Module to display information from a text file on a locally shared folder

sdetweil

@TomBrown compliments can read from a file, and u can link that file to be on a file server.

and u can run two instances of compliments showing different info.

only issue is that it reads the file only on startup.

TomBrown

Sam,
Thanks for the reply! I will have to read up on configuring that module then and figure out how to link to a file. Reading it only on startup is alright as I could restart daily or weekly.

sdetweil

@TomBrown see the ln command for link

the compliments file MUST be in the compliments folder or subfolder. it cannot just be anywhere

the module config entry is

remoteFile: 'my_comp.json',

so, you could make a link like this

ln -s my_comp.json /mount_location/path/filename.xxx

that means make a file entry in the current folder called my_comp.json
and map it to the mounted file filename.xxx

i use this approach for linking pictures from my file server to be shown by the MMM-ImagesPhotos module

TomBrown

@sdetweil said in Module to display information from a text file on a locally shared folder:

@TomBrown see the ln command for link

the compliments file MUST be in the compliments folder or subfolder. it cannot just be anywhere

the module config entry is
remoteFile: 'my_comp.json',
so, you could make a link like this
ln -s my_comp.json /mount_location/path/filename.xxx
that means make a file entry in the current folder called my_comp.json
and map it to the mounted file filename.xxx

i use this approach for linking pictures from my file server to be shown by the MMM-ImagesPhotos module

I have not tried any of this yet (have not had the time yet) but trying to make sure I understand.
If I created the word list file called “wordlist.txt”, saved that file to a share of “\server\share\wordlist.txt”.
I would create a file named “my_comp.json” in the compliments folder.
Then link it to the text file with

ln -s my_comp.json /server/share/wordlist.txt

And the wordlist.txt would look something like this.

{
    "anytime" : [
        "Band",
        "Firetruck",
        "Movie",
    ],
    "morning" : [
        "Good morning, sunshine!",
    ],
    "afternoon" : [
        "Hitting your stride!",
    ],
    "evening" : [
        "See you tomorrow!",
    ],
}

Or would it be easier all around to just set the “remotefile:” and save it locally on the pi. I will be connecting to the pi over vnc.

sdetweil

@TomBrown the ln command ‘creates’ the local file.
and the file can contain just words in each of the time slots.

make it work with an actual file, and then see if that is what u want. if so, then you can move the real file to the server. mount the drive into the pi, and then link the local file to the server file

TomBrown

OK. Just an update. Finally got back to this. Have it installed and mounted. Kids like it!

sdetweil

@TomBrown cool, thx for the feedback

is the file on the.pi, or on a server like u had originally wanted?

TomBrown

@sdetweil Right now the file is on the pi. This has been on hold since I originally posted as other things came up.

sdetweil

@TomBrown no. just interested… good work

TomBrown

Thanks Sam! My next task is to change the digital clock to an analog clock. We are also trying to teach the kids how to tell time on an analog clock.

I changed displayType: “analog” which put up an analog clock with no numbers (just the circle and hands).

I tried to change analogFace: “face-010” but it only showed the hands, no face and no numbers.

Did I miss anything? Here is a snip from my clock.js

Module.register("clock", {
	// Module config defaults.
	defaults: {
		displayType: "analog", // options: digital, analog, both

		timeFormat: config.timeFormat,
		displaySeconds: true,
		showPeriod: true,
		showPeriodUpper: false,
		clockBold: false,
		showDate: true,
		showWeek: false,
		dateFormat: "dddd, LL",

		/* specific to the analog clock */
		analogSize: "200px",
		analogFace: "face-010", // options: 'none', 'simple', 'face-###' (where ### is 001 to 012 inclusive)

Here is how it looks with the simple analog clock.
mm analog.PNG