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Questions about fs.writeFile

I want to use fs.WriteFile in my JS project. I am building an algorithm that outputs random data and I want to give the user the opportunity to save the data as a txt file. I have been able to implement fs.WriteFile in my project, but I have a couple of questions on how to proceed next as the function remains somewhat unclear.
How do I specify that I want to include the contents of various vars? Is it as simple as data = let1 + let2 + let3 and all of the data will be included?
can I add the current date and time in the .txt file name? If so, how?
How do I tell writeFile to save the contents to a .txt file and open a download blob so that people can specify their own download locations?
Thanks in advance!
I've tried looking at basic documentation but its mainly the same: a template using a simple string that saves into the same directory, which is what I don't want.

For you first question, you are correct. You can just combine different string variables into a larger string variable. See the documentation for string concatenation for more information.
For your second question, yes you can. You can get the current date and time with new Date() and turn it into a variety of formats. For file names, using mydate.toISOString() will probably be the most clean.
Here's an example of both of these in practice:
import fs from 'fs';
// Here's some data that we want to put in the file.
const name = "Bob";
const age = 43;
// Create the data we want to put in our file.
const data = name + '\n' + age;
// Let's grab the date and use it as part of our file name.
const date = new Date();
const fileName = `${date.toISOString()}.txt`;
// Call fs.writeFile to put the data in the file.
fs.writeFile(fileName, data, () => {
console.log(`Wrote data to ${fileName}.`);
});
Your third question is more complicated and probably worth a separate post. fs.writeFile can't do this for you. You'll have to come up with some mechanism for the user to enter their own file name and build off of that.
Edit:
To address your question in the comments, you might be a little confused with how NodeJS works. NodeJS runs on the server and doesn't have any way to deal with buttons or UIs by default like browser JavaScript does. It might be helpful to look at the differences between the two. So you won't be able to save it to the downloads folder on a button click.
With that said, we can save the file to the user's Downloads folder with the same script I posted above by adding the path to the Downloads folder to the beginning of the file name.
Here's the code above adjusted to do that:
import fs from 'fs';
import os from 'os'; // NEW
import path from 'path'; // NEW
const name = "Bob";
const age = 43;
const data = name + '\n' + age;
const date = new Date();
const fileName = `${date.toISOString()}.txt`;
// Get the user's home directory.
const homedir = os.homedir();
// Append the Downloads directory and fileName to the user's home directory.
const fullPath = path.join(homedir, 'Downloads', fileName);
// Use fullPath here instead of fileName.
fs.writeFile(fullPath, data, () => {
console.log(`Wrote data to ${fileName}.`);
});

Cypress HostName Plugin Not Responding

I created a plugin in plugins/index.js
const os = require('os');
module.exports = (on, config) => {
config.env.testing_computer = os.hostname();
return config;
}
Basically I want to store the hostname in the environment variable testing_computer.
However when I try to access it later in a custom command by Cypress.env("testing_computer") it is an empty string. How can I get the actual value?

Fixed. I cleared the rest of the file and left only the new plugin. I think the line at the top <references... may have been causing trouble, though I'm not sure.

Featherjs Serverside Upload

Does anyone have any examples of how I can handle the files that are sent to featherjs?
I have the following client side completely separate from featherjs but haven't trouble actually accessing said files in my service.
var req = request.post('http://uploadhost/upload').set('Authorization', 'Bearer '+this.props.authtoken);
this.state.files.forEach(file => {
req.attach(file.name, file);
});
req.end(this.callback);

FeathersJS just extends express. You need to add a multipart parser, like multer, if you are decoding form data (which looks like you are).
const multer = require('multer');
const multipartMiddleware = multer();
// Upload Service with multipart support
app.use('/uploads',
// multer parses the file named 'uri'.
// Without extra params the data is
// temporarely kept in memory
multipartMiddleware.single('uri'),
// another middleware, this time to
// transfer the received file to feathers
function(req,res,next){
req.feathers.file = req.file;
next();
},
blobService({Model: blobStorage})
);
Ultimately, feathers uses their blob service to create files.
const blobService = require('feathers-blob');
const blobStorage = fs(__dirname + '/uploads');
Read More
I hope this helps clarify my comment.

Parse json object when node server is started

I need to parse json object when the node server.js(which is my entry point to the program) is started ,the parse of the json file is done in diffrent module in my project.
I've two questions
Is it recommended to invoke the parse function with event in the server.js file
I read about the event.emiter but not sure how to invoke function
from different module...example will be very helpful
I've multiple JSON files
UPDATE to make it more clear
if I read 3 json file object (50 lines each) when the server/app is loaded (server.js file) this will be fast I guess. my scenario is that the list of the valid path's for the express call is in this json files
app.get('/run1', function (req, res) {
res.send('Hello World!');
});
So run1 should be defined in the json file(like white list of path's) if user put run2 which I not defined I need to provide error so I think that when the server is up to do this call and keep this obj with all config valid path and when user make a call just get this object which alreay parsed (when the server loaded ) and verify if its OK, I think its better approach instead doing this on call
UPDATE 2
I'll try explain more simple.
Lets assume that you have white list of path which you should listen,
like run1
app.get('/run1', function
Those path list are defined in jsons files inside your project under specific folder,before every call to your application via express you should verify that this path that was requested is in the path list of json. this is given. now how to do it.
Currently I've develop module which seek the json files in this and find if specific path is exist there.
Now I think that right solution is that when the node application is started to invoke this functionality and keep the list of valid paths in some object which I can access very easy during the user call and check if path there.
my question is how to provide some event to the validator module when the node app(Server.js) is up to provide this object.

If it's a part of your application initialization, then you could read and parse this JSON file synchronously, using either fs.readFileSync and JSON.parse, or require:
var config = require('path/to/my/config.json');
Just make sure that the module handling this JSON loading is required in your application root before app.listen call.
In this case JSON data will be loaded and parsed by the time you server will start, and there will be no need to trouble yourself with callbacks or event emitters.
I can't see any benefits of loading your initial config asynchronously for two reasons:
The bottleneck of JSON parsing is the parser itself, but since it's synchronous, you won't gain anything here. So, the only part you'll be able to optimize is interactions with your file system (i.e. reading data from disk).
Your application won't be able to work properly until this data will be loaded.
Update
If for some reason you can't make your initialization synchronous, you could delay starting your application until initialization is done.
The easiest solution here is to move app.listen part inside of initialization callback:
// initialization.js
var glob = require('glob')
var path = require('path')
module.exports = function initialization (done) {
var data = {}
glob('./config/*.json', function (err, files) {
if (err) throw err
files.forEach(function (file) {
var filename = path.basename(file)
data[filename] = require(file)
})
done(data);
})
}
// server.js
var initialization = require('./initialization')
var app = require('express')()
initialization(function (data) {
app.use(require('./my-middleware')(data))
app.listen(8000)
})
An alternative solution is to use simple event emitter to signal that your data is ready:
// config.js
var glob = require('glob')
var path = require('path')
var events = require('events')
var obj = new events.EventEmitter()
obj.data = {}
glob('./config/*.json', function (err, files) {
if (err) throw err
files.forEach(function (file) {
var filename = path.basename(file)
obj.data[filename] = require(file)
})
obj.emit('ready')
})
module.exports = obj
// server.js
var config = require('./config')
var app = require('express')()
app.use(require('./my-middleware'))
config.on('ready', function () {
app.listen(8000)
})

Get updated file in each request nodejs

Basically, I wrote a server that response a js file(object format) to users who made the request. The js file is generated by two config file. I call them config1.js and config2.js.
Here is my code:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var _ = require('underscore');
app.use('/config.js', function (req, res) {
var config1 = require('config1');
var config2 = require('config2');
var config = _.extend(config1, config2);
res.set({'Content-Type': 'application/javascript'});
res.send(JSON.stringify(config));
});
For what I am understanding, every time I make a request to /config.js, it will fetch the latest code in config1 and config2 file even after I start server. However, if I start server, make some modification in config1.js. then make the request, it will still return me the old code. Can anyone explain and how to fix that? thanks

You should not use require in order to load your files because it is not its purpose, it caches the loaded file (see this post for more information), that is why you get the same content every time you make a request.
Use a tool like concat-files instead, or concat it "by hand" if you prefer.

Concat files and extend objects aren't equal operations. You can read the files via 'fs' module, parse objects, extend, and send.