1 what you describe above is actually not an array, it’s an object (hash). Arrays are always defined with [] not {}.

Now to your problem. you can create an array from your config value and save it in a variable e.g. var lifeForms = this.config.lifeForm.split(',');. it would look like this ['Cats', 'Bats', 'Bears']. Then you can loop over it to get the ids and save it into another variable

var lifeFormIds =[];
for (let lifeForm of lifeForms) {
  if (this.config.lifeFormArray[lifeForm]) {
    lifeFormIds.push(this.config.lifeFormArray[lifeForm]);
  }
}

To create the id list you just join it comma seoerated like lifeFormIds.join(',');

justjim1220

@strawberry-3-141

just to be sure you understand…

He’s not looking for it to show all the lifeforms at the same time, but different ones in intervals set by the user.

Like with Cats, Bats, Bears… Say at an hourly interval show each one individually.

I’m looking at this as well, I brought up the idea with @Mykle1. I see what you are getting at, and I’ve been looking at the same thing, just not sure how to call them up individually at intervals…

justjim1220

@strawberry-3-141

Oh, and I think it needs to be placed without spaces…

[“Cats”,“Bats”,“Bears”]

Not sure if that makes a difference with what you are pointing out, but I think it does.

justjim1220

@strawberry-3-141

This Is what I’ve been working on so far…

getLiforms: function () {
		var url = "http://eol.org/api/pages/1.0.json?batch=false&id=";

		var requestUrls = [];
		var LifeformsArray = this.config.Lifeforms.split(",");

		LifeformssArray.forEach(function(lifeform) {
			var requestUrl = url + lifeform;
			requestUrls.push(requestUrl);
		}

Am I even close to the right track???

justjim1220

@strawberry-3-141

Yours looks better!
:smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

strawberry 3.141

@justjim1220 It looks like you are trying to do multiple request, as mykles description sounds like one request with a comma seperated list.

justjim1220

@strawberry-3-141

Yeah, I got that while trying to write what I had going. Your example looks more correct.

So, now I’m looking at your example but not exactly sure where to insert it into the code to get it to work.

in the config.js, I am looking at the lifeforms array as such:

lifeForms: "Striped Bass,Praying Mantis,Tigers,Hummingbirds,Venus Flytrap,Fox,Bald Eagle",

then I added this to the defaults in the MMM-EOL.js:

lifeForms: ["", "", ""],

then I added your example to the start function:

        var lifeFormIds = this.config.lifeForms.split(',');
        var lifeFormIds =[];
        for (let lifeForm of lifeForms) {
            if (this.config.lifeFormArray[lifeForm]) {
                lifeFormIds.push(this.config.lifeFormArray[lifeForm]);
            }
        }

        //  Set locale.
        this.url = "http://eol.org/api/pages/1.0.json?batch=false&id=" + this.config.lifeFormIds.join(',') +

I know this is definitely NOT right. This is where I am getting confused…
Having 2 separate < var lifeFormIds > declared doesn’t look right.
And, placing the ‘join’ part after the URL doesn’t look right either…

sdetweil

ok, your source ‘lifeFormArray’ is a hash… good for looking up randomly

now to get the user specified list into something usable, split is the way as already posted

// if user specified something
if(this.config.lifeForms.length >0 )
{
     // split will return an array with only one entry if no comma found
     this.config.user_keys=this.config.lifeForms.split(',');
}
else
     // add an entry to a special lifeFormArray entry for missing config info
     this.config.user_keys.push("none");

now, you want random, or walk the array of user_keys?

function getRandomInt(max) {
  return Math.floor(Math.random() * Math.floor(max));
} 

// get one of the user specified data keys, using random
var key=this.config.user_keys[this.getRandomInt(this.config.user_keys.length)];

// append that id value to the url.
this.url = "http://eol.org/api/pages/1.0.json?batch=false&id=" +this.lifeFormArray.key;

its unclear if u wanted all or just one…

justjim1220

@sdetweil

Random would be great!

I’ll give it a try, Thanks!

sdetweil

@justjim1220 make sure to add an entry to the lifeFormArray that matches the string you define for ‘none’ (no user entry supplied)