Read local txt file from node_helper.js

[Aphamguin]

I am currently creating my own MM module, but am still relatively new to the platform so I used this tutorial to help me get started: https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/8534/head-first-developing-mm-module-for-extreme-beginners
It mentions that the node_helper.js is able to read from local files, but I’m having trouble getting it to work.

Here’s what my node_helper.js looks like so far:

var NodeHelper = require("node_helper")
var fs = require('fs')

module.exports = NodeHelper.create({
	start: function() {
		this.rawText = fs.readFileSync('YourTrueHome.txt').toString()
		this.readIn = this.rawText.split('\r')  //array of book line by line
		this.text = this.readIn[1]
	},
socketNotificationReceived: function(notification, payload) {
	switch(notification) {
		case "DO_YOUR_JOB":
			this.sendSocketNotification("I_DID", this.text)
			break
		}
	},
})

And then in the main js file, the socket notification receiver simply reads:

socketNotificationReceived: function(notification, payload) {
		switch(notification){
			case "I_DID":
				let elem = document.getElementById("COUNT")
				elem.innerHTML = "Count: " + payload
				break
		}
	},

There is a COUNT element correctly defined in getDom: function() already.

[sdetweil]

@Aphamguin what is the problem? I don’t see anything obvious

also, see my Sample Module, which sends thru node_helper and gets response back which is shown.

https://github.com/sdetweil/SampleModule

if u are just showing text, you should use innerText, so the dom handler doesn’t have to examine your text only to find no html tags… (save cycles for other work)

[Aphamguin]

@sdetweil it seems to break the module and MM. Nothing shows up on the screen when I run it.
Thanks for the sample module. It’s a really helpful template that I thought MM would have given us.
It’s a simple module, but I’m just implementing its functionality in phases. At the moment I just want it to read from a local txt file, parse it into an array, and then display a chunk of text by accessing that array. So yes I’m just showing text. What is innerText? Do I just do elem.innerText(“text”)
instead of elem.innerHTML(“text”)?

[sdetweil]

@Aphamguin yes elem.innerText.

not sure what you mean by breaks mm…

if u email me the three files I will find what the problem is.

same user ID on gmail. rename the .js as .txt

[sdetweil]

@Aphamguin you did set a position for your module in config, right? else the output doesn’t get used

[sdetweil]

@Aphamguin the sample mm provides (hello world), uses the nunjuks template approach

[Aphamguin]

@sdetweil I have emailed you the main js file, the helper, and the txt file, all as txt files. I hope you got it.
I did set a position, yes.
Where can I get the sample mm? What is the nunjuks template approach?

[sdetweil]

@Aphamguin my sample module
https://github.com/sdetweil/SampleModule

I don’t have any links to nunjuks.

but basically you create a layout template with locations for variables, and then supply the data, and the template engine does that formatting
see the helloworld module in the defaults folder

I am working on your module. the initial problem is the data filename has to have a path, else it will be in the MagicMirror folder.

but there is also an easier way to process your data.

in a couple hours I will get it back to you the same way

[Aphamguin]

@sdetweil Ok I’ll play around with it then.
Wow great. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.

[sdetweil]

@Aphamguin sent back