MMM-MealViewer

[gonzonia]

Okay. I’ve decided to build a MagicMirror to replace my homegrown and now I’m trying to implement this module. I’ve downloaded the repository for this from GitHub and ran npm install.
I’ve added some config info to set the school and position. It’s showing breakfast and “Tomorrow’s Undefined”. I’d like it to show lunch. Help?

[sdetweil]

Open the developers window, ctrl-shift-i on the keyboard. Select the console tab and scroll up to see any errors. Usually red text

[gonzonia]

@sdetweil Thank you. That’s helpful (I’m still learning the ins and outs of Magic Mirror) but there’s no errors. The “Undefined” is coming up while it’s loading the data. There’s no documentation for the module, I’m thinking there’s something that’s missing in the setup.

[sdetweil]

@gonzonia can u should your config info?

looking at the code, these are the options that are configurable

  defaults: {
    schools: [],
    maxWidth: "300px",
    updateInterval: 5 * 60 * 1000,
    interval: 1000 * 60 * 15,
  }

where schools is an array of names
[ ‘school1’,school2’, ‘school3’]

used to call the api

https://api.mealviewer.com/api/v4/school/’ + this.config.schools[i]

school names can be found here
https://schools.mealviewer.com/

comment says only for one day
// Currently set to only pull one day’s data so endDayFormatted = todayFormatted

[gonzonia]

@sdetweil
Thanks. I actually went in to the code and tweaked it. It was pulling the data fine, I think the issue was that the original developer’s usage only had a single meal (Lunch) available at the school and so it worked as is. Our school has Breakfast and Lunch I added an additional iteration to show all the meals or just what was placed in the config. The header now also reflects that. I’m not sure what that was supposed to do before because I couldn’t figure out where it was expecting the data.header to come from since nothing was loaded.

My changes can be found here.

https://github.com/gonzonia/MMM-MealViewer/tree/patch-1
added shortName to config to replace text based on config option instead of hardcoded
changed className to menuWrapper to allow for style control without interfering with other modules
added config option for showing single or multiple meals based on name, default is All

Still need to add some documentation but it might be a couple of weeks.

[gonzonia]

The module works great on the initial load. The problem is that it doesn’t seem to be updating. After 12pm it’s supposed to start showing the next days meals but doesn’t. Even the next day it doesn’t update. I’ll try to dig into the core aspects of developing a module and see if I can find out why, but if anyone with more experience has any ideas where I should start looking I’d appreciate it.

[gonzonia]

Okay. I’ve identified the problem. In the code below, everything gets setup in the “start” function. Then it calls getMenuData. That function ends by setting up a timer to call itself but isn’t supplying the object necessary. This means it won’t work. If I add the _this object to pass it causes all sorts of problems.
I’m not a js expert. I’m sure a way to re-factor this will eventually occur to me, but right now I’m just not seeing it.

start:  function() {
    Log.log('Starting module: ' + this.name);

    // Set up the local values
    var today = moment();
    this.loaded = false;
    this.urls = [];
    this.results = [];

    // Uses now are today if before noon and tomorrow as today if after noon
    if (today.hour() >= 12) {
      var todayFormatted = today.add(1, 'day').format('MM-DD-YYYY');
    }
    else {
      var todayFormatted = today.format('MM-DD-YYYY');
    }

    // Currently set to only pull one day's data so endDayFormatted = todayFormatted
    //var endDay = today.add(config.showDays, 'days');
    //var endDayFormatted = endDay.format('MM-DD-YYYY');
    var endDayFormatted = todayFormatted;

    // Construct the url array for the schools
    for (var i in this.config.schools) {
			this.urls.push({school: this.config.schools[i], url: 'https://api.mealviewer.com/api/v4/school/' + this.config.schools[i] + '/' + todayFormatted + '/' + endDayFormatted + '/'});
    }

    // Trigger the first request
    this.getMenuData(this);
  },

  getMenuData: function(_this) {
    // Make the initial request to the helper then set up the timer to perform the updates
    _this.sendSocketNotification('GET-MENU-DATA', _this.urls);
    setTimeout(_this.getMenuData(), _this.config.interval, _this);
  },

[sdetweil]

@gonzonia said in MMM-MealViewer:

getMenuData: function(_this) {
// Make the initial request to the helper then set up the timer to perform the updates
_this.sendSocketNotification(‘GET-MENU-DATA’, _this.urls);
setTimeout(_this.getMenuData(), _this.config.interval, _this);
},

do this

 getMenuData: function(_this) {
    // Make the initial request to the helper then set up the timer to perform the updates
    _this.sendSocketNotification('GET-MENU-DATA', _this.urls);
    setTimeout(function() {_this.getMenuData(_this)}, _this.config.interval);
  },

this creates a little inline function which CAN pass parms on to the next routine

[gonzonia]

@sdetweil Thanks! I’ll make the change and see what happens when it should update mid-day tomorrow.

[cowboysdude]

Or you could do this:

scheduleUpdate: function() {
       setInterval(() => {
           this.getMenuData();
       }, this.config.updateInterval); 
   },
    getMenuData: function() {
       this.sendSocketNotification('GET-MENU-DATA');
   }

At the top of the main js you set the interval:

updateInterval: 15 * 60 * 1000,

Then in the start section you call it:

// Define start sequence.
   start: function() {
       Log.info("Starting module: " + this.name); 
       this.scheduleUpdate();
   },

Either the way Sam showed you or the above will work :)

[gonzonia]

@cowboysdude Thanks! I might switch to that. I’ve had to rework it a little because the URL wasn’t getting set except at the first call. I just moved setup for that into the getMenuData and I think it’s all working now. I’ll give it a day to run and see what happens tomorrow before I try messing with it again and update the file on github.

-updated to fix grammar

[cowboysdude]

Sam is a REALLY smart guy so he gives you the smart guy answer…
I’m not as smart so I give you my dumb guy answer LOL

It will work either way … so now you def have an answer that works :)

[sdetweil]

@cowboysdude said in MMM-MealViewer:

Sam is a REALLY smart guy so he gives you the smart guy answer

nah, Sam is the LAZY guy… change as LITTLE as possible. especially for folks just starting out

[gonzonia]

Well, thanks to both of you! I can confirm it is finally working.

Now to update github. Someday I should write some documentation too.

[htilburgs]

@cowboysdude, I’m looking for the part where you “change” the XML data to JSON data. I’m trying to write a new MMM, but the data is presented in XML. I like the have it in JSON, so I can use it.

Maybe I read over it, but I cannot figure out where you do this.

[sdetweil]

@htilburgs there are a few xml to json modules

https://www.npmjs.com/package/xml2js

google search
‘nodejs xmltojson’

here is one with a just code, no extra libs

https://davidwalsh.name/convert-xml-json

[htilburgs]

@sdetweil , I’ve found them, but I don’t know how to use it in combination with the URL that creates the XML.

Indeed the last one with no extra libs looks promising. I tried to simply add this in the node_helper.js but getting stuck at how to use it.
I’ve looked into all the MMM Modules but cannot seem to find an example.

[sdetweil]

@htilburgs the url bring back the data with request

request(url, function(err, res, body) {
    // if no error and server was happy
    if(err == null && res.statusCode ==200){
    console.log(body);
    var json_data=this.xmlToJson(body)
    console.log("Speed[0] text is "+json_data.SD[0].SPEED.@attributes.TEXT)
}
});

when the server responds, the function is called and passed the data, body)
and then u would convert it from xml to json . using the last code

var json_data=this.xmlToJson(body)

then the json is accessed with the normal structure notation
(using the sample with the code in the last link)

json_data.SD[0].SPEED.@attributes.TEXT will be ‘1421’

SD is an array (multiple of same xml tags)

a little ugly in the data layour, could get rid of the @attributes thing with a small code change

[htilburgs]

So in my case the URL produces:

image url)

json_data.SD[0].SPEED@attributes.TEXT will be:

json.data.film[0].titel    --> 'Bellicher: Cel'

Correct?

[sdetweil]

@htilburgs correct (json_data is the name of the output variable, note underscore, not dot, using dot means ‘go into’) … if you use one of the module add ons… not the code shown…