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}.`);
});
Test browser:
Version of Chrome: 52.0.2743.116
It is a simple javascript that is to open an image file from local like 'C:\002.jpg'
function run(){
var URL = "file:///C:\002.jpg";
window.open(URL, null);
}
run();
Here is my sample code.
https://fiddle.jshell.net/q326vLya/3/
Please give me any suitable suggestions.
We use Chrome a lot in the classroom and it is a must to working with local files.
What we have been using is "Web Server for Chrome". You start it up, choose the folder wishing to work with and go to URL (like 127.0.0.1:port you chose)
It is a simple server and cannot use PHP but for simple work, might be your solution:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/web-server-for-chrome/ofhbbkphhbklhfoeikjpcbhemlocgigb
1)
Open your terminal and type
npm install -g http-server
2)
Go to the root folder that you want to serve you files and type:
http-server ./
3)
Read the output of the terminal, something kinda http://localhost:8080 will appear.
Everything on there will be allowed to be got.
Example:
background: url('http://localhost:8080/waw.png');
Okay folks, I completely understand the security reasons behind this error message, but sometimes, we do need a workaround... and here's mine. It uses ASP.Net (rather than JavaScript, which this question was based on) but it'll hopefully be useful to someone.
Our in-house app has a webpage where users can create a list of shortcuts to useful files spread throughout our network. When they click on one of these shortcuts, we want to open these files... but of course, Chrome's error prevents this.
This webpage uses AngularJS 1.x to list the various shortcuts.
Originally, my webpage was attempting to directly create an <a href..> element pointing at the files, but this produced the "Not allowed to load local resource" error when a user clicked on one of these links.
<div ng-repeat='sc in listOfShortcuts' id="{{sc.ShtCut_ID}}" class="cssOneShortcutRecord" >
<div class="cssShortcutIcon">
<img ng-src="{{ GetIconName(sc.ShtCut_PathFilename); }}">
</div>
<div class="cssShortcutName">
<a ng-href="{{ sc.ShtCut_PathFilename }}" ng-attr-title="{{sc.ShtCut_Tooltip}}" target="_blank" >{{ sc.ShtCut_Name }}</a>
</div>
</div>
The solution was to replace those <a href..> elements with this code, to call a function in my Angular controller...
<div ng-click="OpenAnExternalFile(sc.ShtCut_PathFilename);" >
{{ sc.ShtCut_Name }}
</div>
The function itself is very simple...
$scope.OpenAnExternalFile = function (filename) {
//
// Open an external file (i.e. a file which ISN'T in our IIS folder)
// To do this, we get an ASP.Net Handler to manually load the file,
// then return it's contents in a Response.
//
var URL = '/Handlers/DownloadExternalFile.ashx?filename=' + encodeURIComponent(filename);
window.open(URL);
}
And in my ASP.Net project, I added a Handler file called DownloadExternalFile.aspx which contained this code:
namespace MikesProject.Handlers
{
/// <summary>
/// Summary description for DownloadExternalFile
/// </summary>
public class DownloadExternalFile : IHttpHandler
{
// We can't directly open a network file using Javascript, eg
// window.open("\\SomeNetworkPath\ExcelFile\MikesExcelFile.xls");
//
// Instead, we need to get Javascript to call this groovy helper class which loads such a file, then sends it to the stream.
// window.open("/Handlers/DownloadExternalFile.ashx?filename=//SomeNetworkPath/ExcelFile/MikesExcelFile.xls");
//
public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
{
string pathAndFilename = context.Request["filename"]; // eg "\\SomeNetworkPath\ExcelFile\MikesExcelFile.xls"
string filename = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(pathAndFilename); // eg "MikesExcelFile.xls"
context.Response.ClearContent();
WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
using (Stream stream = webClient.OpenRead(pathAndFilename))
{
// Process image...
byte[] data1 = new byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(data1, 0, data1.Length);
context.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", string.Format("attachment; filename={0}", filename));
context.Response.BinaryWrite(data1);
context.Response.Flush();
context.Response.SuppressContent = true;
context.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest();
}
}
public bool IsReusable
{
get
{
return false;
}
}
}
And that's it.
Now, when a user clicks on one of my Shortcut links, it calls the OpenAnExternalFile function, which opens this .ashx file, passing it the path+filename of the file we want to open.
This Handler code loads the file, then passes it's contents back in the HTTP response.
And, job done, the webpage opens the external file.
Phew ! Again - there is a reason why Chrome throws this "Not allowed to load local resources" exception, so tread carefully with this... but I'm posting this code just to demonstrate that this is a fairly simple way around this limitation.
Just one last comment: the original question wanted to open the file "C:\002.jpg". You can't do this. Your website will sit on one server (with it's own C: drive) and has no direct access to your user's own C: drive. So the best you can do is use code like mine to access files somewhere on a network drive.
Chrome specifically blocks local file access this way for security reasons.
Here's an article to workaround the flag in Chrome (and open your system up to vulnerabilities):
http://www.chrome-allow-file-access-from-file.com/
There is a workaround using Web Server for Chrome. Here are the steps:
Add the Extension to chrome.
Choose the folder (C:\images) and launch the server
on your desired port.
Now easily access your local file:
function run(){
// 8887 is the port number you have launched your serve
var URL = "http://127.0.0.1:8887/002.jpg";
window.open(URL, null);
}
run();
PS: You might need to select the CORS Header option from advanced setting incase you face any cross origin access error.
This issue come when I am using PHP as server side language and the work around was to generate base64 enconding of my image before sending the result to client
$path = 'E:/pat/rwanda.png';
$type = pathinfo($path, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
$data = file_get_contents($path);
$base64 = 'data:image/' . $type . ';base64,' . base64_encode($data);
I think may give someone idea to create his own work around
Thanks
Google Chrome does not allow to load local resources because of the security. Chrome need http url. Internet Explorer and Edge allows to load local resources, but Safari, Chrome, and Firefox doesn't allows to load local resources.
Go to file location and start the Python Server from there.
python -m SimpleHttpServer
then put that url into function:
function run(){
var URL = "http://172.271.1.20:8000/" /* http://0.0.0.0:8000/ or http://127.0.0.1:8000/; */
window.open(URL, null);
}
If you have php installed - you can use built-in server. Just open target dir with files and run
php -S localhost:8001
If you could do this, it will represent a big security problem, as you can access your filesystem, and potentially act on the data available there... Luckily it's not possible to do what you're trying to do.
If you need local resources to be accessed, you can try to start a web server on your machine, and in this case your method will work. Other workarounds are possible, such as acting on Chrome settings, but I always prefer the clean way, installing a local web server, maybe on a different port (no, it's not so difficult!).
See also:
Open local files(file://) using Chrome
Opening local files from chrome
You just need to replace all image network paths to byte strings in stored Encoded HTML string.
For this you required HtmlAgilityPack to convert Html string to Html document.
https://www.nuget.org/packages/HtmlAgilityPack
Find Below code to convert each image src network path(or local path) to byte sting.
It will definitely display all images with network path(or local path) in IE,chrome and firefox.
string encodedHtmlString = Emailmodel.DtEmailFields.Rows[0]["Body"].ToString();
// Decode the encoded string.
StringWriter myWriter = new StringWriter();
HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(encodedHtmlString, myWriter);
string DecodedHtmlString = myWriter.ToString();
//find and replace each img src with byte string
HtmlDocument document = new HtmlDocument();
document.LoadHtml(DecodedHtmlString);
document.DocumentNode.Descendants("img")
.Where(e =>
{
string src = e.GetAttributeValue("src", null) ?? "";
return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(src);//&& src.StartsWith("data:image");
})
.ToList()
.ForEach(x =>
{
string currentSrcValue = x.GetAttributeValue("src", null);
string filePath = Path.GetDirectoryName(currentSrcValue) + "\\";
string filename = Path.GetFileName(currentSrcValue);
string contenttype = "image/" + Path.GetExtension(filename).Replace(".", "");
FileStream fs = new FileStream(filePath + filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(fs);
Byte[] bytes = br.ReadBytes((Int32)fs.Length);
br.Close();
fs.Close();
x.SetAttributeValue("src", "data:" + contenttype + ";base64," + Convert.ToBase64String(bytes));
});
string result = document.DocumentNode.OuterHtml;
//Encode HTML string
string myEncodedString = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(result);
Emailmodel.DtEmailFields.Rows[0]["Body"] = myEncodedString;
Chrome and other Browser restrict the access of a server to local files due to security reasons. However you can open the browser in allowed access mode. Just open the terminal and go to the folder where chrome.exe is stored and write the following command.
chrome.exe --allow-file-access-from-files
Read this for more details
This way, However, didn't work for me so I made a different route for every file in a particular directory. Therefore, going to that path meant opening that file.
function getroutes(list){
list.forEach(function(element) {
app.get("/"+ element, function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(__dirname + "/public/extracted/" + element);
});
});
}
I called this function passing the list of filename in the directory __dirname/public/extracted and it created a different route for each filename which I was able to render on server side.
This is for google-chrome-extension
const url = "file:///C:\002.jpg"
chrome.tabs.create({url, active:true})
manifest.json
{
"name": "",
"manifest_version": 3,
"permissions": [
"activeTab",
"tabs"
],
// ...
}
This solution worked for me in PHP. It opens the PDF in the browser.
// $path is the path to the pdf file
public function showPDF($path) {
if($path) {
header("Content-type: application/pdf");
header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=filename.pdf");
#readfile($path);
}
}
I've encounterd this problem, and here is my solution for Angular, I wrapped my Angular's asset folder in encodeURIComponent() function. It worked. But still, I'd like to know more about the risk of this solution if there's any:
```const URL = ${encodeURIComponent(/assets/office/file_2.pdf)}
window.open(URL)
I used Angular 9, so this is my url when I clicked open local file:
```http://localhost:4200/%2Fassets%2Foffice%2Ffile_2.pdf```
In the case of audio files, when you give <audio src="C://somePath"/>, this throws an error saying cannot load local resource.
This makes sense because any webpage can't simply give a local path and access your private files.
In case you are trying to play audio with dynamic paths, by changing src property through JS, then here is a sample implementation using Flask server and HTML.
server.py
#app.route("/")
def home():
return render_template('audioMap.html')
#app.route('/<audio_file_name>')
def view_method(audio_file_name):
path_to_audio_file = "C:/Audios/yourFolderPath" + audio_file_name
return send_file(
path_to_audio_file,
mimetype="audio/mp3",
as_attachment=True,
attachment_filename="test.mp3")
audioMap.html
{% raw %}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
AUDIO: <audio src="Std.mp3" controls >
</body>
</html>
{% endraw %}
Explanation:
When you give the audio file name under src property, this creates a get request in the flask as shown
127.0.0.1 - - [04/May/2021 21:33:12] "GET /Std.mp3 HTTP/1.1" 200 -
As you can see that, the flask has sent a Get request for the Std.mp3 file. So to serve this get request, we wrote an endpoint that takes the audio file name, reads it from the local directory, and returns it back. Hence the audio shows up on UI.
Note: This works only if you are rendering your HTML file using the
render_template method via flask or to say, using flask as your web server.
Google Chrome does not allow to load local resources because of the security .
There is a simple solution for this problem .
1.install live-server plugin in vscode
2.open the html file by live-server
I'm trying to find the absolute path of my javascript file (not the URL). Instead of hardcoding absolutely paths, I'd prefer using relative paths. For example:
/static/js/index.js
/static/config/1.json
/static/config/2.json
If I can get the absolute path of index.js, then I'm only ../config/ away from accessing either of the two json files.
Searching SO and the internet I either get suggestions for finding the URL, which work but won't solve my problem. Or for file paths, using windows.location.pathname but any permutation of it that I try either returns an empty string, or /.
var currentDirectory = window.location.pathname.split('/').slice(0, -1).join('/');
console.log("Curr dir: " + currentDirectory);
(Returns empty string)
var location = window.location.pathname;
var directoryPath = location.substring(0, location.lastIndexOf("/")+1);
console.log(" dirPath: " + directoryPath);
(Returns a /)
What I'm hoping for is something like:
var absolute_path = window.function.absolute.path()
Which would return say: /u/user/develop/project/server/static/js/index.js
From which I could: (pseudo code again)
var locations = absolute_path.split("js");
# location[0] = "/u/user/develop/project/server/static"
# location[1] = "js/index.js"
var config_file_locations = locations[0] + "config/";
var absolute_path_json1 = config_file_locations + "1.json"
-- EDIT --
Ok, looking at window.location it returns the URL so clearly that's not an answer here.
/static/js/index.js is an absolute path. You can tell because it starts with a /, which takes it back to the root of the web site.
There is no automatic way for a browser to tell anything about how a web server determined how it generated the content for a given URL.
All a browser knows is that it asked the server for /static/js/index.js and the server responded with some JavaScript.
The server might have read a static file, and that file might be in a directory called js and that directory might be a subdirectory of one called static … but then the server might have taken the whole URL, used it in a database query, and pulled the results from a database … or it might have proxied the request to another HTTP server on another computer on another continent.
If you want your client-side JS to know anything about the structure of the filesystem on the HTTP server, then you need to give it that information somehow. It can't get it from the browser.
I have a problem (or may be two) with saving files using HTML5 File API.
A files comes from the server as a byte array and I need to save it. I tried several ways described on SO:
creating blob and opening it in a new tab
creating a hidden anchor tag with "data:" in href attribute
using FileSaver.js
All approaches allow to save the file but with breaking it by changing the encoding to UTF-8, while the file (in current test case) is in ANSI. And it seems that I have to problems: at the server side and at the client side.
Server side:
Server side is ASP.NET Web API 2 app, which controller sends the file using HttpResponseMessage with StreamContent. The ContentType is correct and corresponds with actual file type.
But as can be seen on the screenshot below server's answer (data.length) is less then actual file size calculated at upload (file.size). Also here could be seen that HTML5 File object has yet another size (f.size).
If I add CharSet with value "ANSI" to server's response message's ContentType property, file data will be the same as it was uploaded, but on saving result file still has wrong size and become broken:
Client side:
I tried to set charset using the JS File options, but it didn't help. As could be found here and here Eli Grey, the author of FileUplaod.js says that
The encoding/charset in the type is just metadata for the browser, not an encoding directive.
which means, if I understood it right, that it is impossible to change the encoding of the file.
Issue result: at the end I can successfully download broken files which are unable to open.
So I have two questions:
How can I save file "as is" using File API. At present time I cannot use simple way with direct link and 'download' attribute because of serverside check for access_token in request header. May be this is the "bottle neck" of the problem?
How can I avoid setting CharSet at server side and also send byte array "as is"? While this problem could be hacked in some way I guess it's more critical. For example, while "ANSI" charset solves the problem with the current file, WinMerge shows that it's encoding is Cyrillic 'Windows-1251' and also can any other.
P.S. the issue is related to all file types (extensions) except *.txt.
Update
Server side code:
public HttpResponseMessage DownloadAttachment(Guid fileId)
{
var stream = GetFileStream(fileId);
var message = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
message.Content = new StreamContent(stream);
message.Content.Headers.ContentLength = file.Size;
message.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue(file.ContentType)
{
// without this charset files sent with bigger size
// than they are as shown on image 1
CharSet = "ANSI"
};
message.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment")
{
FileName = file.FileName + file.Extension,
Size = file.Size
};
return message;
}
Client side code (TypeScript):
/*
* Handler for click event on download <a> tag
*/
private downloadFile(file: Models.File) {
var self = this;
this.$service.downloadAttachment(this.entityId, file.fileId).then(
// on success
function (data, status, headers, config) {
var fileName = file.fileName + file.extension;
var clientFile = new File([data], fileName);
// here's the issue ---^
saveAs(clientFile, fileName);
},
// on fail
function (error) {
self.alertError(error);
});
}
My code is almost the same as in answers on related questions on SO: instead of setting direct link in 'a' tag, I handle click on it and download file content via XHR (in my case using Angularjs $http service). Getting the file content I create a Blob object (in my case I use File class that derives from Blob) and then try to save it using FileSaver.js. I also tried approach with encoded URL to Blob in href attribute, but it only opens a new tab with a file broken the same way. I found that the problem is in Blob class - calling it's constructor with 'normal' file data I get an instance with 'wrong' size as could be seen on first two screenshots. So, as I understand, my problem not in the way I try to save my file, but in the way I create it - File API