Config option with array of multiple values?

[UncleRoger]

I’m working on a module and it mostly works. I’d like to expand its functionality a bit though and to do that I’m thinking about changing an array I have into an array of multiple values. That is, I currently have defined and am using:

validSenders: [ "mom@example.com",
                "dad@example.com",
                "son@example.com",
              ]

My code uses it thusly:

if (!that.config.validSenders || that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address)) {

What I’d like to do is change that to look like this:

validSenders: [ { "mom@example.com", "Mom", "#ff0000" },
                { "dad@example.com", "Dad", "#00ff00" },
                { "son@example.com", "Son", "#0000ff" },
              ]

but I don’t know a) if that’s right, b) how I would do the check in the if statement above, and c) how I would access the other parts of each element. Heck, I don’t even know if that syntax is right. (I know nothing of Javascript.)

Any help with this would be much appreciated. It’s totally unnecessary but I think it could enhance the usability of the module for others.

And if I might digress for a moment, I have this code in my module:

if (that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address)) {
   if (daysAgo >= 0 && daysAgo <= that.config.daysToDisplay) {

which works fine.

But if I combine those two IF statements, it doesn’t.

if (that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address) && \
    daysAgo >= 0 && daysAgo <= that.config.daysToDisplay) {

It doesn’t work even if I remember to remove the second closing brace at the end.

Thanks!

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger said in Config option with array of multiple values?:

great conversation topic

validSenders: [ { "mom@example.com", "Mom", "#ff0000" },
                { "dad@example.com", "Dad", "#00ff00" },
                { "son@example.com", "Son", "#0000ff" },
              ]

generally when you expand the number of items in an array to objects ({}) you start to get thinking about what happens if you decide to add another entry in the object…

so in javascript you can NAME the elements

validSenders: [ 
                {  name:"Mom", color:"#ff0000",url:"mom@example.com", },
                { url"dad@example.com", name:"Dad", color:"#00ff00" },
                {  name:"Son", url:"son@example.com",color:"#0000ff" },
              ]

that way the code is not sensitive to the order of the elements

     validSenders.forEach(sender =>{
             if (sender.name =="Dad") {
                  do_something(sender.url)
             }
     })

you can also use the array.filter() function

let selected_sender = validSenders.filter(sender=>{
      if(sender.url==mailObj.sender[0].address)
           return true
     else
           return false
 })
if(selected_sender.length>0){
    // we found a matching sender
}

the filter function passes each element array in turn to the function
if you want the element in the output array return true,
if not return false

on the combined statements you don’t need the backslash

if (that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address) && 
    daysAgo >= 0 && daysAgo <= that.config.daysToDisplay) {

but this is THREE comparisons

• that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address)
• daysAgo >= 0
• daysAgo <= that.config.daysToDisplay

the last two CANNOT be true at the same time

maybe what you wanted was

if (
     that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address) && 
    (daysAgo >= 0 && daysAgo <= that.config.daysToDisplay)  
     ) {

this is two outer compares (with one inner)

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger note that I just edited the new validSenders array to move the element properties around… having them named insulates the code from any positioning issues…(and YOU don’t have to add any code to handle that)

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil said in Config option with array of multiple values?:

generally when you expand the number of items in an array to objects ({}) you start to get thinking about what happens if you decide to add another entry in the object…

so in javascript you can NAME the elements

validSenders: [ 
                { url:"mom@example.com", name:"Mom", color:"#ff0000" },
                { url"dad@example.com", name:"Dad", color:"#00ff00" },
                { url:"son@example.com", name:"Son", color:"#0000ff" },
              ]

that way the code is not sensitive to the order of the elements

     validSenders.forEach(sender =>{
             if (sender.name =="Dad") {
                  do_something(sender.url)
             }
     })

So in this scenario, you have validSenders the array and, for example, validSenders.url as one attribute(?) of the array? In your example, where does “sender” come from? It’s not one of the named elements. Is it a sort of temporary variable that gets handed the array … object(?) … so in the first iteration of the forEach (which I assume loops through each entry in the validSenders array), sender would contain(?) url:"mom@example.com", name:“Mom”, and color:“#ff0000”? And sender.url would be “mom@example.com”?

That makes sense. I apologize for not knowing the terminology; I’m very new to the whole OOP sort of thing.

you can also use the array.filter() function

let selected_sender = validSenders.filter(sender=>{
      if(sender.url==mailObj.sender[0].address)
           return true
     else
           return false
 })
if(selected_sender.length>0){
    // we found a matching sender
}

the filter function passes each element array in turn to the function
if you want the element in the output array return true,
if not return false

Could this return false if it doesn’t match but an index if it matches so that one could refer to validSenders.color[selected_sender] to get the right attribute?

I really kinda wish I had a spare RPi laying around so I could do this testing on something other than my production mirror. (I mean, everyone’s aware that it’s a work-in-progress but I don’t want to muck it up.)

• that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address)
• daysAgo >= 0
• daysAgo <= that.config.daysToDisplay

the last two CANNOT be true at the same time

I’m not sure I understand… if daysToDisplay is, say, 50 and daysAgo = 25, then the last two would both be true?

What I’m trying to do is make sure that the sender of an e-mail is in the list of valid senders and that the date the e-mail was sent is not more than daysToDisplay days ago.

maybe what you wanted was

if (
     that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address) && 
    (daysAgo >= 0 && daysAgo <= that.config.daysToDisplay)  
     ) {

this is two outer compares (with one inner)

I thought I tried that but even so, I don’t understand how that’s different from what I had. I thought that “If A && B && C” would be the same as “If A && (B && C)” – in either case, all three have to be true for the whole thing to be true.

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil said in Config option with array of multiple values?:

maybe what you wanted was

if (
     that.config.validSenders.includes(mailObj.sender[0].address) && 
    (daysAgo >= 0 && daysAgo <= that.config.daysToDisplay)  
     ) {

this is two outer compares (with one inner)

I just tried this and it works. Not sure why the extra set of parentheses are needed but I’m not going to argue. 8^)

Thanks!

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger array.filter() returns an array with the items that the matching function returned true
so there is only one. no need for the index. it returned the entire object, item in the list

sender is the name of the parameter passed to the matching function, the element of the array

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger >I really kinda wish I had a spare RPi laying

MagicMirror will run on windows. you don’t need a pi

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil
I got it working with the .filter function:

let selSender = that.config.validSenders.filter(mySender => {
	if (mySender.addr.toLowerCase() == mailObj.sender[0].address.toLowerCase()) 
		return true
	 else 
		return false
});

but now I’m having a problem trying to use the returned array. In this code the adding the color element to the subject works fine (that’s there for testing), as does the setting the style.color, but if I uncomment the if statement, it crashes:

subject = subject + selSender[0].color;
//		if (selSender[0].color != undefined) {
			subjectWrapper.style.color = selSender[0].color;
//		} else {

Is there a reason it doesn’t like that in the IF statement? Note: I also tried it as just “if (selSender[0].color) {” and assigning the value of selSender[0].color to another variable and using that other variable in the IF statement. In at least one test case there is a value in color.

[UncleRoger]

@UncleRoger said in Config option with array of multiple values?:

subject = subject + selSender[0].color;
// if (selSender[0].color != undefined) {
subjectWrapper.style.color = selSender[0].color;
// } else {

Is there a reason it doesn’t like that in the IF statement? Note: I also tried it as just “if (selSender[0].color) {” and assigning the value of selSender[0].color to another variable and using that other variable in the IF statement. In at least one test case there is a value in color.

Okay, so it looks like Javascript wants “!==”, not “!=”. Ugh.

Anyway, I got it working using a “switch (true)” block.

Thanks for all the help!

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger yes the compares

!=
!==
!===

are different

one compare s the data type too
2 is a number
“2” is a string

[MZ-BER]

Hello @UncleRoger - are you planning to publish your module? And can I may ask you what this module will do?

[UncleRoger]

@MZ-BER said in Config option with array of multiple values?:

Hello @UncleRoger - are you planning to publish your module? And can I may ask you what this module will do?

Yes, I am planning to publish it, once I’ve tested it reasonably well. Mostly, it seems to work thus far. I’m doing more testing and working on documentation.

The module checks an e-mail address and then shows the subject of any e-mails on the MM. Basically, I wanted a way for my wife and I to post messages for the whole family to see. This is an idea I’ve had for a long time (going back to the days of pagers) and is kinda obsolete – we use text messages and instagram messages a lot these days – but I still wanted to make this happen.

Probably next week I’ll be posting a message “how do I put a module in github for everyone to use?” as I’m totally new to all of this. 8^)

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil said in Config option with array of multiple values?:

yes the compares
!=
!==
!===

are different

Heh. Back in my day, we got one equality operator and one inequality operator and we were dang thankful for that. Now git off my lawn! 8^)

Seriously, though, thanks for all your help!

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger I agree. I came in before these fancy new languages. before web.

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger logon to GitHub, click repositories , new, make the name match your module name, create.

it will give you a set of commands to execute in your module folder to upload it to that repo…

easy peasy

note that you need to create an access key thru the GitHub profile menu to be able to upload.(aka push)
this replaces the requested password now

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil said in Config option with array of multiple values?:

it will give you a set of commands to execute in your module folder to.upload it to that repo…
easy peasy

I’ve got a repository set up with a README.md file but I don’t see anything about how to upload the module.

Also, is there anywhere with a list of what files I need to upload? These are the files in my directory:

 ll
total 32
-rw-r--r--  1 roger roger   59 Oct 25 07:43 email.css.orig
-rw-r--r--  1 roger roger 6420 Oct 27 11:26 MMM-MailMessage.js
-rw-r--r--  1 roger roger 3566 Oct 25 12:44 MMM-MailMessage.js.save
-rw-r--r--  1 roger roger 3117 Oct 25 07:58 node_helper.js
drwxr-xr-x 12 roger roger 4096 Oct 25 12:44 node_modules
-rw-r--r--  1 roger roger  355 Oct 27 12:37 package.json
-rw-r--r--  1 roger roger 3755 Oct 25 12:44 package-lock.json

I’m pretty sure the node_modules directory comes from the emailjs-imap-client that it needs (which came from an npm install) so I don’t think that should be in the repository for this module. I’m not sure about package-lock.json. I think package.json is needed – it basically just has the name & description and says it needs the emailjs thing.

Other than that, it’s MMM-MailMessage.js and node_helper.js so I think the files needed are:

• MMM-MailMessage.js
• node_helper.js
• package.json

Is that right?

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger then to update your repo

on the pi in your module folder

git status
will tell you the files that changed

git add . 

will add them all

git add filename filename2 

will add only those to the pending commit

git commit -m "some message why you made these changes"

then

git push 

to upload

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger when you created the repo on GitHub you should have seen this output

I named my repo fribble2 for this test

in the section on create new from commandline

I would not do the git add for the readme as I have that already on the GitHub side

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil

I think I’ve managed to thoroughly muck things up. Apparently my changes are in a branch called “master” and the repository has a “main” and never the twain shall meet.

If I go to the “pull requests” tab in github, it shows me the differences between the file there and my changed file but there’s no way to merge them. This is what I’m seeing:

I have the module working for me on my system but I don’t seem to be able to get it to a state where I can publish it.

I’ve never used git/github before (other than to download modules) and, frankly, there’s a lot of base knowledge I don’t have that seems to be required to understand it and get it working.

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger ok

ok, the easiest way to handle this

rename your module folder to some other name

then git clone your github repo

then copy the files from your renamed folder to the clone

then in the clone folder do

 git add . 
git commit -m "adding 1st commit"
git push

then the local branch will be the same as the remote(github) branch
and all will be well from then on, and u can delete the renamed folder